I tend to agree with Andy A. on this.
When in a preface to _Capital_, Marx says from his standpoint the evolution of the
economic fomration of society is viewed as a process of natural history, it is pretty
clear that he means by "as" ,"like". The inherent contradictions of capitalism and
imperialism are objective conditions for individuals, but those contradictions are in
the logic of conduct people (not things) that is guided by the capitalist
consciousness set out in _Capital_ and the working class consciousness set out in
_Capital_, including commodity fetishism. This consciousness causes the class struggle
and ordinary day-to-day capitalism to follow a pattern that can be analyzed with the
precision of a natural science , as Marx says in the Preface to a Contrib. of the
Criti. of P.E. People acting like objects can have their conduct described with the
precision of a natural science. Workers and capitalists act as if they are objects and
objects are subjects, etc., etc. commodity fetishism. Capitalism is pe!
ople acting as if they are things, an things are people. The consequence is that it
is a sociality rigorously simulating an objective reality.
The dissolution of this social objective reallity is not ultimately through the
resolution of contradictions as fully objective (i.e. outside individual subjectivity)
as those which cause motion in true natural history,such as those which originate new
biological species. or move a clock hand. As Andy says, socialism is not automatic.
It is for the working class to become as conscious as the ruling class of the secrets
revealed in _Capital_ , etc. , and take state power and economic power away from the
ruling class. It is for the working class to dissolve and reverse its commodity
fetishized consciousness in which it considers itself objects and things as subject.
For it to become subjects and conscious. This won't be an unconscious objective
process, but an unconscious objective process becoming conscious. It will actually be
objective social reality turning into its opposite, a social reality consciously under
the control of the working class, rather than operating behi!
nd its backs.
The objectivity of this, capitalism and imperialism, has made itself fully and
accumulatingly evident to the working class generations since Marx. Thus, to the
extent that these objective contradictions can be said to fully ripen, they are.
Workers have seen strikes, wars, fascism, anti-socialism. They have known alienation
maximus. They have the objective message from capitalism and imperialism.
However , the Sisyphus effect, where a generation of the working class rolls objective
conditions to the top of the hill, only to have it roll down the hill before the next
generation can become conscious of the objective experience of the previous generation
of the w.c. , has lost some of the lessons for the current generation; the political
sellout of many leaders and strata of the working class in the U.S. and Western Europe
(even as they continue in economic struggles with the ruling class). the passing away
of European socialism (Everything is born, lives and dies, Engels says :>)). etc.
currently prevent sufficient mass consciousness to convert the ripe objective
contradictions of captialism and imperialism.
So, I agree with Andy because the objective conditions are sp ripe , and what is
needed most today is socialist consciousness in 100's of millions of workers, and 10
of millions in the West. The job of communists is to find ways that the workers can
gain this consciousness by words and less by the hardknocks of strikes, wars,
alienation, the whole contradiction of rolling the Sisyphian bolder up the hill yet
again.
Charles Brown
Workers of the West , it's our turn.
>>> Andrew Wayne Austin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 09/01/99 10:29AM >>>
On Wed, 1 Sep 1999, J.WALKER, ILL wrote:
>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.
But Marx emphasized that socialism is not automatic. The contradictions of
capitalism create the *potential* for socialist revolution. But the
working class must organize themselves into a political class and struggle
for socialism. Therefore, the question turns on why the working class does
not do this. In this era, understanding the role of ideology is paramount.
With historical materialism it is not only about the socioeconomic
conditions; it is also about ideas. Marx's vision is a comprehensive
vision, not a one-sided economism. The greatest obstacle to overcoming
capitalism in the present era, beyond the strength of capital at the
moment, is the failure to develop working class consciousness, which is in
its worst trough in well over a century.
Andy
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