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I confess that I agree completely with Louis on the problem with putting
communism on the banner at this point in the struggle. Louis cited me
from 'The Socialist Alternative' as follows:
The term communism communicated something different when Marx wrote in
the nineteenth century. Communism was the name Marx used to describe
the society of free and associated producers -- "an association of
free men, working with the means of production held in common, and
expending their many different forms of labour-power in full
self-awareness as one single social labour force." But very few people
think of communism that way now. In fact, people hardly think of
communism as an economic system, as a way in which producers organize
to produce for the needs of all! Rather, as the result of the
understanding of the experiences of the last century, communism is now
viewed as a political system -- in particular, as a state that stands
over and above society and oppresses working people.
And he added:
It would also be advisable not to use the word communism given its
associations with Stalin and all the rest. I am afraid that it has a
certain currency nowadays that can best be described in terms of
"epater la bourgeoisie".
Exactly on both scores! And I also agree with his calling attention
to a problem with relying simply upon Lenin's Erfurt focus because of
what the '21 Conditions' represented:
Furthermore, even when Lenin was alive he demonstrated a certain
inability to understand what kind of party was needed. By calling for
"21 Conditions" to be met by parties bidding to become members of the
Comintern, he was already violating the spirit of his own party that
was far less stringent.
I only want to add that in 'The Socialist Alternative' (Monthly
Review Press, 2010: 181), I added a bit later to the point made above
the followingin a footnote:
'For the record, on a personal level, I have no difficulty in describing
myself as a communist, which represents for me an honorable tradition of
the absolute commitment to build a socialist society-- one that never
loses sight of what capitalism is and how it destroys people.'
The personal, though, is not the political.
michael
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Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Home: Phone 604-689-9510
Cell: 778-230-6137
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