Re: more middle class Re: ruling class subjectivity, was: Re: AUT: a rejuvenated communist

["Chris Wright" <cwright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good point.  I simply raised it to say that just because Eldridge Cleaver
said it doesn't make it true or marxism or good politics.  Cleaver had a lot
of good things to say, but none of it was disconnected from his committment
to Black Nationalism, which has some tremendous strengths (such as a variety
of highly sophisticated critiques of racism, imperialism, and in some forms,
even capitalism), but also the weaknesses shared by all nationalism, one of
which is an adherence to patriarchy and women's oppression.

Also, I did not see Negri, for all his other problems, saying communism was
an impossibility or that the state was in decline in some simple sense, but
that the state was losing some of its national character and developing into
international state forms.  But that is my take.

Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Sparaco" <dansparaco@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: more middle class Re: ruling class subjectivity, was: Re: AUT:
a rejuvenated communist


> Hello all,
> I just wanted to note that in To Die For the People, Huey Newton, in a
> lecture at Boston College, makes a host of remarkably precient arguments,
> which forsee the situation Hardt and Negri describe in their work: the
> impossibility of socialism, the decline of the state-form given the
changes
> in the nature of capitalism, the need not for a radical 'nationalism' but
> for what he calls 'global intercommunalism.'  And this was in 1972 (I
> think).
>
> I guess I have two motivations here; first, to say that this is a really
> cool essay well worth reading, and second, I think the argument below is a
> bit of a non sequitor.  That is, we read lots of people who were obviously
> racist, and I don't think this is a problem; i.e., you can support the
> notion of the dialectic and simply bracket Hegel's belief in the
superiority
> of Germans over all others (unless you decide that the notion of the
> dialectic itself relies upon, or only works given, a belief in the
> superiority of Germans--in which case, the concept fails once that bias is
> critiqued).  It seems quite possible to commit to the same analysis of
> radical black thinkers in America re: sexism.
>
> dan
>
>
>
>
> > > eldridge cleaver argued that the lumpenproletariat
> > > were the most radical element of the proletariat,
>
> >Eldridge Cleaver also argued that raping white women was a >revolutionary
> >act.  Cleaver (Eldridge, not Harry) had a lot of ideas, >almost all of
> >which
> >were formed by a virulant and often not terribly radical Black
>Nationalist
> >perspective. I am not even sure I accept the idea of a
>lumpenproletariat,
> >a
> >much more dubious notion than 'petty bourgeoisie/middle class'.
> >Lumpenproletariat is a 'Marxisante' term (particularly popular among
> > >Maoists
> >who decided the working class was counterrevolutionary) for >underclass,
an
> >argument which splits the working class along money and racial lines in
> >practice.  I would think someone opposed to a middle class would be
> >extremely hostile to a notion like lumpenproletariat.
> >
>
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