*@Eubulides:* How about the rest of that citation: " Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Caussidière for Danton, Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851for the Montagne of 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle. And the same caricature occurs in the circumstances of the second edition of the Eighteenth Brumaire." <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm>
Currently, there's not much difference between those who wait on the messiah and those that wait on the popular revolution. They both are appropriately the second comings of those "great world-historic facts and personages."
*@Arthur Maisel:* The latest Iranian revolution was achieved by a union of secular parties of the industrial sector and religious parties of the rural and the urban lumpen middle and working classes. The population represented by the religious parties is large and the religious leadership is well organized. The irony of the Islamic revolution is that the religious parties that joined with and later decimated the secular parties that participated in the overthrow of the Shah, supported the CIA/SIS managed coup dEtat against Mossadegh in 1953.
Clearly, the so-called Islamic revolution of 1979 was a failed revolution that confirmed the perpetuation of the not so anachronistic power of the religious institutions of Iran.
@Mike Ballard: "I think the critique of the wage system which Marx began and which was largely abandoned by the left in the 20th century is the key to getting people to see that 'storming the barricades' is an option." In principle I agree with this statement (see Kliman's *Reclaiming Marx's "Capital": A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency* (2006) for a capable and persuasive analysis of the abortion that is 20th century Marxist Economics). However, enlightenment is not enough to get people to see that 'storming the barricades' is an option. A great deal of difficult and dangerous organizational work is necessary to transform inchoate anger into an effective political force http://www.labourstart.org/2013/, http://www.ituc-csi.org/, etc, etc. etc.....
On 15 February 2014 03:51, Mike Ballard <mbbtraven5 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Because they are socialised and believe that there is no alternative
> to capitalism worth striving for. Given a choice between the USA,
> France and West Germany and the USSR, the PRC and the DDR, most on
> either side of the wall have made it clear that they will choose the
> former. Thus, it's very easy to see why Thatcher's TINA was accepted
> by most of the left (not the Marxist-Leninists who had their own
> peculiar brand of wage-slavery to sell) opposition to conservative
> solutions to the issues which are raised under the rule of Capital.
>
> I think the critique of the wage system which Marx began and which was
> largely abandoned by the left in the 20th century is the key to
> getting people to see that 'storming the barricades' is an option.
>
> Mike B)
>
> --
> Wobbly times
> http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com.au/
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