In a message dated 1/2/2011 12:12:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, _intangib...@aphenomenal.com_ (mailto:intangib...@aphenomenal.com) writes: Continuing on WL - HOWLER #2 What WL's line of argument implicitly suggests is that some economic changes in the organisation of production can be put forward as something that could redefine the nature of an era. Such a thing is not even the case for insurgent mass movements, such as in China and Cuba, effecting profound advances of people's rights-to-be through the seizure of power from the clutches of the most dangerous exploiters on the face of the earth. So how can some so-called "post-industrial" economic transformation(s) be placed in such a category?!? Like the Devil avoiding holy water, WL is silent about the quote from Lenin's 1908 pamphlet on Marxism and Revisionism. Reply It is true that my approach and narrative holds that economic changes in the organization of production define and redefine the nature of an era and epoch. "Goodbye Lenin it was fun" was meant to indicate what in Lenin's characterization of an era had been sublated and rendered obsolete based on economic changes in society. There is much in Lenin still relevant but his characterization of an era - "imperialism and proletarian revolution," and the features of t/his era have changed over the past 90 years. Let's start on common ground. Stalin's "Foundation of Leninism" is a good common ground starting point. The following table of contents outline Lenin's vision and politics, remaining the definitive presentation of why an "ism" is attached to his name. Introduction I. The Historical Roots of Leninism II. Method III. Theory IV. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat V. The Peasant Question VI. The National Question VII. Strategy and Tactics VIII. The Party IX. Style in Work Stalin defines Leninism. Quote "What, then, in the last analysis, is Leninism? Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution. To be more exact, Leninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general, the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular. Marx and Engels pursued their activities in the pre-revolutionary period, (we have the proletarian revolution in mind), when developed imperialism did not yet exist, in the period of the proletarians' preparation for revolution, in the period when the proletarian revolution was not yet an immediate practical inevitability. But Lenin, the disciple of Marx and Engels, pursued his activities in the period of developed imperialism, in the period of the unfolding proletarian revolution, when the proletarian revolution had already triumphed in one country, had smashed bourgeois democracy and had ushered in the era of proletarian democracy, the era of the Soviets. Stalin "Foundations of Leninism." Stalin presents a distinct economic stating point distinguishing an era. "Lenin, the disciple of Marx and Engels, pursued his activities in the period of developed imperialism." This "developed imperialism" did not exist during the period in which Marx and Engels pursued their activity. Lenin distinguishes the new ECONOMIC era or "developed imperialism" in his "Imperialism." Quote "Typical of the old capitalism, when free competition held undivided sway, was the export of goods. Typical of the latest stage of capitalism, when monopolies rule, is the export of capital." The OLD economic era, the era of Marx and Engels "when developed imperialism did not yet exist, and is defined as the proletarians' preparation for revolution, in the period when the proletarian revolution was not yet an immediate practical inevitability." Although an era can be distinguished based on politics or anything else, it is fully within the historic and traditional Marxist approach to use economic development as criteria and bookmark for an era. The modern, scientific communist movement began as manufacturing with its small, scattered workshops was replaced by industry with its concentration of thousands of workers in giant factories. This development was expressed by the founding of the Communist League and the First or Workingmen's International. In 1848, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were called upon to write a manifesto for the League, which was called The "Manifesto of the Communist Party." The Communist Manifesto proclaims the opening of a new epoch of proletarian revolution as part of the epoch of the industrial revolution and charts the proletariat general line of march. During their lifetime Marx and Engels outlined the economic eras they had experienced and observed and discuss these eras in the sum total of prefaces to the "Communist Manifesto." Stalin summarizes these eras as "when developed imperialism did not yet exist, in the period of the proletarians' preparation for revolution, in the period when the proletarian revolution was not yet an immediate practical inevitability." During the eras of Marx and Engels the productive capacity of the industrial countries developed very rapidly. So long as national production was restricted to the national market and imperialism was driven by the export of commodities, the struggle between the capitalists and the workers intensified year by year. The communist movement grew with strikes and uprisings by the workers. The means of production rapidly went through several quantitative stages and the struggle between the classes finally subsided somewhat as the capitalists expanded their markets by conquering the economically backward areas of the world and bribing the working class into political and military support. Under these changed conditions the First International completed its task as the consolidation of the general theory and general doctrine of social and proletarian revolution and then collapsed. Hence, the political era of the First International. After the First International arose a new movement calling itself socialist and social democratic, which essentially became a patriotic, petty bourgeois movement for reform and training ground of mass parties of the proletariat. As this movement swept across Europe and America, a new International, the Second International was formed. Socialist Parties were formed in the United States on the basis of the populist movement and the sharpening struggle between the new industrial working class and the monopolies. In Western Europe, socialist parties gained premierships as well as large representations in parliaments. In Eastern Europe and Russia the more overtly political struggle broke out into revolutionary upsurges. By 1912, the ec onomically undeveloped world was conquered and any further market - economic, expansion would have to be done by one imperialist power at the expense of another. World War I became inevitable. In all instances Marx and Engels delineate political eras based on economic development, or what is the same development of the means of production. Era and Epoch Epochs within Marxism are recorded and understood as a time frame embracing a mode of production or a period completing a specific qualitative event. The epoch - not era, of feudalism. An era refers to various quantitative junctures constituting an epoch. Today, we are in a new era, which is the opening of a new chapter - epoch, in human history. Ours is an era that opens an epoch of social revolution driven by a new revolution in the means of production. Today we are leaping to a NEW MODE OF PRODUCTION, and not simply a revolutionary change in the property form. What drives and inspires the evolutionary leap is qualitative changes in the economic foundation of society: the means of production. Contrary to the task of the Bolsheviks and revolutionaries of the past century, our era as the opening of a new epoch in human history, does not require us to continue and complete the industrial revolution. The epoch of the industrial revolution has been completed. The last evolutionary leap was from agriculture to industrial or the industrial revolution. Hence, the source of my "revisionism," and being a "Howler;" putting the objective economic phenomenon first. This is not to say non-economic phenomena as politics and the superstructure is passive, isolated from and independent of the economic foundation of society. My "revisionist" approach, method and narrative generally begins with economic formation. Waistline
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