Re: [Marxism] Re: Stan Goff on "economism"

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

vrosado wrote:
>
>
> I don't worry about slogans too much... but if the broader movement is
> not addressing the complex issues dealing with imperialism and the cap.
> system, then there is a problem and something has to be done..
>

I think they are important, and need to be carefully thought out. In the
u.s. anyhow, slogans tend to be confused with advertising slogans,
merely something catchy. But the slogans of a movement should be for
internal 'consumption' also: i.e. slogans should structure both internal
education and  external outreach. That means that the slogan should be
in some important sense, _true_. If one looks at it just as a "demand,"
why not just demand that the capitalists capitulate tomorrow! But as
soon as one begins to organize discussion around such a 'slogan' as
"social needs, not war"  its pitiful inaccuracy and emptiness would show
up quickly.

One does not engage in a necessarily LENGTHY struggle such as a movement
to end the Occupation for any shortrange goals. No one joined the
anti-war movement of the '60s in order that _he_ personally would not be
drafted. That's not how the draft energized the movement. It energized
the movement simply by making the war highly visible. No one will even
put a bumper sticker on their car in order for any shortrange economic
reason.

Carrol


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