Having just sent a posting (to "Discussion of Empire 26.10.01") I thought I would follow it up.
I have over the past half-year partcipated in a good few marxist lists. Recently I have found myself at PEN-L and enjoying the level of debate. However, I would be lying to say that I have found anywhere the necessary level of debate I believe is essential for breaking out of the bind that the whole "progressive" movement finds itself in. This may not be something that this list wants to do - so be it, but when the world seems to be descending in a bucket so rapidly to hell, the opportunity to break with the past and move forward at least intellectually is surely a desirable thing. So what are the essential questions? If these are idle questions they will have no practical political impact. We can endlessly modify what we already except without disturbing things overmuch. However, real questions are not so passive. Has the period of Imperialism been passed over? If it has what has it transformed into? (If it has not then little needs to be changed). Have property forms been further socialisied and if they have how does this effect economic functions? (If they have not then everything more or less remains as it was). Clearly the propositions above as simple as they are are, if true, aspects of the same movement of capital. At their heart lies a single nexus the transformation of property in the hands of the bourgeoisie brings about a transformation in the state and the relations of states to each other. Stating it this way it seems a simple enough matter, the political implications are not even difficult to draw out. Given such changes, whatever their specific nature, the methods of struggle must also be transformed. Deny such changes and all is well and everything politically (despite the frustration) is essentially as it should be. Now, I am in no position to argue just what has happened to property let alone to the concsequences as manifested in the relations between states and the relation of the state with its citzens (I have strong suspicions and opinions but nothing which could be called persuasive). So I turn the question completly around. Given the conditions of the communist/socialist movement, how can we be satisified? The proof of the pudding, and all that, is all around us. Greg Schofield Perth Australia
