Subject: LL9806028 Richard Bos: 
         re: The "D of P" and the internet in the modern world
Date:    Sunday, June 07, 1998 3:02 PM


> Ben Seattle wrote:
> >
> > Now my formulations are not necessarily the last word on this topic
> > and are subject to criticism and improvement. And I welcome comments
> > from readers (who I also invite to read "The Digital Fire"). But the
> > point is that I am unaware of any political trend that has dealt
> > with this subject at all. Will the dictatorship of the proletariat
> > censor the internet? It is a question that cannot be avoided--but
> > avoided it has been to date.
> 
> Klo's reply,
> 
> I was unaware it was being so thoroughly avoided.  Well, then, by all
> means we do not want to avoid it any longer.  I hope I have confronted
> it to your satisfaction.


I have just caught up with this discussion, and would take a similar
position to Klo, so I won't repeat every thing he said. I have spoken to
comrades from Cuba and Vietnam on the subject of the internet. They do
not have any problems about discussing censorship of the internet. Why
should people who degrade women and children in pornography be allowed
freedom to seduce people into allowing them to pump their stuff into
their homes? In the same way why should the enemies of socialism be
allowed the freedom that they would take away from others if they felt
it was a threat? Imperialism has no scruples and will use every means at
it's disposal to undermine the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. We are
faced with an enemy that has in the past, and will in the future, murder
people in their millions; that exploits and manipulates the masses every
day to further their endless greed. If we are soft on them for one
moment they will take full advantage of that.

That does not mean that we take away anything from the working class.
Dictatorship of the Proletariat means that complete power is in the
hands of a class which didn't have any power before. It belongs to the
working class. It is their state to do with what they will. It will
allow ordinary people to develop their potential to the full, to express
their ideas to make life better, and be listened to by their brothers
and sisters. Of course there will be discussion and debate within the
class about the best way to move forward, but that debate and decisions
made must be within structures decided on by the working class and
no-one else. 

The Party of the working class is not a party like the bourgeois
parties; It is a party of a new type which operates the principles of
Democratic Centralism. There may be other parties which do not oppose
socialism, co-operate with the working class party, and accept working
class leadership, but would certainly not be in competition with it.

That will only be possible if, when we take state power in any part of
the world we defend it from attack.

I think you should read some more Lenin Ben.

Richard.