Fundamentally Changing The World Without "Turning Out the Lights"

[redwinter]

Here's something of interest to anyone who's seriously thinking about the dictatorship of the proletariat (and the associated contradictions that come with it), the transition from socialism to communism, and how to "do better" in the next wave of communist revolutions in the world. This is a book-length collection of reflections and theorizing from various communist thinkers associated with the RCP,USA. Very, very much to dig into here...

It's available online as well as on a printable PDF format that can be printed. This was posted online on Revolution newspaper's website, www.revcom.us (http://www.revcom.us):

An Historic Contradiction: Fundamentally Changing The World Without "Turning Out the Lights" (http://www.revcom.us/a/193online/lights_out_intro-en.html)

Introduction:

Recently Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, drew attention to the following contradiction and then invited some people associated with or with responsibility in regard to the Party to respond with their thinking on this contradiction. Avakian wrote the following:

In the polemic against Alain Badiou's political philosophy in the online theoretical journal Demarcations (http://www.demarcations-journal.org/), the following concise indictment is made of Badiou's ultimate reformism, and of reformism in general:

"And the world stays fundamentally unchanged. Capitalism-imperialism continues humming in the 'background,' crushing lives and destroying spirits in its meat-grinder of exploitation. And the horrors continue unabated."

This is our standing and powerful refutation of every other trend in the world. On the other hand, the way that a lot of people look at what we're about—and not entirely without justification—is: "Here come the communists, turn out the lights, the party's over."

All this embodies a real, and profound, contradiction that we must continue to wrestle with.

****************************

We are excited in this issue to run the following responses to Avakian's invitation.

http://www.revcom.us/a/193online/lights_out_intro-en.html

[redwinter]

It's bullshit for "communist_usa" to move this from the Theory forum -- he hasn't moved the threads titled "Third draft programme of the CPGB" nor the "The Right to be Lazy by Paul Lafargue" in the same forum and they consist of people posting links to articles and calling for discussion.

I hope this is rectified sooner than later.

[Communist]

EDIT:

Sorry, my mistake. It was an honest one.

[khad]

I think it was a bit hasty to move this thread, so I've moved it back. Keep it civil, guys.

[ReVoLuTiOnArY-BrOtHeR]

Here's something of interest to anyone who's seriously thinking about the dictatorship of the proletariat (and the associated contradictions that come with it), the transition from socialism to communism, and how to "do better" in the next wave of communist revolutions in the world. This is a book-length collection of reflections and theorizing from various communist thinkers associated with the RCP,USA. Very, very much to dig into here...

It's available online as well as on a printable PDF format that can be printed. This was posted online on Revolution newspaper's website, www.revcom.us (http://www.revcom.us):

An Historic Contradiction: Fundamentally Changing The World Without "Turning Out the Lights" (http://www.revcom.us/a/193online/lights_out_intro-en.html)

Introduction:

Recently Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, drew attention to the following contradiction and then invited some people associated with or with responsibility in regard to the Party to respond with their thinking on this contradiction. Avakian wrote the following:

In the polemic against Alain Badiou's political philosophy in the online theoretical journal Demarcations (http://www.demarcations-journal.org/), the following concise indictment is made of Badiou's ultimate reformism, and of reformism in general:

"And the world stays fundamentally unchanged. Capitalism-imperialism continues humming in the 'background,' crushing lives and destroying spirits in its meat-grinder of exploitation. And the horrors continue unabated."

This is our standing and powerful refutation of every other trend in the world. On the other hand, the way that a lot of people look at what we're about—and not entirely without justification—is: "Here come the communists, turn out the lights, the party's over."

All this embodies a real, and profound, contradiction that we must continue to wrestle with.

****************************

We are excited in this issue to run the following responses to Avakian's invitation.

http://www.revcom.us/a/193online/lights_out_intro-en.html


Very good my brother. A lot of interesting stuff in this article of the RCP.

[Monkey Riding Dragon]

The insights provided by the polemic on Alain Badiou and the various responses to Avakian's invitation are some of the most scholarly I've yet read. (And I'll concede to not yet having finished reading through the many replies.) Whenever I discuss the broad subject of communism with my friends, it seems that this subject of "turning out the lights" and the historical record of the communist movement in that connection (both actual and propagandized bullshit lifted straight from The Black Book of Communism) are the first things they want to address. And admittedly it sometimes becomes difficult to point to any particular examples to the contrary of some points they make, even in relation to the Cultural Revolution. That's where I think the importance of Bob Avakian's new synthesis comes in and needs to be promoted specifically. The breakthroughs the RCP's Manifesto speaks to are vital to grasp deeply...and it seems to me especially...when confronting this question of the role of dissent in socialist society. Only the new synthesis promotes the active fostering of dissent and ferment as part of its basic orientation. ("Dissent" of course referring to the idea of questioning and challenging the status quo at any given point, not to that of actually taking up arms against the revolutionary state.) It strikes me that we need to get beyond this concept of proletarian culture as a monoculture be a vanguard of the future that people can relate to in a positive way. But this doesn't mean simply a change of tactics. It means that we have to embrace new motivations ourselves. That's what the new synthesis brings forward in envisioning socialism in a new way.