TANIT

Redshirts and the Split in the State

by Joe Gold, 9 July 2010

The killing has stopped, for now, and what passes for peace has returned to the Capital. Prime Minister Abhisit leads prayers for peace and talks of conciliation as the arrests continue and a state of emergency is extended for three more months in Bangkok and a third of Thailand. Tame singers, never much good at the best of times, drone on in censored broadcasts about the return of happiness against a backdrop of burning barricades – a sort of happiness, apparently, that comes from the barrel of a gun!

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The dramatic events unfolding in Thailand – with 21 people killed by the army in the last few days – highlight the weakness of the present regime and the power of the mass movement. It is an indication of the impact of the present worldwide crisis of capitalism on this South East Asian country.

By Joe Gold , 13 April 2010

Photo by Nate Robert.

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This is part two of an on-line discussion about revolution. The first part was published as Violent Revolution? The discussion about violent revolution continues, but the main focus is the state and revolution. In this context among other things experiences of Soviets and the struggle of Liverpool City Council in the mid-eighties are covered.

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Here is an edited version of an on-line discussion about revolution
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It is the fashion of some Marxist writers to denigrate intellectual and political opponents by accusing them of not recognising revolutions when they stare them in the face.

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If we were to delve seriously into the question, “What is a revolution” or “What defines a revolution”, I think we would get at the heart of the matter – i.e. not just what is wrong with the IMT and all of its failings, but the general problems of Marxism in general.

Since we first declared the Albanian and Indonesian revolutions in the late 1990s I seriously began to question the declaration of a revolution at every turn that the IMT seems to do… Suddenly there were revolutions everywhere – Albania, Indonesia, Ecuador, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Haiti, Kyrgystan, Iran, Thailand etc. have all had revolutions or experienced revolutionary situations apparently within the last 10-15 years. Now, in some cases this may be true, in others I think it is patently not… I first seriously began questioning all this when we declared the Mexican revolution – not because of the Oaxaca commune and the dual power that existed there, but because of the mass protests against the fraud in the election and the events in Mexico city… I think this situation was clarified by the IMT in a much better way subsequently… but still, revolutions have been declared in an entire host of countries, and can we say that there are still revolutions in these countries?

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Revolution traditionally describes a full turn of ‘the wheel of history’. However, the action of revolution is not restricted to human society. Coming as it does from the Latin verb to revolve, to turn, revolution has a far wider meaning. For example, we can refer to the revolution of the earth around the sun. However, in human terms we usually define revolution as a drastic and far-reaching change. Such change can be in the field of ideas. Thus we talk about a revolution in scientific thought or literature. It can also be applied to practical processes such as the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Or as we now see in the digital revolution sweeping the world.

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Events that are commonly known as revolutions are not rare in history. The Wikipedia entry lists 289 “revolutions and rebellions” since 1900, and this does not even include events with revolutionary potential like the General Strike in Britain in 1926. This article looks into a definition on what a revolution is.

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For many years the IMT (International Marxist Tendency) leadership liked to describe everything that moved as a revolution. Any larger demonstration or protest (at least if it was far away) was dubbed as the beginning of a revolution, even a socialist one. There was no justification for this. It was mainly an attempt to cheer up the troops, as the leadership was incapable of any real development of Marxism and the objective situation did not provide any major possibilities for advancing. This article will give one view of what a revolution is.

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