Re: [Marxism] Class, Party, and Organization

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

I've always steered clear of these left grouplets, more due to  
intuition than anything else, so all of this debate over zinovievism  
and voluntarism as a sterile response to the lack of class  
consciousness among the working classes of advanced imperialist  
countries has been quite instructive. I've also taken the opportunity  
to go back and read Lenin, as well as some of the works about him  
which have been mentioned on this list. And I've observed first hand  
from my own abortive attempts to organize among 'labor aristocrats'  
the truth of Joaquin's assessment.

I have a few related questions.

To what extent is the critique of the labor aristocracy and racism  
within the white working class influenced by Maoism? I understand  
Lenin's critique is rooted in an economic and political understanding  
of imperialism and the international division of labor and power  
between core and dependent countries, but inside the USA, the BPP in  
the 60's seemed to take their understanding of the revolutionary  
potential of the black lumpen elements from Mao. Is this a correct  
assessment?

The IWW also had a distinct critique of labor aristocracy in its  
criticism of the AFL and the color line. The IWW has always organized  
among immigrants and African-Americans. But the IWW, in its heyday,  
was by no stretch of the imagination maoist. Their analysis seemed to  
come from a correct perception of everyday, material and political  
reality. To what extent was the BPP strategy indigenous to people  
like Huey Newton, and to what extent did it derive from Mao?

Given the fact that the working classes of advanced imperialist  
countries have not constituted a class conscious movement for quite  
some time, and may not for some time in the future, would it not be  
more instructive to focus our energies (those of us living in the  
belly of the beast),  on solidarity work?

Greg McDonald



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