Re: Rebuilding Western Marxism

["Ozleft" <ozleft@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Questions to Jose

By Bob Gould

Jose's post "Abandoning Western Marxism", 09.52, 25 Oct 03, seems like it is
an attempt at a summary political statement by the broad ideological
grouping on Marxmail that includes Jose and Louis, and to some extent,
Nestor and Lou Paulsen.

Before commenting, it might be useful if Jose expands a few of the points he
makes a little further. They are just a bit too cryptic for my taste, and I
don't quite understand what some of them mean.

For instance, what does  "Dissing EcoFemPax movements is easy enough to do"
mean?

This is a very genuine question.

"Fidel said you cannot build socialism with a dollar sign in the hearts of
the people, but that also means of necessity you cannot have workers
democracy with a dollar sign in the hearts of the people either. The forms
of workers democracy are inseparable from its class political content."

Could you expand a bit what you mean in the above para.

"Those seeking to build Marxist currents in the global (political) North
will have to struggle to find and orient to the "global South," not just
internationally but within their own countries in the North."

I get the general idea you are driving at here, but the actual and concrete
tactical conclusions are not obvious and the concept of the "global South"
seems to me to be left extremely vague. What exactly is the "global South"?
Is it a geographical concept? Is it a class concept? Is it a political
concept?

I would like, at least, a bit of a description of what social forces,
movements, political leaderships, etc, you are referring to in the "global
South", before it is really possible to make any intelligent appraisal of
what you mean.

Also, what do you mean exactly when you assert the importance of "orienting
to the "global South", within our own countries in the North".  Who or what
are the authentic representatives of the "global South" in the North. This
raises the associated question of what precisely you mean by the rhetoric
about "which army you are in", and the need for "humility" rather than
"audacity". This seems to me to raise the question as to whom are these
political movements, social forces or entities from the "global South", that
socialists are morally obliged to accept the leadership of.

Importantly also, who are the authentic representatives of these "global
South" forces in the "global North". Is it just possible, Jose, that you are
shyly presenting your credentials as one of these authentic representatives
of the 'global South" in the "global North", towards whom we should be
humble.



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