You are doing some very basic-level rethinking of a life’s worth of political activism and I applaud you for it.
I want to expand on a point of yours that has bothered me for about twenty years. It is the tendency of many liberals, not even Marxists themselves, to accuse the working class or some subset of it, of “not understanding their own interests”. Besides displaying the usual condescension of educated liberals toward the working class and therefore being a political loser, it ALSO, if you think about it, reflects the unstated assumption of Marx that “the working class has no country”, that workers of all nations should rise up as one and smash the oppressors. The International Proletariat shall be the Human Race! Failure to “understand” this
Your comment was cut off. I would say people do act on their interests, as they see them, but these interests are not narrowly financial. It's been a commonplace that well-do-do liberals vote against their financial interests. There is no reason others should not do so as well. Only some kind of snobbery would say otherwise.
Failure to “understand” this is what is meant by “failing to understand their own interests”.
But it takes a certain amount of chutzpah for a bunch intellectuals (non-Marxist) to accuse a whole class of people of not articulating and acting on what they themselves are afraid to say!
This line of argument needs to disappear. It got its start from Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” To many, Frank was saying that workers in places like Kansas failed to understand their own interests. Frank himself rejected this characterization. His argument was that Democrats had stopped, in the neoliberal Clinton era, representing the economic interests of the working class. (On page 243, I believe I used to say, in comments on your old blog :-))
The current DSA crowd, IMHO, is making a similar mistake from a Marxist perspective. The whole business needs rethinking along the lines you are proposing.
And sadly, it seems, labor is an issue that the broad left does not even see as left. Joe Biden’s embrace of labor was seen as a piddlingly small issue compared to his embrace of Netanyahu. Not saying the latter was good, of course, but the former was important too. I am not talking about the small potion of the left that is, even today, involved in union organizing efforts. I think this explains why Bernie and AOC were the last to let go of Biden.
Last week, I visited the Chicago Historical Museum, which featured an exhibit on “protest art of the 1960’s and 70’s”. There were exhibits of the Black movements, the Latino movements, the Women’s Movement, Gay and Lesbian movements. I remembered all of these, even knew back in the day of some of the individuals whose work was displayed or mentioned. I remembered the technologies of mimeograph printing of the documents on display. I produced similar documents for parts of the labor movement - which was not at all featured in the exhibit. I guess we weren’t producing artistic content, but some of the other featured displays were no more artistic than ours.
Sometimes it seems that if it isn’t “art” it isn't noticed by the broader left. Sigh.
I would love the opportunity to converse with you about my own "meatball theory"... how republic has gone from local to global over the last several centuries, and what can and needs to be done about it in the next. Thanks for listening (enjoyed your Baffler book review and immediately bought the guy's book, along with Gorsuch's latest).
You are doing some very basic-level rethinking of a life’s worth of political activism and I applaud you for it.
I want to expand on a point of yours that has bothered me for about twenty years. It is the tendency of many liberals, not even Marxists themselves, to accuse the working class or some subset of it, of “not understanding their own interests”. Besides displaying the usual condescension of educated liberals toward the working class and therefore being a political loser, it ALSO, if you think about it, reflects the unstated assumption of Marx that “the working class has no country”, that workers of all nations should rise up as one and smash the oppressors. The International Proletariat shall be the Human Race! Failure to “understand” this
Your comment was cut off. I would say people do act on their interests, as they see them, but these interests are not narrowly financial. It's been a commonplace that well-do-do liberals vote against their financial interests. There is no reason others should not do so as well. Only some kind of snobbery would say otherwise.
Pour soi
without
solid en soi
The role of a VP
To radiate the en soi
Class wide
Damn, accidentally hit send.
Continuing,
Failure to “understand” this is what is meant by “failing to understand their own interests”.
But it takes a certain amount of chutzpah for a bunch intellectuals (non-Marxist) to accuse a whole class of people of not articulating and acting on what they themselves are afraid to say!
This line of argument needs to disappear. It got its start from Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” To many, Frank was saying that workers in places like Kansas failed to understand their own interests. Frank himself rejected this characterization. His argument was that Democrats had stopped, in the neoliberal Clinton era, representing the economic interests of the working class. (On page 243, I believe I used to say, in comments on your old blog :-))
The current DSA crowd, IMHO, is making a similar mistake from a Marxist perspective. The whole business needs rethinking along the lines you are proposing.
Job site organizing movements take both time and sacrifice by the militant
10th
We need to activate a militant 10th at the job sites
The job site right to organize
Must be asserted
Unionization is one of the biggest no-brainer things for the Left do be about.
And sadly, it seems, labor is an issue that the broad left does not even see as left. Joe Biden’s embrace of labor was seen as a piddlingly small issue compared to his embrace of Netanyahu. Not saying the latter was good, of course, but the former was important too. I am not talking about the small potion of the left that is, even today, involved in union organizing efforts. I think this explains why Bernie and AOC were the last to let go of Biden.
Last week, I visited the Chicago Historical Museum, which featured an exhibit on “protest art of the 1960’s and 70’s”. There were exhibits of the Black movements, the Latino movements, the Women’s Movement, Gay and Lesbian movements. I remembered all of these, even knew back in the day of some of the individuals whose work was displayed or mentioned. I remembered the technologies of mimeograph printing of the documents on display. I produced similar documents for parts of the labor movement - which was not at all featured in the exhibit. I guess we weren’t producing artistic content, but some of the other featured displays were no more artistic than ours.
Sometimes it seems that if it isn’t “art” it isn't noticed by the broader left. Sigh.
Comrade
I feel like DeCaprio in the last big scene in titanic.
Slipping undrr the ice water
You and me both.
I would love the opportunity to converse with you about my own "meatball theory"... how republic has gone from local to global over the last several centuries, and what can and needs to be done about it in the next. Thanks for listening (enjoyed your Baffler book review and immediately bought the guy's book, along with Gorsuch's latest).
Happy to talk, any time.