[PEN-L:28282] Re: citation on reforms

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 21/07/02 22:12 +0200, you wrote:
> Well Lenin said all sorts of things depending on the situation and the
> time - the quotes are entertaining haha but otherwise pretty meaningless.
>
> J.


The second, apocryphal,* quotation was funny, but the first was not. And
while I liked the way Juriaan responded to Louis Proyect's assertion that
"real" Marxists are not in favour of  "reforms", I was concerned by the
tone of authority in the assertion, and I do not agree that either
quotation is meaningless.

I take the second apocryphal quotation to mean that although marxology can
be a scholastic sort of exegesis, it is best summed up in yiddish, or more
generally, as an opportunist , whether Bernstein or Bono, is an
opportunist, is an opportunist.

I found checking a few sources more instructive.  A google search for Marx
and reform produces little, although Marx praised the working class for
taking advantage of contradictions between the ruling classes, in getting
the 10 Hours Act, and although the Communist Manifesto lists a number of
measures for early implementation by the proletariat once it has won the
battle of democracy, (a number of which are now commonplace in western
Europe). A google search for Lenin and reform also did not produce much,
but did include the quotation I cited, which is also in the section of
Stalin's Foundations of Leninism, which is a good source as it has
historical importance and was edited and re-edited at a time when Stalin's
inheritance of the mantle was under dispute so it is unlikely that there
would be anything demonstrably un-Leninist in it.

I thought the entry in the Dictionary of Marxism on reformism by David
Coates was disappointing, but it does set a wide context.

Lenin's remarks in the Importance of Gold, I would say are especially
relevant for the international context. Yes Bretton Woods was a bourgeois
reform (so according to Lenin is a wage rise under capitalism) but it may
be better for the people of the world than anarchic capitalism. It or an
improved version may also pose the need to take political control of the
entire global economy, and to redistribute capital to the areas of
immiseration. A reform like a Tobin tax is for this reason ideologically
progressive as well as beneficial in the possibility of the immediate use
of the funds.

Challenges are out of order on this list and no one is obliged to respond
to any post,  but I did pose the relevant dilemma that the momentum of
protest against the IMF and World Bank has subsided, so I cannot see how
they are likely to be abolished. In fact there would have been a better
chance of sustained street protests if demands for radical reforms had been
sufficient practical and strategically far sighted.

Perhaps we can still respect the strict conventions of this list, in order
to be able to have a serious debate of positions, if I characterise myself.
Yes for the purpose of debate I am willing to say I must be a sort of neo
Bernsteinist, although I have read virtually nothing of what he wrote, and
one phrase Lenin attributed to him, did sound rather stupid. Louis Proyect
appears in his recent posts to be non-sectrian admirer of Trotsky, who
would support a limited number of reforms, but generally would perhaps not
advocate campaigning around reforms unless they are transitional demands (?)

I think this matters because of whether we analyse this period of rapid
change just to make general propaganda points about the superiority of
socialism or whether we are looking for opportunities for resistance to the
attempts of capitalism to put the burden onto working people domestically
and overseas, and for opportunities to weaken the power of capitalism
strategically.

Chris Burford

London