For myself, the debate between Stalinists and Trotskyists has a somewhat stale quality to it since we’ve effectively been thrown back to that much earlier pre-Bolshevik - indeed, pre-Marxist - period when socialism was an idea rather than the mass movement of the international working class which it subsequently became.
Like the early utopian socialists, I continue to advocate for socialism in the circles I move in but have become increasingly skeptical over my political lifetime about the prospect of building viable socialist organizations in the absence of *a social crisis which capitalism can no longer contain*. Throughout capitalism's episodic crises, there have been many such party-building efforts, including those in which I participated, which have all amounted to little more than isolated Potemkin villages. Though discussion circles like Marxmail spend much time debating the question, it’s not realistic to believe that an enduring socialist left can somehow be built prior to the revival of a growing militant trade union or other mass movement with formidable human and material resources. Socialism was the product of an industrial working class fighting for democratic rights and tolerable working conditions. The international workers movement was not conjured up by socialists though they subsequently shaped its direction Gramsci’s optimism of the will may have had some resonance when mass Communist parties rooted in the unions were vying for power against fascism and the outcome was uncertain, but that period has long since passed. At best, we’re seeing glimmerings of heightened political consciousness and class conflict amid widening inequality and unaffordability, but there are still many battles for reform yet to be fought before the more politically conscious workers abandon their current parties and move decisively to the revolutionary left. Were there a revolutionary crisis accompanied by severe repression, I still do believe that a disciplined democratic centralist party approximating the Leninist model would be required, and that it would likely emerge out of splits and fusions in the mass reformist parties and within the competing Marxist sects. Unlike the anarchists, social democrats, and disillusioned Leninists, I don’t accept that a Leninist party is inherently fated to degenerate as they did in the USSR, PRC, and the other repressive one party states where capitalism was overthrown in the 20th century. It’s reasonable to suppose that a Leninist party and social revolution in an advanced capitalist state will each be more democratic and enduring. In this sense, I share the perspective of the competing Leninist groups to which some on the list belong which are waiting to “intersect” with a radicalizing working class. With all their sectarian deformations, these groups do provide sustained political activity and political education and teach young radicals essential organizing skills which will stand them in good stead if a revolutionary crisis were to erupt. Were I younger and more energetic, I'd be tempted to join the least sectarian of them - not an easy task since all have been forced to exist as sects on the margins of political life after being exiled from the working class beginning with the Cold War. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#32086): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/32086 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108305074/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
