Know your enemy !
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-10-14Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 12 →
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Criticism on cultural issues, even apparently 'non-political' ones, is part of the process of preparing revolutions - as the work of the 'young Hegelians' helped prepare the 1848 revoluM Hart (SO 102) has got lar (CN 109) hao rent L wrong when he att• Rocky Sullivan for peating a more diverse ural coverage for Soc* Organiser. Tom falls • the trap of primitive kerism. le fails to recognise che ' of a politicised intellisia interacting with в conscious workers and the process creating * Gramsci termed 'the : politico-cultural hegein which is a prerisite for working class lership in a society movlowards socialism.
Expansion i new ruling class cannmerge in history and five without establishits own ideological bework that transcends I outdated forms of iledge and ways of ig, and also stimulates a ssal expansion of the lactive forces of ety. lould there have been a uch Revolution in 1789, example, without the logical onslaught on balism launched by the psophes as the ideologrepresentatives of a ig bourgeoisie?
Solution I course not! New idhad to be established le minds of the oppresswhich adequately exsed a solution to their rial deprivation. pe Liberté, Egalité, ernité. deed, in achieving this, tion in Germany (above). the Philosophes attacked every aspect of absolutist rule - from the domination of Roman Catholicism to the toilette habits of Marie Antoinette. Socialist Organiser should do the same.
The weakness of the socialist movement in Britain compared to elsewhere in Europe is a direct produet , of the poverty of political culture expressed in Tom Hart's phrase, "trivia such as music, sport, literature, and art" • • Impact I would point to the work of Gramsci and his 'L'Ordine Nuovo' group in Italy in the 1920s as an example of where a group of politicised intellectuals committed to the working class cause had a profound impact in establishing Marxism as the dominant philosophy in their working class - precisely because they criticised every aspect of decadent capitalism - and won politically conscious workers to their banner at the same time.
Socialist Organiser must extend its horizons to examine and publish material on all the aspects of working class life, including sport, literature, and music, that people experience in our rotten society.
BARRY HASLAM, Rochdale. Dear S.0, We invite readers to send us their letters, up to a usual maximum length of 400 words.
Send to Socialist Organiser, c/o 28. Middle Lane. London N8.* IN ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION, I'M A NICARAGUAN GUERRILLA, TRAINED IN CUBA TO FIGHT IN EL SALVADOR