The Cybernetic Revolution and the Crisis
of Capitalism (page 9 of 11)
By Jerry Harris and Carl Davidson
The Chicago Third Wave Study Group
This changing face of imperialism and its impact
on Third World societies is also the basis for new strategies and
divisions within the left. In first wave countries the traditional
Maoist strategy of peasant based guerrilla warfare still retains
considerable validity; throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it even saw
various degrees of continued success in El Salvador, Namibia, Nicaragua,
and Kampuchea.
But in many newly industrial countries, labor struggles;
electoral parties, and community based organizing for local economic
growth have become the new focus. This is clearly seen in the experiences
of the Workers Party of Brazil, the mass urban struggles in South
Africa, the labor upheavals and democracy struggle of South Korea,
and in the Party of Revolutionary Democracy in Mexico. Even with
the heroic peasant uprising in Chiapas, which has electrified the
Mexican left, no one expects Mexico City to be surrounded and taken
by a peasant army. Traditional industrial Marxism still finds a
firm home in most of these societies, although new concepts on the
key importance of democracy; technology and the market play a vital
role.
For those countries caught in the middle of transformation
the road for revolutionary change has been very difficult. Countries
like Colombia and the Philippines have rapidly growing urban industrial
sectors, but both have powerful guerrilla armies still well organized
in the countryside. They also have strongly developing urban movements
and democratic openings not present just a decade past. This has
been a basis for debates and splits in both countries
In a recent interview ex-commander of Colombia's
M-19, Navarro Wolff, explained..."Our original idea was that
the people would take up arms and head to the mountains...But two
things had changed in Colombia...we discovered that Colombia is
a much more urban country than we had originally believed. And the
country began to open up politically, which for us came as a great
surprise." (NACLA, Jan\Feb 1994)
The importance of urban-centered resistance has
also been raised in the Communist Party of the Philippines. Ever
since the Manila based overthrow of Marcos and resulting democratic
openings, there has been debate over the balance and pace of rural
and urban struggles. As always the issues are many sided and complex,
but part of the debate has been over the role of urban insurrection
and its relationship to peasant based guerrilla war. Recently there
has been an organizational split in which Chairman Sison still holds
to a revolutionary strategy situated mainly in the countryside.
Changing Political Strategies
The tremendous
changes in the economic base and resulting shifts in populations
and work relations have laid the basis for new political alignments.
These tensions are not just present in the Third World, but also
societies moving from second wave to third wave economies. The result
has been new challenges for Marxism and radical theory.
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