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| https://soundcloud.com/talkin-socialism/state-vs-anarchy-debate |
Dear readers,
One of the authors on this blog, Sean O' Torain (John Throne), was invited to a DSA panel in Chicago last Saturday. The debate under the general heading of the State vs Anarchy focused a lot on the events in France in 1968. That year a general strike began after student protests were brutally suppressed by the police. Ten million workers and students occupied the factories, workplaces, schools and universities, elected their own committees and barricaded streets and held mass protests.
It is an interesting and somewhat crucial topic for socialists and the events of 1968 are a concrete example of how the struggle between workers and capitalists can play out including the role of the state, its security agencies and political arm as well as the leaders of the workers parties and the trade union, the role of the students etc.
We would like to to thank DSA for holding such a debate and inviting a supporter and co-founder of this blog to speak. The mediator was fair and balanced and the discussion was comradely and productive; an example for young people wanting to become involved in left and socialist politics.
Lastly, we were unable to get the soundcloud clip embedded here but comrades can go to the this link to listen to the entire discussion. https://soundcloud.com/talkin-socialism/state-vs-anarchy-debate
1 comment:
As one of the participants in this discussion I would like to express my appreciation at the extremely comradely tone of the discussion at the entire absence of any sectarianism. It was a lesson to us all especially those socialists like myself who are a bit long in the tooth. I would also like to say that after listening to the discussion I feel that i should have made more clear that in my opinion revolutionary socialists cannot afford to reject electoral politics. All elections involve different agenda's put forward to the electorate. They are therefore a dialogue with and within the electorate the majority of whom are working class people. I do not believe that revolutionary socialists can afford to sit out this dialogue. It is our responsibility to participate in this as it is part of the struggle against the capitalist class for the consciousness of the working class.It could perhaps be a different situation if we were in a place where the working class had thrown up workers councils and were in a position to take power into its own hands. Until that is the case then we cannot afford the luxury of abstaining from bourgeois elections. Part of this in the US is the struggle to build a mass workers party. Sean O'Torain.
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