US workers on strike. The language of struggle and anti capitalism and pro socialism should be central to US workers culture.
Trotsky wrote a wee pamphlet on the struggle for cultured speech. When I saw it first my reaction was well "that is not for f...... me." I was well into being a terrible curser and swearer at the time. But with the help of this pamphlet I wised up a bit. If we are angry or mad or enthused about something it is much better to clarify the reasons why we are so and express these clearly. It is much better for all sorts of reasons. One is by this approach we have to clarify the feelings and ideas in our own heads, our own consciousness. This is very good for our understanding and raising our own consciousness. By doing this we can then communicate these clarified ideas to our friends and fellow workers much more clearly and in this way have a more clear discussion, and all of us will learn more. And we will be able to struggle more effectively.
But I have to admit I am having a harder time with my struggle for cultured speech recently. It is not hard to understand why. Capitalism is sinking deeper and deeper into crisis dragging more and more people into terrible suffering and death. Just think of the cholera epidemic in Haiti for example, or the slaughter of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars or the mass starvation of millions world wide or the destruction of the environment. As this goes on the top capitalists are piling up wealth to a degree that they never have before, to a degree they never ever imagined before.
As this goes on the leaders of the workers movement who are supposed to oppose the capitalist system and the obscene grotesque degenerates who run it, instead collaborate with these capitalists with fixed boot licking grins on their faces. But it is worse than that. Not only do they collaborate with the degenerate capitalist system and its grotesque rulers, not only do they refuse to fight, but in fact they crush any fight that takes place.
As this goes situation goes on I read about the degenerates such as Bush, an idiot who spent eight years in the White House and who now in his recent book leaves out his lying role in starting the disastrous wars in the Middle East and his destruction of the world and US economy. And we compare these people to the working class people who are working two or three jobs to keep their house and food on the table and to the hundreds of millions who are starving to death no matter what they do.
Yes I am trying to stick to the cultured speech. Somewhat along these lines. Capitalism is a system which because of its contradictions is dragging the world and the majority of its peoples into outright disaster. It cannot solve the problems of the planet or the people on it because of these contradictions. The capitalist class who run this system care nothing for this because of their wealth and power and their addiction to profit. Preserving these are all that is important to them. Yes I am trying to stick to my cultured speech along these lines.
But it is hard. Take Bush again. An idiot. But why did he get elected to two terms in the White House? Because his family had wealth and power, were considered reliable by the US capitalist class and as a result this class put their resources behind him. Now we have Obama. The US capitalist class rightly consider him reliable too. He only considers options that are acceptable to US capitalism. This is why he is becoming so unpopular with the majority in society, the working class.
This is where the trouble with the struggle for cultured speech comes in. In my rage at this system and these people who run it and the union leaders who back them I am having difficulty in not going back to my old ways. That is my swearing and cursing. I want to resort to "those F......" "motherfuckers" those you can imagine, etc, etc. But I will do my best to resist. Better to keep on with the struggle to clarify what is and in this way be better able to fight it. And also to help others clarify what is and organize to fight it.
It is a sign of the low political consciousness in the US that the most widely used word is "S...". Imagine that. "S...". This is the fault of the union leaders. They should have utilized the power of their 12 million plus members to take on capitalism, to build a mass workers party, to bring in a new vocabulary into society. The most used words should be "capitalism" and "socialism". Not "shit". I repeat. This is incredible. The word for human excrement is the most used word in the US vocabulary. The alternative vocabulary should have as a central component the scientific descriptions of the rotten capitalist system and the degenerate capitalists. It would involve discussions on the profit addicted capitalist system and the need for a democratic socialist society. The most used words should be capitalism, socialism, the working class, a mass working class party, words along these lines.
Keep up the struggle for cultured speech and the struggle for a new vocabulary. Some years ago the Wall Street Journal criticized a journalist for using the word "capitalist". They explained did so because they said this would start people thinking in terms of systems and this could be dangerous. They might start thinking about socialist systems. We need to learn from our enemies. A recent poll showed that 36% of Americans look favorably on socialism. Let us start from here, let the union and labor leaders start from here. But also let us on the left look at the moat in our own eyes and make our ideas for socialism more accessible to the great majority in society, that is the working class.
Sean.
2 comments:
It is hard to be cultured when you have no job. We need good union jobs more than anything. I love music and poetry,or a combination of the two. The following lines maybe important.
"nature has given us tears,the cry of pain.
But most of all he has given me melody of speech
To make the full depths of my anguish be known. "
It's more important to have a good union job in order to enjoy the beauties of life. Poverty simply sucks the life out of people. Keep up the great writings guys.
Thank you Tim for your comment which is very appropriate. The relationship between culture and material well being? I think if i am right I read a book by Jack london once called the scarlet plague. About a plague that wiped out all but a few pockets of people in the world. Inevitably the cities and industry died, the people who were left were thrown back to pre civilization. What happened to the language and culture? There was no longer need for words for all the things that had disappeared. All the items that made up life in the cities and advanced material conditions were gone. Roads, pens, plumbing, buttons, soap, paper, had gone, and with them the need for the words which described them. The language atrophied, became impoverished and began to slowly die. On top of that the harshness of life and brutality that was needed to survive undermined the positive emotions and the clarify of thought and the beauty of spirit. What was left and what developed were the emotions and psychology that was necessary to survive in the wild, what were possible to survive in the wild. The words and melodies of and beauty of poetry died. The method of thinking that was put together by Marx out of the approach of a number of others before him explains that we have to seek for the material base in things. This is as true with culture as it is with anything else. In fact especially with culture.
Comradely, Sean.
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