redstar2000
9th April 2006, 19:14
The Long March, Gramsci and the Antiwar Movement (http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/04/67849.html) by Carl Davidson
At some point, we will see the "final effort" of social democracy to divert mass discontent into reformist channels in each of the "old" capitalist countries. And I couldn't help but wonder if this piece by one of the last social-democratic figures in American politics "might be it".
Davidson was a "heavy" in SDS back in 1966...and knows from experience "what's coming" as the war in Iraq becomes more and more unpopular. In this paper, he clearly wants to "head off" a forthcoming radical upsurge and "guide it into constructive channels"...meaning mostly positions of political influence in the existing state apparatus for social democrats.
It's a well-thought-out strategy that "might work" if circumstances were otherwise...in a sense, it did work back in the 1930s.
As revolutionaries, we want to encourage hated and contempt for the existing capitalist institutions -- while social democracy wants to "capture them" and "use them" to do "nice things for people".
It's my contention, as you know, that the era of social democracy is finished in the "old" capitalist countries; the only choices now are revolution or despair.
But I thought people might find it interesting just to look at Davidson's piece as a kind of example of "what to expect" as capitalism in the U.S. begins its visible decline.
Enjoy.
http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif
At some point, we will see the "final effort" of social democracy to divert mass discontent into reformist channels in each of the "old" capitalist countries. And I couldn't help but wonder if this piece by one of the last social-democratic figures in American politics "might be it".
Davidson was a "heavy" in SDS back in 1966...and knows from experience "what's coming" as the war in Iraq becomes more and more unpopular. In this paper, he clearly wants to "head off" a forthcoming radical upsurge and "guide it into constructive channels"...meaning mostly positions of political influence in the existing state apparatus for social democrats.
It's a well-thought-out strategy that "might work" if circumstances were otherwise...in a sense, it did work back in the 1930s.
As revolutionaries, we want to encourage hated and contempt for the existing capitalist institutions -- while social democracy wants to "capture them" and "use them" to do "nice things for people".
It's my contention, as you know, that the era of social democracy is finished in the "old" capitalist countries; the only choices now are revolution or despair.
But I thought people might find it interesting just to look at Davidson's piece as a kind of example of "what to expect" as capitalism in the U.S. begins its visible decline.
Enjoy.
http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif