[Marxism] [ Marxism] Inflation Delivers a Blow to Vietnamâ?Ts Spirits

[Ruthless Critic of All that Exists]

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 9:29 AM, Marvin Gandall
<marvgandall at videotron.ca> wrote:

> MG: If, if, if, if..."then it may well prove a harbinger of a renascent
> socialism." Who can disagree? I'm not being cynical here. It's that this is
> true to the point of banality, and is usually asserted by
> self-congratulatory optimists of the will as a riposte to those who point to
> the objective constraints which make such projections unrealizable in the
> foreseeable future, and which result in political conclusions and demands
> which are little more than wishful thinking

You are, of course, correct. The long and short of it is that the only
thing that would make worldwide socialism possible (on a lasting
basis) is socialist revolution in the currently imperialist nations.
Which is, to borrow your words, "unrealizable in the foreseeable
future".

The Venezuelan route is probably one alternative route, but it is
probably not available to countries which lack Venezuela's oil
resources. (This is one of the questions I had after reading Michael
Lebowitz's "Build it now" -- I'm doubtful that the Venezuelan model
can be a model for most countries which lack comparable natural
resources.)

The Cuba model is another, but it can work only *after* a socialist
revolution takes place in a country -- so it's sort of
cart-before-a-horse in terms of what policy should be pursued *now* by
marxists in a country where a Cuba-type revolution has not occurred.

So perhaps the Lula / CPI(M) model of developing capitalism while
trying the utmost to mitigate its worst effects, WHILE simultaneously
continuing to work on building mass movements such that a Cuba-type
revolution can take place.

The CPI(M), at least in theory, is now trying exactly that. Here, for
example, is a recent (January 2008) statement by Prakash Karat (the
General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) since
2005). Whether it is doing so in practice is another matter,
obviously:


Statement by Prakash Karat
General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
January 2008


(i) Based on its programmatic direction, the CPI(M) joins state governments
knowing fully well that it has limited powers within the Constitution.
Utilising these limited powers, Left-led governments work to protect the
interests of the working people, initiate welfare measures and within the
limited spheres where it has some powers, put in place policies which are
different from that of state governments run by bourgeois parties. The
CPI(M) knows fully well that in the states where the Left is in government
they cannot build socialism, but undertake some alternative policies within
the capitalist system. Land reforms within the constitutional limits was one
such step undertaken in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

(ii) Even though the Left Front has been in office for thirty years in West
Bengal, capitalist development has been taking place there as in the rest of
India. What the state governments can do is to help strengthen the struggle
for alternative policies advocated by the Left and democratic platform at
the all India level.

(iii) The CPI(M)¹s goal is for the setting up of a people¹s democracy, which
is a step towards the eventual goal towards socialism. This, as Jyoti Basu
said, cannot be done by the three state governments ruled by the Left. The
advance to socialism will be realisable only after the Left and democratic
forces are strong enough to build an alternative at the national level.

(iv) Till then, in the states like West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, the
Left-led governments will strive to put in place policies, which benefit the
working class, peasantry and other sections of the working people. Working
within the capitalist system, facing a situation where the central
government imposes neo-liberal policies, the Left-led governments have to
undertake industrialisation and economic development in such a manner where
the interests of the workers and the poorer sections are protected.

It is amusing to see some leaders of the BJP and the Congress portray this
approach of the CPI(M) in simplistic terms of socialism versus capitalism.
For them socialism only denotes a slogan to be used as a smokescreen for
promoting the interests of big capitalists and foreign finance capital.
Joining them in the criticism is the Revolutionary Socialist Party. Unlike
the CPI(M), the RSP  has declared socialism to be its immediate goal. But
one may ask why the RSP has been, in all these years of being in Left-led
state governments, working to implement some reforms and welfare measures
within the capitalist system?

The record of the Left-led governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura
stand testimony to the fact that the Left and democratic alternative
advocated by the CPI(M) and the struggle to ensure a degree of social
justice within the framework of an all India capitalist model of development
has found increasing support among the people. That is why the three states
are today considered to be the bastions of the Left.