Die Neue Zeit
25th October 2009, 04:41
I think that communists are needing to deal with a double task. Rebuild the workers movement in general aswell as a communist movement in particular. Of course, the two tasks are not completely separate either and I think that building a revolutionary union, such as the IWW for example - to appeal and organise the working class as a class for its own interests, and a communist party as political point of reference - a party of "coachers" of the working class (I think "coachers" is less confusing then "leaders" in this respect, as we want to emphasise the point that revolution is an act by the working class, for the working class and not a working class following the communist party as its "leaders"), would be the way forward.
The standard definition of tailism is one where the class-conscious workers are merely behind the struggles of less conscious workers. Programmatically speaking, it means watering down immediate demands to the point where the masses would be compelled to "take action."
However, the comments above have caused me to briefly reflect upon something. The position of "coach" is one that is behind the bench during a game, perhaps on the playing area during practices, and in the locker room during intermissions.
As I considered the above as a potential form of tailism, I entertained the neological concept of "revolutionary tailism" (whereby the class-conscious workers would educate, agitate, and organize with the express purpose of pushing workers ahead and not pulling them ahead), but then realized that "tailism" is tied to workers already on the move.
So what about "coachism," then? Sometimes the coaching might have to be as strict as that of Soviet hockey authoritarian Viktor Tikhonov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Tikhonov), but ultimate the players themselves bask in the glory of the sport.
The standard definition of tailism is one where the class-conscious workers are merely behind the struggles of less conscious workers. Programmatically speaking, it means watering down immediate demands to the point where the masses would be compelled to "take action."
However, the comments above have caused me to briefly reflect upon something. The position of "coach" is one that is behind the bench during a game, perhaps on the playing area during practices, and in the locker room during intermissions.
As I considered the above as a potential form of tailism, I entertained the neological concept of "revolutionary tailism" (whereby the class-conscious workers would educate, agitate, and organize with the express purpose of pushing workers ahead and not pulling them ahead), but then realized that "tailism" is tied to workers already on the move.
So what about "coachism," then? Sometimes the coaching might have to be as strict as that of Soviet hockey authoritarian Viktor Tikhonov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Tikhonov), but ultimate the players themselves bask in the glory of the sport.