Re: [Marxism] Re: Should socialists call for democratic structural change?

["Carlos A. Rivera" <cerejota@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Shannon" <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>

> It is the liberal who is satisfied with the status quo that throws out
> these dismissive replies.

I agree. Radical democratic reforms are always the first salvos of any
communist program. I think R.R. is being left-deviationist in this sense.

Yet these demands have to things I believe undermine thier possibilities or
I see as problematic; R.R. mentions how hard it is to pass constitutional
ammendments - this is a real concern. Democratic demands, by and large,
should have some perspective of being successful in a relatively short
amount of time. Revolution and communism should be our bright horizons (the
closer we get to them the farther they move :P ), but our demands, to be
effective, should be attainable. The historic demands of a
bourgeoise-democratic nature, such as that of the bolsheviks in the
intra-revolutionary period or the Chinese, or even today with the CPN(m)
figthing for constitutional assembly and a derogation of monarchy, respond
to actual situations in the ground that make these changes be on the
political agenda of a wide body of the people. They were not just objective
demands, but subjective as well. This is what made them politically useful.

I don't see the same usefulness in abolishing the Senate or demanding a
proportional (Europe-style) voting system.

sks


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