Tuesday, March 25, 2008

John Keracher - The Proletarian


A very interesting read about the Anerican Scot socialist John Keracher at the World Socialist blog , Well worth a perusal .


"There were two Kerachers - the pre-Russian Revolution one and the post-Russian Revolution one. Beyond question, the pre-Russian Revolution Keracher was a Marxist. This cannot be said unqualifiedly of his post-Russian Revolution position....The post-Russian Revolution Keracher was a Leninist-Marxist, caught in the dilemma of two "socialisms" - Marxian socialism as a system of society, and Leninist "socialism" as a transitional dictatorship of the proletariat. Yet, when the chips were down, Keracher’s Marxist background interfered with any blind conformity to Soviet dogma....Keracher was not only an organizer and propagandist for socialism, he was a pamphleteer in the tradition of Tom Paine. His clarion call to the working class was to get rid of the bedlam of outworn capitalism and to replace it with the sanity of socialism. His pamphlets attempt to disseminate socialist knowledge and understanding essential ingredients of the socialist revolution."


Our differences with Keracher on whether parliament or soviets offer the best syatyegy for socialism can be read here and here .


His major works can be archived at Marxists.org .

1 comment:

Frank Partisan said...

Thank you for finally visiting my blog. I get comments from the whole spectrum, except I'm always short UK socialists, who are so well versed in polemics.

I linked to your blog.

I will read more about Keracher.