RE: [Marxism] Planet of Slums

["Paddy Apling" <e.c.apling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Behalf Of Nestor Gorojovsky wrote 26 March 2004 13:51
> Subject: RE: [Marxism] Planet of Slums

in reply to my comment:
> > The article by Mike David in NLR raises the question for Melvin  P's
thesis
> > as to whether this "class" in the planet slums is possibly the
> > revolutionary comminist class, or whether it has more the
characteristics
> > described in the Communist Manifesto as
> >  "The 'dangerous class' the social scum, that passively rotting mass
> > thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, may, here and there, be
> > swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of
> > life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of
> > reactionary intrigue."
> >
>
> In Argentina, at least, they provided the prelude to Dec 19th, 2001.
> Not something one expects from "social scum".
>
> The hyper-cities of the Third World shoud be understood as composed
> of an ocean of temporarily deranged populations around citadels of
> power and wealth, not as a neuronal network of slums.
>
snip
>
> In the end, either the slums arise or the whole world will founder.
> Because these slums are the concrete expression of the limits to
> capitalist development. Marx and Engels (and certainly the Marx and
> Engels of the Manifesto) could hardly imagine that capitalism was to
> outlive itself for so long a time that the visible expression of its
> contradictions would not be the impoverishment of the working class
> but the actual exclusion of ever larger human masses even from the
> condition of exploited people.
>
> The struggle of the people in these slums is "a struggle to become
> exploited".  Sooner or later, they will discover that they can only
> become "exploited" under a different social system. It is our task as
> revolutionaries to help them arrive at that conclusion.
>
> They have no relation whatsoever with the "bribed tool of
> reactionary intrigue" that Marx and Engels spoke about. They are not
> necessary, not even for _that_.  I am very much afraid that the
> bribed tool, today, lives in the First World, and sometimes it may be
> a blue collar.
>

A great relevant comment from South America - where so much positive action
by the dispossessed is happening.

Your comment that the bribed tools of capitalism are now concentrated in the
First World is crucial to an understanding of the apparent contradiction
between the theses of Melvyn P and Mike David.

Marx's use of the word "scum" in connection to those "displaced from the old
society" but not assimilated into the industrial proletariat is perhaps
excusable for 1848 - but is certainly not applicable in 2004 - when
practical action against imperialist domination is developing so rapidly
across the world with little or no such action by the organisations of the
working class in the First World still dominated by the hegemonic ideology
of the imperialists.

Regarding such people as "scum" has been a useful tool for the imperialists
over many years - for example, in England the whipping up of fears and
hatred in the mid to late 19th century to Irish immigrants, then in the late
20th century to immigrants from West Indies and Pakistan - and recently to
"asylum seekers" from wherever.

On the other hand, it seems to me the two most positive develoments over
recent years have been the anti-war movement in the First World and the
development of "the people of the slums" in the Third - of course, presently
seen first and foremost in the countries of South America.

Comradely greetings,
Paddy
NFHS Member #5594
Mailto:e.c.apling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://apling.freeservers.com/index.htm
or http://www.e.c.apling.btinternet.co.uk



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