Re: [Marxism] Water, gas and imperialism

["Lüko Willms" <lueko.willms@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 7 Jan 2006 09:21:11 -0800 (PST), Wayne S. Rossi wrote:

>an idea that the national questions can be solved without provoking
class conflict and causing a resolution one way or another.  This is
deeply mistaken.  The national and anti-imperialist struggles are
inextricably connected with the class struggle, and have brought it to
the fore already.

   I agree with that as a general statement.

>  How Marxists can think it is not going to force a resolution of the
real class questions in Bolivia is beyond me, but there is widespread
denial of the idea on this list.

   The question seems to be if the class conflicts are being posed by
the objective situation and objective tasks, or if the revolutionary
leadership is supposed to _provoke_ class conflicts, which are looming,
but not yet broken out in the open as a problem for the masses to solve
immediately.

    My suggestion, based on the experience of more than 150 years of a
revolutionary working class movement and several successful und
unsuccessful revolutions, is to attack the immediate problems, push
revolutionary solutions which do not start with the need to preserve the
privileges of the propertied classes, but with the interests of the
broad mass of working people. Practical solutions for practical
problems.

   And you can be assured that a class conflict will break out by the
propertied classes resistance to sensible solutions. That is the time to
tackle those problems. One might call this the defensive form of
offensive (I think Leo Trotski had a chapter on this in his "History of
the Russion Revolution").

   Just don't force it before it is ripe and before a solution can be
found. Remember the unwillingness of the Bolsheviks to lead the armed
demonstration in Petrograd in July 1917, because they considered the
situation to be not yet ready for it.

   I suggest to have a look at Lenin's 1917 pamphlet "The coming
catastrophe and how to solve it" (my translation from German) and
Castro's "History will absolve me".


Yours,



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