[Marxism] Workerism

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The problem is with the question. Marxists have always said that the
working class is the one class in society which has the capacity to
raise all others on its shoulders and to reconstruct society along
non-exploitative, socialist lines, to lay the foundations for a new
society, a socialist society. This abstract historical generalization
is not sufficient to solve all of the tactical, strategic and tactical
problems of the socialist movement. 

The problem with workerism, as the political deviation it is, is just
this: its use as a substitute for the specific analysis of particular
societies in precise times and places. When someone here complains
that someone does not refer to Marx's writings of the 19th century when
discussing China, Cuba or anything else which is taking place in the
21st century, as if Marx's writings then could provide the answer to
what those who study his ideas, and base themselves on their idea of
what he meant, is at approximately 180 degree variance with reality. 

We can learn much from what Marx wrote, but it does not give anyone, 
even the most brilliant, the solution to any practical issue in the
world which we live in today. How many times does it have to be
repeated: Marxism isn't a religion or a recipe book. It's a method
of analysis, not a prescription. For that we need human thinking
and action in the present moment. Nothing less will suffice.

The pre-revolutionary Cuban Communist Party criticized the July 26th
action of 1953 as a vanguard act when the masses of the working class
were not prepared to take the actions necessary to overthrow the
Batista dictatorship. They called Fidel Castro a putschist when the
Moncada attack failed in its immediate objective. 

FORMALLY, from the point of what Plekhanov wrote in THE ROLE OF THE
INDIVIDUAL IN HISTORY, the PSP's criticism was correct. It's too bad
someone hasn't found those old documents and brought them out to the
public, because it would be another one of those pesky ways in which
history sadly repeats itself, a bit like in GROUNDHOG DAY. I'd like
to recommend again what Blase Bonpane, the former Maryknoll priest
expelled from Guatemala for supporting the guerrilla struggle back
in the sixties had to say about perfectionism. Read what Bonpane
has to say about perfectionism, a disease which constitutes an
intellectual and political plague on our times.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/bonpane-religion-and-revolution.html


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, CAlifornia.
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CARL WEBB asks:
I agree that workerism is not a good strategy for organizing but if
not the workingclass, then which class is the most revolutionary
class?  

================================
WALTER LIPPMANN
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
writer - photographer - activist
http://www.walterlippmann.com
================================

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