28
PARTISAN REVIEW
parties adopting a theory of sta te monopoly capitalism are sugges t–
in g that they can conquer the sta te and then use it in a certain
manner, how in the last resort does tha t differ from p recisely the
Lenini st model? T hat is, was the Lenini st revo luti on , th e Bo lshev ik
revoluti on , a working-class revo luti on ?
Was it not more the case th a t wha t took p lace there was a
po liti cal revoluti on ? A po liti cal revo luti on
a
chaud,
whereas here we
have a politi cal revoluti on
a
froid
whi ch th ey are try ing to institute,
Ara to talks about the mass workin g-cl ass base o f th ese parti es, Wha t
one has to as k as well , and here one woul d have to foll ow some of the
ana lyses of Ha bermas in hi s legitima ti o n probl em fl ow, is wha t
influence have phenomena such as the fact tha t wages, prices, and so
on are no lon ger d istributed accord in g to ma rket mechani sms, the
anonymous market, but tha t we have po liti ca l wages, What is the
influence of the fact tha t grea ter and grea ter sectors of our soc iety a re
working not simpl y in di str ibuti on , but arc working in service
industri es, whi ch have themselves become commodifi ed and subj ect
to a certain logic of, if you will , rati ona li za ti on , It seems to me tha t
thi s would brin g in to ques ti o n hi s po int abo ut the poss ibl e revolt
from the Itali an workers beca use they a re in fact a mass party,
It
mi ght lead to more pess imi sti c conclusions than he sugges ts, He
seems to sugges t tha t somehow beca use there is a mass base, there is
go in g to be a revo lt aga in st an a ttemp t to introduce thi s sta te
dominati on ,
Wi lliam Ph illips:
T han k you, All ri ght. Ri chard Sennett , who teaches
socio logy at New York Uni versit y, wants to go next.
R ichard Sennett:
I just wanted to make a comment th a t fo ll owed
yours, I am struck tha t in bot h of your talks the di scourse is entirely
po li ticaL
Norman Birnbaum:
It is a little bit ha rd to ta lk about Communi st
parti es and no t talk about politi cs,
R ichard Sennett:
Well , one should talk about somethin g else other
than sheer politi cal organi za ti on , I have had the feeling that the
Euro-Communi st movement is a singul arl y emp ty intell ectual mo ve–
ment, that the level of sophi sti ca ti on of someone like Berling uer
about tacti cs is enormous, but when you as k, for instance, wha t
would you say is different about the requi sites for p roducti on of a
sociali st society now from twent y-fi ve o r thirty years ago, there is a
kind of bl ankn ess, You don 't h ave someone like Habermas wa lkin g
in step with Berlin guer. T here is no interplay between the two o f
them, And somebody like Althusser no longer marches with them ,
