Dagens citat: Revolutionens vildveje

Peter Kropotkin om, hvordan det alt for ofte går umiddelbart efter en “revolution” – fra hans bog The Conquest of Bread:

In several large towns the Commune is proclaimed. In the streets wander scores of thousands of men, and in the evening they crowd into improvised clubs, asking: “What shall we do?” and ardently discuss public affairs. All take an interest in them; those who yesterday were quite indifferent are perhaps the most zealous. Everywhere there is plenty of good-will and a keen desire to make victory certain. It is a time when acts of supreme devotion are occurring. The masses of the people are full of the desire of going forward.

All this is splendid, sublime; but still, it is not a revolution. Nay, it is only now that the work of the revolutionist begins.

Doubtless there will be acts of vengeance. The Watrins and the Thomases will pay the penalty of their unpopularity; but these are mere incidents of the struggle—not the revolution.

Socialist politicians, radicals, neglected geniuses of journalism, stump orators—both middle-class people and workmen—will hurry to the Town Hall, to the Government offices, to take possession of the vacant seats. Some will decorate themselves with gold and silver lace to their hearts’ content, admire themselves in ministerial mirrors, and study to give orders with an air of importance appropriate to their new position. How could they impress their comrades of the office or the workshop without having a red sash, an embroidered cap, and magisterial gestures! Others will bury themselves in official[Pg 19] papers, trying, with the best of wills, to make head or tail of them. They will indite laws and issue high-flown worded decrees that nobody will take the trouble to carry out—because revolution has come.

To give themselves an authority which they have not they will seek the sanction of old forms of Government. They will take the names of “Provisional Government,” “Committee of Public Safety,” “Mayor,” “Governor of the Town Hall,” “Commissioner of Public Safety,” and what not. Elected or acclaimed, they will assemble in Boards or in Communal Councils, where men of ten or twenty different schools will come together, representing—not as many “private chapels,” as it is often said, but as many different conceptions regarding the scope, the bearing, and the goal of the revolution. Possibilists, Collectivists, Radicals, Jacobins, Blanquists, will be thrust together, and waste time in wordy warfare. Honest men will be huddled together with the ambitious ones, whose only dream is power and who spurn the crowd whence they are sprung. All coming together with diametrically opposed views, all—forced to enter into ephemeral alliances, in order to create majorities that can but last a day. Wrangling, calling each other reactionaries, authoritarians, and rascals, incapable of coming to an understanding on any serious measure, dragged into discussions about trifles, producing nothing better than bombastic proclamations; all giving themselves an awful importance while the real strength of the movement is in the streets.

All this may please those who like the stage, but it is not revolution. Nothing has been accomplished as yet.

And meanwhile the people suffer. The factories are idle, the workshops closed; trade is at a standstill. The worker does not even earn the meagre wage which was his before. Food goes up in price. With that heroic devotion which has always characterized them, and which in great crises reaches the sublime, the people will wait patiently. “We place these three months of want at the service of the Republic,” they said in 1848, while “their representatives” and the gentlemen of the new Government, down to the meanest Jack-in-office received their salary regularly.

Tænk blot på komissærernes magtovertagelse efter den russiske revolution i 1917, og et tilsvarende forløb i alle andre revolutioner, som jeg kan komme i tanker om. Løsningen er, mener Kropotkin, at revolutionens “ledere”, hvis der er nogen, må tage ansvar for hele folkets velbefindende frem for at fokusere på deres egen betydning:

We must recognize, and loudly proclaim, that every one, whatever his grade in the old society, whether strong or weak, capable or incapable, has, before everything, THE RIGHT TO LIVE, and that society is bound to share amongst all, without exception, the means of existence it has at its disposal. We must acknowledge this, and proclaim it aloud, and act up to it.Affairs must be managed in such a way that from the first[Pg 21] day of the revolution the worker shall know that a new era is opening before him; that henceforward none need crouch under the bridges, while palaces are hard by, none need fast in the midst of plenty, none need perish with cold near shops full of furs; that all is for all, in practice as well as in theory, and that at last, for the first time in history, a revolution has been accomplished which considers the NEEDS of the people before schooling them in their DUTIES.

Dagens citat: Samfundsklasser

Eugene V. Debs, udtalelse i den retssag, hvor han blev dømt for undergravende virksomhed:

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Obama og håb

Jeg har skrevet om det før, men VHS siger det meget godt:

Obama har fået folk til at håbe og ønske at tingenes tilstand kan være anderledes. Bevægelsen – som er langt større og meget mere end politikeren Obama – har fået en tiltro til at de kan forandre noget. Det stopper naturligvis ikke med blot at vælge en centrumpolitiker, og Obamas politik har nærmest intet med hans valgsejr at gøre. Det var hans retorik, som ikke bare ramte utilfredsheden blandt vælgerne men også talte til alle de der normalt ikke stemmer, og gav dem et løfte om at forandring er mulig. Hvis den energi og optimisme kan videreføres til alle andre dele af samfundet – de steder, hvor der føres rigtig politik og kan laves rigtig forandring, så kan der bestemt komme noget godt ud af dette valg. Ikke på grund af valget af Obama, men på grund af den energi og det håb, der er blevet antændt rundt omkring blandt den menige og ofte marginaliserede befolkning i USA, og som kan føre til meget mere end en udskiftning af beboerne i Det hvide hus. Obama er ingen revolution, men det håb, der fik ham valgt og som han var med til at antænde, kan bedre føre til grundlæggende forandringer end venstrefløjsvrede og afmagt.

Frygt og vrede er også stærke drivkrafter, men der kommer intet positivt ud af en politik eller bevægelse, der er baseret på disse negative værdier. Det var disse følelser, som McCain-Palin forsøgte at blive valgt på, og det er glædeligt, at den tendens tabte. Gid det samme paradigme-skift også måtte finde sted i Danmark, hvor hadet og mistroen stadig er dominerende i valgkampe.

Men det er ikke bare højrefløjen, som primært kører på vrede. Også venstrefløjen (i både Danmark og USA) har det problem, at vi i vor kritik af systemet får det til at fremstå som en uovervindelig modstander, man ikke kan gøre noget ved. Det appellerer i bedste fald til den aktive følelse, vrede, og i værste fald til passiviserende afmagt, og ingen af disse fører til positive, progressive forandringer. Venstrefløjen bør lære af Obamas retorik og fokusere på muligheden for forandring, der kan give det håb, der gør rigtig forandring mulig.

Jeg er enig. Kritik af systemet og af de kræfter, man er oppe imod er vigtig, ikke mindst af hensyn til at kunne afdække, dokumentere og  oplyse om, hvad der foregår, men det er endnu vigtigere at gøre noget for at tilvejebringe de positive forandringer, man ønsker.

Dette er en grund til, at fri software-bevægelsen er vigtig, ikke mindst som eksempel: Richard Stallman og andre begyndte ikke at samle underskrifter ind mod Microsoft og IBM for at forlange, at de skulle åbne deres programmer, men skabte i stedet og fra grunden et nyt system, som det står alle frit for at bruge, det såkaldte GNU/Linux-system.

Det er også derfor, Luk Lejren er så vigtigt et initiativ: I stedet for blot at dokumentere, hvordan flygtninge behandles i Danmark og frugtesløst kræve, at regeringen skulle gøre noget ved det, tog man selv ansvar og forsøgte (symbolsk) at lukke Sandholmlejren på trods af myndighedernes protester. Både fri software og Luk Lejren er eksempler på direkte aktion, og Obamas grædsrodsbevægelse har mere end en rem af huden.

Begrebet “direkte aktion” leder tankerne hen på de tidlige anarkister, der i stedet for at reformere staten eller vente på, den skulle reformere sig, ønskede at opbygge et frit samfund nedefra og op ved hjælp af brugerstyrede kooperativer.

Og rent faktisk hedder VHS’ indlæg “Kropotkin om Obama og håb”. Kropotkins observation om Obamas kampagne var den enkle, at vellykkede revolutioner udspringer af håb, ikke af fortvivlelse. Det er muligt, at Obama ikke selv hverken vil eller kan forandre det helt store, men han har givet mange mennesker håb. Og det er måske i sig selv den bedst mulige begyndelse.

Link: Kropotkin om Obama og om håb