From:    Ben Seattle 
To:      marxism-international
Subject: M-I: Reformism concrete vs. abstract  (Ben replies to Gary MacLennan)
Date:    Wednesday, April 08, 1998 7:02 AM


Gary MacLennan:
>I agree with Ken and Lou on this one and that will cause no surprise.
>For me it all depends on what context both spatial and temporal that 
>one is in.  My own experience of the Communist Leage, the SWP later 
>DSP and the International Socialists is that abstract questions such 
>as reform versus revolution are posed mainly to advance the careers 
>of a handful of sect bureaucrats.

Ben Seattle:
I do not doubt the validity of your experience, Gary, but even if you
had experience with a *hundred groups* that brought up "abstract
questions" for sectarian purposes, the question would remain:

            How can communist theory be developed
            without *abstracting* (ie: concentrating,
            generalizing from the life experience and
            struggles of workers, etc).

It can't be the case that every situation is completely unrelated to
every other situation.  For example, the situation you have described
with the dockworkers--strikes me as very similar to many other
situations I have seen or learned of.

It doesn't bother me that you disagree with me.  I think that *in
practice* you are taking a correct stand in relation to a real struggle
that is going on.  This tells me more about you than your *theoretical*
positions do.  What I think that many on M-I fail to understand is that
the abysmal state of the communist movement is due to the bankruptcy and
degeneration of "communist" theory as it is understood by so many.
Until this theoretical crisis is resolved--sincere and well-meaning
activists will often be learning the hard way and repeating every
mistake that has gone before.  This is kind of like rolling a rock up a
hill only to have it slide down the other side--without end.

That's about all I will be saying for a while.  I have used up my three
posts already *and* I need to take a break from M-I.  I have other
fronts of work that need my attention.

>Having said that I believe that we will reach a time and a place where
the
>revolutionary transformation of society will be on the agenda and then
we
>can revisit the old debates with some relevance.

Maybe it will be sooner than you think  ;-)

Sincerely,

Ben Seattle
----//-// 8.Apr.98 -- 7 am



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