Maybe it was unfortunate when I said the individualistic effects of power
'blows away the Marxist concept of the class struggle'. Several
correspondents have taken issue with that statement.
What I was trying to say, I think, was that power operates in far more
subtle ways than Marx ever foresaw, as Foucault realised.
The idea of the class struggle, class consciousness, a class for itself, the
revolution of the proletariat and all that is inadequate, far too simple and
fails to provide a satisfactory explanation of current events. There are
forces at work which Marx never thought of and which show why capitalism is
unlikely to collapse.
It is not like that!
Human nature being what it is when it comes to the crunch, the working class
will not stand united in championing its cause against the capitalist class
if self-minded advantage can be gained. Thus we see that the Unions are
often half-hearted in standing up for the rights of workers. Thus it was
that in the Paris riots of May 1968, the mass movements of people and the
events known as the 'Prague Spring' in Czechoslovakia have been located at
the epicentre of a crisis within Marxism.
These events revealed the true self-interest of the P.C.F. (Communist
Party), which persuaded workers to end their protest and return to work.
Once the back of the protest had been broken it was easy for the Gaullist
Government to finish the job. Thus mass protest from Trade Unions and Left
Parties collapsed when so-called 'radical socialists' felt their position
threatened.
This is why a libertarian philosophy so often gains the ascendency over a
socialistic one. Simply because the so-called 'solidarity of the working
class' is a figment of the imagination. This is why so often we find one
dictatorship or repressive regime simply replaced with another tyranny.
No. Foucault showed how power operates in far more complex ways than that
and if we would discover its true nature we must go beyond the class
struggle. This is a very deterministic view of the world and we must search
for a better explanation.
Cheers
Ross
Do not ask me who I am and do not ask me to remain the same : leave it to
our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order
Ross James Swanston
breezey@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
'blows away the Marxist concept of the class struggle'. Several
correspondents have taken issue with that statement.
What I was trying to say, I think, was that power operates in far more
subtle ways than Marx ever foresaw, as Foucault realised.
The idea of the class struggle, class consciousness, a class for itself, the
revolution of the proletariat and all that is inadequate, far too simple and
fails to provide a satisfactory explanation of current events. There are
forces at work which Marx never thought of and which show why capitalism is
unlikely to collapse.
It is not like that!
Human nature being what it is when it comes to the crunch, the working class
will not stand united in championing its cause against the capitalist class
if self-minded advantage can be gained. Thus we see that the Unions are
often half-hearted in standing up for the rights of workers. Thus it was
that in the Paris riots of May 1968, the mass movements of people and the
events known as the 'Prague Spring' in Czechoslovakia have been located at
the epicentre of a crisis within Marxism.
These events revealed the true self-interest of the P.C.F. (Communist
Party), which persuaded workers to end their protest and return to work.
Once the back of the protest had been broken it was easy for the Gaullist
Government to finish the job. Thus mass protest from Trade Unions and Left
Parties collapsed when so-called 'radical socialists' felt their position
threatened.
This is why a libertarian philosophy so often gains the ascendency over a
socialistic one. Simply because the so-called 'solidarity of the working
class' is a figment of the imagination. This is why so often we find one
dictatorship or repressive regime simply replaced with another tyranny.
No. Foucault showed how power operates in far more complex ways than that
and if we would discover its true nature we must go beyond the class
struggle. This is a very deterministic view of the world and we must search
for a better explanation.
Cheers
Ross
Do not ask me who I am and do not ask me to remain the same : leave it to
our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order
Ross James Swanston
breezey@xxxxxxxxxxxxx