I have to admit to some surprise and disappointment that no one has so far replied to my comment at https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33404. Not even Charlie, Artesian, and a few others who are always so quick to criticize even when I post material which is relatively innocuous and in step with orthodox thinking on the list.
This post is quite out of step with orthodox thinking on the list, and I was looking forward to some thoughtful replies, especially ones which might cause me to modify my views on the subject. It may be seen as a reflection and reappraisal, painful in some ways, of my political activity over six decades which was deeply influenced by my reading of Marxist and Leninist literature and contact with like-minded older and then younger comrades over that span. As my post indicated, I've concluded that the Leninist model was designed for revolutionary conditions, and that absent such conditions, fidelity to the model leads to sectarian isolation. Other revolutionary socialist forms of organization and intervention have met a similar fate. What gave rise to these organizational forms was the underlying view that there was a crisis of leadership in the workers’ movement, with the reformist leaders lagging and restraining the revolutionary impulses of the base. This thesis proved to be spectacularly vindicated in the Bolshevik Revolution, and subsequent generations, including those represented on this list, have clung to this view despite evidence that the reformist consciousness of the union and union-backed party leaders typically reflects rather than lags the consciousness of their members and supporters. If it were otherwise, Marxists who have intervened in the workers’ movement in the advanced capitalist economies would have long since recovered their lost influence. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33475): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33475 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109504727/21656 -=-=- 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/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
