The revolutionary outlook of "impossibilism"

[robbo203]

An interesting article (see link) on the poliical tradition of "impossibilism" which contrasts sharply with the reformist outlook of the pro-capitalist left..


http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2009/08/impossibilism-by-stephen-co\
leman.html (http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2009/08/impossibilism-by-stephen-coleman.html)

It originally appeared as a chapter in the 1987 book 'Non-Market Socialism in
the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, which was edited by Rubel and Crump.

Any comments?

[Die Neue Zeit]

It's an extreme example of economism, since it fails to emphasize the working class taking power.

[robbo203]

It's an extreme example of economism, since it fails to emphasize the working class taking power.


What are you talking about Jacob? Did you read the whole article? You obviously must have missed this (and other bits) then :

This linking of the conquest of state power with the concept of a consciously and democratically organised working-class majority, even if regarded as strategically incorrect, must be distinguished from the reformist parliamentarianism of those who, in the name of 'socialism', seek to enter parliament for other purposes than to express the majority mandate formally to abolish class rule. Engels rightly points out that the conquest of state power will be the final act of the working class;

[Die Neue Zeit]

Read my blog. That is a programmatic emphasis on the working class taking power by means of stating specific political demands collectively aimed at achieving the DOTP.

[robbo203]

Read my blog. That is a programmatic emphasis on the working class taking power by means of stating specific political demands collectively aimed at achieving the DOTP.


Thats not quite what you originally said. You said it was "economism" since it "fails to emphasize the working class taking power" which it (the article) certainly did not fail to do. Incidentally, why "economism"?

[Die Neue Zeit]

The struggle for socialism, communism, etc. is an economic struggle. The struggle for the DOTP (that is, the core of a proper Marxist minimum program), however, is political. This is the crucial point lost on the revolutionary left today, instead interpreting the greater struggles - for socialism, communism, Green Politics, and the mere cultural struggle of Identity Politics - as being political, while seeing defensive and reform struggles as being economic.