Re: (fwd from Walters) Re:revival and party-building/Politics of American his...

[Waistline2@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 9/28/03 9:51:58 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
MLause@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:


>"CPUSA/Trotskyite cabal" posits the present existence of a coherent
CPUSA--and a coherent Trotskyite cabal--AND a hitherto unexposed conspiracy
between them to do something annoying to some members of the list. <

Reply

I could not have been clearer. Avoidance of clearly stated political policy
that established their unity - coherence, is a matter of documented history.
The political unity that is the "CPUSA/Trotskyite cabal" is witnessed and
expressed as political policy on the national colonial question. I can state 
this a
thousand times and no one can even discuss the question, outside of the
communists that evolved outside this orbit of "political logic." On this basis I
brand this political unity what it is - imperial scoundrels.

Actually, I have been very specific on this question. I did not stop simply
on the national and colonial question but spoke of the historical trap - curve
of industrial development, wherein these grouping that attempting reformation
on the basis of the prestige of Lenin and the Third International focused on
the best paid sector of the industrial working class. Herein resides their
political unity or coherence. Communist in the past and specifically Lenin 
called
this an anarcho- syndicalist deviation within Marxism. For Christ sake man I
reprinted the first several paragraphs from Lenin's  "Difference in the
European Labour Movement."

On the one hand anarcho- syndicalism is not an individual inclination but a
historical product rooted in the industrial developmental curve in primarily
the advanced imperial centers. Hence, I speak of the "historical trap" or the
"historical error."  In America trade unionism pure and simple won the day.

The historical trap meant being confined within the space of the industrial
curve that was expressed as the transition from craft unionism to industrial
unionism. This historical trap was not obvious to the participants, but rather
obvious to a generation of industrial workers thirty years later that evolved
outside this orbit.

The error on the national and colonial question in America is chauvinism and
white chauvinism pure and simple.  America was a southern country in its
origin and political structures up to the Civil War. Avoidance of discussing the
historical error - trap, does not make it go away. The issue is not personal on
any level. At least I am not scared to speak to the issue.

In the real world we always had good working relations with the CPUSA and SWP
and would frequent the old Debs Hall on Woodward, as well as the lovable
anarchist Freddy Perelman.

>Do most people find Mel's frothing at the mouth of  "Trots under the bed"
humorous or are people just ignoring him? His ignorance, at least, of SWP
history is astounding. Oh well.

David Walters<

To begin with, during my entire life my harshest criticism has always been
concerning the evolution of the CPUSA. Deal with the national and colonial
question and why after 1967 the mass of leaders from the industrial black 
workers
evolved on a different political basis. Avoidance of the question does not make
it go away.

I am not talking about the specifics of the SWP history but the specific of
political logic.

Let assume that all of my politics are simply wrong. At least I pose the
question.  The fact of the matter is that most of the revolutionaries in America
do not even understand how to approach the national and colonial question
within the American Union and the anarcho- syndicalist trap.

I understand my ignorance is astounding. Deal with the two impediments to
American Marxism and straighten me out.

Mr. Walters have no way to explain why the African American masses - the
working class leaders from among them, avoided these old political groups like 
the
plague and simply rest in comfort with the idea that these "people" are
bourgeois nationalist. No understanding of what the Chicano Moratorium meant or
even why the Native Bands travel a different path. It gets uglier because the
mass of Anglo American - white, workers are outside the unions. Why is it that
for basically thirty years most of these political groups were converted into
more than less support committees for the colonial movements outside the
multi-national state of the American Union? How does one carry out systematic 
work
within a passive proletariat and what sector do the communist target?

My passion is great but my politics are clear and specific and never rest on
ideology but a correlation of forces at a given moment.

Mr. Walters is correct: "ignorance, at least, of SWP history is astounding."
 What is equally astounding is the understand of the mechanics of American
history.

American in its origin is a Southern country and here lies the historical
political fault line. The defeat of the fascist offensive - Bush and company,
must be on the basis of this fault line. I am talking about politics not
ideology.

Deal with the political issue.

The theory question is "why the two primary class to make up a social system"
cannot overthrow it. Something else must happen in society that places social
revolution on the agenda. The political and theory logic of the
"CPUSA/Trotskyite cabal"  -  (not the "Trotskyite/CPUSA cabal") is stuck in the 
period of
the Third International without an elementary understanding of the national
colonial question, the material roots of the anarcho- syndicalist deviation, a
misunderstanding of value theory, American history and our specific curve of
development.


Melvin P.





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