Re: AUT: The "National Strike" in Venezuela

[Scott Hamilton <s_h_hamilton@xxxxxxxxx>]

Harald wrote:

> Yes, [transitional demands is] the tired old
Trotskyist tactic of lying to > the workers. For
somehow when such demands are promoted by
trotskyists, they never say to the "stupid > workers"
that  they they themselves do not believe the demands
can be met within the framework of the system.

Harald, this is simply untrue. Transitional demands
are presented along with the claim that capitalism is
incapable of meeting them. In Argentina, and for that
matter most of the Third World, even fairly basic
reforms are impossible to win within capitalism today.

Even if they were won, major reforms would only throw
the system deeper into crisis. Unfortunately, the vast
majority of the population in most places still
believes that reforms can be won within the system. So
how do we engage with this problem?

The transitional method offers one answer: tell people
the truth, that capitalism needs to be overturned for
real change to take place, but argue that those who
still have illusions in the likes of Lula and Chavez
put them to the test by putting real demands on them.
What are the alternative approaches? As far as I can
see there are only two. One is the Stalinist-Menshevik
'minimum-maximum programme', which combines
'realistic' demands, ie bugger all, in the present
with the 'ultimate goal' of socialism. The other is
the ultra-left approach of condemning all fights for
reforms as sellouts. I can't see how the transitonal
method (which is a bit more complex than I've made
out, incorporating 'immediate' and 'democratic'
demands, as well as transitional demands) isn't far
superior to these alternatives.

In practice, many revolutionaries who reject the
transitional method vacillate between the minimax and
ultra-left method, just as most revolutionaries who
reject permanent revolution and the military bloc
vacillate between ultra-leftism and the stagist
political bloc (see NEFAC's new piece on a infos re
Palestine).

Btw, I like the way you contrast the scope for refosm
which exists in Germany with the tiny margin for
reforms in Argentina. It's very 'permanent
revolution'!

Cheers
Scott










=====
"Revolution is not like cricket, not even one day cricket"

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