Re: [Marxism] If Marxism is a Science then its Predictions ShouldMatter...

[Paddy Apling <e.c.apling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 16:39 01/12/2005, Einde Callaghan wrote:

> Paddy Apling wrote:
>
> > At 13:32 01/12/2005, Einde Callaghan wrote:
> > In addition, if the there was a counter-revolution (i.e. the
> > replacement of one ruling class by another), as claimed by various
> > workers statists, why is it that the present Russian capitalist
> > class (or elite, if you prefer, although I prefer to think of them
> > as robber barons like their counterparts in the late 19th century
> > US) is essentially made up of former members of the ruling elite or
> > nomenklatura and the working class, supposedly the ruling class
> > before 1989-1991, allowed this to happen without any noticeable resistance?
> > Paddy:
> > How the Russian working-class allowed this to happen IS the big
> > question - and the second question, deeply involved in the first -
> > is how their so-called representatives (leaders? !!) in the ruling
> > elite or nomenklatura came to be so involved with the incipient(?)
> > bourgeois mentality of the expanding black market.
> > But surely there is no question that objectively the change WAS a
> > counter-revolution?
> If Russia was a capitalist society of some form and the same people
> ruled before and afterwards then it wasn't a counterrevolution in
> the sense normally used, i.e. the suppression of the rising class by
> the ruling class in decline or the replacement of a higher level of
> social development by a lower one. What occurred was a change in the
> form of class rule - admittedly a relatively weak form of rule was
> replaced by a more rabid one and the more or less complete fusion of
> economic and political power was replaced by a division of labour
> between the economic and the political elites, even if they are
> still intimately connected with each other. But this has also
> occurred in other developing countries that have never been
> classified as "socialist" by anybody.


If you reckon the USSR was capitalist I wonder why all the "other"
capitalist countries of the world hated and feared it so much..

Obviously because it was a beacon for opposition to capitalist rule
and exploitation the world over.
Admittedly it had its faults - resulting from the previous history of
tsarist-Russia  and the subsequent history of continuing attempts by
the capitalist world to subvert it, divert it, undermine it, defeat
it, and destroy it.  And its departure shows how correct MY
interpretation of it leads to the conclusion that its demise is the
greatest defeat  for the international working class, and oppressed
and exploited people throughout the world, that has happened in our
lifetime - just as the October Revolution was the most hopeful event
for just those people since the Paris Commune.

You need to appreciate how the USSR was subverted by the "appeal" of
capitalist consumerism.
Unfortunately Mark Twain's notion that "the fools are a majority in
any town" has application here - and the Russian people, clearly had
no idea of the noxious developments which opposition to the "lack of
freedom" they supposedly suffered - would lead to.  They are
certainly learning hard since the demise of the USSR !!!  - and
meanwhile the whole world is suffering from the "freedom" so easily
given to the
USA to become "the bully on the block" as Colin Powell so presciently
advocated.

Take you head, Einde, out of "theory", and look at practical outcomes.....

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com





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