Toward the solution of urgent problems in our political situation
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　1988.12. Hitoshi.Ebara

　Thesis 1 : The leftist organizations as we know them, both old and new, have all taken the same political line. They have made an irreducible minimum of a demand in their general program, instituting and carrying a variety of mass movements, and have based the political organization of them on that minimalist demand.
　This is why the leftist today has his political sense restricted by it. In other words, he is politically narrow-minded. You should bear it in mind that this narrow-mindedness itself is the fundamental factor that has caused the retreating movements of the left during 1980s.

　Thesis 2 : Nowadays there is a trend, in spontaneous mass movements, toward self-organization on the basis of the maximum of demands; the new line is now in need for activists that is aimed at the organization of leftist mass movements on the basis of, as it might be fair to call it, the maximalist demand. This means that activists today must be aware of this alternative praxis.

　Thesis 3 : Between a mass movement founded on the basis of the maximalist demand and that founded on the basis of the minimalist demand lies a remarkable contrast both in the mode and in the law of the development. This is the very contrast that activists have to be most concerned with in the establishment of alternative praxis; even if they recognize that the mass movements today are self-organized along a line of the maximalist demand, that is not enough.
( See the supplemental commentary below for more detail description. )

　　Supplemental commentary
　(1) By the word "the maximalist demand," we mean "the revolution of society." It consists of two elements. One is the political element, which is 'the perishing of classes.' The other is the economical one,which is 'the abolition of co-relation between commodity,money,and capital.' That is the most essential in the maximalist program; "the minimalist demand" has been commonly regarded as the demand for immediate goals, but there lies democracies in the essence of the minimalist demand.
The left have been anxious and eager to organize a mass movement along the minimalist program. They have tried to lead a mas movenent with demands for the goals above-mentioned into the movement to overcome the power of the bourgeois state. They have not been planning to organize the movement as the one with a variety of demands for the revolution of society.
　In the historical point of view, we have found some remarkable features in movements for revolution, For instance, we have found a great stride made in the history of revolution on democracies, in which bourgeoisie were broken down, the proletarian dictatorship was established, and bourgeoisie were finally plundered, but still then, there was no strategy found in those days to abolish the co-relation betweew commodity and money.
　This is why a nonsense below was made! Though originally programmed to pass away, the dictatorship of the proletariat headed for the awkward direction: bureaucrats was set up into a class, combined the worse part of the democracy and the every inch of the economical system in the society into a mixture, and in the end allowed themselves to refusu the sublation (in the H?gelian term) of democracy. That is quite ironic.

　(2) You will have noticed the difficulties that are particular to the revolutionary movement. Is there a way to overcome these difficulties? There is! It is probably the only way. You can open it up with making clear the strategic praxis for the abolition of co-relation between commodity and money.
　It is the essence of what is required of activists to make a discovery of what this praxis is. Without that discovery, activists cannot set on foot and push fo?ward the alternative of the traditional political movement, which is based on the organization of the mass movement with demands along the maximalist program.

　(3) Based on the understanding of how the commodity-money relationship is established, the prospects of eliminating that commodity-money relationship will then become clear. The commodity owners are able to give the commodity a sense of will.Subsequently through the exchange process, they are then able to instinctively show the value of their commodities as one single "commodity money." Based on that cooperation the concept of money is created. With the creation of money, commodities could possibly become socially appropriated. Therefore, the commodity owner's act to set prices on their goods reproduces the money relationship on a daily basis. Because the money relationship is reproduced on a daily basis by the owner's action, the money relationship can therefore be eliminated. It is true that the cooperation of the money creation is created by the will of the commodity owner, but the will of the commodity owner is controlled by the material: the commodity. It is an act based on social instinct, and not one of free will among free individuals. For the parties concerned this cooperation is done unconsciously. If we think about their consciousness it can be said that the cooperation is conceptualized as setting the prices on their commodities because money exists. The aspect of their cooperation as creating money is not recognized.

　(4) The problem of how to escape from the control of the will by material things lies within the domain of the general public. There have been many people who have tried to solve this problem. However no modern thinker has grasped the issue appropriately. Therefore, it is not surprising that the resolution becomes hard to pinpoint. One way to avoid that inherent confusion is, start by dealing with the issue as the elimination of the commodity-money relationship as the possible solution. As for the capital relationship, the only answer is that we have a historical experience in respect to its elimination. The reason it has existed is not due to the practical prospect of it is elimination being unclear but because the practical prospect of the elimination of the commodity-money relationship, which is a step further, is unclear. Therefore, the revolutionary power cannot shift it is naturally grown power into social revolutionary power.

　(5) The control of the will by the material things derives from the instinctive cooperation for the creation of money. To release oneself from that situation, the instinctive cooperation aspect should be eliminated. However, no matter how social-oriented it may be, the attempt to control such instinctive behavior with consciousness is destined to result in failure. Such an attempt lies in the sphere beyond the legal or administrarive capability. The same phenomena evolves under a proletarian dictatorship. Indeed it is an historical fact that the attempt on the part of the proletariat dictatorship to eliminated the commodity- money relationship by means of legal or administrative manner has failed.

　(6) Throughout history, the attempts have always occurred when the bourgeoisie class was not ripe for it. Therefore, it can be said that the revolutionary movement did not possess the appropriate material, and moral conditions to succeed in their attempt to overthrow. To consciously and directly attempt to control instinctive cooperative behavior is not rational. However, if both the bourgeoisie society and the classes are ripe in combination with the naturally growing power of the proletariat, the mass movement will organize itself on the basis of the maximum demand ideal. Thus it will be practically possible to succeed in forming the material/moral conditions which would not need this instinctive cooperation. The instinctive cooperation to create money cannot be directly controlled. However, if the conditions which do not need such cooperation are formed, it can be controlled indirectly. This is the key point in uncovering the practical prospect for the elimination of the commodity-money relationship.

　(7) The mass movements developing these days are spontaneously moving towards the much criticized commodity-money-capital cyclical process. This is due to the mass movement being self-organized on the basis of the maximalist demand concept. However the spontaneous pubic criticism consists of the ideas based on the commodity-money-capital relationship as the use-value. The use-value is variable. As long as the mass movement limits itself to use-value criticism, the mass movement will become disjointed and there will be much inter-movement debate and squabble. Consequently, the unity of the movement indispensable to social revolution will not come to fruition. Thus, the mass movement, though it is based on the maximalist demand concept, will not reach the unity to realize the maximalist demand in its spontaneous developmental stage. That phenomena will merely result in social reform. Most of the mass movements today confine themselves to use-value system criticism against the society and civilization organized by capital: large-scale industry criticism, food additive criticism, pollution criticism, and etc. Therefore, the sphere of social reform movement confronting the capitalist civilization comes to the surface. The sphere that the movement foresee a social revolution on the basis of the maximalist demand will be hidden.

　(8) In mass movements today, activists intend to unite all movements. However, in reality, dispersion within the movement emerges as well as confrontation amongst the members. This is the result of the precedence of the spontaneous developmental stage. If the activists take the process one step farther beyond the use-value criticism , and criticize the commodity-money-capital relationship and the society and civilization in form of value criticism, it may signify they are able to criticize the integration principle of the society and civilization. If that is so, then, does not that signify that we attained the ideological core to unite and spark the spontaneous mass movements that started from the concept of use-value criticism?

　(9) The composing factors of the new society must have been rooted in the old society. If the prospect for the elimination of the commodity-money relationship is gained by creating the conditions that do not need the instinctive cooperative of the commodity owners, then the immediate issue is the cooperative. In the bourgeoisie society it is possible to establish a small coopetative free from commodity-money-capital relationship. However, it will be a more illusion that the practical prospect, in the form of the alliance of the cooperatives, will grow by itself to be a universal movement to turn over the bourgeoisie society. The attempt to economically establish the conditions that do not need the cooperation of money creation will be significant when it defines itself to be a new cultural network based on the value criticism aspect of the commodity-money- capital relationship. The composing factors of the new society which are already found in the bourgeoisie society and which are definitely lacking today is the culture of the value-criticism. This very culture is one of the main conditions that makes the cooperation for the creation of the money unnecessary and can be rooted in the bourgeoisie. If the front lines of the mass movements today recognize that the establishment of that culture as the practical prospect for the elimination of the commodity-money-capital relationship, then the integration of the movement aiming at the social revolution can come to fruition.