It's probably MIM's fault . . . [Archive]

The Garbage Disposal Unit

4th February 2013, 15:40

So, I've read Sakai, Butch Lee, WUO/PFOC and some other "third worldist" stuff, and found it quite useful. However, there still seems to be the perception floating around this board that third worldists:

. . . [reject] the existence of a proletarian class and [thus] of class struggle in the first world, leading to positions such as supporting scabbing etc.

I don't think positing the first world white working class as something less than the most advanced section of the global proletariat necessarily leads to any such obviously backward positions.

Anyway, I'm starting this thread so that MTWs can hopefully address some of this stuff, which I'm guessing is weird positions taken by silly individuals, and not reflective of MTW thought generally.

in a perfect RevLeft, this could lead to unrestriction. Realistically, I'll probably get restricted for being a "closet third-worldist". Or they'll start banning "pomo idealists". Whatever. Point being - start laying out how criticism of the labour aristocracy =/= siding with their bosses. Eh?

PigmerikanMao

5th February 2013, 02:44

The immediate issue with MTWists on revleft is that all of them are instantly lumped in with the MIM* and LLCO crowd (*I broke with the MIM in 2007 over this issue), the latter of which actually does reject the existence of first world class struggle (MIM's position is a little more fluid depending). I would only posit that the concept of a Labour Aristocracy has been a signature of Marxism-Leninism and its theoretical offshoots/developments (ie Maoism, Hoxhaism, TWism, etc) since Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. The only issue with genuine TWists is that they take the concept of the Labour Aristocracy and apply it to contemporary world politics, and have developed on the Labour Aristocracy more by attempting to define the specific boundaries of the developed and developing world through Mao and Lin Biao's Three Worlds Theory.

The idea that all TWists reject class struggle is largely because of the MIM and subsequent LLCO which have come to the attention of the first world revolutionary left due to their campaigns of agitation through social media and the internet. While the LLCO and (in the past) MIM may be positing some interesting points in regard to other aspects of the labour aristocracy, their stance on the first world proletariat makes it easy for the leftist community to demonize all TWists as LLCO/MIM are the most prominently known TWist groups, even if they do represent a probable minority of the TWist camp.

Most TWists do not reject the concept of class struggle in the first world (though there have been some that may argue first world workers class interests can become distorted in the short term because of this labour aristocracy, their long term interests ultimately coincide with the global international proletariat), TWists simply focus on pushing for revolution in the third world because currently there exists no possibility of a genuine revolutionary situation in the first. Social Democrats, liberals, communists, anarchists, and socialists can (and should) work for the unionization of first world workers and the increase of their standards of living, but TWists posit that genuine communists (be they Leninists, Maoists, etc) should also focus on (and not forget the struggles in) the third world as this will be where the revolution is primarily fought. True TWists would never support scab labour.

All I can say is that LLCO/MIM should not be seen as a stand-in for all TWists because this generalizing trend will only serve to ostracize legitimate members of the international communist movement. I don't expect any restriction policies to change (I tried starting a discussion on this a while back and the thread was promptly closed and I received several PMs telling me to not create another) but I would like for at least some members of the revolutionary left to be receptive towards TWist arguments and take them seriously.

We have the Marxist-Leninist weapon of criticism and self-criticism. We can get rid of a bad style and keep the good. --Chairman Mao
"Report to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China" (March 5, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 374.

Tl;dr: I mostly agree with the OP. TWists are unfairly lumped in with LLCO/MIM which garner most political attention in the revolutionary left.