ZJW
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Robbo-I mean for example —etc, and so forth.I am not a Facebook user, but I can access these. So, that’s what I mean by ‘made public access’.(There’s no doubt a more correct term that’s specific to FB use.)Re ALB’s #182772.
quote:
‘and use it to disposses the capitalist class and coordinate the introduction of socialism. ‘
Am I right in thinking that there have been two tendencies of thought in this area, one relatively ‘negativist’ and the other relatively ‘positivist’?
Three quotes from ‘What’s Wrong with using Parliament?:
a) ‘The state is an instrument of coercion, but it has assumed social functions that have to exist in any society and which have nothing to do with its coercive nature: it has taken over the role of being society’s central organ of administration and co-ordination. Gaining control of the state will at the same time give control of this social organ which can be used to coordinate the changeover from capitalism to socialism. Of course, it couldn’t be used in the form inherited from capitalism; it would have to be reorganised on a thoroughly democratic basis, with mandated and recallable delegates and popular participation replacing the unaccountable professional politicians and unelected top civil servants of today.’
b) ‘Better to use the fact of being the majority to take control of the state via elections and parliament, if only to neutralise it.’
c) ‘This is not to say that the socialist majority only needs to organise itself politically. It does need to organise politically so as to be able to win control of political power. But it also needs to organise economically to take over and keep production going immediately after the winning of political control. We can’t anticipate how such socialist workplace organisations will emerge, whether from the reform of the existing trade unions, from breakaways from them or from the formation of completely new organisations. All we can say now is that such workplace organisations will arise and that they too, like the socialist political party, will have to organise themselves on a democratic basis, with mandated delegates instead of leaders.’
From Cooking the Books ‘Transition Period’ in the Jan 2019 SS:
‘This second point is important in that some have imagined this ‘transition’ as lasting decades. However, once the material conditions for ending class ownership have evolved – once production has become ‘socialised’ in the sense of being the collective, co-operative effort of the whole workforce – then the change can be made rapidly. The contradiction between socialised production and minority ownership can be achieved by ending the monopoly control, whether in law or in fact, of the minority over the means of production. What is required to do this is a political decision to withdraw state protection (via the law, police, armed forces, and courts) for this monopoly. There is no reason why this should take any length of time. It just requires a political decision and its implementation; which of course assumes that the working class has won control of political power and is organised to implement its decision.’
Quote (b) and the quote from Cooking the Books refer to a ‘negative’ (or ‘neutralising’) use; quote (a) refers to a ‘positive’ use. Perhaps it is my De Leonist and council communist side but I would think that the greater the role of workplace organisation (quote (c) ) comes into play, the less need for the ‘positive’ use of the (now democratised remainder of the old) state.
ALB-
His reply along with a reply back will be printed in the March SS, correct?(In the back of my mind is a back-and-forth with Mr Parecon in the April 2006 SS (I think), which was highly instructive. )I don’t know whose FB https://www.facebook.com/groups/2126150080743426/ is, but since it is has not been made public-access, those of use who are not Facebook users are not able to see any of it whatsoever. Perhaps someone would send them a message suggesting they do so?
Here is Reynolds’ book’s table of contents:
Unrelated to that, the table of contents to (finally published) Gilles Dauvé: ‘From Crisis to Communisation’:Oh right. Thanks.
New question:
A lot — not all — of the links at https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/article/study-guides/study-guides/
result in ‘Oops that page can’t found’.
(I wanted to read the one titled
‘Overdetermination and Marxian Theory: A Socialist View of the Work of Richard Wolff and Stephen Resnick’)
Marcos,
As an ex-De Leonist, I would be very much interested in the newsletter you mention. How does one contact them so as to get it? Thanks.
(I have not noticed an active website of that sort; and even the website of that joke of a revived WIIU is no more.)
alanjjohnstone,‘Rather than disbanding one other alternative is re-branding. No longer a political party but a Socialist Education Society/Marxist Study Group or whatever revamping a new website to fit the remit. Classic theoretical economic/history articles would not require updating. ‘Good idea.‘As you probably read elsewhere on the forum, I am frequently suggesting that we formally create a World Socialist Party.’
Yes, I’ve seen that. Given that I’ve never been a member of any WSM party, I really ought to keep my opinions to myself … but, I agree. (In spite of the fact that, as has been pointed out, there is no world Parliament/Congress/Legislature whose seats could be contested. There are no doubt technical/legal ways to keep election contestation at the nation-state level.)As for the archives, I was given to understand (some years back anyway) that they are in Ron’s possession.Here, discussion on the book includes intervention by Reynolds himself:A discussant there understood his book to mean ‘Given all the gee-whiz technology of small-scale automated production (like “3-D printers” for plastic goods) — perhaps people will choose a deliberate reformation of social relations.’But Renolds says no:‘I […] do not argue that people will simply choose to abandon capitalism and the wage labor system in favor of distributed production on a communist basis. I instead argue that the communistic tendencies inherent in new forms of production are trapped within the fetters of the old system, much as capitalism’s full flowering required a transformation of the entire society. This is why the recommendation in my book is not for people to buy 3D printers, but to organize for social revolution.’Re #175811
- That Portland member left the WSPUS sometime in 2015.
2. The WSPUS’s abandoned website gives a very poor impression; it should be taken down. (But no doubt there is no one who will attend *even* to this, not mention keeping it updated.) Any worthy material on it (articles from the old Western Socialist etc) that is not already to be found elsewhere should be reproduced elsewhere.
3) Rather than following in the footsteps of the Australian party, (or of the SLP in the US), honorable suicide should be considered: formally disbanding. Party archives, rather than sitting in someone’s basement or garage, should be transported to the SPGB (or possibly the Canadian party) or given to some university.
Marcos:
With regard to your #154273:
1) I understand your clarification.
2) You say ‘During their [Marx and Luxemburg’s] time the belief was that anti-semitism was a feudal conception,’ […].
Can you tell me in what writings by Luxemburg she dealt with the Jewish Question, or in what secondary literature it has been reported? Obviously you had read things I have not; I have found only scattered remarks by her. I would like to consult her views. Thanks!
I can’t claim it’s all desperately interesting, but for reference sake:‘What Comes Next?: A forum on the end of the two-state paradigm’ : https://mondoweiss.net/forum-state-paradigmSome fifteen worthies (among the better known: Richard Falk, N Finkelstein, N Chomsky, ………) give their views about what might/could happen.(Under present conditions that is. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone that doing away with Capital and the State might be the best solution, everywhere.)
