Re: Replying to Martin

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gary MacLennan wrote:

> Hi Martin,
>
> I too have bouts of that kind of pessimism (or realism). Thus I have often
> talked of how Australia will need to be invaded by a Red Army before we
> have socialism here.

The pessimism that is destructive is that which turns into
a particularly vicious form of "blaming the victim" -- that is,
into contempt for the people because they do not see as we
do -- or into mere self-hate on the part of the left. We are
after all facing an incredibly powerful world ruling class, with
immense social, economic, political, military, and ideological
power.

I have just been reading through the articles in Vol 12 (a
combined issue) of *Socialism and Democracy*. The articles
all take off in one way or another from the Communist
Manifesto. Most of the articles had their origin in either
the Paris or New York commemorations of the Manifesto.
As a group (I haven't read them all) they are quite good
on the question (which pessimism implicitly raises) of the
continued validity and energy of marxism.

Carrol