Re: Prof. combats ignorance about Islam, women

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Andrew Wayne Austin wrote:

> Doug,
>
> It really stings you when people point out that you are not a Marxist,
> doesn't it? Why does this bother you so much?

Oh shit! This is insane. Doug is a marxist some of whose principles
are (I think) in serious error, but to label this confidently who is
and is not a marxist is to turn marxism into a religion. By any
rational response, for example, Jim Blaut is a marxist and a
communist who will be with the struggle wherever it leads. Yet
his insistence that if we knew all the facts we would not have
to know relations is about as unmarxist as anything I can imagine.

Besides, on maillists, with their unavoidable separation from
practice, the criteria that might otherwise be used are not
available. I, for example, have become thoroughly ticked off
with Angela over on lbo and pen-l. I strongly suspect, however,
that were Angela and I living in the same community many of
the sharp differences between us would prove not to affect
political practice and we would address each other as Comrade.

Ultimately marxism is a set of political practices. In the abstract
realm of maillists we have to take people at their self-identification
for the most part.

Carrol