RE: [Marxism] Bush's Speech

[Ilyenkova@xxxxxxx]

Mark Lause wrote:
We now number several million stubbornly insurgent persons, which counts a 
great deal when up against unenthusiastic Democrats. Keep your eye on the 
streets.  Whether headed by Bush or Kerry, the ruling class is going to want to 
push 
more military action
and that puts conscription on the table.  The oil crisis is going to make 
environmental question no more escapable than they were before.It's going to be 
intense and nasty, 
but we'll have a chance at making very great gains--not right away, but 
certainly over 
the next 5-10 years. This time, unlike the 1960s, we have a much broader 
spectrum of people involved from the get-go.<
 
This is spot on and about the most that can be said re the recurrent demand 
by list members for an outline of what a new mass based party would look like. 
"Several million intransigents"-- that's about the human raw material we've 
got right now. What was the old formula about the ratio of Bolsheviks (not that 
these folks are Bolshies or even conscious socialists yet) to the average? 
Something like 1 Bolshevik equalled 10 Mensheviks, SRs, Cadets, whatever. When 
I 
argue with ABB Dems at work I don't win them over to Nader-Camejo. But more 
than once at the end of shop floor debates the Dems turned to each other and 
said, "We're going to lose, aren't we?" There should be no such demoralization 
on 
our part. These progressive ABBers suspect we're right. They know what looms 
ahead-- war, massive military budgets and likely conscription, oil shocks, en
vironmental despoilation, crisis in health care, deepening Walmartization etc 
etc. And they know the existing parties have no solutions and are both driving 
full speed ahead into the abyss. The present Party system has been in crisis 
for some time, but the objective conditions now are such that over the next 
5-10 year period the emergence of a serious, progressive 3rd party on the scene 
is a serious liklihood. No, objective conditions alone don't produce 
radicalization. But the experience of dirty imperialist war, and the 
mobilization in 
just 3 years of over a million oppositionists, in the abscence of a draft, is a 
potent mix. Television images to the contrary, it's the ruling class and their 
hangers on and political operatives who are demoralized. They're whistling 
passed the graveyard.
Ilyenkova

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