[lbo-talk] the autumn of the communes?

[duh-roo]

Are you saying communes are by definition 100% autarchic, producing for
themselves all necessary goods and services, and remaining isolated from
other social groups? If not, then it seems you're just pointing out that the
members of these occupations rely on contemporary capitalistic production to
support themselves. Well, so what? Don't we all? These occupations aren't
tapping into the revolutionary socialistic electric and communication
networks because these kinds of things don't exist yet. They just don't have
a say in that part of their social existence. But as the author points out,
they are distributing these capitalist goods and services among themselves
openly and freely--ie, communally. And the reason they're doing so is
because it's part of their struggle to advance the revolutionary cause.
Since you're clearly not arguing the only way to go about building a
movement of communes is to start from scratch and join the primitivists in
the woods, then what's the gripe? These occupations are the most potent
force at work right now in advancing the revolutionary cause, and their role
in the struggle is to inspire more and more people to join in. Who cares if
they haven't also 'prefigured' a new mode of production out of nothing? This
too will be developed in its time, IF there are enough people working
towards it.

As far as I can see, the 'commune' label can only help attract attention to
the revolutionary nature of the occupations, inaccurate though it may be.

Yeah, I did say that, because as wonderful as OWS et al are - and I think
> they're totally wonderful - they're not communes in any meaningful sense.
> Yeah, they've got nurses staffing clinics - but the nurses were trained in
> universities ( = prisons, of course), and they dispense things made in
> factories. Food is distributed, but it's grown and processed far away.
> Proceedings are livestreamed, using electricity generated by ConEd and fiber
> optics run by the likes of AT&T. Distributing goods & services produced
> elsewhere in small quantities is not "an economic response to capitalism."
>
> Doug
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>