From: Ben SeattleTo: marxism-international Subject: M-I: Reply to Nancy's query on meaning of "Reformism" Date: Wednesday, April 08, 1998 6:38 AM Nancy: >Here's a question for you: what exactly is "reformism"? Is it reformist >to advocate for women's rights, and to work for things like equal pay? >Is it reformist to work for increases in pay and benefits? For the >rights of labor unions? For affirmative action? For the environment? Ben: The term "reformism" is an unfortunate one in the respect that it frequently gives rise to precisely this misunderstanding. Reformism is *not* the struggle for reforms. The term "reformism" refers to the belief that the working class can topple the bourgeoisie from power via a series of gradual reforms and that *therefore* it is not necessary for the working class to create the kind of organization that can withstand repression and lead the workers in a successful revolutionary overthrow of bourgeois rule. What the ideology of reformism overlooks therefore, is that the bourgeoisie is a class which is supremely well-organized and extremely well-informed and highly conscious of its class interests. It cannot be "fooled" or "outsmarted" by schemes to gradually strip it of its power. As such, the bourgeoisie has no intention of allowing itself to be pushed aside peacefully. In practice, reformism, as a guiding ideology, means to struggle within whatever limits are acceptable to the bourgeoisie. These limits are both legal and "moral" (ie: not to overstep the bounds of bourgeois respectibility). In the reports we have gotten of the struggle of the Australian dockworkers, for example, their struggle is hemmed in by the law. Mass actions that draw support from wide sections of workers (ie: mass pickets, etc) are precisely what would assist their struggle and it is for this reason that such actions are illegal. The interests of the proletariat are definitely served by the struggle for reforms, also known as the struggle for partial demands. What is considered key in communist tactics--is that the struggle is organized around the goal of raising the workers' consciousness. The workers win *twice*. The first victory is the partial demand, better pay, conditions, rights and so forth. An even greater victory is what the workers *learn*--that they can only advance their material interests by uniting together and fighting the class interests of the bourgeoisie in whatever form it assumes in a particular struggle. What else do workers learn in such struggle ? They learn their own strength and the power of mass action. They learn who their real friends and enemies are. The capitalists have on their side essentially all the institutions of bourgeois society, the courts, police, press, etc (and usually the workers' "leaders" also). The irony is that the struggle for reforms is vastly better served by *revolutionary tactics* (ie: tactics that revolve around the energy and mass initiative of the workers) than *reformist tactics* (conducting the struggle such that key events take place outside of the eyes and ears of the workers and such that the prejudices of bourgeois society are reinforced). Reformism as an ideology cannot be separated from a strata (sometimes called a "bribed strata" by marxists) that owes its material existence to selling out or containing the struggle of the workers and which acts as a vehicle for the promotion of this ideology. The trade union bureaucracy is probably the best example of this strata that I can think of but there are a great variety. Often members of this sellout strata are "marxists". Isn't that wonderful ? I hope this helps a bit. Some terms just are not intuitively obvious as to what they mean. I once had a friend who thought that "opportunism" meant "taking advantage of oppotunities" (it usually means abandoning fundamental principles in exchange for personal gain or for illusory short-term gain for the movement). I have often wondered if any different terms would be more clear but I have always ended up concluding that there are no words that will work better. The issue is to bring these concepts to the masses and as they engage in struggle I believe this will happen. My web site has a list of terms that try to give a little more background on some of these fundamental terms (as least as I understand them). You can check it out at www.Leninism.org Thanks, also, for your query. My guess is that you are not the only reader of this list that didn't understand what this term meant. But you *were* the only person who asked. ;-) Sincerely, Ben Seattle ----//-// 8.Apr.98 -- 6:30 am --- from list marxism-international@lists.village.virginia.edu ---