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Re: [Marxism] A proposal for a New Party
Mark Lause <MLause@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm responding to you publicly, as I said I would after the previous four or
five private emails from you, which entirely disabused me of any hopes I
might have had that anything real would come out of your efforts.
Comrade Ben:
Ah Mark, you neglect to post any of my prievious post therefore I believe
we must bring the list up to date with our conversation.
First of all, I never stated that "the past is irrelevant" I don't even know
how Mark could
imply such a rigid interpretation given the basis of my argument. My argument
generally is that the popular social movements of the 60's further stratified
the already numerious divides in the U.S labor movement. The abberation from
the traditional vanguard model and the creation of NGO's and grass root
organizations abstracted single social issues above (even arguably against) the
struggle of the working class. However, the labor movement in conjunction with
the grassroots movements posed a devestating challenge to industrial
capitalism. (In fact, the global workers dispora in the 60's,I suspect,was
inevitably the nail in the Soviets coffin.) In response the bourgeois economist
were forced to reconize the productive powers of the masses and in step set
them into play with actual mode of production using informationization. This
shift to an increase in the production of immaterial labor has given certain
post industrial cum wads like Rupert Murdoch a new avenue of
exploitation while simultaneously interconnecting and regulating the
subjectivities of a massive number of people. Don't believe me Mark read this
excerpt from Wikipedia:
MySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive,
user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos,
music and videos internationally. It is headquartered in Beverly Hills,
California, US,[1] where it shares an office building with its immediate owner,
Fox Interactive Media; in turn, the owner of Fox Interactive and therefore
MySpace, News Corporation, is headquartered in New York City.
According to Alexa Internet, MySpace is currently the world's sixth most
popular English-language website and the sixth most popular website in any
language,[2] and the third most popular website in the United States, though it
has topped the chart on various weeks[3]. The service has gradually gained more
popularity than similar websites to achieve nearly 80% of visits to online
social networking websites.[3] It has become an increasingly influential part
of contemporary popular culture, especially in English speaking countries.
The company employs 300 staff[4] and does not disclose revenues or profits
separately from News Corporation. With the 100 millionth account being created
on August 9, 2006,[5] in the Netherlands[6] and a news story claiming 106
million accounts on September 8, 2006,[7] the site reportedly attracts new
registrations at a rate of 230,000 per day.
Myspace(as well as even this mailing list) is indicitive of the
transformation of our political economy. Informationization allows info just
like capitalism to glide easily over the boundries of the nation-state. No
wonder were witnessing a general decline in the power of self determination and
sovereignty.(check the page for the political and censorship ramifications of
myspace) Out of this general shift I had an inclination to create a new
international "workers party" that could adress these shifts in political
economics. The question of strategy which Mark raises is unwaranted I can't
decide specific policies without first creating an organizational basis.
Therefore, I posed a organizational strategy(open to democratic contestations
to creating this new party. (i will leave this post as my conclusion) However,
I must first adress Mark's comments. Your petty ad homeims don't support your
argument and after reading over them (twice) i'm begining to doubt if you know
what a historical materialist is. I analyize the current change in political
economy based from the perspective of how they've influenced the class struggle
in the past and parraleled it to today, while posing an option to adress them.
Where exactly do I fall short?(or rather what is your definition of historical
materialism?) well heres the basic proposal for a plan
In solidarity,
Ben
PS. If your going to tell the story tell the whole story not jus your
disambiguations
Plans For A New International party
First of all the organizational structure must be able to adress the prievious
strategies that have doomed the rest of "leftist organization"(I am hesisitant
to describe any defining attribute). Traditionally the U.S has used a sort of
modified counter-insurgency program to adress highly organized sectors of the
labour movement. "The main concept was kill the head and the body dies" From
the Palmer raids in the 30's to Mcarthyism in the late 50's(all though
Mcarthyism, under the same logic, resembed disfigurement) Movements were
crushed by police investigations and fallacious policies passed to justify
them. (I tire of reetorating the chronology) However, the 1960's, as Joaquin so
eloquently articulated in another post, brought about a revitalization or
"radicalization" of the liberal left which created several special intrest
groups and NGO's ie.grass roots movements that ultimately amounted to reformism
and the stratification of the social movement from the "workers
movements". Despite there ineffectiveness to pose a direct challenge to the
Capitalism.The special intrest groups(along with the U.S response to the global
diospora caused by industrial capital permeating Russia at the time) forced
Capitalism to take up a new global character. Actually forcing capitalist
production into informationization.The shift we are witnessing today is a
dramatic increse in immateral labor and production of subjectivity. As the
fordist factory was the epitome of industrial capita,l data entry is the
epitome of post industrial capitalism. So where does the post-industrial left
stand? instead of waxing Nastalgic in the failure of leftist organization in
the U.S or getting another undersupported independent, the left needs to create
a real "working class vanguard". Therefore phase one is the reformation of the
working class. The new international needs to create space for the advancement
of working class subjectivity. "My idea" is a social network(like
myspace)devoted to the average working class citizen. By providing a space for
networks, worker specific email, and tools like employment help we can infuse
leftist conciousness and reoriant the working class with the left. The second
phase of the new international is the organization of the various grassrots
organizations and "radical NGO's" under a democratic network strucure. This
will allow us to align the workers with the social struggles "urika"! Next, the
new international must attempt to engage the various devides in the traditional
left by networking their workers we can increase their numbers while having a
stake in their politics under a democratic structure. If the traditional left
refuses then theoretically it will backfire on them. Our all inclusive
democratic strucure will cut from under their membership rendering there power
obsolete. While this is not our attempt various parties should be able to be
included within the new international, but the leaders
must be urged to construct a working class vanguard not an elite intellectual
class vanguard. Finally, the network strucure must spread across geographical
boundries and repeat the networking process respectively. With a global workers
party strucure imagine the possibility of a global non work day or a campaign
to take out multinational corporations. Thats the basis strategy and
socio-economic premises for the creation of this party. There are great task
that must be done like drafting a constitution and of course tech support. Once
again if your intrested join www.autonomous.wikispaces.com a space dedicated to
netwoking and discussing the the logistics
?Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has
reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our
arms.?
~ Ernesto "Che" Guevara
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