I think John misses the point. The material conditions for socialism
were laid long ago. It was Lenin who insisted that the subjective factor
was the decisive one in the imperialist epoch.
The defeats inflicted on the working class and its organisations are
more than ideological. In so far as they have been adapted to and
organised around, the subjective factor becomes an objective one. Marx
said that ideas become a material force when they grip the masses. And
defeat, too, becomes a material force when it pervades the masses.
In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, J.WALKER, ILL
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>I do not think this was sent to the list correctly, if it was then
>sorry for re-posting!
>
>> The question is: What are we waiting for?
>> What do comrades consider is the MOST IMPORTANT single obstacle to
>> revolution at the present time?
>
>One of the things that is noticable about the replies is that they
>imply (or state outright) that the problem does not lie in the
>economic field but in an almost Hegelian realm of ideas.
>
>LEW: 'Convincing people that socialism is good for them' (quoting
>Morris [an interesting choice].
>
>BOB: it is 'the question of leadership.'
>
>and most interestingly,
>
>DAVID: 'Absense of belief [!] in a replacement for the existing
>order.'
>
>As if somehow it was just a question of false consciousness not the
>inherent contradictions of capitalism and imperialism which are the
>key to revolution.
>
>John Walker
>
>
> --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
--
Jim heartfield
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