Never hesitate to ask my "utterly mystifying" self questions, PAT; never.
The inability to come up with appropriate tactics during a revolutionary period, and if not that (because things like revolutionary defeatism were suggested in The Road to Power), then the inability to hang tight with those tactics.
Out of interest, what do you think were the causes of Kautsky's and Social Democracy's political collapse in the face of imperialist war?
Thanks for bailing my thread there. I thought merely just posting the article would have been enough.
No, because it is not a philosophical question but a political question. Workers become "educated" through their own struggle with capital. Our agitation is on the basis of their practical experience. Our further education is on the basis of generalising the struggle. Our ability to generalise is dependent on our organisation.
"The point is that education comes through agitation and runs into organisation which then runs into agitation. It's a virtuous, self-reinforcing spiral." Do you want to start a Philosophy thread on this? Only with proper education comes proper agitation (older forms of left sloganeering aren't effective), and organization is derived from proper education and proper agitation.
Comrade, it is but a linguistic convention! The point is that education comes through agitation and runs into organisation which then runs into agitation. It's a virtuous, self-reinforcing spiral.
That's a key problem with the SWP: "if we are serious, we agitate, educate and we organise" You have Wilhelm Liebknecht's slogan in the wrong order. He said, "Educate! Agitate! Organize!" Note the priority of education before agitation. This isn't the alleged "gossip and rumour" insults hurled at the WW's criticisms. It's the fact that the SWP has no substantive program.
For what it's worth, to me that thread I started (which you moved) was more about who said what rather than what was said.
I can't believe you thanked ÉirÃ*gÃ*'s pathetic rant about the SWP. The idea that there is a "serious left" in Britain which excludes the SWP is a laughable travesty of assessment and, itself, is proof of his "low political level".
