I don't know. I think the SWP has always considered itself to be among
the left. It just never has considered the Stalinists to be. After all,
if they came out of the Left Opposition then why would they not count
themselves as left? Conservative, though, yes. James Cannon said that
Trotskyism is nothing new. It is a continuation of the Marxist movement
and so even the label, Trotskyism, should not be necessary. It was just
useful to distinguish them from Stalinists and to distinguish themselves
very clearly to even people who could not tell the difference. Cannon
regarded Stalinism to be what was new, a new betrayal of Marxism. Now,
that is conservative. And I am not using the word conservative in the
misused fashion that right-wingers use it to describe themselves. They
have perverted the word conservative to mean something that it does not
mean.
___
Irvin D. Yalom “Truth," Nietzsche continued, "is arrived at through
disbelief and skepticism, not through a childlike wishing something were
so! Your patient's wish to be in God's hands is not truth. It is simply
a child's wish—and nothing more! It is a wish not to die, a wish for the
eveastingly bloated nipple we have labeled 'God'! Evolutionary theory
scientifically demonstrates God's redundancy—though Darwin himself had
not the courage to follow his evidence to its true conclusion. Surely,
you must realize that we created God, and that all of us together now
have killed him.” ― Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept
On 6/29/2021 2:05 PM, Maurice Peret wrote:
Hi Miriam,
One observation I would make is that the SWP never has nor ever would
count itself among the American "left." The party broke from the
Stalinist stranglehold and its members were, in fact, expelled from
the Communist Party USA early on and worldwide precisely because of
its opposition to the privileged bureaucratic cast that gained and
then maintained their brutal control over the people. It was a
counterrevolution, to be sure. An interesting story was that James P.
Cannon, who was a founding leader of what ultimately became the
Socialist Workers Party, smuggled out documents of the Soviet left
opposition led by Leon Trotsky following a meeting of the Communist
International. The party's analysis of the Maoist regime is little
different. It is easy enough, I think, to research what the Militant
had to say on the subject by going through the archive additions. the
paper has been in circulation since 1928, but for a short stint when
the U.S. Post Office refused to deliver issues due to its staunch
opposition to imperialist entry into World War II. By many standards,
members of the SWP could accurately be called conservative within the
Marxist/Leninist framework of building a revolutionary proletarian
party. Its position on this subject is, therefore, not surprising nor
unexpected.
On 6/29/21, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Very interesting. I remember when the anti Communist propaganda focused on
the one child policy and forced abortions in China back in the 50's and
early 60's. I wonder what The Militant was saying then? The fact is that
China functions with very different values than American leftists, whatever
American leftists think, or thought in the past. It is a very old
civilization with a huge population and ever since the Communists have taken
power, the goal has been to have a planned economy so that starvation would
be eliminated. Personal freedom and Democracy were never the plan. Neither
was conquering other countries. China has always concentrated on itself. If
you visit China, and I have, the social atmosphere is totally different than
it is in the west. It is also obvious that the Chinese are extremely
competent at whatever it is they choose to do. But from the minute you step
off the plane, you know that you are in a controlled environment.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 10:41 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Beijing control over family size is attack on
women
Beijing control over family size is attack on women
https://themilitant.com/2021/06/26/beijing-control-over-family-size-is-attack-on-women/
BY SETH GALINSKY
Vol. 85/No. 26
July 5, 2021
Worried that its population is aging and there won’t be enough young workers
to exploit to maximize state profits, the Chinese government announced last
month that it was raising the limit on the number of children a family is
allowed to three and began a propaganda campaign to encourage more
childbirth. Now Beijing officials are considering dropping all restrictions
on larger families.
The Chinese rulers fear that having a shrinking and aging population is a
barrier to challenging Washington for greater economic and political
influence.
Government interference in the personal decisions of when, if and how many
children a woman has is reactionary. These decisions should be in her hands
alone in conjunction with her family. To make that possible it is necessary
to fight for access to family planning, including aid in conceiving a child
if needed and the right to safe and secure abortion.
At the beginning of the 1970s the Maoist regime in Beijing pressured women
to have fewer children. In 1979 government bureaucrats imposed a general cap
of one child per woman. Those who violated the law had to pay huge fines or
were forced to have abortions.
At the end of 2015, with Chinese women averaging only 1.05 children, the
second lowest in the world, Beijing raised the cap to two. That did little
to increase the birthrate. In China, just like in the U.S., the U.K., France
and other countries, birthrates have been declining for years.
The decline in workers’ real wages, the rise in the cost of living and lack
of child care, a result of the bosses foisting the capitalist crisis on the
backs of working people, are also key to the decline in family formation
worldwide. Even in the United States, the strongest imperialist power, many
young workers today can’t earn enough to live on their own, so they put off
having children.
An affordable family is even harder to establish in China with low wages,
sky-high rents and mortgages, and meager pensions. Child care as well as
nursing homes and other facilities for seniors are further out of reach for
working people there than in the U.S. And it’s women who face the biggest
burden, with the responsibility for children and the elderly falling almost
entirely on the family.
When Xinhua News in China published the results of a poll that asked
22,000 people, “Are you ready for the three-child policy?” Twenty thousand
chose, “I won’t consider it at all.” The poll was quickly deleted from the
agency’s website.
Working-age couples in China often have to take care of “two sets of parents
who don’t have much income for savings or pension plans if any, plus any
kids they already have,” reports Al Jazeera.
While the rulers in Beijing are trying to get women from the majority Han
population to have more babies, they subject women among the mostly Muslim
Uighur people in the Northwest to strict birth control policies.
Long discriminated against and persecuted by Beijing, Uighurs often face
forced sterilization and abortions, reports The Associated Press.
This goes hand in hand with Beijing’s systematic detention of hundreds of
thousands of Uighurs in forced labor camps.
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Feature Articles
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Also In This Issue
South Carolina pushes for execution by firing squad
Beijing control over family size is attack on women
Strikers at ATI steel hold rallies, expanded pickets, win more support
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--
Irvin D. Yalom “Truth," Nietzsche continued, "is arrived at through
disbelief and skepticism, not through a childlike wishing something were
so! Your patient's wish to be in God's hands is not truth. It is simply
a child's wish—and nothing more! It is a wish not to die, a wish for the
eveastingly bloated nipple we have labeled 'God'! Evolutionary theory
scientifically demonstrates God's redundancy—though Darwin himself had
not the courage to follow his evidence to its true conclusion. Surely,
you must realize that we created God, and that all of us together now
have killed him.” ― Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept