[OPE-L:2079] Re: Re: the nature of a commodity and the meaning of class struggle

From: Jurriaan Bendien (djjb99@worldonline.nl)
Date: Mon Jan 10 2000 - 12:11:07 EST


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Hi Paul

Thanks for your comment. You wrote:
>
>I don't know that the word "revolution" is so much overused.

Perhaps it isn't overused, except in advertising, but I think still often
misused. E.g. a shift in the balance of power between fractions of a class,
or a coup d'etat, is called a "revolution". Whereas a genuine social
revolution implies, at least in basic Marxian language, an overturn of
class power, i.e. the destruction of the political (and economic) power of
the existing ruling class and its replacement by the political (and
economic) power of another class. This implies also a change in social
structure, in social relations. A genuine "technological revolution"
implies the rapid spreading of a qualitatively new technology which forces
changes in social relations. Actually, I think there is little clarity
about what, for example, a "socialist revolution" is, properly speaking,
beyond rhetorical references. We can for instance easily agree that there
have been many revolutions in the 20th century, but which ones were really
"socialist revolutions" is another matter.

In solidarity

Jurriaan



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