WL: How and why is it premature to fight for what people are already fighting for? People are being evicted and walking away from high mortgages and homelessness is growing. Fighting for shelter is not premature. Advocacy for expansion of section 8 and food stamps for the entire working class is not premature. Advocacy for health care for all Americans are not premature.
^^^^ CB: And unemployment benefits .how ridiculous not to praise a raise in unemployment benefits. I didn't say it's premature to fight for those things. I said a "_communist_ polarity" is premature. Communists' goal is abolition of private property, not what you want redefine it as. Expanded welfare is not communism. It's not even socialism. Comment In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a whole? The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to the other working-class parties. They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole. They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement. _http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm_ (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm) The communist goal is first and above all "victory to the workers in their current struggle." That is the communist goal - Job 1, at all times. To make the immediate and long term goal of communists the abolition of private property outside the field of victory to the workers in their current struggle is just silly thinking. Communists do not have separate demands from various segment of the working class. IN fact it is these real world demands that creates the line of march. Here is how Marx and Engels defined the task and role of communists. "In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole. The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement." (End quote) Here is where Marx deploy the communist concept of "the line of march." What is wrong with formulating the goal of communists as abolition of private property, is a failure to advance on the basis of the here and now. If comrades are involved in the struggle for unemployment, and they are, that is the goal. For instance, when communist are involved in a strike, the goal is not abolition of private property but to resolve the strike in favor of the workers on strike. When the communist fought for Civil Rights and industrial unions the goal was not to abolish private property but the realization of Civil Rights and industrial unions. Why would this not be the case today? The idea that establishing a communist polarity means fighting for the abolition of private property makes no sense and is hopelessly sectarian. As if communist have interest outside the proletariat. The real issue is my refusal to praise winning a concession. I see no need for genuflecting. There are far to many other concessions to be fought for and won, than to pause and praise the Obama administration for unemployment benefit extensions. Now that not taxing a portion of unemployment has been put into effect, we might consider abolition of all taxes on unemployment, a policy change that begin under the Carter administration. We communists opposed taxing unemployment checks back when the Carter administration implemented this new taxation. We still oppose such. We have not changed our attitude in favor of somehow fighting - detached from the mass of proletarians, a fight to abolish private property. I find such thinking absolutely bizarre and outside the historical experience of American communism. Taxing unemployment was absurd then and is absurd today. Now is the time to push to reform the social safety net - welfare, to expand to cover ever larger segments of the proletariat. Here is the meaning of a communist polarity. A communist polarity is not a concept of ideology but fighting for needs from the standpoint of the proletariat. Expanding welfare is a communist demand and issue, but it is not an issue that only communists support. We are simply the most resolute championing on this issue. When did fighting for socially necessary means of life somehow become a non-communist demand and issue? When Clinton reformed "welfare as we know it" the communists were in the forefront and the most resolute fighters against this reform! The liberals deserted the fight for the expansion of the social safety net! The liberals said "welfare is no good because it makes people lazy" and we communists screamed bloody murder to the high heavens. I really do not understand the thinking that says we communists are not the most resolute fighters for the needs and demands of various segments of our working class, in the here and now. The 30 year battle for welfare expansion, which the communists have been at the forefront as the most unwavering and resolute fighters, can be advanced anew - today, due to the widening dimensions of the crisis and the intersection of class interests. Now it the time to push harder, for this communist demand, and win individuals over to the vision and cause of communism. Obviously I believe in every fiber of my being that it is wrong and a disaster to try and win workers over to Obama and the Obama administration. What I write is geared to winning the individual over to the cause of communism and the study of Marxism because we have answers and a superior way to look at and understand the system of capitalist production, and why it is coming to an end. On a list that bills itself as Marxists I am going to write about modern communism and our history of fighting for immediate demands of the working class without compromising our vision of emancipation. Simply because we have a black democrat president, does not mean we should abandon our outlook as communist and students of Marx. In fact, the Obama administration and its fights with other sectarian capitalist interest opens up the playing field for communists and this is a good time to be a communists. The genuflecting to Mr. Obama, something he himself would find repulsive, is positively disgusting and unwarranted. WL. **************Need a job? Find employment help in your area. 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