Re: liberal?

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Glenn Kissack wrote:

"... that movements for social change should reflect the Marxist
view that the entire working class is harmed by racism, sexism
and homophobia and therefore should be multi-racial and
multi-gendered."

Several observations:

(1) It *ought* to be the marxist view that racism etc. harm the
working class, but the very existence of this maillist reflects the
historical fact the working class (including its marxist-led
factions) has *not* been "multi-gendered." To cite one bit
at random, Gramsci (pre-prison) argued that the wives of
workers were petty producers rather than working class
because they (forsooth) controlled their own labor.

(2) Your "and therefore," therefore, is deceptive. What is so
easy to do in logic comes with such agonizing difficulty in
practice. One does not get "multi-racial" unity merely by
declaring it a marxist principle. I offer, not as what should
be but as an empirical prediction, that such unity in the
United States will be achieved only with primarily black
leadership. And by leadership I mean not only or not
primarily official "leaders" but the actual forces in motion.
Black activity of the '50s and '60s in a very real
way "led" the anti-war movement of the '60s and the
women's movement of the '70s.

(3) The preceding has nothing to do with white guilt or its
opposite. I find guilt and charges of guilt equally boring. It
has rather to do with the way in which the very structure of
U.S. life makes it very nearly impossible for whites to trust
the competence of blacks -- and it is that distrust of the
competence of blacks, of their competence to know their
own interests, that generates so much fear of an objectively
rather minor element in black life: the NOI. I dare say the
the percentage of black Americans who take NOI seriously
is rather smaller than the percentage of white americans who
take Pat Robinson seriously.

Only the perception of blacks vigorously in motion can break
through this illusion of black incompetence -- just as only the
perception of women vigorously in motion can break through
the male distrust in the competence of women. To break that
distrust it is essential that the left movement in the united
states be led by non-whites and women. Yes, this is stupid.
It ought not to be. It's simply necessary.

Carrol