Forum topic: How the working class brought an end to World War I

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12 October, 2014 - 02:12
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Fred
Forum topic: How the working class brought an end to World War I
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The discussion that follows was prompted by the article: How the working class brought an end to World War I. The discussion was initiated by Fred.
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12 October, 2014 - 03:42
Fred
encouraging

What an interesting account this is of what sounds like a lively and thought provoking meeting in a distant part of Europe with a  tortured  history. Many "old" issues are raised and discussed as new and exciting to the participants.  This is good. 

Quote:
 A young participant, referring to the situation of 1919 in Hungary, said that the seizure of power in the name of the working class was carried out by the social democratic and communist party leaders, and not by the spontaneous activity of the self-organized proletariat.
 

i don't know whether this is factually accurate or not, but that the young participant understands for himself the importance of "the spontaneous  activity of the self-organized proletariat" and that only  this  - the consciousness and self-organization of the working class - can open up any possibility at all of a successful revolution, is cheering to read and a ray of hope in a dismal world.

Fascinating too that the ICC is able to conduct this sort of meeting, in such a positive spirit, despite its troubles at home.  This is encouraging too.  Congratulations to all the comrades involved. 

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14 October, 2014 - 06:33
Fred
exciting meeting of communist comrades in Budapest in 2014

This article isn't really about How the working class brought  World War One to an end, but about an exciting meeting of communist comrades in Budapest in 2014 - please note 2014 not 1914! 

Quote:
 The last question raised in the discussion was: why didn’t the workers join the Occupy movement? Our reply was that even if numerous people gathering around this banner in 2011/13 belonged to the working class the movement as a whole did not think of extending their struggle towards the working class, except for some limited cases in Spain and in California. And most of the Occupy demonstrators did not conceive themselves as proletarian, although they often were. The difficulty of the class to develop a specific class identity was already a topic in the Budapest discussion in 2010. It is part of the consciousness within the class that must ripen. Without this self-consciousness of the revolutionary subject the jump to a new and really human society will not be possible.

It is – by the way – interesting that in the Budapest discussions one question that we hear often in Western Europe, i.e. the question of the existence of the working class, is never posed. Here the need for a class response is not questioned. It seems that there is a common concept of what the working class is, of its characteristics and responsibilities.

 

I wonder why there remains an understanding of the existence of the working class in Eastern Europe whereas, it could be argued, the bourgeoisie have successfully eradicated such old fashioned notions in the West where we all sing drowsily from their democracy hymn sheet. 

 

About the phrase "the jump to a new and really human society" I really like this.  "The jump" - it sounds so simple;  yet without it we're all, workers, bourgeoisie and petty bourgeois hangers-on included, toast; finished; end of world etc. 

Without the jump the idea of a really human society will not be possible!  So that's it in a nutshell.  Take it or leave it.  

If only the message could get out more! 

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