A Karl Carlile posting:
Commie00: some struggles of our class are reformist, some revolutionary.
example: the struggle for higher wages is inherently reformist because it relies on a
conception of
exchange which is, of course, anathema to communism. conversely, the struggle against
wages and for free distribution of goods (which takes the form of theft, non-exchange
sharing, etc.) is inherently revolutionary.
Karl: Revolutionaries must understand the individual struggles of the working class
within the context of the struggle for communism. To otherwise understand them is to
limit these struggles thereby assisting the prevention of communism. I have never
suggested that individual struggles, such as the struggle for higher wages, cannot be
viewed as struggles that stand outside the struggle for communism. However this is the
very problem that has dogged the working class --the abject failure to understand all
working class struggles from within the context of the communist programme. This is
the problem of the class consciousness of the working class.
Reformism denies the dialectical unity of the individual struggles of the working
class in the form of the class struggle. Reformism views the struggle for higher wages
as a limited and isolated struggle that has no internal link with communist struggle
and programme. The struggle for higher wages fought for, time and time again, within a
reformist context perpetually serves as the inevitable dress rehearsal for another
such struggle. This is because the Sisyphean struggle for higher wages, as an
individual struggle existing independently of the struggle for communism, can never
satisfy the needs of the working class. This is why the struggle must repeat itself ad
nauseam. Because the struggle for higher wages is inconsistent with contemporary
capitalism it cannot exist as a stand alone struggle that authentically achieves its
end
--higher wages.
For revolutionaries all individual proletarian struggles are dialectically
interconnected to constitute the class struggle. The class struggle is a concrete
phenomenon --not an abstraction that exists independently of individual plebian
struggles. To present such a dichotomy is to idealistically bifurcate concrete
struggles from the grand class struggle which is to deny the internal revolutionary
dynamic of these "little" struggles. In effect this is tantamount to denying the real
existence of the class struggle. It is to await for the apocalyptic meta
struggle --the real class struggle. It is waiting for Godot. It is thereby to
subscribe to religious mysticism and is in effect the denial of the existence of real
class struggle. It is to reject the materialist conception of history for the idealist
conception of history. It is to trivialise the many diverse concrete struggles of the
working class that takes on the international stage.
Karl Carlile
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/
Subscribe to Revcommy Mailing Community at
[log in to unmask]
--- from list [log in to unmask] ---
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|