Re: [Marxism] Gluckstein, Abraham, the Nazis and big business

[Einde O'Callaghan <einde@xxxxxx>]

Carlos A. Rivera wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Einde O'Callaghan" <einde@xxxxxx>
>
> > From the background information I have gleaned from things posted in
> > this thread it seems crystal clear to me that when Abraham is being
> > attacked what is really being attacked is the Marxist analysis of
> > fascism, nothing less.
>
>
> This might be true, if only there were A marxist analysis of fascism.
> There are more of them than fourth internationals, and thats a lot. ;-)
I was perhaps a bit imprecise. I agree that there isn't one MARXIST
analysis of fascism - you only have to look at the collection "Marxists
in the Face of Fascism" to see that that is the case. What I was trying
to say is that the attack is on the very idea that there might be a
Marxist approach to analysing fascism.

> But that is a semantic difference, I belive:
>
> I agree with what I think you mean, which is analysis that points
> (correctly) towards fascism as an extreme expression of industrial
> imperialism, in other words, as a latent feature of "late" capitalism.
This is basically what I was attemkpting to point to.

> They are not specifically attacking the "marxist" analysis of fascism,
> but the anti-capitalist analysis of fascism in general, because liberal
> capitalists don't like to be reminded that Hitler belonged to their camp
> and not ours.
However some liberal historians are supporting Abraham against the
witch-hunt, which seems to me to be part of a McCarthyite attack to
purge the academic institutions of the US of leftist academics. It is
very much part and parcel of the attack on so-called "political
correctness" and the more recent horror stories reported with depressing
regularity here on this discussion list.

> (I believe this is the root for all the "blame stalin" stuff, its a way
> of saying "we might have Hitler, but you people have Stalin". Which is
> why I get so mad at trots who still retain the Stalin question as
> central to their politics.)
While coming from a Trot background I don't necessarily see the Stalin
question as central to my politics today - although it was in the late
1960s when I was politicised and during the 1970s when I was involved in
bitter struggles in the British student movement with what we called
"tankies", i.e. people who argued that Stalin was basically correct.
Today I see the question of "workers democracy", i.e. democratic control
from below, as being the central question for socialist strategy. Here I
find that I often have more in common with people who come from
different political traditions than with some people who claim to be Trots.

Einde O'Callaghan


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism