tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post7311280290970327441..comments2024-01-19T04:00:42.885-05:00Comments on Permanent Revolution: Plan C: The socialist alternative for GreeceAlex Steinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128453587484101609noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-83859128332791531892015-04-03T13:56:28.486-04:002015-04-03T13:56:28.486-04:00I note that you have absolutely nothing to say on ...I note that you have absolutely nothing to say on anything I wrote about Lapavitsas or any specific thing I discussed about the direction for Greece but just put together some general statements expressing your antipathy to Trotskyism.<br /><br />You start by claiming that I said Greece should embark on "socialism now", even putting that in quotation marks. Of course I never said any such thing. What Greece can do now, <b>IF</b> it had a leadership with a vision, is to take several steps to begin to transition to socialism. Lapavitsas instead closes off that possibility and proposes instead to begin the process of trying to build some native form of capitalism in Greece. But capitalism in a single country, particularly a small country like Greece, is just as much a fools paradise as socialism in a single country.<br /><br />Of course there is no possibility that you can have socialism in a single country. That was not only Trotsky's position but was pretty much a consensus within the entire Marxist movement prior to Stalin's announcement that you can build socialism within the Soviet Union alone, and the later Stalinist position that socialism had actually been achieved within the Soviet Union. If you are confused about this then you should blame your confusion on the butchery of Marxist theory that was perpetrated by Stalinism.<br /><br />Now you didn't have to be an economist to know that a country that introduced labor discipline through methods like Stakhanovism, slave labor in the gulag and a reckless program of industrialization at any price was very far from overcoming the law of value. If you bother to look at the "theoretical" arguments used by the Stalinists to justify their assertion that the Soviet Union and its satellites had achieved socialism you will find that they are the worst sort of butchery of anything having to do with Marxism. I won't go into that since it was not the topic of my essay but it is not Trotskyism that provides "bankrupt" theories but your dismissal of a serious treatment of history or theory, something endemic to what used to be called the New Left. You are not presenting "new ideas" but rather recycling some very old and bad ones whose origins go back to Stalinism. The Stalinist regime not only murdered hundreds of thousands of Bolsheviks including the cream of the Marxist intelligentsia, they also did everything in their power to distort and destroy Marxism as a genuine theory of society and a philosophical outlook.<br /><br />Your proposal that Greece has a viable future on the basis of remaining within the EU which will somehow "protect" it from U.S. imperialism makes not the slightest sense. Have you not noticed that it is European financial imperialism, particularly German imperialism, that is strangling Greece? <br /><br />Were Greece to embark on the revolutionary road, it would in effect be engaged in a kind of holding operation until such time as aid was forthcoming from the working class of the rest of Europe. That was also the case with Russia in 1917 despite all the other differences between the two situations. A revolutionary Greek government would establish relations with other countries and try use the inter-imperialist rivalries between the EU and the U.S. and Russia and China to its advantage. A political revolution in Greece could also ignite a spark that would reverberate in other countries. There are no guarantees if Greece embarked on this path but I think it is a more realistic and viable plan than that proposed by either Lapavitsas or Tsipras. <br />Alex Steinerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09128453587484101609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-30706360845278034472015-04-03T08:17:39.619-04:002015-04-03T08:17:39.619-04:00Alex, I find the call for "socialism now"...<br />Alex, I find the call for "socialism now" in Greece to be confusing. Trotsky's position was always that you can't have socialism in one country, especially a small country like Greece. You agree with that position, I know. So how is it a responsible position to demand socialism in Greece, knowing that if it gets achieved temporarily it will be crushed?<br /><br />Similarly, with the proposal to leave the EU. For all it's internal pressures on Greece, the EU provides partial protection against the imperialism of the U.S. (and China). Why would anyone think that should Greece go it alone and leave the EU, that it would be able to withstand U.S. imperialism for even one minute?<br /><br />Now, I'm not saying that I believe that Greece should not engage in fighting for socialism. What I am saying is that the received knowledge about that from the Trotskyist and Stalinist histories are both bankrupt and self-contradictory. We need new analyses.<br /><br />My own guess is that Greece will be driven more and more to bloc with Russia, which may end up in helping to build a new Soviet Union. We'll see.<br /><br />MitchelMitchel Cohenhttp://www.mitchelcohen.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-47421364292697505232015-03-31T07:35:20.093-04:002015-03-31T07:35:20.093-04:00Good analysis. Looking forward to your next post. ...Good analysis. Looking forward to your next post. The transition to socialism is relevant for us all. Sometime in the distant future isn't working for the left these days.Arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09751574112926378002noreply@blogger.com