[PEN-L:28252] Struggle for reforms and reformism

[Jurriaan Bendien <j.bendien@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis wrote: "Everybody is in favor of "reforms" except Marxists, at least
the real ones." It sounds very orthodox, very Leninist, very revolutionary,
but I think you ought to reconsider that and read, for instance, Ralph
Milliband, Marxism and Politics, chapter VI: "reform and revolution" (OUP,
1977, p. 154f., see particularly p. 160). As I have noted on a previous
occasion, it would be a mistake to confuse the "struggle for reforms" with
"reformism". The real difference shows rather in the type of reforms
pursued, how you go about pursuing reforms, and the strategic idea behind
the endeavour. The inability to recognise this is the mark of ultra-left
sectarians, who therefore do not have any feasible political method for
social change except venting their hostility against capitalism and
abstract rhetoric about non-existent "struggles".

J.