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Most what they did accomplish in ways of building movements that were controlled by those working in them, was accomplished while in a harsh opposition role. I think the need and desire to build organisations went away as they began to see state power as the main mean, held by party elite for the benefits of party elite.
Maybe soc-dems and commies were both wrong. The important thing is not wheter state power is conquered by elections or by force, but that state power forms the parties into being another owner instead of a mean to get power of the means of production into the hands of the proletariat.
So what then? Maybe back to the 19th century also-rans anarchists and utopian socialist. Maybe study why some co-ops does not get captured and combine with new organisational models such as those Chris pushes.
But it appears to be a Gordian knot. If the state is conquered by socialists, it eats the socialists. And if the state is not conquered by socialists, it also tends to eat the socialists (back in the 1930ies, when Coop was better functioning and dangerous, they had a thick file at the security service). Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se
That was partly the legacy of Marx, for whom the "means of production" were industrial.
There are signs it's starting to ease, and there's a hint of a tendency towards diversification and more free and organic forms of participation.
What's missing on the left at the moment - at least in the UK - is the usual need to move beyond oppositional theatre (e.g. UKUncut) towards demanding seats at the policy table for all issues, not just single-issue campaigns.
That may be starting to happen in Spain. We'll see.
That was partly the legacy of Marx Engels, for whom the "means of production" were industrial.
FIFY.
(I'm increasingly convinced that what most Marxians represent as Marx's views are as much an unkind caricature as what most Liberals present Adam Smith's views to be.)
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
And when most workers were industrial workers, it's not totally surprising that (say) the Soviets and the Maoists) turned him into a kind of angry patron of worker-deified industrial revolution.
If there's a lacuna in Marx, it's exactly that absence of realistic post-industrial alternatives.
There's not a lot of nature in Marx. There are people, and there are machines and resources, but he knew nothing about eco-systems or symbiotic embedding, so they're not included as original Marxist concepts.
Of course, no free market propaganda mill pays to get large numbers of cheap copies of Theory of Moral Sentiment reprinted. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Liberty Press, Indianapolis, 1976 & 1984
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith
isbn: 0865970122 "In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge
The problem was the number grinding mill attached, where despite 1/2 University appointments, they had full votes in the department. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
..utopian socialist.
Who were these? F.Engels called "utopians" those who demanded reforms. Who had beliefs in mixed economy. He himself wanted total capitulation of markets without having not what so ever clue, how capital is allocated in the "dream" society.
Who was the utopian? Old leftist double speak and still no one in the left wants to be an "utopian." They are a hopeless case.
My thoughts mainly went to the attemtps at communities to realise an alternative outside the realm of state power. But there is probably a lot more that has been downplayed by later socialists when the soc-dem/commie split became the major focal point. Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se
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