Dhalgren
11-25-2016, 11:41 AM
Excerpts from Sam Webb's 2011 essay.
http://politicalaffairs.net/a-party-of-socialism-in-the-21st-century-what-it-looks-like-what-it-says-and-what-it-does/
If I were asked to sum up what conclusions I reached it would be this: our theoretical structure – Marxism-Leninism – was too rigid and formulaic, our analysis too loaded with questionable assumptions, our methodology too undialectical, our structure too centralized, and our politics drifting from political realities.
A party of socialism in the 21st century embraces Marxism, understood as a broad theoretical tradition that reaches beyond the communist movement
As for “Marxism-Leninism,” the term should be retired in favor of simply “Marxism.” For one thing, it has a negative connotation among ordinary Americans, even in left and progressive circles. Depending on whom you ask, it either sounds foreign or dogmatic or undemocratic or all of these together.
For another thing, Marxism-Leninism isn’t identical to classical Marxism. The ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and other earlier Marxists retain incredible analytical power, if studied and creatively applied to current realities.
But the same cannot be said about Marxism-Leninism. It took formal shape during the Stalin period during which Soviet scholars, under Stalin’s guidance, systematized and simplified earlier Marxist writings – not to mention adapted ideology to the needs of the Soviet state and party.
This simplification of Marxism, coupled with the enshrinement of a single party to the status of “official interpreter” of Marxism, came with a price tag. Theoretically and practically, it hemmed in and negatively impacted our party’s work.
Marxism never confuses slogans and militancy for analysis. It employs principles, generalities and abstractions, but it also insists on a concrete presentation of every question. And it is understandably wary of the inevitable (socialism), the uninterrupted (constant radicalization of the working class and intensification of crises), and the irreversible (the world revolutionary process).
A party of socialism understands that in any broad coalition of social change, competing views are inevitable. The role of the left is to express its views candidly, but in a way that strengthens rather than fractures broad unity, which is a prerequisite for social progress.
The main social forces in this coalition, as we see it, are the working class, people of color, women, youth and seniors. And the overarching challenge is to transform these social forces into social movements, distinguished by their differing degrees of unity, organizational capacity, mobilization, alliance relationships, and not least, depth and consistency of political outlook.
A party of socialism in the 21st century takes as its point of departure the issues that masses (relative term) are ready to fight for.
A party of socialism in the 21st century steers clear of false oppositions between partial and more advanced demands, between gradual and radical change, between electoral forms of action and direct action, between mass action and nonviolent civil disobedience, between patriotism and anti-imperialism, between struggle against the state and struggle within the state, between anti-capitalism and sensitivity to rifts in the capitalist class, and between general (say jobs) and particular demands (say affirmative action).
A party of socialism in the 21st century doesn’t turn – liberals, advocates of identity politics, single issue movements, centrist and progressive leaders of major social organizations, social democrats, community based non-profits, NGOs, unreliable allies, and the “people” (according to some, a classless category concealing class, racial, and gender oppression) – into enemies.
A party of socialism in the 21st century attaches overriding importance to democratic (reform) struggles (right to a job, health care, housing, equality, education, clean air, immigrants rights, peace, vote, speech, etc.) They are a core element in the struggle for class advance, social progress and socialism.
A party of socialism in the 21st century believes that majoritarian political movements are the midwives of reforms, radical and otherwise, and eco-socialist transformations.
a party of socialism should make an unequivocal break with Stalin and his associates, not to please the enemies or critics of socialism, but to acknowledge to millions that the forced and violent collectivization of agriculture, the purges and executions of hundreds of thousands of communists and other patriots, the labor camps that incarcerated, exploited and sent untold numbers of Soviet people to early deaths, and the removal of whole peoples from their homelands can’t be justified on the grounds of historical necessity or in the name of defending socialism. They were crimes against humanity.
To describe these atrocities as a mistake is a mistake – criminal: yes, a horror: yes, a terrible stain on the values and ideals of socialism: definitely.
To make matters worse, the practices of the Stalin regime set in place theoretical notions, structures and relations of governance, laws of socialist economy, justifications for concentrated power, and a great-leader syndrome that in the end weakened socialism in the USSR and other socialist countries.
I knew this stuff sounded familiar. Now I remember why...
http://politicalaffairs.net/a-party-of-socialism-in-the-21st-century-what-it-looks-like-what-it-says-and-what-it-does/
If I were asked to sum up what conclusions I reached it would be this: our theoretical structure – Marxism-Leninism – was too rigid and formulaic, our analysis too loaded with questionable assumptions, our methodology too undialectical, our structure too centralized, and our politics drifting from political realities.
A party of socialism in the 21st century embraces Marxism, understood as a broad theoretical tradition that reaches beyond the communist movement
As for “Marxism-Leninism,” the term should be retired in favor of simply “Marxism.” For one thing, it has a negative connotation among ordinary Americans, even in left and progressive circles. Depending on whom you ask, it either sounds foreign or dogmatic or undemocratic or all of these together.
For another thing, Marxism-Leninism isn’t identical to classical Marxism. The ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and other earlier Marxists retain incredible analytical power, if studied and creatively applied to current realities.
But the same cannot be said about Marxism-Leninism. It took formal shape during the Stalin period during which Soviet scholars, under Stalin’s guidance, systematized and simplified earlier Marxist writings – not to mention adapted ideology to the needs of the Soviet state and party.
This simplification of Marxism, coupled with the enshrinement of a single party to the status of “official interpreter” of Marxism, came with a price tag. Theoretically and practically, it hemmed in and negatively impacted our party’s work.
Marxism never confuses slogans and militancy for analysis. It employs principles, generalities and abstractions, but it also insists on a concrete presentation of every question. And it is understandably wary of the inevitable (socialism), the uninterrupted (constant radicalization of the working class and intensification of crises), and the irreversible (the world revolutionary process).
A party of socialism understands that in any broad coalition of social change, competing views are inevitable. The role of the left is to express its views candidly, but in a way that strengthens rather than fractures broad unity, which is a prerequisite for social progress.
The main social forces in this coalition, as we see it, are the working class, people of color, women, youth and seniors. And the overarching challenge is to transform these social forces into social movements, distinguished by their differing degrees of unity, organizational capacity, mobilization, alliance relationships, and not least, depth and consistency of political outlook.
A party of socialism in the 21st century takes as its point of departure the issues that masses (relative term) are ready to fight for.
A party of socialism in the 21st century steers clear of false oppositions between partial and more advanced demands, between gradual and radical change, between electoral forms of action and direct action, between mass action and nonviolent civil disobedience, between patriotism and anti-imperialism, between struggle against the state and struggle within the state, between anti-capitalism and sensitivity to rifts in the capitalist class, and between general (say jobs) and particular demands (say affirmative action).
A party of socialism in the 21st century doesn’t turn – liberals, advocates of identity politics, single issue movements, centrist and progressive leaders of major social organizations, social democrats, community based non-profits, NGOs, unreliable allies, and the “people” (according to some, a classless category concealing class, racial, and gender oppression) – into enemies.
A party of socialism in the 21st century attaches overriding importance to democratic (reform) struggles (right to a job, health care, housing, equality, education, clean air, immigrants rights, peace, vote, speech, etc.) They are a core element in the struggle for class advance, social progress and socialism.
A party of socialism in the 21st century believes that majoritarian political movements are the midwives of reforms, radical and otherwise, and eco-socialist transformations.
a party of socialism should make an unequivocal break with Stalin and his associates, not to please the enemies or critics of socialism, but to acknowledge to millions that the forced and violent collectivization of agriculture, the purges and executions of hundreds of thousands of communists and other patriots, the labor camps that incarcerated, exploited and sent untold numbers of Soviet people to early deaths, and the removal of whole peoples from their homelands can’t be justified on the grounds of historical necessity or in the name of defending socialism. They were crimes against humanity.
To describe these atrocities as a mistake is a mistake – criminal: yes, a horror: yes, a terrible stain on the values and ideals of socialism: definitely.
To make matters worse, the practices of the Stalin regime set in place theoretical notions, structures and relations of governance, laws of socialist economy, justifications for concentrated power, and a great-leader syndrome that in the end weakened socialism in the USSR and other socialist countries.
I knew this stuff sounded familiar. Now I remember why...