Re: [Marxism] Gloria La Riva 16-city speaking tour

["Ruthless Critic of All that Exists" <ok.president+marxml@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 4:24 AM, Mark Lause <markalause@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> If, as Ruthless asserts, a U.S. Left consisting of SLPs (Socialist
> Lilliputian Parties) is a good thing (because "diversity" is good,
> right?), then the entire international movement should be kneeling
> worshipfully to learn at the feet of the super-successful American
> radicals.
>
> Then, there's the view of Karl Marx and most American Marxists that
> mass working class party of any sort would be an improvement over no
> working class party at all...or lots of these SLPs.

Stanley Aronowitz seems to argue with Mark's position:

"He does offer a vivid example of how such a party could intervene in
a struggle, describing the difficulties faced by New York City transit
workers, who, after a successful strike action, rejected a contract
that gave back much of what they hoped to win: "Imagine if, on the day
after the vote to approve the contract was announced, there appeared
at subway stations and bus stops a four-page bulletin discussing the
reasons for the rank and file's rejection of the deal.  Tens of
thousands of MTA riders would have gotten a viewpoint different from
that of the MTA, the union leadership, and the commercial media."

"Of course, many of these activities are already being conducted, by
institutions like the Brecht Forum, websites like CounterPunch and
MRZine, single-issue advocacy groups, left think tanks like the
Institute for Policy Studies.  Aronowitz believes, and I think he is
entirely correct, that these activities would be much more potent if
linked together as part of a national project.  Furthermore, a
national party would create a space for ongoing engagement, both
social and intellectual, for those on the Left, rather than the
periodic bursts of activity, followed by retreats into private life,
that we now see in the US.

"However, it should also be said that all existing groups would likely
be very uneasy about sacrificing any autonomy to a national party, and
building up a new parallel group of institutions would be extremely
difficult."

Full: <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sherman081008.html>

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