(Detta är en text jag skrev till en kamrat i USA)
A call to arms for the realistic revolutionaries
I remember when I first got into radical politics. It was through a socialist party and I turned out
a pragmatic Marxist selling newspapers and working with political questions through practice (against the cutting of social welfare, 6 hours work day etc.). I soon grew bored of being ridiculed for being vegan and handing out leaflets has seen it glory days (or has it?).
My way out came through interaction with a bunch of anarchists. Although I never became a anarchist myself, their disgust for authority and the State found their way to my red heart. Council communism and the Situationist international was my way of being a Marxist friend of anarchism, so to speak. My position soon became that of
the pure revolutionary. Only the most militant and non-compromising of actions, aiming at
total revolution, caught my interest.
All partys and all institutions were labelled “recuperators” and all limited, political interventions into everyday life was branded “reformist” and treated with loath and ridicule.
This ended a few years later into total passivity. Nothing was radical enough and all the political groups that did exist was dismissed as simple
leftists. The only appropriate actions was true
anti-fascist militancy, but bashing boneheads has its obvious limitations (although its fun as hell).
To turn the clock to present time I have returned to my starting point. However, I´m completely changed. My point is that I don´t want to choose between pragmatic politics (say, the demand for 6 hours work day or a social wage) and the poetry of total revolution (“Lets sink this capitalist system into the deepest pits of hell”, as Uncle Tupelo put it.)
Why not embrace this pradox instead of either dismantle all radical aspirations for systematic change or turn into a ghetto of cynic revolutionaries who only bitch about what other people do wrong? Let´s be realistic revolutionaries!
To put it another way, lets push things forward, doing stuff we like for the fun of it without being paralysed by the stupid question “Is it reformist or revolutionary?”. To reformulate this question in a more (autonomist) Marxist fashion, “Does this mode of action sharpen the conflict between the classes?”. One can threaten the capitalist order far more effectively this way than running round
all dressed in black, thinking we´re the baddest motherfuckers that ever called themselves “revolutionaries”.
For example, I´m in favour of the European Monetary Union. The usual leftist answer is that EMU is a neo-liberal offensive meant to standardize the monetary policies of Europe. That is exactly the point. In this standardizing process lies a revolutionary opportunity. The national boundaries between countries wither away and the national State becomes insignificant (every Stalinists worst nightmare). This means that the class conflict no longer is mediated by countries and States but reaches a higher level, an European level. The proletariat stands eye to eye with the capitalists without some important mediations (unions, parties etc. still exist of course) and thus, the conflict gets more intense.
To formulate the problem in theoretical terms, one can take a
philosopher and with a
deleuzian touch fuck the person in the ass, and metaphorically, give birth to monsters with little resemblence to the parent. With other words, for example, exploit Lenin against Lenin, using some of his knowledge against statism or
socialist parties. Another old fart that can be treated this way is Louis Althusser, his theory of ideological state appratuses in particular.
To conclude and with the same breath paraphrase Raoul Vaneigem:
Anarchists, one more effort if you want to be realistic revolutionaries!