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.