[Marxism] Peter Camejo's 'Return to Materialism'

["Jack Cade" <jack.cade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

        I've just read this and it makes some useful points but some initial
comments I would make are:

The Stalinist Soviet Union used by the West to denigrate socialism

        Even if Stalin had been a good socialist the USSR would have still
been denigrated. In the same way that totally corrupt,
class-collaborationist unions are still regarded as enemies even when bosses
and editors play golf with the General Secretaries (like George Meany of the
AFL). I suppose it's because organisations of the working class and even
workers states, no matter how corrupt, are still seen as having a potential
and are institutionally against private property.

'Marxism-Leninism' as a synonym for Stalinism

        In my view Marxism-Leninism is a stable that saddled three horses:
Stalinism, Trotskyism and Maoism. They all share the same characteristics
and were/are all dead ends.

Democratic Centralism
        
        While supposedly quashing factions this gives reign to one faction:
the leadership faction, never viewed as such but enshrined as the collective
wisdom and discipline of the party.

Soviet Collapse and the West

        Camejo says "The defeat of the USSR set the framework for defeat in
the United States, since the left dominated by the Communist Party was able
to betray the workers' movement and keep it tied to the two-party system."
Problem with this is for a lot of the left, especially the Trotskyist left,
defeat of the USSR should have been a vindication of their own position,
which logically should have led to a renaissance of their politics. What I
think is happening is that the collapse of the bastion of Marxism-Leninism
has naturally affected all its variants and sporn.

Jack Cade

Louis Proyect:
For a pretty good idea of the sort of thing he has been writing in the 
recent period, which has a much different character than his campaign 
statements, I'd urge you to look at an article he presented to the DSP 
in Australia in an attempt to persuade them to break with the SWP 
party-building methodology--even more than they had did.

It is titled "Return to Materialism" and can be read at:

http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/Materialism.html




_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism