robbo203
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This may be of interest…
“A degree of malleability is present in Marx’s and Engels’ construct of a vanguard, opening possibilities for avoiding elitist or authoritarian characteristics. Orthodox views on the vanguard, explains Shandro, appear after Marx’s death. In particular, the work of Karl Kautsky promotes the need for enlightened vanguard leadership. An economic determinist, Kautsky posed that since “capitalist production transforms particular struggles into a universal one” the party in capitalism’s most advanced territorial sector is positioned to acquire consciousness able to perceive “the universal interest of the whole working class.”29 The German Social Democratic Party (SPD) became Kautsky’s vanguard, who “as a result of their consciousness…transcend their particular circumstances.” Unsurprisingly, the SPD were “skilled, urban, Protestant, German, male” workers, and since “Socialist consciousness donned the particular lenses of the advanced workers,” the SPD’s universalism conformed to Eurocentric views on capitalist development.”
Vanguard or Avant-Garde? Revisiting questions on leadership: Part 1: The vanguard debate in history
That’s a very good article, Dave.
I wonder if the author, Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, who I see works in Glasgow could be contacted by Glasgow branch – maybe invited to give a talk?
You have not heard the economic calculation argument I take it.
What if people want the shabby and shoddy?
……………………Not quite sure what the ECA has to do with this. Sure there are opportunity costs involved in producing durable high-quality stuff (just as there are costs involved in planned obsolescence and producing crap) but that’s a different subject….
Biden says Putin is losing the “war in Iraq” in latest blunder
“President Joe Biden spoke to reporters in Washington, DC on June 28, saying that Russian president Vladimir Putin was “losing the war in Iraq” in a bizarre verbal slip-up referring to the recent mutiny of mercenary outfit Wagner”
No doubt this slip-up will be put down to Biden´s ailing cognitive faculties (in the same way the MSN media like to focus on trivia like Putin´s supposed health issues). But the wider issue of who is really losing this stupid senseless war – the workers on both sides – will be ignored.
“Putin” or the Russian capitalist state is not losing the war even though it is not likely to make much headway either. I think it is becoming pretty obvious that the much-vaunted Ukrainian counter-offensive is not going to go anywhere. I don’t imagine there will be much change in the location of the frontline one year from now though I could be wrong.
Hopefully at some point before then exhaustion will set in and peace talks can begin. I can’t see how it makes much sense for either side to continue with this slaughter indefinitely
I declined “the suggestion” because I already know all I wish to know about De Sade including his penchant for inflicting pain, suffering and humiliation non-consensually on others…
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Which confirms my point concerning your narrow and bigoted approach to the whole subject ….
You imagined the article is about ‘getting off’ in response to extreme pain, suffering or humiliation inflicted non-consensually on others” and for which reason you declined to read the article. Saying that this reason now “includes” the above is a classic case of you trying to wriggle out of the situation you have made for yourself
You pay attention! I wasn’t referring to the content of the article per se but to the individual that it was about.
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Really? Is that why you declined to read the article ZJW referred you to with this these words:
“No thanks ZJW. I have no interest whatever in anyone who ‘gets off’ in response to extreme pain, suffering or humiliation inflicted non-consensually on others.”
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No one on this forum is interested in inflicting pain and humiliation on others….
How do you know? Are you clairvoyant? 🙂
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Actually, that question would be better directed at your good self. You are making the assumption that there is someone here “who ‘gets off’ in response to extreme pain, suffering or humiliation inflicted non-consensually on others.” Otherwise, why decline the suggestion that you read the article in question?
By the way, is Alan alright?
__________Nobody seems to have heard from him for a while. I asked on the WSPUS forum – nothing. He just suddenly disappeared off the radar. Its quite worrying
It’s not an assumption but an historical fact where De Sade is concerned. Do some research.
…………………….Pay attention. I am talking about the article ZJW referred you to, not the random “sadist” in the street you seem to have in mind. No one on this forum is interested in inflicting pain and humiliation on others….
So the only thing protecting society from Mr More going berserk is a dodgy sciatic nerve. You ought to let Lizzie take a look at that, she is a qualified physio.
::::::::::::::::::::::::What’s this irrelevant nonsense about? Perhaps we should stick to the topic which is about the relative importance of the submersible vis-a-vis refugee boats in media reporting.
No thanks ZJW. I have no interest whatever in anyone who ‘gets off’ in response to extreme pain, suffering or humiliation inflicted non-consensually on others.
_____________________________Why do you make this assumption that anyone is “getting off” on the extreme pain and humiliation of others??? That’s pretty narrow-minded and bigoted, don’t you think? The article ZJW referred you to does no such thing. It is perfectly possible to look at historical figures and recognize both the good or useful things they said and did as well as the bad things. The SPGB for example broadly describes itself as a Marxist political organization but that does not mean that there are not things that Marx wrote with which we strongly disagree.
Your response is a bit like how the tabloid press might respond to the very mention of Marx (only in this case De Sade) – super-charged moralism and completely lacking in nuance
When my father, during his brief association with the Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten (League of Democratic Socialists), told me, among other things, that socialism would be a society without laws, police or prisons, I knew then that it would never become a reality.
________________It depends on what you mean by “law”. There is a tendency to associate “law” with the state and since the state is, in Marxist terms, an instrument of class rule and since socialism is a classless society there can obviously be no law in that sense in a socialist society.
However, there is a long tradition in anthropology going back to people like Malinsowki in the early 20th century referring to “primitive law” in relation to acephalous or stateless societies such as hunter-gatherer bands and some pastoralist societies (like the Nuer in Sudan). The law in this sense was often radically decentralized with often only the immediate parties in a dispute being involved in settling a dispute with the aid of some functionary (in the case of the Nuer, someone called the “leopard skin” man, if I remember correctly)
We could arguably talk about socialism having “law” – or explicitly defined normative rules of behavior. Whether there would be a need for a specialized body called the police, or institutions called “prisons” is another matter. It depends on how strictly you want to define these things.
I recall the late comrade Pieter Lawrence was a strong advocate of the idea that there would indeed be “law” in a socialist society
It looked like the Ukrainian conflict would drag out to some kind of indecisive end with Russia having the edge militarily and the country being more or less partitioned along the lines that it is now. The Ukrainian counter-offensive was not really making that much progress, and sooner or later, the Zelensky regime would have to come to its senses and negotiate. The sooner the war ends the better it would be for everyone. Ukraine is a complete mess and has experienced rapid depopulation. It’s gonna take years to recover.
This Wagner business has kind of complicated things. A destabilized Putin regime might ironically prolong this stupid war and increase the risk of it escalating if the temptation grows to resort to tactical nuclear weapons. Gawd help us all then…
Just shows you how utterly hopeless things are. Socialism is a beautiful dream. That’s all it’ll ever be.
……………………………..Maybe. Maybe not, Ozy. None of us has a crystal ball. You cannot ever rule out small developments occurring that can metamorphize into something much bigger and could serve to put socialism onto the agenda in a way that was simply not predicted or was unpredictable.
But apart from that I keep coming back to this point in the face of all this depressing talk from our depressing Jeremiahs: Look, even if turns out that socialism is an “impossible dream” that is never going to be realized, it does not follow at all that we should give up on the struggle for a sane alternative to capitalism.
We are few in numbers but arguably punch way above our weight. By doing what we are doing we ARE having an impact on the world as it is right now. Not much of an impact, I grant, but an impact nevertheless. We are adding our little bit to the general flux of ideas and altering in a small way the social climate of opinion. For instance, we make the job of the warmongers a little more difficult to accomplish when we oppose the nationalist ideology that lends support to capitalism’s wars. There is a balance of forces out there in the real world and our job is to tilt it in the direction we would want it to go.
I cannot really see any alternative. There is either this or we resign ourselves to some coming apocalypse which, frankly. is not a healthy way to live. Hopelessness translates into a state of perpetual misery. You might just as well slit your wrists and be done with it…
