On Mon, Oct 28, 2024 at 02:44 PM, Charlie wrote: > > On Mon, Oct 28, 2024 at 05:38 PM, Marv Gandall wrote: > >> Well, the alternative is to call for its overthrow >> > > Maybe that is the only alternative that a parlor Trotskyist knows. It is > not a matter of "calling for"; it is what communists do, openly and > covertly.
What Charlie is trying to say is that the Communist Party of Venezuela and its rival left-wing tendencies inside and outside of the Bolivarian movement are not presently calling for the overthrow of the Maduro government but are instead working to acquire the mass support which will allow them to openly demand it at some point in the future. This is doubtlessly because the anti-Maduro Venezuelan left understands that the effect of this call would be to hand power to the right-wing opposition which is waiting in the wings. It would lose rather than gain it support from the more than six million Venezuelans who voted willingly or half-heartedly for the PSUV in the election. What Charlie doesn’t appreciate is that this is what makes this period different from the past, when it was the revolutionary left which was waiting in the wings to seize power. It was then commonplace for the far left parties to call for the replacement of capitalist governments, by violent means if necessary. Unlike today, they had the strong support of the masses. This was the context in which Lenin and the Bolsheviks issued their famous call for “all power to the Soviets” and Communist parties elsewhere subsequently sought to replace capitalist governments by openly agitating for their resignation or overthrow. On a personal note, Charlie refuses to accept that I am not a Trotskyist because he somehow thinks this is a useful cudgel with which to beat political opponents. I do concede his other point, though, that apart from attending protests for Palestine and other causes, I don't do much more these days than communicate with my peers on Marxmail and other social media from the safety and comfort of my “parlour”. I don’t pretend to be actively organizing or looking to lead in the unions and movements as when I was younger. But I still believe, as I've said before, that for capitalism to be overthrown a social revolution led by a disciplined party based on the Leninist model will be necessary. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33214): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33214 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109123065/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
