The Socialist Challenge Today –
Syriza, Sanders, Corbyn,” by Leo Panitich and Sam Gindin, 2018
This thin book addresses the most
important problem in the Marxist labor movement in the capitalist center – how
to operate in the long ‘war of position’ in these over-developed capitalist
societies. Especially when you succeed! The authors point out that
the old models of the Social-Democratic parties and the Eurocommunist/Communist
parties have both failed at overturning capital. According to Panitich/Gindin, the failure of Leninism,
councilism or reformism has led the Western left – and perhaps by extension the
left in other countries like Brazil
– into a dead end.
 |
| 'Speaking Truth to Power' is not enough |
This book looks at the experiences
of Syriza in Greece and
Corbyn in the U.K., with a nod
to Sanders in the U.S. The author’s main organizational
recommendation is to create a ‘party’ that does not lose touch with mass progressive
formations at the bottom of society. They
describe Syriza’s impossible choice – between autarky and leaving the EU, or
submission to the Troika’s demands. In
this situation, Syriza lost touch with the 400 community solidarity networks in
Greece
that were a base for their rise. While
in power, Syriza has not prepared the Greek working class to slowly ‘takeover’
the state. The authors highlight the
issue of food distribution, in which community groups could have worked with
government agencies to bypass commercial food networks. However, they do not mention the ideas of Varoufakis
on European left unity, nor Zizek’s suggestion of a position between Syriza’s
leadership and the Left Platform.
No mention is made of possible Chinese
or Russian aid to Greece.
The authors recommend ‘revolutionary
reforms’ that progressively strengthen the hand of the proletariat while
weakening capital. Certainly the 2016 demands
of Sanders – free college, Medicare for All, a government jobs program – are
transitional demands that begin to de-privatize U.S. society. Corbyn goes further and recommends the
re-nationalization of U.K.
railroads and public utilities. However
both ignore the financial sector, especially banking. In the process, the authors pretend not to know
about the Transitional Program of the
4th International, which made a point of formalizing ‘revolutionary
reforms’ in 1938.
Corbyn’s rise was gestating for a
number of years. The break came when the
unions in the Labour Party no longer had weighted votes. This led to a flood of young, working-class
people joining the party. The LP now has
550,000 members, the largest of its kind according to the authors. They think unions can be led to go beyond
being defensive organizations of the class acting as forces of labor
conservatism. In contrast, they do not expect
mass organizations like workers’ assemblies / councils or workplace committees
to ever exist. Their template for the
future is parliamentary democracy and a ‘neutral’ state as the only forms of
social power.
My problem with the book is that
their position of ‘taking over’ the capitalist state pretends it is only an
administrative organization. It also has
a repressive function, which is left unaddressed. Not to mention the ‘non-neutral’ laws and
judges of the administrative state, which would all have to be changed. The authors call themselves ‘democratic
socialists’ instead of the dreaded ‘social-democrat,’ but this does not seem to
change their perspective of how to attain socialism. They are part of a leftish tendency in the
Labour Party around the journal Socialist
Register and Ralph Milbrand.
The value of the book is that,
barring a terminal capitalist crisis, the proletariat has to LEARN how to run
parts and then all of a state, and this takes time and experience. Like having more power in the workplace, the
class is still unprepared, as are its organizations.
Reviews on this subject, below: “The Courage of Hopelessness,” “Debt &
Capital,” “A Reconstitution of the Left?” “The People’s Summit,” “Up From Liberalism!” “Sanders – A
Left View,” “The Unwelcome Guest,” “Short Takes on the Week that Was.”
And I bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog
March 22, 2019
3 comments:
To my Commune buddy Corey and Craig and (RIP) Tom, - and the mysterious Red Frog (last by not least) - abrupt global warming is making the Left into mincemeat. Mother Nature is in charge. As for "food distribution" not being corporate? YES Venezuela is being forced to go the way of Cuba. I went to the most traditional Berber village in Morocco - it has survived THOUSANDS of years living off its Humanure Compost to turn the desert into food. That's our Future - Mother Nature is an eternal composting of HUmanure.
drew hempel, SHIiTake forest cultivation
Void,
Thanks for your greetings! You are right. Nature is in control ultimately. Marx understood that I think. The solution for humanity is eco-Socialism - a sustainable, no-growth economy - using the technology we have or is nearly feasible. Or it is more destruction... which nature doesn't really care about.
Come by the store some time and visit.
thank you for the dialog. Have you read "Marx against the Peasants" book? I found that used in Minneapolis. Good read. Also have you read Prof. David F. Noble's book "The religion of technology"? He cites Marx arguing for the "edenic respites of labor" - you'd have to read the book for the context. And also Marx relied on logarithmic math that is really from Plato - and this inherently inverse exponential function is based on the error of symmetric logic. So I call this the "Surplus Value of Consciousness" - as the "trajectory of tantric technology."
Sorry to put such "nonsense" on your blog. haha.
Marx against the Peasant - University of Chicago Press Journals
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/237641
Marx against tlhe peasant: a study in social dog- matism. By DAVID MITRANY. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1951. The most widespread ...
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