[PEN-L:29362] Re: Re: Max Elbaum To Speak In Sacramento On SocialMovementHistory

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jurriaan Bendien wrote:
>
> Louis wrote:
>
> We have the same requirement today that existed in Russia in 1902 and
> in the USA in the 70s and 80s, namely to unite scattered Marxist
> circles and individuals.

We are still in the 1890s (Russia) 1950s (US). It is important to
remember that WITBD was leading up to the SECOND, not the FIRST congress
of the RSDLP. The problem was how to develop a shadow party into a real
party. We don't have a shadow party. When someone with the politics of a
Doug Henwood and someone with the politics of  Lou Proyect (not
necessarily the particular persons, but people with those sorts of
politics) can debate each other within the same general political
structure, _then_ we will be getting close to 1902.

Actually, analogies don't help much. "Learn from History" is a
capitalist not a marxist slogan. What one learns from history is best
represented by what the French General Staff in the 1930s learned from
World War 1. To put it another way, it is profoundly unhistorical to
believe that one can learn from the "mistakes" of the past.

Carrol