Re: Re: autonomist marxism

[Richard Wolff <rwolff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

                I like your poetry and your poetic prose. I like your
                intensity and drive. I share much of your perspective.
                But I cannot join you in the "democracy" fetish. By that
                I mean subsuming so many different dimensions, aspects,
                elements of our agenda for social change under the one
                heading of democracy viewed as some sort of ultimate
                good sweeping in all other, derivative goods with it.

                I prefer to see democracy as one among a set of revolutionary
                objectives. Its establishment may, but need not, entail the
                establishment of other elements of that set. This is rather
                like learning the lesson of earlier socialists who imagined,
                wrongly as it turned out, that socializing property entailed
                all the other goods viewed as necessary derivatives of such
                socialization. Thus, we need to define and struggle for an
                agenda that includes a specific set of social changes -
                from democratic decision-making to non-exploitative class
                structures (class in Marx's sense of processes of producing
                and distributing the surplus labor found in all communities)
                to non-oppressive communications of meanings amongs ourselves.

                The recognition of the heterogeneity of oppression and
                exploitation was premised on such a view.

                In any case, thanks for your comments, quick response,
                and poetic imagery.

                R. Wolff


     ------------------