‘Some Ideological Obstacles to Social Change to Socialism’ – 1/11/15
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A talk to be given at Head Office on 1st November by guest speaker Yehudi Webster, who is a associate professor of sociology at California State University, Los Angeles.
He is currently teaching and lecturing at Lodz University under the auspices of the U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program. His topic will be New Approaches to Black History.
Professor Webster joined California State L.A. faculty in 1984. He received a M.S. in political economy from Warsaw University, Poland, an M.A. in Soviet studies from the University of London, England, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Warwick University, England.
His interests and specialisations include philosophy, reasoning in social sciences, critical thinking, gender, racial, ethnic, and human perspectives on society. He has delivered numerous keynote addresses and conducted international workshops on these subjects. He also the author of two books: Against the Multicultural Agenda: A Critical Thinking Alternative (1997) and The Racialization of America (1992).
Yehudi will address the claims that 'human nature', scarce natural resources, the necessity of money for rational allocation of resources, the collapse of the Soviet 'experiment', and the un-avoidability of violence for governance, all make socialism impossible or Utopian.
Interesting meeting but poor turnout. Yehudi Webster argued that the appeal to establish a world without commodities (goods produced for sale), wage-labour and money should be addressed to all humans appealing to their reason, not just to a section of them such as the working class (however defined). Party members defended socialism as having to be the outcome of the class struggle between the working class (defined as the vast majority in society compelled to try to sell their labour power to live) in pursuit of their economic interest and the tiny minority capitalist class who owned and controlled the means of production. Members with a memory or knowledge of past Party controversies will recall this as a recurring point of disagreement. The talk and discussion were recorded.
ALB wrote:Yehudi Webster argued that the appeal to establish a world without commodities (goods produced for sale), wage-labour and money should be addressed to all humans appealing to their reason, not just to a section of them such as the working class (however defined).I think there is some merit to this since some issues such as the degradation of the environment, threat of nuclear war and social alienation are cross-class issues. But that said, seeing as it is the working class that forms the vast majority and it is this class that reproduces capitalist socialist relations, it is still the workers that hold the pivotal position.
SocialistPunk wrote:Does anyone know if the talk was recorded in any way to be made available at some date?Yes and yes.
DJP wrote:ALB wrote:Yehudi Webster argued that the appeal to establish a world without commodities (goods produced for sale), wage-labour and money should be addressed to all humans appealing to their reason, not just to a section of them such as the working class (however defined).I think there is some merit to this since some issues such as the degradation of the environment, threat of nuclear war and social alienation are cross-class issues. But that said, seeing as it is the working class that forms the vast majority and it is this class that reproduces capitalist socialist relations, it is still the workers that hold the pivotal position.
[my bolds]Webster seems to hold to the bourgeois ideological belief that 'reason' is a universal, eternal principle, shared by 'all humans'.But, DJP is much closer to the truth that, according to Marx, different modes of production, and differing classes within those modes, produce their own 'reason'. What is 'rational' to one class or society, is not 'rational' to another.We Communists must insist that only the 'vast majority' of humans (ie., the revolutionary, class conscious, proletariat) can be the determiners of 'reason', by means of a vote.Any other stance leaves 'reason' in the hands of an elite. We have that now, and look at their 'reasonable' results to our world, both social and natural.
The audio for this talk can be heard on this site athttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/audio/some-ideological-obstacles-societal-transformation
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