Dermezel
9th August 2010, 23:54
As a "reactionary" who must be "restricted" I have to say without equivocation capitalism must go and be completely replaced by socialism. And the bourgeoisie forces must be prevented from ever taking power again.
This is in line with Trotsky's Permanent Revolution (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1931/tpr/index.htm) which many Cliffites here completely reject in the name of their own "theory" of "State Capitalism" (which is incoherent and contradictory).
Note the Cliffites claim to be Trotskyist but reject Trostky's positions of:
--General military defense of the economic gains of the USSR.
Trotsky disagreed with the USSR's politics but supported their collectivized economy. An economy that provided free health care, guaranteed income, guaranteed housing, free education, free mass transit, food, water, electricity, etc.
And now look at Russia, which has turned into a shit hole:
As a result, Yeltsin's popularity plunged so he did what all desperate leaders do to hold power with the next election to worry about. He began a war in 1994 in the breakaway Chechen republic killing 100,000 civilians by the late 90s. Elections were held in 1996, and Yeltsin won by overcoming his low approval ratings with huge oligarch-funding and near-total control of television coverage. He then quietly handed power to Vladimir Putin on December 31, 1999 without an election but with the stipulation he was exempt from criminal prosecution. His legacy was devastating with Klein noting "never have so many lost so much in so short a time." When Russia's 1998 financial crisis hit: -- 80% of Russia's farmers were bankrupt; -- around 70,000 states factories had closed; -- an "epidemic" of unemployment raged; -- before shock therapy in 1989, two million Russians lived in poverty on less than $4 a day; by the mid-90s, the World Bank estimated 74 million were impoverished and by 1996 conditions for 25% (almost 37 million) Russians were "desperate" and the country's underclass remained permanent; -- Russians drink twice as much now as before; painkilling and hard drug use increased 900%, and HIV/AIDS threatens to become epidemic with a 20-fold jump in infections since 1995; suicides are also rising, and violent crime increased more than fourfold; and -- Russia's population is declining by 700,000 a year with capitalism having already having killed off 10% of it as one more example of free market-inflicted disaster. That's the brave new world disease spreading everywhere with another scorched-earth stop below. Friedman called it "freedom."http://www.rense.com/general78/lendd.htm
--Permanent Revolution i.e. Revolution until the world is red.
--Linking the proletariat of the advanced nations to those of the Deformed Workers' States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deformed_workers%27_state)
Trotsky acknowledged that such Stalinist states were backwards but defended them regardless as better then a full out, imperialist run capitalist nation. The lesser of two evils.
In fact he called upon the Proletariat here, in the advanced nations, to link up with them in order to raise class consciousness and push them further to the left.
We now at days can engage these fellow proletariat directly, online, via forums like those of ChinaDaily, where there is virtually no censorship. (I have faced far more censorship on RevLeft then on ChinaDaily. )
The truth is the Cliffites are playing an extremely regressive role in history since they occupy an extremely critical location strategically- the Working Class leadership positions of most Advanced English speaking nations (this is the largest leftist forum on the entire net and it is Cliffite, btw say hi to the CIA =) ) . And yet they purposely block any attempt at linking the first world proletariat with the Workers' States- which is the exact opposite strategy proposed by Trotsky.
Perhaps they have a point, but they are by no means Trotskyist. And they are playing a role even more regressive then the Democratic Party because at least the Democrats will admit they are bourgeoisie. The Democrats admit they are capitalist. The Cliffites will pretend to be something they are not, within Unions and Socialist circles and thereby confuse the Working Class.
This is not to say Cliffites are bad people. Far from it, I like Cliffites a lot. But their strategic abilities leave something to be desired. And the fact that they can, at any time, link with China, Vietnam, Cuba, or North Korea but refuse to do so because of some sense of "superiority" is extremely frustrating. It is like they are pitting the "Enlightened" first world working class, against the "dirty" third world working class.
This fact- that I am far left of the Cliffites- is what gets me labeled a "reactionary. " This is the sort of behavior Lenin bemoaned when he wrote Left-Wing Communism: an infantile disorder[/i] (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/).
Long-live the Proletariat.
Over throw capitalism
Defend the Workers States!
This is in line with Trotsky's Permanent Revolution (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1931/tpr/index.htm) which many Cliffites here completely reject in the name of their own "theory" of "State Capitalism" (which is incoherent and contradictory).
Note the Cliffites claim to be Trotskyist but reject Trostky's positions of:
--General military defense of the economic gains of the USSR.
Trotsky disagreed with the USSR's politics but supported their collectivized economy. An economy that provided free health care, guaranteed income, guaranteed housing, free education, free mass transit, food, water, electricity, etc.
And now look at Russia, which has turned into a shit hole:
As a result, Yeltsin's popularity plunged so he did what all desperate leaders do to hold power with the next election to worry about. He began a war in 1994 in the breakaway Chechen republic killing 100,000 civilians by the late 90s. Elections were held in 1996, and Yeltsin won by overcoming his low approval ratings with huge oligarch-funding and near-total control of television coverage. He then quietly handed power to Vladimir Putin on December 31, 1999 without an election but with the stipulation he was exempt from criminal prosecution. His legacy was devastating with Klein noting "never have so many lost so much in so short a time." When Russia's 1998 financial crisis hit: -- 80% of Russia's farmers were bankrupt; -- around 70,000 states factories had closed; -- an "epidemic" of unemployment raged; -- before shock therapy in 1989, two million Russians lived in poverty on less than $4 a day; by the mid-90s, the World Bank estimated 74 million were impoverished and by 1996 conditions for 25% (almost 37 million) Russians were "desperate" and the country's underclass remained permanent; -- Russians drink twice as much now as before; painkilling and hard drug use increased 900%, and HIV/AIDS threatens to become epidemic with a 20-fold jump in infections since 1995; suicides are also rising, and violent crime increased more than fourfold; and -- Russia's population is declining by 700,000 a year with capitalism having already having killed off 10% of it as one more example of free market-inflicted disaster. That's the brave new world disease spreading everywhere with another scorched-earth stop below. Friedman called it "freedom."http://www.rense.com/general78/lendd.htm
--Permanent Revolution i.e. Revolution until the world is red.
--Linking the proletariat of the advanced nations to those of the Deformed Workers' States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deformed_workers%27_state)
Trotsky acknowledged that such Stalinist states were backwards but defended them regardless as better then a full out, imperialist run capitalist nation. The lesser of two evils.
In fact he called upon the Proletariat here, in the advanced nations, to link up with them in order to raise class consciousness and push them further to the left.
We now at days can engage these fellow proletariat directly, online, via forums like those of ChinaDaily, where there is virtually no censorship. (I have faced far more censorship on RevLeft then on ChinaDaily. )
The truth is the Cliffites are playing an extremely regressive role in history since they occupy an extremely critical location strategically- the Working Class leadership positions of most Advanced English speaking nations (this is the largest leftist forum on the entire net and it is Cliffite, btw say hi to the CIA =) ) . And yet they purposely block any attempt at linking the first world proletariat with the Workers' States- which is the exact opposite strategy proposed by Trotsky.
Perhaps they have a point, but they are by no means Trotskyist. And they are playing a role even more regressive then the Democratic Party because at least the Democrats will admit they are bourgeoisie. The Democrats admit they are capitalist. The Cliffites will pretend to be something they are not, within Unions and Socialist circles and thereby confuse the Working Class.
This is not to say Cliffites are bad people. Far from it, I like Cliffites a lot. But their strategic abilities leave something to be desired. And the fact that they can, at any time, link with China, Vietnam, Cuba, or North Korea but refuse to do so because of some sense of "superiority" is extremely frustrating. It is like they are pitting the "Enlightened" first world working class, against the "dirty" third world working class.
This fact- that I am far left of the Cliffites- is what gets me labeled a "reactionary. " This is the sort of behavior Lenin bemoaned when he wrote Left-Wing Communism: an infantile disorder[/i] (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/).
Long-live the Proletariat.
Over throw capitalism
Defend the Workers States!