From:    Louis Proyect 
To:      marxism-international
Subject: Re: M-I: Louis Proyect smashes reformism (Jesse Jackson edition)
Date:    Saturday, April 11, 1998 6:45 AM

Ben of Seattle:
>Politicians such as Jesse Jackson have social power precisely 
>because the bourgeoisie *gives* it to them.  Why does the 
>bourgeoisie do this ?    Because people like Jesse Jackson play 
>ball with the bourgeoisie.  Because people like Jesse Jackson 
>perform errands for the bourgeoisie.  Because the bourgeoisie 
>has a *need* for people like Jesse Jackson.

This is an undialectical understanding of Jackson's social power. There is
something called the black church. For a full discussion of its role in the
civil rights movement, I recommend Taylor Branch's "Parting of the Waters."

>
>In 1988 the Democratic Party in the US was facing a credibility 
>problem among the workers and oppressed.  The Democratic 
>Party was losing its ability to present itself as a defender of the 
>interests of workers.  The Democratic Party had a need for some 
>preacher to bring the wandering flock back into the fold.

This is a conspiracy theory of history. A much more sensible understanding
of why Jackson ran has to do with pressures from within the black
community. When there's a social crisis of the dimensions that were
occurring, a ruling class politician from that community might feel the
need to respond to maintain his credibility. Can one say in advance that
the Rainbow campaigns would never have evolved into a third party? I guess
Ben of Seattle has some kind of Oliver Stone inside information about plots
in some smoke-filled room that guaranteed no such evolution would take
place. Meanwhile, other sources reveal that Jackson was 50/50 about this
matter for a period of time. If he had split with Democrats, then the party
would have been a black-led *reformist* party. This, of course, is the
interesting question. What stance should revolutionists take toward an
independent party that runs against the two bourgeois parties? Given the
logjam of American politics, that relies heavily on the
tweedledee-tweedledum shell-game of the 2-party system, it is obvious that
one must support this development. For people like "neil" and Ben of
Seattle, this is not good enough. We need communism, gosh darn it. Why
doesn't anybody but them understand it?

>One of the tasks of genuine communists is to raise the 
>consciousness of the masses so that they can clearly understand 
>the role which is played by treacherous misleaders like Jesse 
>Jackson.

Okay, Ben, everybody understands that your are a genuine communist and the
rest of us are fakes. Now when are you going to step away from that
computer terminal and interact with the working-class? If you are going to
be a cyber-red like David Stevens, the least you could do is come up with
some interesting links like he does. Know about any racy sites that
specialize in kinky sex? I myself like to be walked around on a leash.

>Proyect appears to be arguing that Jesse Jackson's crimes in 
>holding back independent political action are smaller than the 
>crimes of the CPUSA.  This, by itself, may or may not be true.  
>But shouldn't we be opposing *all* these crimes?  And doesn't 
>opposing all these crimes involve opposing the reformist 
>ideology? 

Who is "we", Ben? I get the impression that you are a single individual
sitting at a computer terminal. We don't even know your real name. If you
think that a revolutionary organization can be built by people pecking away
at computer terminals, then you are dafter than I thought.

>Unfortunately this is largely true.  But what was the *reason* for 
>this ?  The reason was that the state of "communist" theory was in 
>the gutter.  Neither the Russian, the Chinese,  the Albanian nor the 
>Cuban parties had "communist" theory that wasn't fucked-up in 
>some serious way.  We were faced with the problem of developing 
>our own theory.  We didn't know this.  Our theoretical level was so 
>low that we didn't understand how starved we were for correct 
>theory.  To make matters worse, developing correct theory takes 
>time.  Theory represents concentrated experience.  It takes time to 
>get experience.  It takes time to concentrate it.  We didn't have 
>time.  The opportunism, sectarianism, charlatanism and reformism 
>that saturated nearly all corners of the movement greatly hindered 
>cooperation between revolutionary activists who often were hardly 
>speaking to each other.

This is a classic formulation of an idealistic approach to politics. Theory
is not developed in isolation from practice. The notion that
revolutionaries will think up the correct program and then go out and make
a revolution based on that theory is anti-Marxist. It is analogous to the
statement someone might make to the effect that they will become a
capitalist as soon as they put together a million dollars. Ben, by his own
admission, has never organized anybody except himself. I would urge him to
be a little bit more modest about his claims to making revolutions until he
gets some leadership experience in the mass movement. Words are cheap.

>What conclusion should we draw from this ?
>
>1) Without theory the communist movement is hardly worthy 
>    of being considered a communist movement.
>

Ben, you have no theory. You have no understanding of American society
except that computers are really kind of special and neat. You have never
written about the labor movement. You have never tried to understand
"peripheral" members of society who can play a central role in the class
struggle, like Blacks and Indians. The only "theory" you have is that the
Internet can hook up revolutionaries. When you stop and think about who you
are and what you are suggesting, it is clear that you are trying to regroup
people exactly like yourself: political virgins. A real revolutionary
movement has to be built, but it will consist of people who have
credentials in the mass movement, like Lenin had. There are thousands of
Marxists in the US who don't own a computer and who are respected for
winning victories in their area of struggle. I consider the members of the
Teamsters for a Democratic Union exemplary. I consider the local leaders of
the Transit Union reform slate in NYC exemplary. There are environmental
activists who are leading struggles to keep toxic dumps out of poor and
working-class communities, many of whom are Marxists. There are students at
places like Occidental College who are protesting the university's link to
oil companies doing business in Burma. My idea of revolutionary party is
centered on the need to regroup activists with a Marxist orientation. Your
idea of a revolutionary party is utterly idealistic, in the Platonic sense.

>Louis Proyect's conception of revolutionaries working with 
>reformists involves joint work and working relationships with 
>people such as Jesse Jackson.  My conception of revolutionaries 
>working with reformists involves joint work and working 
>relationships with people such as Louis Proyect.

Work? What do you mean? Work on some cockeyed web page filled with
hammers-and-sickles? My idea of work is going to Africa and training SWAPO
in desktop publishing techniques so that they can run an effective election
campaign. Or organizing 500 volunteers to staff tables on a saturday
afternoon to call for a cut-off for contra funding. Your idea of work is to
figure out what Java applet can make a Lenin icon rotate on a 360 degree axis.

>I do not require, as a condition of working with Louis Proyect, that 
>he recognize that he is a reformist and not a communist.  At the 
>same time I will not hide my own assessment.  What I expect from 
>Louis Proyect is that he conduct himself on this list in a intelligent 
>and principled manner at least 80% of the time.  And Louis is more 
>than meeting my expectations.  He is probably in the 90% to 95% 
>range.  When he slips up, from time to time, I believe we should 
>remind him that we expect better of him and that we know that he 
>is capable of better.

Why thank you, professor. I really appreciate your encouraging words.

  This will help him to further improve the 
>quality and character of his contributions--which are already of a 
>level that they are frequently worthy of being considered 
>outstanding.  What we can gain from this principled working 
>relationship is vast quantities of useful and admirable work from 
>Louis to help many readers explore and better understand a very 
>wide range of useful and interesting questions.
>
>Whether it is possible that we can win Louis away from very many 
>of his reformist prejudices--is unknowable.  We should do the best 
>we can to act intelligently and make every effort to refrain from 
>ritualistic abuse of Louis because of his mistaken beliefs (which 
>are common to 99% of all progressive people).  To what extent 
>people such as Louis can be won to revolutionary positions--is 
>largely dependent on the level of ferment and class struggle in 
>society.  This is the main factor that will influence people's 
>thinking.  However we should still do our best to act intelligently.  
>We should not be afraid to engage Louis in intelligent discussion 
>and neither should we fly off the handle when he has an 
>occasional lapse into unprincipled methods.
>

You long-winded asshole. You are a middle-aged man sitting at a keyboard,
god knows where. You have absolutely no credentials in the mass movement.
You have never written anything on the Spoons list except to call for the
development of communist consciousness and then linking up all that
consciousness through TCP/IP. You are like the Wizard of Oz. If somebody
pulled the curtain away, they'd find some hapless geek who doesn't know how
to make a leaflet, who doesn't know how to deliver an agitational speech,
who is actually a political virgin. Welcome to the club. The Internet is
filled with cyberwarriors just like yourself. Ben of Seattle, meet Malecki
of the North Pole, Godena of Pawtucket, "neil" of Los Angeles, Rodwell of
Sweden and Bedggood of New Zealand. Exchange email addresses and let the
revolution begin.

Louis Proyect



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