Re: [Marxism] Callinicos reacts to the NPA

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

On Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:14:08 -0400, Louis Proyect wrote:

> The real way to judge the NPA is not in terms of seizing power, taking 
> over the state, etc. These are tasks that are just not on the agenda. It 
> is much more important to see how they, for example, functioned at 
> Strausbourg--and according to Ivan Drury, they acquitted themselves 
> quite well: 

  Sure, the seasoned cadres from JCR, LC, LCR times are much better street 
fighters than the black-clad heirs of Bakunin, Stalin and Pol Pot. They have 
managed to keep "les casseurs" from their demonstrations decades ago. 

  But this is one thing, the purpose of the party is another. They are also 
quite good in election campaigns, as the results of the previous presidential 
elections showed. And the NPA's spokesperson Olivier Besancenot is the 
second most trusted politician after Nicolas Sarkozy, the elected president of 
la Republique Française, according to opinion polls (BVA-Leo Burnett for BFM 
and La Tribune, published mid March, see
> 
<http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2009/03/14/01002-20090314ARTFIG00503-s
arkozy-et-besancenot-politiciens-les-plus-credibles-.php>

  Well, but the purpose of a political party is to exercise political power, 
i.e. 
state power, and in the class divided society which we happen to live in (or 
under), this means first and foremost: which class is to rule? 

  It is not enough to know what you are _against_ (it is alled the 
"anti-capitalist party"), but what you are _for._ And again, for a political 
party, which is not a trade union, this means: for which kind of power has the 
party been founded? 

  A party should be clear about that, or it risks that other forces decide for 
itself where it is headed to, and this is mostly the powers that be. 

  While the concrete next steps on the way are of course dictated by the 
concrete situation, the direction has to be clear and taking power as and for 
the working class has to be the guiding light, the litmus test for the concrete 
steps taken each moment: do they lead in the right direction, or not? 

> This is what matters *now*, not masturbatory fantasies about Soviets.

   By trying to ridicule the question of the purpose of the party, you throw 
ridicule only upon yourself, dear Louis Proyect. 

   People like Karl Marx, Che Guevara or Lenin have taken that question 
serious. Think about Che's question to the Colombian CP, and how Lenin 
answered in the Petersburg Soviet to declarations from the chair similar to 
yours ridiculing taking power. 


Comradely yours, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------
visit http://www.mlwerke.de Marx, Engels, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotzki in Ge
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