On 2011-02-07, at 12:15 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
> I would also like to respond to Marv's comment about "action from below" -
> it strikes me as an example of anti-institutionalism and "small is
> beautiful" trope (which are widely spread on this side of the pond,) but it
> is a matter of aesthetic preferences, I suppose. I like institutions - the
> bigger the better (the same goes for the cities) and in my dream I would
> like to see a global Communist Party organized like the Communist Party of
> the Soviet Union :). The gemuetlichkeit of small groups, small
> organizations, and small towns does not appeal to me, and my view on 'action
> from below' is similar to that of Lenin (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_to_Be_Done%3F). I like the vanguard
> party idea better. Perhaps it is a cultural thing - after all my youth was
> formed by a socialist state that embarked on a big project, where petit
> bourgeois sensibilities and gemuetlichkeit were ridiculed as the thing of
> the past. So let's leave it here and agree that we have different
> preferences and visions for social action.
You must be confusing me with someone else. I was variously active in the trade unions, the Trotskyist movement, and in Canada's social democratic party during most of my adult political life, and I've never written anything to suggest I have much in common with the small is beautiful school. I must say, Woj, you're quite unlike any partisan of Leninism, the vanguard party, and Communism I ever met, even these days when it's become safe and even somewhat fashionable in some leftish intellectual circles to adopt that pose. I always thought H.L. Mencken was more to your taste.