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$C:\Documents and Settings\John\Local Settings$ We CAN Change The World We CAN Change The World The Real Meaning Of Everyday Life ____________________ David G. Stratman New Democracy Books Boston Bertolt Brecht's lines "From a German War Primer," trans. by H. R. Hays, are taken from Bertolt Brecht, Poems 1913-1956, revised paperback edition, edited by John Willett and Ralph Manheim, and are reprinted by permission of Methuen London. New Democracy Books Boston We CAN Change The World: The Real Meaning Of Everyday Life © 1991 David G. Stratman All rights reserved. ISBN 0-9628566-1-4 ISBN 0-9628566-0-6 (pbk.) Library of Congress Catalog Number: 90-92305 Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 To Sally Contents Acknowledgments ............................. ix INTRODUCTION: HOPE AND REVOLUTION ..... 1 PART ONE 1 LEARNING SOMETHING NEW............... 13 2 THE MEANING OF CLASS STRUGGLE ........ 29 3 REVOLUTION AND EVERYDAY LIFE ......... 45 4 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY ............. 59 PART TWO 5 A GLIMPSE OF A NEW WORLD: THE U.S., FRANCE, CHINA.................. 83 6 THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK ................119 PART THREE 7 COMMUNISM AND COUNTERREVOLUTION . 141 8 FROM MARX TO LENIN.....................161 9 THE FAILURE OF THE LEFT.................171 10 THE ROLE OF THE UNIONS ................191 11 THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM...........203 PART FOUR 12 HISTORY AND REVOLUTION ...............241 13 REVOLUTION AND DEMOCRACY ...........261 CONCLUSION ...............................277 NOTES......................................279 INDEX......................................295 Acknowledgments This book evolved over many years, and I am indebted to a great many people for their ideas, insights, criticisms, and support. I would especially like to thank Eric Prahl, Steve Raudenbush, and Carol Doherty, who contributed many of the ideas for the book and who read numerous drafts. Thanks also to Joshua Bradt, Dennis Cerrotti, Brian Conly, Jim Cronin, Cynthia Curtner, Barbara Garson, Carol Glazer, Alice Hageman, Dick Hague, Ann Hurley, Pam Korte, Dave Noble, Darrel Stewart, Jake Stewart, Nancy Stewart, and Taylor Thompson, who read the manuscript and were generous in their suggestions and criticisms. Robin Stratman read the manuscript, and, over the years, she and Justin Stratman have been my sounding-boards and inspiration, more than they know. I owe the greatest debt to my wife, Sally. Her unflagging support and encouragement, her guidance and suggestions, her tireless hours of reading and re-reading manuscripts, and her confidence in me and in the project, made the book possible. ix x INTRODUCTION: HOPE AND REVOLUTION If there is anything that defines the world as we approach the end of the twentieth century, it is the loss of hope. The fundamental reason for this loss of hope is that there seems to be no alternative to the capitalist system. Communism provided the fullest articulation of apparently revolutionary ideas in the twentieth century, and it has turned out a disaster. The idea of revolution has been defeated by the reality of it. Without an alternative to the system, fundamental change seems out of the question. We seem doomed to live in the grip of a system which defines human life in terms of its own imperatives of profit and loss, competition and inequality. It seems that the deepest human values and most important human relationships must forever be subordinated to the needs of the economy and the dictates of the elite. Hope in the future and belief in the possibility of fundamental change—belief in the possibility of revolution—are inextricably linked. The defeat of the idea of revolution has led to an end to the belief that human beings have the capacity to create a human world. My purpose in this book is to show that we can triumph over the system to create a truly democratic society. A Note on "Revolutionary Democracy" Throughout this book I use the term "revolutionary democracy" to describe the society I believe we should aim to create. "Democracy," "socialism," and "communism" have all been corrupted to mean something other than what their original adherents had wished. "Commun- ism" quickly became a caricature of its original vision. "Socialism" fo- cuses too narrowly on economic arrangements to be an adequate term, and in practice has meant little more than planned capitalism. "Democra- tic socialism" and "social democracy" are terms for welfare capitalism; 2 WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD social democratic parties are simply sophisticated instruments of capitalist rule. "Democracy," to the extent that it means "rule by the people," is the essential element in meaningful social change, but does not by itself convey that, to be democratic, a movement must be revolutionary. Thus "revolutionary democracy." The Meaning of Revolution "Revolution" has historically meant different things to different people. In the American Revolution, to bankers, merchants, and slaveown- ers, revolution meant freedom from British control, to consolidate their power as an elite. To the small farmers and laborers who were its back- bone, the revolution meant establishing equality and radical democracy in the New World. Once independence had been won and the rank-and-- file were no longer needed, the Founding Fathers moved quickly to limit democracy in the new republic. To workers and peasants in Russia in 1917, revolution meant equality, radical democracy, and collective freedom, while to the Communist Party it meant something quite different: the ability of the party elite to guide the economic development of Russia. Immediately after the Octo- ber Revolution, the party took steps to destroy the power of workers' and peasants' committees in field and factory, and to consolidate party control. The meaning of revolution does not depend only on the economic interests of who is defining it. The capture of political power by the American elite reflected their view of humanity. They saw themselves as the cultured few who were fit to rule. Their rule would eventually benefit the whole society—within a framework which they would direct. Similarly the Communist seizure of power in the Russian Revolution was not mere cynicism on the Communists' part; rather, it reflected their view of who was fit to rule. The party would rule on workers' behalf, supposedly to their eventual benefit. What we mean by "revolution" then depends largely on our view of people. Democratic revolution and truly democratic society can only be based on a view of ordinary people as fit to rule society. I believe that the basis for a truly democratic society can be found in the values and relationships of ordinary working people. I maintain that the people who do the productive labor of society—who mine its coal, build its cars, care for its sick, teach its children—have goals and values which fundamentally conflict with the goals and values of the class of HOPE AND REVOLUTION 3 people who control the society and reap the rewards of this labor. Ordi- nary people struggle to achieve their goals in every area of their lives—with their co-workers, their husbands and wives and children, their friends and neighbors. These goals taken together constitute a different vision of what human life should be, a different idea of what it means to be a human being, from the vision of the ruling elite. Revolution, in my view, does not mean simply a new economic structure, and it does not mean control by a new elite. It means trans- forming all the relationships in society to accord with the values, goals, and idea of human life of ordinary working people. There seem to me to be two values which are fundamental to most people's lives and which are critical to creating a new society. Most people believe in equality and in commitment to each other. Revolutionary democracy means changing all the relationships and institutions in society to reflect the values of solidarity and equality. Revolutions occur when people gain sufficient confidence in their own view of human life and in themselves as the makers of history to shape all of society with their vision. The Importance of a Revolutionary Conception of Change The idea of revolution has no legitimacy in contemporary society. Yet a revolutionary conception of society is essential if we hope to under- stand the world around us or to change it. The reason for this lies in the nature of the system in which we live. Capitalism is not merely an economic system. It is a system of human relations, which projects and enforces its own view of the world as its primary source of control. The essence of the capitalist view of the world is a view of people: the idea that capitalist society expresses human nature. According to this view, society is competitive and unequal, driven by greed and self-seeking, because that is the way people are. The goal of society is economic development; the goal of the individual is to pro- duce and consume. Society is a jungle in which only the fit survive, and the most fit rise to the top. Whatever is good comes from the top of the social order. The feudal aristocracy claimed that the order of society was the will of God and therefore eternal. The capitalist class claims that the order of society is human nature, and therefore cannot be changed. Capitalism holds that self-interest is the fundamental human motiva- tion. Capitalism defines the possibilities of human society in terms of 4 WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD this view, and it shapes the fundamental relationships in society, such as economic relations, to conform to this view. Capitalism means a society constructed on selfishness as the basis of human development. The culture of capitalism has great power to convince us that the world cannot be different, because "this is the way people are." In this competitive world, we are taught to be always on the defensive.

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