Re: [Marxism] Left Anti-intellectualism and Its Discontents

["DoC" <donaloc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis wrote:

> The anti-globalization movement posited itself as an "anti-capitalist"
movement, which was all to the good. Unfortunately, it failed to
understand
that this kind of "maximalism" is of little use except for periodic
protests at meetings of some international trade body when physical
militancy in support of demands that the capitalist system be terminated
was put on display. Meanwhile, these trade bodies continue on their
merry
way while making few concessions to the mass movement. It is interesting
that the most serious challenges to neoliberalism have come from
governments of the left in Latin America that are held in such disdain
by
anarchists and autonomists. Ultimately the only way that the IMF can be
forced to retreat is when it is confronted by a *state* with armed
bodies
to back it up rather than by symbolically tearing down a chain-link
fence.

Why can't autonomists get their petit-bourgeois heads around this
obvious (ugly) truth. Probably the answer is in the question.

> Finally, there is not simply a need to study Karl Marx, who the
> authors
note is found on the bookshelves of European activists. There is also a
need to *apply* his theories in a creative manner. This means engagement
with the body of Marxist literature that lives through the ages,
including
those works written by V. Lenin, the arch-demon of the "acceptable"
left.
Lenin's writings were consumed with the question of what to do *next*.
Unless the radical movement in the USA begins to think in such terms,
the
task of ridding the world of capitalism will remain a fantasy at best.

Right on Louis - always your best when tackling the toadies of the
'left'. The imperative is action not fine words or intellectual
stimulation and self-gratification. Couldn't say it or feel it any
better.
Le meas,
DoC.

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