tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30608474.post5471070556645845455..comments2024-03-09T10:17:03.382+00:00Comments on John Molyneux: Reflections on the Egyptian RevolutionJohn Molyneuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12505576725875193235noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30608474.post-41742323120499889252021-12-12T11:34:50.716+00:002021-12-12T11:34:50.716+00:00This is a grreat post thanksThis is a grreat post thanksTiffany Tasting Foodhttps://www.tastingtiffany.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30608474.post-63810365415256960032011-06-27T14:25:01.751+00:002011-06-27T14:25:01.751+00:00To Sean Delaney
More to the point, it's stagg...To Sean Delaney<br /><br />More to the point, it's staggering that you seem to have an ability to add anything other than complete drivel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30608474.post-64492738269607560622011-06-15T08:19:51.052+00:002011-06-15T08:19:51.052+00:00It is quite staggering how, someone who has spent ...It is quite staggering how, someone who has spent all their adult life attempting to comprehend and transmit the spirit of Marxism, can end up writing such utter drivel. <br /><br />Sean Delaney<br />Principia DialecticaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30608474.post-50108375772347876162011-06-03T13:32:43.010+00:002011-06-03T13:32:43.010+00:00I have three questions. The first relates to perme...I have three questions. The first relates to permenant revolution. It seems to me that from the 1980s onwards the IS tradition was absolutely correct to point to the growing importance of working classes being created in newly industrialising countries, and their centrality to emerging struggles, often under the banner of varieties of populism and often involving demands generally associated with bourgoise revolutions. On the other hand we seem to have been wrong when we argued that unless such struggles were led by the working class in a process of permenant revolution they would be defeated. Not only was there (unfortunately) no instance of a working class winning political leadership of a movement, but, very importantly, in a number of cases democratic demands were realised and a change of regime occured: From South Africa to, perhaps, the largest examples, Russia and Eastern Europe, this was the general pattern (its also, to an extent, true in Ireland as well of course). <br /><br />Now I don't want to sound like a Nigel Harris (I really don't!) but this raises questions for me about whether when we (rightly) stress the centrality of the working class, the need to fight for socialism, we're really any longer speaking of permenant revolution in the classical sense. As Neil Davidson pointed out recently, our old formulation about permenant revolution deflected does not seem to be particularly helpful either. <br /><br />I became a bit concerned about this watching some of the debates about Egypt because it seemed to lead both to the kind of 'radical' pessimissim you alluded to ('oh this is not a real revolution socialism has not been established') as well as potentially serious mistakes about the dynamics of the process flowing from such beliefs. <br /><br />I think its absolutely right to speak of this as a process like the period after 1968 but am completely unsure, perhaps precisely because of that reason, how much this has to do with Trotsky's theory of permenant revolution. <br /><br />My second question is related to our being ahead of the curve in relationship to the importance of the working class in NIC's etc. I agree with this entirely. But I have one worry. I know far too little about the structure and composition of the Egyptian working class (I'm trying to thumb through some of the books you mentioned at present) but I do know that in other developing countries the working class has suffered the kinds of decomposition and setbacks associated with neo-liberalism in the more advanced countries. In Bombay for example there has been a double decimation both of the traditional industry: textiles, and of the newer industrial working class that grew rapidly in the 1970s. The unorganised sector has grown apace and those involved in the trade union movement suffer from the same feeling of depression that many do in this part of the world. Of course its right that new struggles are emerging, new sectors etc. These range from the new computer industries through to attempts to organise builders and those at the bottom. But it is not the same kind of picture of advance associated with the kind of analyses we began to develop in the 1970s and 80s. <br /><br />Again, I don't want to detract at all from the general thrust of the argument you put foward but I think whilst we should celebrate the things we got right, the very scale of contemporary events means we maybe need to look a little more critically at some of the frameworks we developed to make sense of the recent past. Not three questions really, two and a half perhaps.johnghttp://www.leninology.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30608474.post-83204799985637513582011-06-03T09:06:04.115+00:002011-06-03T09:06:04.115+00:009000 words may invite 000s word comments, hence on...9000 words may invite 000s word comments, hence only the 'passivity' of reading. It is your comment that evinced this comment of mine, not the main reflections. Now I have to go and read the other 60 comments on a related(?) subject.lawrencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06909573472712638847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30608474.post-37527136460820004352011-05-26T23:59:24.331+00:002011-05-26T23:59:24.331+00:00What does it say about the priorities of the blogo...What does it say about the priorities of the blogosphere that you write a short piece about Chris Bambury and get 60 comments and 9000 words about the Egyptian Revolution and no one comments at all. Ah well! I shall comment myself. I am very pleased that the prediction at the end of the article 'Now that the fire this time has been lit we can expect new explosions and not just in the Arab world' has already come true in Spain. Next stop Greece perhaps ?<br />John MolyneuxJohn Molyneuxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12505576725875193235noreply@blogger.com