Re: UN - tool of imperialism?

[Jeffrey Booth <booth2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

        Chris,
                I WOULD agree that the key to a marxist line in
Yugoslavia is what's based on the interests and contributions of working
people.  Especially if contributions means working class Parties, unions,
community groups, etc... organizations that workers control or
potentially control.  I believe this excludes the U.N. except in the
sense of certain, temporary situations where it could be used by workers'
representatives as a propaganda platform.
        Now this leaves the tasks of defining what the best interests of
working people are in the FY (from the workers themselves) and
internationally.  Also, which tactics and organizations can best carry
these out.  Not all of this discussion, particularly on international
marxist organizations working within the FY, is suitable for the internet.
        As to what the best interests of working people in the FY are; my
impressions both from people that have been there recently and reading
that I've done is that there IS a strong sentiment for peace among all the
ethnic groups.  I would stretch it a little to say that if workers'
organizations, in general, organize around economic issues in a marxist
way and strive for internationalism, self-determinination and the unity,
across ethnic lines, of workers' organizations, then not only would
nationalist forces be weakened but a pre-revolutionary situation could
even begin to develop.  How about:  "Peace, jobs, and houses" for an
agitational slogan?

                                -- Jeff Booth


On Wed, 23 Aug 1995, Chris Burford wrote:

> Hello Jeff,
>
> I think we are narrowing the differences a bit more here, though
> major issues of principle and emphasis remain.
>
> I did get it wrong about Lenin on the state, and corrected
> it in the same post. However I think in simple marxism, people often
> talk as if state structures are monolithically bad.
>
> We might come together a little more if we agreed something like that
> the key to a marxist line in Yugoslavia is that it must be based on the
> interests and contribution of the working people.
>
> Chris B.
>
>
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> From: Jeffrey Booth <booth2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 14:09:56 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: Re: UN - tool of imperialism?
>
>       I think an active marxist needs to use many platforms and
> organizing tools to reach people; especially working people.  So I
> wouldn't rule out using the U.N. or the bourgeois state as platforms to
> propagate marxist ideas in much the same way the Bolsheviks used the Duma.
> Even bourgeois law can have limited uses to building a revolutionary
> movement.  (I was a paralegal at one time representing people at
> unemployment benefit claims hearings).
>       But all of these are at best tangential struggles to the main
> revolutionary processes of building unions, workers parties, community
> organizations and a revolutionary party as part of the working class.
>       And in no way does the U.N. or the State or Bourgeois legal
> Institutions offer the prospect of fundamental change or amelioration of
> existing problems and conflicts like in the former Yugoslavia.  In fact,
> they make things worse.  The U.N., a product of imperialism divided into
> nation states, could never be reformed to serve the interests of working
> people.
>       
>       Also, I don't see where Lenin had a simplistic notion of the
> state.  Yes, it is used as an instrument of class oppression but when did
> Lenin ever say the Bourgeois were an undifferentiated monolith?
>
>                                       -- Jeff Booth
>
>
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