[Individual-members-EL] An Interview with Mr. Stefan Engel(Chairman of MLPD, Germany)

[Francis King]

Hello all

I would certainly agree with Stephen here. It was interesting to read Mr
Engel's views, and thanks very much to Syed Shakir Ali for posting this,
but it is clear that Mr Engel does not see himself as one of our
comrades. He is quite explicitly contemptuous of the major parties that
make up the ELP, describing them as "revisionist", "left-reformist" and
"a left fig-leaf of monopoly governments".

It is also quite clear that Mr Engel's views are based on a thoroughly
doctrinaire, authoritarian and religious attitude towards ideology and
ideas. This is absolutely typical for Maoists like Mr Engel. He speaks
of "revisionists" in much the same way an inquisitor would speak of
"heretics". "Revising" one's ideas - that is, thinking for oneself - is
anathema to him.  

Guided by his immutable ideology, Mr Engel presents the history of the
USSR in a very strange fashion. He claims that under Khrushchev a "new
bourgeoisie" took over, who "oppressed and exploited the people". In
fact, after Stalin's death in 1953, the labour camps gradually emptied,
the secret police were reined in somewhat, and living standards
increased as more was spent on social, housing and consumer needs. But
to true believers like Mr Engel, if the theory does not fit the facts,
so much the worse for the facts.

The dogmatic mindset of "Marxist-Leninists" like Mr Engel has done the
radical left in Europe untold harm over the 20th century. If we want to
have any relevance in the 21st century we need to reject that way of
thinking.

With best wishes

Francis King



В Вск, 01/07/2007 в 21:59 +0100, Steve Spence пишет:
> It's always interesting to read others views but this for me is a
> rather simplistic orthodox 'Marxist-Leninist' position, not surprising
> perhaps if the person is the Chair of the Marxist Leninist Party but
> for me his thoughts do not reveal much of use.
>  
> He dismisses Die Linke as a 'left reformist' party, as if that was a
> bad thing.  Left reformist has a lot more going for it than orthodox
> marxism-leninism in my opinion.  But in any event I don't see Die
> Linke as left reformist, although there are left reformists in
> it.  There is a current of marxist-gramscist thought that develops
> reforms on the basis that the revolution is in continuous session,
> from the perspective that the revolution is a revolution of thinking,
> a revolution of attitude, a revolution of culture, and ultimately a
> revolution of involvement.  The democracy of the socialist minded
> proletariat, rather than the orthodox ML 'dictatorship of the
> proletariat' is the goal and I see a lot of that in Die Linke, so I
> prefer the Die linke to the MLs because to me Diw Linke is a new way
> of doing things and the MLs are old hat.
>  
> Best wishes
>  
> Stephen
>         ----- Original Message ----- 
>         From: Syed Shakir Ali 
>         To: Individual-members-EL at listi.jpberlin.de ;
>         info at european-left.org ; mailman-owner at listi.jpberlin.de 
>         Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2007 10:44 AM
>         Subject: [Individual-members-EL] An Interview with Mr. Stefan
>         Engel(Chairman of MLPD, Germany)
>         
>         
>         June 28, 2007
>          
>         Dear All Comrades,
>          
>         I hope you all are doing well. I am fine and ok. Recently in
>         the month of March 2007 I had an Interview with Mr. Stefan
>         Engel (Chairman of MLPD, Germany) I would like to share this
>         Interview with all of you. I hope you will enjoy to read it.
>         This Interview is already published in some Pakistani
>         Magazine.
>          
>         If any body have connection with any News Paper or Magazine,
>         please try to Publish this Interview. This will provide a
>         chance to us to circulate our message to alot of people.
>          
>         Thanks and Regards,
>          
>         Syed Shakir Ali
>          
>         
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