Cyberspace Lenin...absolutely
Thanks to Luna 17 for his well presented argument HERE
Following on from my continuing calls for better use of the new technologies that are at our disposal, in the implementing of the Internet for Activists conference that I helped set up in March, and also from the way ICT was employed in the recent occupations I am currently writin a paper on the political uses of the internet vis a vis the revolutionary paper for Historical Materialism conference in November.
Please add any useful links and advice below.
So relevant is the 'quote of the day' below to our situation today that I want to flag it up as a post as well...
Solomon Quotes Marxists (and friends)
Quote for the Day: 22 August 2009
any army which does not train to use all the weapons, all the means and methods of warfare that the enemy possesses, or may possess, is behaving in an unwise or even criminal manner. This applies to politics even more than it does to the art of war.
Lenin, Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
4 comments:
I also think Lenin's conception of the paper as the scaffolding with which the revolutionary party will be built applies just as much to our use of the internet.
OK - a few thoughts...
1. The left needs to use the Net far more - and more effectively - than at present. That does NOT mean abandoning other methods entirely.
2. The Net is useful for spreading ideas, connecting people, and promoting activities happening offline. It should not be a substitute for activity in the 'real world' - it reports on, helps organise, and promotes that activity.
3. Most people are now online - it is therefore no longer credible to claim emphasising it as a political tool is elitist or middle class. It simply isn't.
4. Conservatism in resisting online activism is linked to conservatism in other ways. Bending the stick (in Leninist terms) towards using the Net properly goes together with overcoming conservatism and inertia inside a revolutionary party more generally.
5. It's not enough to bung printed material online. We have to utilise the particular strengths of the web - it's more dynamic, immediate, interactive, audio-visual, etc.
6. We should utilise the Net's potential to enable people to be particpants not just readers, feeding in their own reports, stories etc and offering own comments. It is interactive not one-way. This is consistent with Lenin's Pravda, but with modern tools.
7. Any active socialist who isn't on Facebook should be. Simple as that!
8. Many non-socialists in anti-capitalist and other movements have been far quicker at getting hang of all this. The left has to catch up. Poor use of the Net is one reason for marginalisation of the left in some campaigns and movements.
That's enough for now!
Well said Luna!
I second you Anonymous - 'Well said Luna'. One big mistake I have made in my life is to believe that someone else knows better than me. I am not yet on facebook for personal reasons, but there are loads of people out there we need to reach. They believe in what we believe in more than those who claim to know it all! The class struggle just means that, i.e. there are no experts and we are all in it together, listening to each other and supporting each other.
Like many others around the country, I read the names of dead victims of the Afghanistan war on Saturday at our naming of the dead ceremony in Lewisham. A sombre moment for someone who has experience personal similar grief. However, I was moved to tears by a young student from Goldsmith College who kept asking someone else whether she pronounced the names right. Young people like her are our leaders of tomorrow there is no doubt, and we need to bring them into leadership now.
I have read a few papers submitted for the November Historical Materialism which I have religiously attended in the past few years. Splended arguments from some young students yearning for a guiding star without realising that they are the guiding stars. Comrades like Alex (Luna) are surely some of the few guiding stars that I have come across after many years of being patronised, spoken to by many as if I was a child who could not speak for myself and with many others speaking on my behalf. Like many who find themselves in my situation, it is not stupidity that silences the intelligent. I see my intelligence in these young people whose voices no one listens to. Loud voices always drown the voice of reason. You will never imagine what it means to someone like me to come across innovative comrades like you Alex, Clare and a few others. I can assure you that we are tipping the iceberg in terms of the likes of us at present. We just need to believe in ourselves and listen to other more. Well done!
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