to nancy brumback

[nancybrumback@xxxxxx]

  Subject: Re: To Nancy Brumback
  From: Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 02:14:33 -0700

<<When Marxists declare that we, by definition, hold certain arguments,
who are you to say they do not? You are not a Marxist.>>

Think. Does one have to be a christian to read and discuss the bible?
Actually, while I wouldn't call myself marxist, i am definitely
marxish. And the ideas i hold in common with marxists are definitely
more important than the ones i disagree with.

<<Let's be clear: Marxists are a diverse lot but we generally agree that
the working class is the primary oppressed and exploited class in the
capitalist economic system, i.e., the majority of the world's humanity.
The oppressed and exploited in the capitalist system are the working
class.  That class includes workers, the so-called reserve army of
unemployed, women workers, gay workers, workers anywhere, of any
background, poets, artists, musicians, etc.  We as Marxists want the
replacement of the capitalist system with a socialist economy and
communist society.>>

I like the way bon moun replied to this:

<<While I would agree
that the wc is in the most direct, inextricable, and antagonistic
relationship with the ruling class, it doesn't automatically follow that
(1) this is some kind of "primary" oppression or (2) the wc is the only
truly revolutionary class (a claim I sometimes hear from comrades).>>

Indeed, such a reasoning process is exactly why such marxists are
thought to be "deterministic," rightly so in my opinion. Such reasoning,
that people are automatons who are not able to make choices for
themselves. ... "Oh, I am on welfare, therefore i live off of surplus
value, therefore i cannot take part in anti-capitalist demonstrations."

<<We don't think being nice and polite to gay capitalists is going to make
the world a better place, except for the very few gay capitalists.>>

Are you asserting that the struggle for sexual freedom is about
being nice to gay capitalists? The struggle for women's freedom about
being nice to female capitalists? Surely not.

<<We have no prejudices
against gays; we demand full rights for all people in a democratic,
egalitarian world community.>>

Instead of demanding rights for people, how about pitching in with
their movements to help them gain their rights for themselves? While
at the same time educating as to how those rights are counter to the
interests of capitalism? For example, i think the women's movement
is a threat to capitalism because it challenges the right of some
people to tell others what to do, i.e., it challenges the right
of authority. Hm, notice that such a challenge is also part of the
workers' struggle, no? Challenging the right of the bosses to tell
everyone else to do, to make decisions about what will be produced
and how, how much will be charged for products, how they will be
advertised, etc. The right to accumulate all the money they can,
no matter how many others suffer and die because of them.

The gay movement is connected here, IMO, because the oppression
of homosexuals upholds the oppression of women and all other
subordinated people. The environmental movement, which you apparently
find most offensive of all, challenges the right to your own private
property and do whatever you want to do with it no matter what! All
such struggles are against the basic essence of capitalism itself!

The belittling of comrades is of course all too common on lists
like these -- i have done it myself in other past lives. What i
think about it now is that it turns people away. Instead of the
enemy, we are fighting each other, like black-on-black crime, only
this is comrade-on-comrade crime. I think it is comparable to the
black-on-black variety because it comes from intensely repressed
rage against authority (which in my opinion almost everyone suffers
under capitalism) inappropriately directed. In any case, it is not
part of the struggle against capitalism.

yours in the struggle,

nancy



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