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The Dead End Of Labourism - Red Star Bulletin #35 (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-28 21:32:08
Imported:
2024-05
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In a break to our regularly schedule programmes on the Ukraine war I take a look at why the Labour Party does not deserve one single vote at the next British elections.  I also argue why Starmer is absolutely within the tradition of labour party leaders and why parliamentarism is absolutley fatal to Communist Parties.

Be sure to visit the Marx-Engels Institute website

Outro Music is "The Molly Maguires" by Luke Kelly

Episode Artwork is 'The Storming Of The Winter Palace' by the Soviet Russian Artist Vasily Svarog

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Comments

Sam

On point as usual Alex. My difficulty with this analysis in relation to focusing on political education (a conclusion I agree with) is that I don’t know how to deliver the message without descending into doomerism. The upshot is - and this was indeed my experience over the last 15 years of union activism, anarchisty/NGO aligned movementism and of course the Corbyn years - is that a staggering number of people who say they are on your side, aren’t in fact on your side. Now this is something that I have come to terms with. Indeed the realisation has helped me process what was a few very difficult years for me - however I don’t know how to pass that message on to others without coming across as negative and paranoid. The advantage the petit bourgeois progressives have is they can lean on a narrative that inspires hope, optimism and then ties this hope and optimism to tangible objectives. A false narrative and a false hope to be sure, but something that at least provides an obvious incentive to be persuaded. I remember when I first got into activism this kind of messaging was much more appealing than those who were relentlessly calling out the opportunism and careerism of those that at least seemed to be doing something productive. In hindsight I would have saved myself a lot of time if I had just listened to the so called “cranks” - but I fear it was something I had to experience first hand to really appreciate. Without having experienced it directly I would have dismissed it as paranoia. My other, smaller question, was why was there a “Stalin” tag for this post? I ask this because in fact Stalin and the revolutionary years 1917-45 in USSR is one of the few things I do find inspiring and a cause for hope. I might then be answering my own question (couple any analysis of our domestic politics with international success stories) but those years in Russia in particular also do demonstrate the genocidal lengths the forces of reaction are willing to go. However one slices it then political education involves a lot of really really dark truths and histories. Unless they have an obsessive compulsion to immerse oneself and process these things as I do (something I wouldn’t necessarily wish on anyone), I wouldn’t blame people for not wanting to engage.

Marx Engels Lenin Institute
>>100651002

Well on the latter question there was a Stalin tag on here because I referenced the British Road To Socialism document that Stalin approved in 1951. Regarding your other points, i'll be taking those up in a Q&A episode which i'll record next week.

Dean

Reactionary nostalgia, alongside the debilitating effects of labourism, casts a long shadow over the left and unions. The left bemoan the so-called acts of treachery committed by the Labour Party, but will eagerly run to its rescue as some misguided "lesser evil". "Refuge has taken refuge in a belief in miracles" as Marx succinctly put it. The left can only indulge in fevered fantasises of resurrecting a welfare state 2.0 or some other fudged comprise masquerading as a victory from Labour's history in government. They do so without even a cursory understanding of how the political economy and balance of class forces compelled the bourgeoisie to grant these periods of limited reform. Just a question on your concluding point about now not being the time to expend energy on fighting for mp or council seats. I do agree, but do remember a comment you made in one of your early YouTube videos. You said how there was some merit in trying to target some low hanging parish type council seats as they are relatively easier to win and are sometimes not even contested by the larger bourgeois parties. Despite them being pretty powerless, there is still some potential (if elected) in using them to attract a wider layer and disseminate some echo of agitation and organisation. I certainly wouldn't argue for any revolutionary organisation to make their life's work, but wondered whether it still has at least some organisational potential.