From Protest to Power ...

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 4^th 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