[DEBATE] : Re: (Fwd) Crit of new UK climate blahblah

[Dominic Tweedie]

>From the Introduction to "Reform or Revolution?" by Rosa Luxemburg:

"At first view the title of this work may be found surprising. Can the
Social-Democracy be against reforms? Can we contrapose the social
revolution, the transformation of the existing order, our final goal, to
social reforms? Certainly not. The daily struggle for reforms, for the
amelioration of the condition of the workers within the framework of the
existing social order, and for democratic institutions, offers to the
Social-Democracy an indissoluble tie. The struggle for reforms is its means;
the social revolution, its aim."

"But doubly important is this knowledge for the workers in the present case,
because it is precisely they and their influence in the movement that are in
the balance here. It is their skin that is being brought to market. The
opportunist theory in the Party, the theory formulated by Bernstein, is
nothing else than an unconscious attempt to assure predominance to the
petty-bourgeois elements that have entered our Party, to change the policy
and aims of our Party in their direction. The question of reform or
revolution, of the final goal and the movement, is basically, in another
form, but the question of the petty-bourgeois or proletarian character of
the labour movement."



-----Original Message-----
From: debate-bounces at lists.kabissa.org
[mailto:debate-bounces at lists.kabissa.org]On Behalf Of Patrick Bond
Sent: 31 October 2006 05:46 AM
To: Doug Henwood
Cc: SA discussion list
Subject: [DEBATE] : Re: (Fwd) Crit of new UK climate blahblah

Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Oct 30, 2006, at 10:29 AM, Patrick Bond wrote:
>> Rising Tide: UK Stern Report Sells Climate Short,
>> Paves Way to Global Warming Catastrophe
> Does the phrase "better than nothing" mean anything to the authors of
> this "crit"? In the US, we can't even get our gov to admit that
> anything's wrong.

It's the classic problem, isn't it Doug, of adopting a reformist reform
('better than nothing') when we know we need a non-reformist reform. In
my understanding - of Gorz, Kagarlitsky, Saul - these 'reforms' actually
strengthen the underlying logic of the system, and strengthen the
system's existing institutions, and weaken the institutions of
resistance. As Christian Aid put it yesterday, 'If we follow the
report's conclusions, we may avert economic bankruptcy but we will still
be teetering on the brink moral bankruptcy.'

***

Stern figures don't add up for world's poor say Christian Aid /30.10.06

Christian Aid today (Monday, 30 October) broadly welcomed the Stern
Review on the Economics of Climate Change, but warned that its
conclusions would still expose millions of poor people to an
unacceptably high risk of disease, drought and famine.