VALUABLE ADMISSIONS OF PROFESSOR MILIBAND (2 of 7)

[hariette@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (hariette spierings)]

(VALUABLE ADMISSIONS OF PROFESSOR MILIBAND - 2 -)

A QUEST BEGAN WITH HIGH HOPES

We took this step after acquainting ourselves with Miliband's vast theoretical 
works and
finding in them grounds to believe that he understood the particular conditions 
of semi-
feudalism and semi-colonialism that compel the revolutionaries of similar 
countries of the
Third World to follow a specific strategy for the achievement of their aims.

In his work "Marxism and Politics" Miliband had written: "The position is in 
many ways
rather better in regards to the politics of the different countries which are 
arbitrarily
subsumed under the label "Third World".  But here too, it would appear to the 
non-specialist
that, as far as political analysis is concerned, no more than some paths have 
been cleared,
and that the main work of theorising the known practice remains to be 
undertaken, and it
is only in the undertaking of it that it will be possible to discover which 
theoretical
categories of Marxism are relevant to the experience in question, which need to 
be
modified, and which should be discarded".

Also, in page 29 of the same book we read: "The development of these countries 
has been
exceedingly distorted by colonialism and external capitalist domination, direct 
and indirect;
and this has naturally reflected in their economic, social and political 
structures.  But this
also means that Marxism, primarily fashioned in and for a bourgeois/capitalist 
context has,
to say the least, to be adapted to the very different circumstances subsumed 
under the
notion of "underdevelopment".

Moreover, Miliband also appear to understand that: "One of these different 
circumstances
is that in a large number of these countries, there has existed no strong 
indigenous class
of large-scale capitalists, since the major industrial, extractive, financial 
and commercial
enterprises are likely to be mainly owned and controlled by foreign interests. 
The
indigenous capitalist class has often tended to be economically rooted in 
medium and
small-scale enterprise, and partially dependent upon the foreign interests 
implanted in the
country. Correspondingly, the working class is relatively small, compared with 
the
population of the countryside, and concentrated on the one hand in a number of 
large
enterprises and dispersed on the other in a multitude of small 
ones"........."In effect, the
mass of the working population is of peasant character, and the main "relations 
of
production" in these countries tend to be between landlord and peasant in a 
multitude of
different patterns and connections. But this also means that class conflicts in 
these
economies occur on a very different basis and assume a very different form from 
those
encountered in advanced capitalist countries.  This does not mean that Marxist 
"guidelines"
are inoperative in the analysis of these conflicts.  But it does very strongly 
emphasise the
danger of a simple transposition of the Marxist mode of analysis of advanced 
capitalist
societies to countries whose capitalism is of a very different nature".

SOME AWKWARD RIDDLES

In his work "The State in Capitalist Society", Miliband had written: "Whether 
existing
communist parties can ever turn themselves into agencies appropriate to a new 
socialist
politics is a matter of conjecture".

In Peru there is today an undeniable revolutionary situation; there is also a 
Communist
Party (dubbed "The Shining Path" by the bourgeois press) leading this 
revolutionary
transformation of society precisely because it has analyzed concretely the 
specific
problems of the country.

This Communist Party has grasped well the facts described by Miliband's previous
quotations and it is advancing in its liberating tasks. Surely this could be 
regarded as a
clear example of a Communist Party turning itself into an appropriate agency 
for a "new
socialist politics", thus providing the answer to Miliband's "conjecture".  In 
any case, even
>from an "non-specialist" point of view such as Miliband's, the Peruvian 
>situation certainly
merits attention.

We note that Professor Miliband has rightly upheld Lenin's teaching that: 
"Without
revolutionary theory there cannot be revolution".  Surely such a theory must of 
necessity
nourish itself from all concrete new elements arising in the world. Otherwise, 
such a theory
would not be universal or consistent, revolutionary or even truthful.  It would 
fall short of -
and therefore lack - the very virtue with which Lenin characterised Marxism: 
"The teaching
of Marx is all powerful because it is true. It is complete and harmonious, 
providing men
with a consistent view of the universe, which cannot be reconciled with any 
superstition,
any reaction, any defence of bourgeois oppression". (The Three Sources and 
Three Component Parts
of Marxism, V.I. Lenin 1913 V.19)

THREE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE BREAKFAST

Today, the facts about the events unfolding in Peru are being distorted, 
suppressed,
minimised and hidden away by the imperialist bourgeoisie and by the opportunist 
left in
equal measure.

However, people have heard news about massacres, battles, black-outs, mass 
graves,
prison massacres, waves of strikes, riots, rampant corruption and state 
sponsored drug
dealing on a gigantic scale. They have read about counter-insurgency 
operations, strategic
hamlets, states of emergency and also of elections and armed electoral boycotts.

Moreover, they have been told that a "left wing socialist" government has come 
into office;
that "communists" enjoy large parliamentary representation, control many 
municipal
councils, etc.  They have also heard that all this "progressive advance" is 
endangered,
frustrated and overshadowed by an "obscure" organisation with a fancy name, 
"The Shining
Path".  An organisation described as ruthless, murderous terrorists, a freak 
phenomenon
of "Indigenous ideologists" with Pol-pot like ideas, dogmatic, sectarian, and 
intractable.

Curiously, this image comes from such different sources as the U.S. magazines 
Time and
Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Miami Herald, Herald Tribune 
and
others.  It also comes from French sources such as Le Nouvel Observateur, Le 
Monde,
Liberation, L'Humanite - the organ of the French CP - as well as British, 
German, Russian,
Chinese, Cuban, etc.

Here in Britain, a consensus exists on this issue ranging from The Times, The 
Guardian and
The Daily Telegraph to "socialist" sources such as The Morning Star, The New 
Statesman,
City Limits, the Trotskyist Press, etc.

Anyone would have thought that such unanimity, from Murdoch to Tariq Ali and 
beyond,
should have set alarm bells ringing among our "Marxist specialists".  After 
all, the "Shining
Path", although people from "darkest Peru", were a part of the known universe 
and hardly
non-human invaders from outer space against whom all classes could unite in 
defence of
humanity's home.

Therefore, either "absolute truth above class" had been arrived at - uniting 
all schools of
thought and bringing the historical and political process to its ultimate end 
and thus
dispensing with the need for Marxist theoreticians of all sorts - or the facts 
(stubborn facts)
would be a little different indeed. In any case, a bit of class analysis should 
of necessity
be undertaken by our "non-specialist", our generalist Marxists.