[theorist] Coopetition and involuntary convergence (was: speech that Barnes should have given)

["Ben Seattle" <left-transparency@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Richard Fidler:
> Perhaps the issue is not whether a particular "party"
> should encompass all the "Marxists" but rather how
> the various parties adhering to the general Marxist
> perspective can and should work together around
> specific agreed objectives.  In other words, perhaps
> we should rethink the (post-Leninist) concept of the
> single "correct" revolutionary party. Or, more
> accurately, rethink how our chosen "vanguard party"
> interrelates with other political forces and movements
> in a constant dialectic of support, opposition,
> discussion and mutual education....

José Perez:
> I think Richard Fidler isn't getting to the real heart
> of this whole party question, which is not the
> relationship of different ideological currents to
> each other, but the relationship of the communist
> movement or a communist political movement to
> the class.
>
> The idea of building the nucleus of the future group(s)
> that will lead a socialist revolution is, I think, wrong.
> It can't be "built"; it must develop out of the actual
> class movement

I think that José is making some terribly interesting points we
need to understand to help us overcome the disease of
sectarianism.  It is the development of the mass movement that
will provide the raw material and the energy that creates the
mass party.

However I think that José is mistaken about the comments by
Richard.  The _process_ by which the party emerges from the mass
movement may be along lines similar to what Richard is
suggesting.  And this should be of interest to us.  In this sense
Richard _is_ getting to the real heart of the party question.
Or, at least, he is getting very close to it.  The party of the
future will operate similar to a "party of parties".  Or, maybe I
should say a "party composed of parties and individuals" that are
in _coopetition_ (ie: cooperation combined with competition) with
one another.

It will always be the case that like-minded people will find it
useful to associate and carry out common political work
together--because there exists tremendous synergy that comes from
organizing to combine labor.  I am speaking of the productivity
of labor as it related to political work.  Ten people working
together in a coordinated fashion are a hell of a lot more
effective than ten isolated people who are unable to coordinate
their actions.  This will never change.

Since differences will continue to exist on fundamental questions
(I think we are all agreed on that) there will exist multiple
groups that compete (ie: try to win others to their point of
view) similar to how different views in relation to the recent
Balkan war are in competition with one another on this list.

But the point is that the various groups will also learn how to
better cooperate--to carry out joint work to gain the interest
and attention of the masses.  It is better that the masses have
an interest in _our_ debates than the phony bullshit debates
between various representatives of bourgeois interests.

And as the various trends and people learn to cooperate more
closely (and are pressured to cooperate more closely by the
masses as this process becomes increasingly transparent) we will
likely see something of a "meltdown" as the most hardened nodes
in this soup are broken down, as "vanguard parties" are created
and consumed more rapidly--until the "superparty" emerges.

For the party of the future,
Ben Seattle
----//-// 10.Sep.2000
www.Leninism.org
www.egroups.com/group/theorist/



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