Rules of the road

Kasama

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January 31, 2007

Comments

blackstone

I wonder why the reviewer had he urge to claim that the organizers were "grounded in Marxist-Leninist thinking" when this is clearly not the case. The strategy that POWER is employing is an anarcho or libertarian syndicalist strategy.

The reviewer even says,

"This is a powerful example for how we can engage in participatory, mass, collective envisioning and, in the process, develop leadership and analysis to help us create and implement strategy".

That syndicalism, not Marxism-leninism

blackstone

Nevermind, i think they actually do come from a Leninist background

Christopher Day

Dear Blackstone,

Lets not "never mind." Why not take this opportunity to explain what it was in the passage:

"This is a powerful example for how we can engage in participatory, mass, collective envisioning and, in the process, develop leadership and analysis to help us create and implement strategy"

that made you think POWER were syndicalists and not from a Leninist background?

This isn't intended as a gotcha, but rather a call for reflection. Does this passage represent a shift away from a variety of Leninism or was you understanding of Leninism perhaps a caricature?

JB

Could the answer be... both?

blackstone

No, not necessarily, because it says this also,

"We need to draw from Marxist analysis of political economy and strategy as well as autonomist/anarchist analysis of political vision, organization and practice, all of which are being used in social movements around the world. "

They use syndicalist organization and practice, which they admit to in the passage i quoted above. This led me to believe they were syndicalist.

That is what lead me to believe they were syndicalist, but i hit up my connects in SF and found out otherwise..

G. Rowan

Just to be clear POWER is not suggesting that, "We need to draw from Marxist analysis of political economy and strategy as well as autonomist/anarchist analysis of political vision, organization and practice, all of which are being used in social movements around the world." It is Chris Crass, who is reviewing POWER's book, who is arguing for the need to learn from anarchism. Chris Crass is without a doubt a self-proclaimed anarchist (albeit one who believes in the importance of learning from the Marxist tradition). I didn't find a whole lot in "Towards Land, Work & Power" that was pro-anarchist. I think it's clear that they are rooted in the ML tradition, although not in a particularly orthodox way. Just trying to clarify.

RLB

Burningman? Is that you? You're alive!

blackstone

I stand corrected to a degree then. I misread which lead me to believe POWER to be syndicalist, but it was the author's comments and interpreation. That was clarified by comrades in SF and by you that POWER is ML.

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