RE: armchair

[glevy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Will wrote and asked:

> I've never heard academic marxists honestly
> discuss (or even discuss at all) their
> attempts to engage with working class
> people in struggle. Is this because I'm
> not listening in the right direction?
>
There are several brief points that I will make in answer to your question:

1) What do you mean by an "academic marxist"?  Is that a Marxist employed
as an academic or a Marxist who is academic in the sense that said
Marxist looks at political questions entirely academically (as in
"armchair" Marxist)?

2) Regarding "armchair Marxists", I will say the following:  While this
category may be separated from each other in terms of their theoretical
understandings (e.g. on method and value), the very idea of exclusively
armchair Marxists is erroneous from Marx's perspective.  Marxists *must*
be *both* theoretical and practical.  The "Thesis on Feuerbach" would
suggest that we can not as Marxists simply interpret the world (as
bourgeois philosophers can do), "the point is to change it."

3) Regarding Marxists who are employed as academics, I would say that Will
must be talking to the wrong Marxists.  I know of many such people who
engage in political and trade union struggles and who honestly attempt to
engage working class people in struggle and can honestly explain their
attempts (and experiences) at working class solidarity.  On this list
alone, I know of many such people.

Jerry


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