Re: [blind-democracy] House socialists and field socialists

Bruce Lesnick and Malcolm X lay it out clearly. Whether we are
talking about the House Socialist and the Field Socialist, or the
House Nigga or the Field Nigga, we are talking about people who are
controlled by their Master.
In our day we have the same problem. The Working Class has divided
itself into Working, Middle and Upper Middle Class. But all are still
under the control of the Ruling Class. For many years the Working
Class believed that if it worked hard and played by the Ruling Class'
rules, it would one day enjoy the same life style as its Master. Some
of the Working Class began to dress and talk like their Masters. Many
of these self anointed Middle Class folk adopted the contempt for the
Blue Collar Workers. This Middle Class became the First Defense of
the Ruling Class, destroying labor unions, supporting world conquest,
making profit their bottom line. The Ruling Class used the Middle
Class and the White Racists as wedges, driving people apart.
Despite his apparent sympathies, Bernie Sanders cannot "fix" a
government that is broken. Broken, that is, as far as the Working
Class is concerned. Change is coming, but not in an orderly well
planned method. The Ruling Class will never allow that. Since they
are on top and believe they are their due to their superior abilities,
they will never compromise. Most likely, America as we know it, or
America as we dream of it becoming, will never happen. We could well
become another Libya or Egypt.
In deed, the base problem, along with Capitalism, is this old thinking
of dividing the world up into nations. Corporations are busy
attempting to change that concept, but that will not be to the
advantage of the Working Class. We need to organize world-wide and
build a People's Government, where the bottom line is People, not
profit.

Carl Jarvis


On 3/6/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@freelists.org> wrote:
> http://socialistaction.org/house-socialists-and-field-socialists/
>
>
> House socialists and field socialists
>
> Published March 5, 2016. | By Socialist Action.
> Dec. 2015 Democrats
>
> By BRUCE LESNICK
>
> I wholeheartedly support the populist programs that Bernie Sanders
> advocates—from single-payer health care, to free college tuition, to
> taxing the rich and more. But borrowing from Malcolm X [see excerpt
> below], Bernie is a house socialist and I'm a field socialist.
>
> Bernie doesn't want to replace or overthrow capitalism. Like all house
> socialists, he thinks capitalism can be fixed or tamed with reforms. By
> contrast, we field socialists understand that the essence of
> capitalism—private ownership of major industry, resources, banks, and
> the exploitation of labor by appropriating surplus value (profit)—is
> antithetical to democracy.
>
> In fact, for all of Bernie's talk about "democratic socialism," he and
> other house socialists turn a blind eye to the lack of economic
> democracy that is the very hallmark of the capitalist system. Because
> Bernie is in favor of tweaking capitalism but opposed to dismantling it,
> he ignores the systemic lack of democracy in the workplace and the
> economy—the very aspects that most affects people's lives.
>
> Bernie rightly denounces the unequal distribution of wealth, where the
> top 1% owns more than the rest combined. But like all house socialists,
> Bernie fails to identify important institutions as being controlled by
> and serving the interests of the 1%. Congress, the Democratic and
> Republican parties, the national media, the police and the military are
> all captives of the 1%.
>
> In a class-divided society, all important institutions are wielded as
> tools of the dominant class. Field socialists understand that these
> institutions answer only to the needs of the 1%, even though much effort
> is made by official propagandists to convince us that they serve us all.
> Bernie and other house socialists aid the 1% in the criminal charade of
> pretending that government institutions, the police and the military
> exist and operate independent of the class divisions in our society.
>
> This is why it's no surprise that Bernie and other like-minded house
> socialists are military hawks. They see the U.S. army as "our" army
> rather than a weapon of the 1%. This is why Bernie has voted for nearly
> every war appropriations bill. This is why Bernie supports drones and
> U.S. military involvement in the Middle East; why he supported military
> action in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere.
>
> This is why Bernie supported sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s that
> caused the deaths of more than half a million children and he supported
> U.S. military action in Kosovo in 1999. This is why Bernie refuses to
> denounce the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine but supports
> billions in military aid for Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other brutal U.S.
> client states that serve to extend the reach and protect the interests
> of the 1% overseas.
>
> Field socialists oppose imperial war-making, understanding that the
> individuals and institutions of the 1% that exploit us here at home
> cannot be trusted to defend our interests abroad. In contrast to the
> hawkish house socialists, field socialists demand: "All US Troops Out
> Now!" "Dismantle All US Military Bases Abroad!" "Not One Bomb, Not One
> Bullet for the Wars of the One Percent!" "Money for Jobs, Not for War!"
> (For a complete field socialist election platform, see here.)
>
> Because house socialists like Bernie limit their critique to reforms of
> the existing system, they are unable to propose concrete, workable
> solutions for the big problems we face. Take climate change, for
> example. Sure, house socialists say we must do more. But they emphasize
> tweaking economic incentives in the hope of persuading energy monopolies
> to change their behavior.
>
> House socialists support keeping the energy industry in the hands of
> private, profit-mad corporations. But gentle persuasion hasn't changed
> corporate behavior up to now and we shouldn't expect it to succeed in
> the future. As long as there are profits to be made by disregarding
> rules and incentives, corporations will do so. No incentives and no
> amount of persuasion can induce a leopard to change its spots; you have
> to replace the leopard. (For a field socialist analysis of climate
> change and the energy monopolies, see here.)
>
> Few Americans realize that there are different kinds of socialists.
> Since house socialists are less of a threat to the powers-that-be, they
> tend to get a wider hearing than field socialists. In many European
> countries, house socialist parties have mass followings. House
> socialists have served as prime ministers in France, Sweden, Portugal,
> Norway, Luxemburg and elsewhere. Yet, capitalism hums merrily along in
> Europe as in most of the rest of the world. If electing house socialists
> to high office made a crucial difference to addressing global injustice,
> climate change or endless war, we would have seen it by now.
>
> Unfortunately, there's no field socialist to vote for in the upcoming
> presidential election. Nor do we in the U.S. yet have a mass labor
> party—rooted in the working class and linked to militant, fighting trade
> unions—which could serve as a real alternative to the parties of the 1%.
> Given this void, it's not surprising that those fed up with the status
> quo might put their hopes in Bernie Sanders, a house socialist seeking
> to be the leader of a big-business party. But beware: while a vote for
> the house socialist candidate of a capitalist party might make some
> people feel good, no one should expect it to change much.
>
> *****
>
> Malcolm X on "The House Negro and the Field Negro"
>
> Below is an excerpt from Malcolm X's presentation on "The Race Problem."
> The talk was given on Jan. 23, 1963, to the African Students Association
> and NAACP campus chapter, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
>
> So, you have two types of Negro. The old type and the new type. Most of
> you know the old type. When you read about him in history during slavery
> he was called "Uncle Tom." He was the house Negro. And during slavery
> you had two Negroes. You had the house Negro and the field Negro.
>
> The house Negro usually lived close to his master. He dressed like his
> master. He wore his master's second-hand clothes. He ate food that his
> master left on the table. And he lived in his master's house—probably in
> the basement or the attic—but he still lived in the master's house.
>
> So whenever that house Negro identified himself, he always identified
> himself in the same sense that his master identified himself. When his
> master said, "We have good food," the house Negro would say, "Yes, we
> have plenty of good food." "We" have plenty of good food. When the
> master said that "we have a fine home here," the house Negro said, "Yes,
> we have a fine home here." When the master would be sick, the house
> Negro identified himself so much with his master he'd say, "What's the
> matter boss, we sick?" His master's pain was his pain. And it hurt him
> more for his master to be sick than for him to be sick himself. When the
> house started burning down, that type of Negro would fight harder to put
> the master's house out than the master himself would.
>
> But then you had another Negro out in the field. The house Negro was in
> the minority. The masses—the field Negroes were the masses. They were in
> the majority. When the master got sick, they prayed that he'd die.
> [Laughter.] If his house caught on fire, they'd pray for a wind to come
> along and fan the breeze.
>
> If someone came to the house Negro and said, "Let's go, let's separate,"
> naturally that Uncle Tom would say, "Go where? What could I do without
> boss? Where would I live? How would I dress? Who would look out for me?"
> That's the house Negro. But if you went to the field Negro and said,
> "Let's go, let's separate," he wouldn't even ask you where or how. He'd
> say, "Yes, let's go." And that one ended right there.
>
> So now you have a twentieth-century-type of house Negro. A
> twentieth-century Uncle Tom. He's just as much an Uncle Tom today as
> Uncle Tom was 100 and 200 years ago. Only he's a modern Uncle Tom. That
> Uncle Tom wore a handkerchief around his head. This Uncle Tom wears a
> top hat. He's sharp. He dresses just like you do. He speaks the same
> phraseology, the same language. He tries to speak it better than you do.
> He speaks with the same accents, same diction.
>
> And when you say, "your army," he says, "our army." He hasn't got
> anybody to defend him, but anytime you say "we" he says "we." "Our
> president," "our government," "our Senate," "our congressmen," "our this
> and our that." And he hasn't even got a seat in that "our" even at the
> end of the line. So this is the twentieth-century Negro. Whenever you
> say "you," the personal pronoun in the singular or in the plural, he
> uses it right along with you. When you say you're in trouble, he says,
> "Yes, we're in trouble."
>
> But there's another kind of Black man on the scene. If you say you're in
> trouble, he says, "Yes, you're in trouble." [Laughter.] He doesn't
> identify himself with your plight whatsoever.
>
>
>
>
>
> Share this:
>
> Facebook
> Twitter
> Google
> Tumblr
>
>
>
> Related
>
>
>
> Socialist Action sponsors election debates
>
> February 17, 2016
>
> In "Elections"
>
>
> Bernie Sanders & the labor movement
>
> September 5, 2015
>
> In "Elections"
>
>
> Remembering Eugene V. Debs
>
> September 17, 2015
>
> In "Labor"
>
>
>
> Posted in Black Liberation, Elections, Marxist Theory & History. |
> Tagged Bernie Sanders, Democrats, Malcolm, socialism.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Get Involved
>
>
> Join Socialist Action
> Donate to help support our work
> Get email updates
> Events
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Subscribe to Our Newspaper
>
>
> JAN. 2014 p.1 jpegJAN. 2014 p. 12
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Subscribe Today
>
>
>
> Subscriptions to the monthly print edition of Socialist Action are
> available for the following rates:
>
> - 12 month subscription for $20
> - 24 month subscription for $37
> - 6 month subscription for $10
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Learn More
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Email Updates
>
>
>
> Enter your email address to subscribe to our free e-mail Socialist
> Action Newsletter. Also to receive notifcations of new web posts by email.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Learn More
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Newspaper Archives
>
> Newspaper Archives Select Month March 2016 (2) February 2016 (8)
> January 2016 (11) December 2015 (11) November 2015 (9) October 2015
> (8) September 2015 (10) August 2015 (7) July 2015 (13) June 2015 (9)
> May 2015 (10) April 2015 (12) March 2015 (9) February 2015 (11)
> January 2015 (10) December 2014 (12) November 2014 (11) October 2014
> (9) September 2014 (6) August 2014 (10) July 2014 (11) June 2014
> (10) May 2014 (11) April 2014 (10) March 2014 (9) February 2014 (11)
> January 2014 (11) December 2013 (10) November 2013 (11) October 2013
> (17) September 2013 (13) August 2013 (10) July 2013 (11) June 2013
> (15) May 2013 (14) April 2013 (14) March 2013 (12) February 2013
> (10) January 2013 (17) December 2012 (7) November 2012 (8) October
> 2012 (19) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (27) July 2012 (18) June
> 2012 (3) May 2012 (19) April 2012 (14) March 2012 (17) February 2012
> (19) January 2012 (17) December 2011 (3) November 2011 (33) October
> 2011 (14) September 2011 (13) August 2011 (34) July 2011 (24) June
> 2011 (19) May 2011 (19) April 2011 (15) March 2011 (15) February 2011
> (16) January 2011 (15) December 2010 (17) November 2010 (1) October
> 2010 (6) September 2010 (3) August 2010 (8) July 2010 (7) June 2010
> (2) May 2010 (9) April 2010 (3) March 2010 (8) February 2010 (3)
> January 2010 (9) December 2009 (6) November 2009 (5) October 2009
> (16) September 2009 (3) August 2009 (2) July 2009 (5) June 2009 (2)
> May 2009 (7) April 2009 (6) March 2009 (16) February 2009 (9)
> January 2009 (10) December 2008 (11) November 2008 (8) October 2008
> (16) September 2008 (14) August 2008 (18) July 2008 (12) June 2008
> (3) May 2008 (2) April 2008 (3) March 2008 (14) February 2008 (11)
> January 2008 (11) December 2007 (8) November 2007 (1) July 2007 (1)
> June 2007 (1) April 2007 (1) March 2007 (1) February 2007 (3)
> December 2006 (11) November 2006 (11) October 2006 (13) September
> 2006 (15) August 2006 (11) July 2006 (12) June 2006 (7) May 2006
> (14) April 2006 (6) March 2006 (14) February 2006 (5) January 2006
> (2) December 2005 (9) November 2005 (8) October 2005 (13) September
> 2005 (12) August 2005 (9) July 2005 (16) June 2005 (16) May 2005
> (16) April 2005 (12) March 2005 (14) February 2005 (19) January 2005
> (15) December 2004 (14) November 2002 (17) October 2002 (19)
> September 2002 (22) August 2002 (21) July 2002 (15) May 2002 (21)
> April 2002 (21) February 2002 (15) January 2002 (15) December 2001
> (17) October 2001 (24) September 2001 (18) July 2001 (19) June 2001
> (18) October 2000 (17) September 2000 (21) August 2000 (19) July
> 2000 (16) June 2000 (26) May 2000 (21) April 2000 (22) March 2000
> (28) February 2000 (18) January 2000 (20) December 1999 (20) November
> 1999 (26) October 1999 (25) September 1999 (18) August 1999 (40)
> July 1999 (38) June 1999 (24) May 1999 (27) April 1999 (25) March
> 1999 (26) February 1999 (29) January 1999 (24) July 1998 (12) 0 (2)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Learn More
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Pamphlets/Books
>
>
>
> Socialist Action publishes a wide variety of pamphlets on burning issues
> of today such as global warming, women's liberation, the Middle East and
> other subjects.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Learn More
>
>
>
>
>
> Socialist Action (U.S.): socialistaction@lmi.net | (510) 268-9429
>
> Socialist Action / Ligue pour l'Action socialiste (Canada):
> barryaw@rogers.com
>
> Copyright © 2016 Socialist Action. All Rights Reserved. Site Design by
> Lucid Digital Designs | Site Utilities
>
>
>
>
>
>