On 2010-10-11, at 6:28 PM, Shane Mage wrote:
>
> On Oct 11, 2010, at 6:04 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:
>>
>>
>> The question _I_ asked had to do with mass movements, which are the only
>> source of liberatory change? And we know beyond any doubt that such
>> movements start with a VERY minute percentage of the residents, and achieve
>> their results with a small minority. There are no exeptions to this...
>
> Which is why all such movements have failed to achieve their liberatory goals and all have either failed to displace old forms of oppressive rule or led to the installation of new forms of oppressive rule. There are no exceptions to this. Liberatory change will be the accomplishment of the overwhelming majority or it will not be.
It's ironic that Carrol's position is so directly at odds that of Rosa Luxemburg, whom he seems to admire most in the Marxist tradition, who argued precisely against the notion that a working class revolution would be the accomplishment of a "small minority". Recall that she famously characterized Lenin's conception of the vanguard party as "Blanquism". We can argue about whether Lenin thought of the revolution as a minority affair, but that's another matter.