Yes, Yoshie, while it is important to link struggle with history, it is
also important to link history with struggle. Much of the discussion,
however, seems disconnected with people actually engaged in struggle.
On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 08:24:17PM -0400, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Michael Perelman writes:
>
> >Someone whom I respected a great deal asked me earlier today what all of this
> >discussion has to do with real world struggles. Tom Kruse, in his note to me,
> >was describing the heroic struggles of the people of Bolivia. Suppose one of
> >these Bolivians were to stumble on to the list and ask how all of
> >this would be
> >useful in the struggles at home.
> >
> >I responded to the person who asked me about the discussion on the
> >list by saying
> >that I think that an understanding of history is important. Even
> >so, how can we
> >take this historical debate -- which is far superior to the trashing of
> >individual personalities -- and make it of use to our hypothetical Bolivian?
>
> One way in which history undeniably matters in political struggles is
> that an accurate grasp of capitalism as a _historically specific_
> mode of production takes away from the ideological power of TINA.
> Marx's criticism of political economy was intended to counter the
> naturalization of capitalism: the ideology that capitalism always
> already existed, in incipient forms, in any rise of commerce, towns,
> markets, divisions of labor, etc.; that there is no alternative to
> capitalism because the tendency toward capitalism is part of human
> nature, and any effort to abolish capitalism produces tyranny; and so
> on.
>
> The grip of TINA on the proletariat in rich nations has to be broken,
> in that unless they win, any hard-earned victory won by those in poor
> nations will be taken away from them (as it has happened to the
> victories of Soviets, Cubans, Vietnamese, North Koreans, Chinese,
> etc.).
>
> Moreover, a better understanding of what capitalism & imperialism is
> probably clarifies who are your allies, who are your enemies, who may
> be your fellow travellers. Correct understanding may help limit the
> number & intensity of fights among leftists, on e-lists or in the
> real world, thus helping build the socialist movement back up.
>
> Yoshie
>
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
