Re: red flags & reformism

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Jim says:

> [was: Re: [PEN-L:13751] Re: Re: Angel of History (was Re: Geras vs Laclau)]
>
> Justin writes:
> > You don't have to call yourself a Marxist, wave red flags, talk the
> > language of early 20th century Russian political organizing, to be
> > a socialist. In fact, it's probably best not to do so. It just
> > turns off the people you want to organize, as you know. Mainly it's
> > a religious thing for people who have developed that identity over
> > time...
>
> Actually, it's a good thing if Marxism drops the red flags and
> worship of the early 20th century Russian model.

Since history doesn't repeat itself, not even as a farce, neither the
October Revolution nor anything else from the past serves as a
"model."

> The red flags weren't invented by Marxists. Instead, they
> represented one of the traditions of the Western European labor
> movements.

From Melville's _Billy Budd_:

*****   To the British Empire the Nore Mutiny was what a strike in
the fire-brigade would be to London threatened by general arson. In a
crisis when the kingdom might well have anticipated the famous signal
that some years later published along the naval line of battle what
it was that upon occasion England expected of Englishmen; that was
the time when at the mast-heads of the three-deckers and
seventy-fours moored in her own roadstead -- a fleet, the right arm
of a Power then all but the sole free conservative one of the Old
World -- the blue-jackets, to be numbered by thousands, ran up with
huzzas the British colors with the union and cross wiped out; by that
cancellation transmuting the flag of founded law and freedom defined,
into the enemy's red meteor of unbridled and unbounded revolt.
Reasonable discontent growing out of practical grievances in the
fleet had been ignited into irrational combustion, as by live cinders
blown across the Channel from France in flames.   *****

That's a memorable image: cancelling the symbol of patriotism (the
British colors) & turning it into that of revolutionary international
solidarity (the enemy's red meteor).  Symbols are not to be
underestimated.

BTW, the JCP's daily newspaper is still called Akahata [Red Flag],
even though it ceased to be revolutionary a long time ago & is now
calling for the reduction of shohizei [consumption tax] to 3%, the
elimination of forced overtime, the minimum wage of 1,000 yen per
hour for part-time workers, etc. based upon its underconsumptionist
interpretation of deflation in Japan.  Much better than any other
mainstream party, to be sure, but I don't know if its demands
correspond to the gravity of the economic conditions.

> Instead of red flags and the like, it's important to those
> socialists who want to replace capitalism with socialism -- or a
> labor republic, in Charlie Andrews' terms, or whatever -- to link up
> with the _actually-existing_ anti-systemic movements of our day.
> Maybe if we not only try to convince them to accept our perspectives
> but also to _learn from_ them & to treat them with respect, they may
> be willing to accept our use of some of their symbols.

Socialists have been always part of actually-existing movements
(including Seattle-type protests); it's just that our voices are now
but a minuscule element in the cacophony of contradictory voices in
the States, having zero impact on where movements are going.

Yoshie