Economic warfare, dressed up by US President Donald Trump as a defence of ‘American’ jobs and industry against unfair competition, is now central to the ...
All that sounds great in theory, but in practice we have seen historically where it ends. Do you believe Poland is better off now for having had their socialism destroyed, in large part by the subversive actions of the Solidarność union? How do you concretely propose to avoid that scenario from re-occurring?
It is not a far step from independent unions to demanding that each enterprise should be independent of state interference, and then you just end up with Perestroika.
The only logical end result of the creation of dual power structures separate from and competing with the state is the undermining and eventual destruction of that state. The reasons why communists strive to build such dual power structures in capitalist societies are precisely the reasons why these should not exist in socialist societies.
The thing is that both in Soviet Democracy and in China’s Whole-Process People’s Democracy there are mechanisms for the people to not only elect but also to actively participate in the political life of the country, from the local all the way to the national level, and to hold government accountable.
Why circumvent those democratic processes? What gives you the right to elevate the interests of certain small groups of workers above those of the whole working class?
Frankly this whole line of criticism is indicative to me of a liberal and individualist mentality more concerned with “individual freedom” than with the greater material well-being of the whole society. It reeks of anarchism/ultra-leftism.
I won’t get into the Trotsky debate here but suffice it to say that his position ended up being rejected by the majority of the Bolsheviks. My point is that there is no need to dig up and rehash this particular struggle, it has already been settled. Better to focus on concrete improvements based in real material criticism of the problems of unions in China.
All that sounds great in theory, but in practice we have seen historically where it ends. Do you believe Poland is better off now for having had their socialism destroyed, in large part by the subversive actions of the Solidarność union? How do you concretely propose to avoid that scenario from re-occurring?
It is not a far step from independent unions to demanding that each enterprise should be independent of state interference, and then you just end up with Perestroika.
The only logical end result of the creation of dual power structures separate from and competing with the state is the undermining and eventual destruction of that state. The reasons why communists strive to build such dual power structures in capitalist societies are precisely the reasons why these should not exist in socialist societies.
The thing is that both in Soviet Democracy and in China’s Whole-Process People’s Democracy there are mechanisms for the people to not only elect but also to actively participate in the political life of the country, from the local all the way to the national level, and to hold government accountable.
Why circumvent those democratic processes? What gives you the right to elevate the interests of certain small groups of workers above those of the whole working class?
Frankly this whole line of criticism is indicative to me of a liberal and individualist mentality more concerned with “individual freedom” than with the greater material well-being of the whole society. It reeks of anarchism/ultra-leftism.
I won’t get into the Trotsky debate here but suffice it to say that his position ended up being rejected by the majority of the Bolsheviks. My point is that there is no need to dig up and rehash this particular struggle, it has already been settled. Better to focus on concrete improvements based in real material criticism of the problems of unions in China.