Re: Re: [Marxism] Camejo to speak at CCNY

[Lana Elliott <lanasnest@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"That statement was not from me, I was quoting..."  To be perfectly honest I 
didn't get a clear picture from anyone.  The subject is important to me, could 
you please explain to my little "working class mind" where and from whom I am 
"allowed" to seek "truth".  I would hope that as a Marxist, truth for a change 
is not mutually exclusive.  It seems to me that pointing the finger at who is 
the least enlightened is certainly NOT the way to go.  Can someone tell me if 
Marxist theory is opening a world, or closing the door...?

Lana
>
> From: Michael Feldman <mr.feldman@xxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 2004/09/25 Sat PM 03:16:10 EDT
> To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Camejo to speak at CCNY
>
> Just for clarity, that statement was not from me, I was quoting Joaquin.
>
>
> On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 15:01:51 EDT, octob1917@xxxxxxx <octob1917@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > In a message dated 9/25/2004 11:37:58 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> > mr.feldman@xxxxxxxxx writes:
> > Marxist activism
> > is about engaging working people starting from their current level of
> > consciousness in such a way as to push them forward on the road towards
> > organizing themselves as an independent political force."
> >
> >
> > No, this is your own interpretation of Marxist activism. Again, it reveals a
> > condescension which I refute and reject towards 'working people.' Even the 
> > way
> > you use that term suggests that you consider yourself above them, as if
> > working people are stupid and incapable of being trusted with the truth.
> >
> > The way to help people interpret the sense of alienation and hopelessness is
> > not by lying to them that if they were to vote for a certain candidate and
> > pour all their energies into reform then they will see progress.
> >
> > Marxist activism is about pointing out the contradictions which are inherent
> > in a capitalist system and explaining why that system must be replaced and
> > with what; not in preaching a message of reform and belief in that system 
> > as a
> > way forward. Socialists should only ever enter into bourgeois politics in 
> > order
> > to gain a platform from which to promote socialism and attack capitalism.
> > Nothing in what Camejo or Nader are saying does that. They may be attacking 
> > its
> > excesses, but that's a world away from attacking it root and branch and 
> > offering
> > socialism as an alternative.
> >
> > Where does it come from, this idea that to openly talk socialism to people
> > who are not yet socialists is a betrayal of socialism?
> >
> > We're not some weird cult which should hide our true beliefs behind a veneer
> > of neatly packaged, inoffensive policies. We are marxists (at least I hope 
> > we
> > are), socialists, with a collective vision for a better world than the one 
> > we
> > inhabit now. Just because the objective and material conditions are not yet
> > right for our message to reach as many as we would like is no reason to 
> > abandon
> > our principles or to dilute them.
> >
> > JoeD
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Woe be unto him who tries to isolate one department of knowledge from
> the rest. All science is one. Language, literature and history,
> physics, math and philosophy--subjects which seem the most remote from
> one another--are in reality connected, or rather they all form a
> single system.
> --Jules Michelet
>
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