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NolioiUJlism, Communhm, Mar.I!:UI Humolsi.m

ond tAe·

Afro~ Asian-~ Revolutions·

RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA

with Author's New Introduction to 1984 Edition

A News & Letters Publication $1.25 8102

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Nationalism, Communism, Marxist g,.,-mani81n

:>nd .the

Mro-Asian Revolutions

RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA

t\ NeWs & Letters Publication 59 E. Van Buren, Ste. 707

Chicago, ILL 60605

ISBN 0-914441-06-X

8103

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Contents

Author~s NeW Introduction to -1984 Edition Forewoid hy Peter Cadogan Introduction to 1961 Edition

African Realities and World Politics A Glance at the 1950s

The 'Afro Asian Revolutions

3 3 5

Pan-Africanism -- R . AI the Opposite Ertd of the World? 10 The·New Stage of World Capitalism: State Capitalism 11 The Intcllettual Bureaucrats and. the Labor Bureaucrats 15 .. Socialism Cannot se Introduced by a Min~rily, A Party" A New Point of Departure in The~ry: Colonial Revolt~· Uitder Imperialism Trotskfs Theory of Permanent. Revolution in the Light of Present Day China Marxist Hume.ni~m

APPENDIX '1: The· New HUmanism: African Socialism

APPENDIX II: The StrCam Beneath the Straws

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21 22

30

33

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New Introduction to 1984 Edition

''Our period is a birlh·timc and a period of transition," ' - Hegel, Phenomenology or 1\find

''When the narrow bourgeois form has been p~cled away, what is wealth. if nor universality of needs . .. the evolution of all human powers as such . .. the absolute movement of b~?coming."

...:... Marx, Grunddsse

The emergence in our age of a new Third World, not only Afro-Asian but Latin American and Middle East, was no mere geographic designation, as massive and substantive as that was. R.fllher, Third WorJd became synonymous both with new forces of re\'oJution and '#ilh those new forces as Reason. These new revolutionary forct!s- peasants as well as proletarians, Women's · Liberationists as well as youth anll-war ac~ivists- saw in that most exciting color, Black, so deep a revolutionary dimension and so intense an inter­

< nationalism imbedded in their nationnlliberation struggles that, far from being a "Third" World, ·it encompassed the whole world. ..

The world of the 1960s, indeed, was aflame with rebellion, North and South, East and West. The depth or the revolt that freedom fighters in East Europe unleashed against the Communist totalitarians characterized, as well, the new generalior. of re•Jolutionarics in the West, rebelling against the bureaucratic, militaristic, capitalist-imperialist world they did not make.

JliST AS TliF. Afo'IUCAN: lll:\SPOH.,\ meant not only South Africa hut South USA, and Rinck meant not only Africa - South, West, East and North - but also Latin America, including the Caribbean, so Slack Consciousness, plunging Into the struggle for freedom from Western im· pcrialism did not stop at the economic level anymore than did the East European freedom fighters struggling against Husslan totalitarianism calling its~l£ Communism. By no means did this signify a forgetting of the economic im· PO\,.crishmcn~ of the masses; while man doe!'! not live by bread alone, he must have bread to live.

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Once in power, however, the division betWeen the leaders and the masses, whose -revolutionary spontaneity had achieved power for them, widened .. What increased the distance between leaders and ranks was the problem of how to industrialize non-capitalistically; private or state: of how, at the same time, to expand political liberties and maintain worker control of production and the state. What was disclosed was a void in the philosophy_ of revolution. The banner of Marx's theory of liberation, which had been so great a pole of attraction, so powerful a force of mobiliza­tion and solidarity, was now narrowed to staying in power. Indeed, all sorts of shortcuts and substitutions, religion in­cluded, were indulged in. The r~volutions were aborted ..

As I put it in this pamphlet in 19591 : "So powerful and polarizing a force is the Marxist theory of liberation that throughout the Middle East, the Orient and Africa, there are attempts by various religions, Buddhism, Christianity

-and Mohammedanism, to find a bridge to it, even as there is a similar attempt on the part of Communist China and Russia." 1 warned that because the petty-bourgeois leaders had not faced the realities of the new stage of capitalism.:._ state-cal.litalism, <Jnd had uol grasp:ed the meaning of what the massPs. were Ooing i.n oppositiOn to that new tyrariny, they would inevitably fait into the old trap of thinking !he workers backward and mislead them.

IT WASN'T O!'ILY r\\'ATOLLt\11 KltOMEINI who trans· formed the 1979 massive Iranian re\•olution into its total op· posite- a counter-revolution~. It was the Left itself in Iran

1. First published by Sews & t.etters in Detroit, in August, 1959.this pamphlet was republished In England in May. 1961 by the Lert Group, Cambridge University Labour Club With a new lntroduc· tion and added material, a!; it appears here.

2. Sec the collection of my eight Polltl~ai-Philosophle Letters c::1. "Iran: Re\'olution and Counter-Revolution," written between Nov. 13, 1978 and Sept. 25, 1981, ami translated into Farsi by Ira· nian revolutionaries. See also English 1ranslation or the lntroduc· lion to the Farsi et.fitio~ or this pamphlet on the Arro·Aslan Revolutions by Raha, wi,irh was printed in Sews & Lrlters, August-September, 1983. Of the many crises in the Middle East, the· most horrifving is the disintegration and destruction of Lebanon, >Ahich be~an even bt:fore Jsr:~el's genocidal 1932 inva­sion. I am referring to lhc 1975·76 Civil War. See my Pollllcal· l'hllo!ouphlc l.t'Hers of ISi'G, especially Letter Number G, "Lebanon: The 1'esl Not Only of lne PLO bulthe Who!Ed..ell." ~e"~ & ~.t'Uer~. [letroit. 11.11.

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who aided in that usurping of their revolution by bowing to the· religious substitute for philoSophy, whether ·that af· fected the workers, the peasants. the Women's. Libera­tionists, or the question of education._ For that matter,' the same attitude of capitulation_ characterized the national liberation leaders in power . who· hung onto_ the. statE'~­capitalist Communist orbit o_f nuclear power. - .

The Communist world, parading its state-capitalism as "Marxist-Leninism," stili serves as a pole of attraction for

-some re\•olutionaries in the Third ·world. And while Reagan's description of H.ussia as the "evil empire" con· vinces none outside of Reagan's capitalist-imperialistic co-· rulers, because U.S. imperialism is today's reigning world Behemoth, even atl Ayatollah Khomeini has succeeded in presenting himself as "anti-imperialist'.' and the U.S. as the "Great Satan. •· None have faced world cr!ses and realiti<:s from the vantage point of the freedom of the masses. It has resulted in the degradation of the national liberation move­ment itself.

TAKE GRE:O.OADA, which won power on its own and maintained it for m"ore than three years. and yet tailended one of the world superpower orbits, which meant silence on the-crucial question o! dialectics of revolution. The re~uJt \\'as both that philosophy of revolution was degraded to the question of "leadership methods" and that they were so dcmim:.ted b)' the view of -the "backwardness_ of the· masses" that all discussions were kept a secret from them.· Can the Left possibly not face the fact that the first shot of counter-revolution came from within the new. Party,

-'which- thus opened the road. for _U.S. imperialism's invasion? 1 Nothing can erase the stark fact that the shot· that murdered :\Iaurice Bishop came from his co-leaders in the Party, led by Coard and Austin. Nor can anyone skip over the infantilism of making the point of debate a ques­tion· of Maximum Leader· vs. collective leadership and ''leadership method," instead or the dialectics of revolution and the question of which road to take out of the crisis in th~ir country, a crisis determined by the myriad world Cf!SeS.

3. See my Polltlc:ai·Phllosophlc LeUrr o( ~ovembcr 28, 191\3: ··counter·Re\·otutlon and Re\·olution: Grenada, The Cnribbe3n

_Today. f!nd the Challenge from 3lt Years o( Movements from Pr·acticc that were Thems~lvcs Forms oi Theory:· a\·aii:Jblc from Se•.u & Lt'ltt'rs.

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As the analysis of the battle of ideas iti ·Nationalism, ComM munism, l\tarxist.llumanism and the ACro--Asian RevoJu. , lions shows, from the very first-emergence of the Third World, I held that to assure the forward movement of this . new world it is as important to work out the new stage of cognition as the new ·stage of economic realities. It now becomes imperative for the Left to face it.seJ!; to take a deeper look at what was truly new in the last two decades since the- first publication of this pamphlet when a new world had arisen. None of the mass revolts have suffered either_- from Jack of daring or from initiative. Nor, for that matter, have they suffered from lack of sacrifice by both masses and leaders. Nevertheless, what the past two decades has rcve~led is a failure to meet the challenge from the masses. \\-"hat was demanded was a totally new relationship of theory to practice which was grounded in the new movement from practice that was itseJf a form of theory.

Just as, from the_ start o_f the new stage of production -Automation, now~ computerized into ·robotics - the AmP.rican worke1-s·have asked ''What kind or labor should men and women do?" <by which they did not mean skilled .vs. unskilled, but why should there be such a division be· tween mental and manual labor?); and just as the East European masses fighting against ··v.ork-norrns" haYe, from the 1950s right through to today, tried to thfow off the shackles oftheSingle-P~rty state-plan. and thereby placed

'Marx's Humanist Esso.ys on the historic stage; just so the theoretician's task is to work out a new point of departure in theory, a philosophy of revolution.

TilE -T~\SK lS :\'01' SIMPLY to go in for ever more ac­tivism ·as i£ that alone could achieve a full, successful, social revolution: Theory is a rigorous as well as creative activity that cannot be picked up "en route.·· It gives action its direction. Each age must work out for itself the prin· ciples o£ Marx's Humanism. -

The new generation of revolutionaries cannot avoid responsibility for that by- indulging in shortcuts and weightless abstractions. When, in the last decade of Marx's life, he witnessed the unprincipled, empty rhetoric for unification nr two so('ialist organizations, he insisted, in his

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sharp critique, tha-t only an internatioilalism unc;eparated from principles of revolutior.·in-permanence could become the ground-for organization.• Otherwise. Marx cautioned, .. the unity should be limited to unity of action against what· is, while one continued to work out theory as ground for principled unification. First of all, it was necessary to_ clear one's h~ad. . · · · . ·

To meet the theoretic challenge of a new stage of cogni­tion, one has to have full confidence in the masses, not only as force but as Reason - that is to say, confidence that their movement from practice-as a form of theory does, in­deed, signify that they can participate in the working out of a new theory. That is exacUy what was _lacking in the leadership in Grenada as they debated so-c.alled "leader­ship methods" instead of the dialectical methodology which 0

flows from a philosophy of revolution. Without that, leaders inevitably fel1 into the trap·or hanging onto one or another-statepower. _ -- _. - - . __ __

There are signs of a new direction in the attempts, E.~St and West, North and Sooth, to restate Marx's Humanism for our age. Thus, in Nigeria, among other African coun· tries, the Marx centenary brought out no less than a thou-. sand scholars, trade unionists, and revolutir.mary actlvists, to discuss the "'body of theories, founded by Karl Marx," a discussion which was broad enough'to also focus "on the way in which patriarchal and sexist prejudices are being in~ creasingly propagated in Africa."' This recognition nf a new revolutionary force is a beginning but a beginning only.

THAT THIS PAMPHLET can aid in grappling with the task today of articulating, rethinking, how to develop the unification of theory/practice with theso::! new forces of revolution has been proved by what we have teamed from

4. See Marx's Crlth(ue.·Of.the Golba- Program and my analysili o£ this profO'..md document in Chapter XT o£ Rosa Luxeruburg, Womor-~'s Uberatlon and Marx's Phlloso!)hy o£ Revolut!or.: "The Philosopher of' Permanent Revolution Creates New Ground for Organization.

s. 'See report by Saidu Adamu, Conference Coordinator for the Steering Committee, in Journal of Afrl~an Marxists, Issue 4, Septemt>er 1983. The Conference was held March 14 to 19, 1983.

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Marx's last writings- his Ethnological Nott!books.•Thatis to sny, the presentation of Marx's Marxism as a totaHty, as a new continent of thought and of revolution, has been verified by the publication of those writings which touch on the problematic of our day- the Third World: They round out Marx's break with· capitalist society and his first discovery of a whole. new C~ntinent of thought' as Marx ar­ticulated it in the 1844 Hwnar.ist Essays, which did not limit his revolutionary· challenge L.'l capitalism only to what he was against·and meant to overthrow. Rather, in unfurling the banner of revolution, Marx's magnificent vision disclos~ ed the new human relations he waS £or, from a riew relatinn­ship of Man/Woman to the end or the division between men­tal and manual labor. In the 1850s that vision poinler1 to the need for a "revolution. in permanence"; ~nd by 1357-his Grundrisse projected hum~nity's as well as the individual's development as an "absolute movement or becoming.''

What Ute last writings reveal are the .. new moments" which round out- that is, totalize as well as concretize­his philosophy of revolution. Thus:

l)Marx insist.ed that the climactic analysis ot "The Ac~ cumulation cf Capital,"· in his greatest work; Capita.i, was not a Universal which. the East must follow, but the descrip­tion and historic truth of West Europe:· that other paths to revolution could come from technologically uOdcr..<Jevel-oped countries. _ ·

2) Marx's multilinear-view of the four historic stages of human development- the "Asiatic Mode of Production" as weJI as slavery, feudalism and capitalism -opened so many new roads to revolution, in such concrete ways, that the 1857 "absolute movement of becoming" was spelled out in the last decade of his life -though only in notes - a's a Promethean vision Q.f the possibility of a unity of the two ex·

·tremes -· primitive communism and the future developed ('Omrnunist society or totally new human rcla tio.ns.

6. Set~ chapter XII of my work, Rosa Lu~emhurg, Women's Libera· lion and Marx's Philosophy or Re\'olution: "The Last Writings or Marx Point a Trail to the 1980S,'' espE"Cially Section 2. an "The Unknown Ethnoloftlca1 Notebooks, the Unread Drafts of the Let­ter to Zasulich, as Well as the Undigested 18tl2 Preface to I he Rus· sian Edition of the Communist Manlft-slo."

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This trail to the 1980s is not any blueprint; nor was it fully worked out for his age. It is there for us tO work out ror our age. This pa.mphlet h~ laid Ute ground for that task. When the capitalistic (private and state), ·exploitative, crisis­ridden imperialistic world or 1984 threatens to unloose· 3. nuclear holocaust that would put an end to humanity as·we have known it, it is clear that it is the urgency of the times which demands that this generation of revolutionaries turn to revolutionary praxis, to philosophy as action and action as philosophy. · · ·

Let us put an end to substitution ism and return to Marx's philosophy of "revolution in permanence'' to create non­exploitative, non-sexist, non-racist, totally new human relations.

Feb. 15, 1934

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ROSA LUXEMBURG . ·WOMEN'S LIBERATI0~1 AND MARX'S PHILOSOPnY

OF REVOLUTION by Raya Dunayevskaya

'19.95 Cloth .'10.95 Paperback

And two o!her Marxist classics published for the Marx cent<>nEory Humanities Press, USA, and Harvester Press, England,

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• MARXISM AND FREEDOM • PHILOSOPHY AND REVOLUTION

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Political Theory, George Armstrong Kelly "Taken as a whote;·ounayevskaya's three books ... ccntain an irnpor- · tant contributicn to African stu~dies by a writer who has spent a lifetime as a political activist as well as a theorist. The passionate commitment to human liberation Is never absent fro_m Dunayev­skaya's \\"'rk, yet at tho same time there is no tack of thooretical and analytical rigor." Atrl:::a Kevin Anderson ------------------Order from: Hewal Lenen, 59 Buren, Chicago IL 50305 Enclosed Is s ___ for C Rosa Luxemburg, Women's Llboratlon and Marx's Phl!osophy of Rf!voluUon [J Marxism and Freedom tJ Philosophy and R111volutlon (Please add $1.00 for handling each ordar) Name _________________ ___

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8U4

Selected PolitiCal-Phi.lcsophic ·Lctt!H~S of

Raya Dunayevskaya ~ l~b6-l9.S3

1. IRAN " The ~trucjgl~ C~nti .. n.ues_: · What Kind· of ~'. RevolUtion is Needed in _,the_- Battlt:·.:. ,·-·__ _ Against Khomeini-IRP counter-Revo'l:u~ion?,.-

2. LATIN AMERICA • The Latiri American Unfinished Revolutions

~. THE ECONOMY • Today's Global Crisis 3nd ~~rx's i· Capital

4. RUSSIA • Andropov's Ascendancy Reflects Stage of State-Capitalism's Degeneracy

Final --1

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_5. TilE MIDDLE EAST • Lebanon: The PLO's Crucible • Begin's Israel Moves Further

And !-'urther Backward ·'ro His Reactionary. Te~rorist Beginriings

6. AFRIC;-'\ * Kiss~itger'-s Afric~n Safari

i. CHINA' 9 Post-Mao China

~B.- CornpletC list. of Political-Philosophic Letters by Raya oun3yevskay~. 1976-1~83 ·

Each letter SCi (#8 only 20e) Order by numb~r.

Please send the following Political-PhilosoFhic Letters of Raya Dunayevskaya

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