Re: [Marxism] Admire Colin Powell - Hell No!!!

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Calvin Broadbent wrote:
>
> "Both for the production on a mass scale of this communist consciousness,
> and for the success of the cause itself, the alteration of men on a mass
> scale is, necessarily, an alteration which can only take place in a
> practical movement, a revolution; this revolution is necessary, therefore,
> not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but
> also because the class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in
> ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society
> anew". Karl Marx, *The German Ideology*
>
> Isn't this revolution, necessary to rid men of t'he muck of ages', tacitly
> taken by Marx to mean violent insurrection?

Yes -- and not merely "tacitly." And I agree with the quoted text,
though I think on many points GI should be cited cautiously. But this in
no way contradicts what Marvin writes below. His argument is not against
violent insurrection but against gratuitous acts of vengeance _after_
(or even during) such an insurrection. In fact, what you quote from Marx
seems to me to add emphasis to Marvin's argument. Revolution (including,
or especially including, violent insurrection) is above all else a
self-education for the working class. Mere vengeance should surely be
considered part of the muck of the ages from which revolutionary
self-education is to free us.

Carrol

>
> MARVIN GANDALL WROTE:
>
> Real tough guys, eg. Lenin and Trotsky, never strutted about,
> even when they had bragging rights after having led a mass revolutionary
> party. Executions occured at all levels, up to the royal family, but they
> were never ordered in triumph or in vengeance, but cautiously, as sober
> political acts calculated to deprive the counter-revolutionary forces of
> leadership and to deter collaboration in the ranks. Other revolutionary
> movements and those resisting foreign occupation (WWII, Middle East) tend to
> behave the same way. In some cases, their leaderships have acted to restrain
> the kind of (understandable) spontaneous thirst for vengeance from below
> which civil wars and occupations produce, and which you -- even at this
> great distance from that kind of situation -- seem eager to encourage.
>
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