Re: AUT: a rejuvenated communist

[Peter van Heusden <pvh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[Firstly, thanks to all who have responded to my queries about Solidarity,
the Bolsheviks and Workers Control, and autonomist Marxism - I haven't had
time to reply, hopefully I'll get around to it this week.]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2000, Chris Wright wrote:

I am now trying to apply what
> I have learned (and am very much still learning) to my daily political
> activity.  Defense work of the sort around political prisoners like
> Mumia ultimately leaves me feeling unsatisfied and isolated, while I
> try to live my new-found politics in my workplace (I am a network
> engineer/computer worker.)  I am working on an extended analysis of
> the relationship of computerization to class composition today (19
> pages down, ? many to go...), but I also want to figure out how to
> function organizationally in my new marxism.

I'd very much like to see your analysis - my job at present is that of a
bioinformaticist (basically researching genetics using computers) and I'm
quite interested in the question you mention. Although I'm in South
Africa, where computerization is much less prevalent than in the US, the
situation here maybe poses the question more starkly in some ways - after
all, I work for a workplace which has accumulated a fairly international
mix of people (Russians, a Ghanian, Irish, etc) and which is involved in
the government's policy of trying to turn South Africa into another India
- a 'high tech' 'leapfrogging' workhouse. Looking at what is going on, and
the unforeseen consequences of various strategies of 'managing capitalism'
(pools of labourers seperated rigidly by border controls but united
exactly through their constitution as a worldwide pool of 'abstract
labour') always reminds me of that famous Negri quote:

"Labor, which has become more intelligent through abstraction, has already
torn reason away from capital. The ontology of living labor is an ontology
of liberation"

Although I haven't read enough of Negri to know if I understand him
correctly. (Oh for a library! Oh for a stock of US dollars or UK pounds to
buy books with! Oh for a international hacker conspiracy to break into
Pluto Press, St. Martin's Press and all the others and release their books
unto the world!)


 I have to say that the
> U.S., at least in Chicago, is BLEAK.  Any ideas?  Any fellow
> Chicagoans or U.S. communists in the same or a similar place?  Anyone
> want to open a more specific discussion of which way forward (since I
> am new to this list, I apologize if this is already a well-worn path.)
> End of bio!

Well, I'm about to stop being a member of a quasi-Leninist
organisation. Either I'll stop being a member of the organisation, or the
organisation will stop being Leninist - it depends, of course, on who wins
the current faction fight. Either way, in South Africa it seems to be a
bit easier to be an autonomist these days. From Chatsworth to Katlehong,
in Elsies River and Manenberg, South Africa is simmering with revolt. The
ANC premier of Gauteng province, ex-Secretary General of the union
federation COSATU, got chased out of Katlehong last week (while trying to
campaign for the Dec 5 local government elections).

>From the Star (Jo'burg newspaper): Gordon Mthembu, spokesperson for Ncala
section residents who had drafted a petition that was to have been handed
to Shilowa, said "If the government stops the sheriff of the court from
confiscating peoples property and cancels all outstanding debts, we will
be free to vote. but if they don't we will not vote"

So in South Africa, there are plenty of seeds of revolt to hook up
with. My experience during a year living in Cambridge, UK was much more
depressing. My personal inclination is to continue operating in a fashion
that I'm used to - printing and distributing a political paper, and on the
basis of the contacts made during that distribution throwing myself into
co-operations with various others to develop and broaden the pockets of
revolt. What do other people here do as their 'basic autonomist
practice'? I assume that it is generally the case that readers of
aut-op-sy are more or less isolated in their various locations.

>
> In other matters, has anyone seen "The Bad Days Will End"?  It is a
> new council communist/anarcho-communist journal that holds some
> promise politically, but I am not sure what they are trying to do.

I also am not sure what they're trying to do, but their online edition
certainly has some interesting articles.

> Also, for my British comrades, is Aufheben still alive (and how can
> they be reached, if so)?

They posted something to aut-op-sy recently, from aufheben99@xxxxxxxxxx I
sent them an email back, but never got a response. So, yes, Aufheben
lives.

  I am
> very intrigued by aspects of Marxist-Humanism (in spite of everyone,
> even those who owe Raya a great debt, ignoring Raya Dunayevskaya's
> place in 'open marxism'), I find them a little creepy and too
> politically attached to a funky mix of Leninism ("Lenin after
> 1914-"vanguardism'="the good Lenin"), undigested Hegel (regression
> rather than recognition), and a fresh, vibrant outlook on marxism.

I met some of the N&L people in London, very briefly, and a correspondent
of mine, Cyril Smith (ex-Healyite, author of 'Marx at the Millenium', and
someone responsible for starting me on my grand slide away from
Leninism) seems quite friendly with them. I tend to think that we need to
ditch, rather than embrace, Humanism - it ultimately entraps the human in
some kind of 'historic mission'. I rather tend to like the emphasis that
people like Hardt put on 'multitude' (as in the Hardt interview which was
recently posted to
aut-op-sy: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_&_event/v004/4.3hardt.html). As
someone put it at a meeting I went to in London, capital as Subject
should not be confronted by a Working Class Subject, but rather we
confront it as a multitude of subjects.

> I know this is a bit of a mish-mash, but I have too much on mymind and so I am a bit scattered.  If anyone is interested in the piece i am writing, I may have it done in a month or so.  I do not want to post it because it will be too long, but I will send to anyone who might find it useful or engaging (hopefully it will be a worthwhile contribution.)
>
> Finally, having the anal and deranged mind of an archivist, I have a
> VERY long 'revolutionary reading guide' I have compiled over the years
> (now over 60 pages), which attempts to engage with the vital topics
> within the revolutionary working class movement, both theoretical and
> historical.  I am constantly adding to it and revising it.  It is a
> pet project which I hope to make available to any revolutionaries
> looking for reading on our common concerns.  If any poor soul feels
> masochistic enough or curious enough, I can send a copy for
> use/review/recommendations.  I have listed thousands of books in
> easily accesible political categories for those hungry for ideas and
> information.

This will probably just frustrate me even more, but I'd appreciate a look
at that. :)

Peter
--
Peter van Heusden <pvh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics
"Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man
shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain
and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844
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