Re: [Marxism] Ward Churchill liberal lynch mob

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect wrote:
>
> >Would you conclude from this, Louis, that any sort of meaningful type of
> >liberalism no longer exists in any measure in the US, or that this is
> >inherent in the world-view of liberals when they are pushed?
> >
> >Solidarity,
> >Ian
>
> Good question. I just read a chapter in Hans Mommsen's "From Weimar to
> Auschwitz" on the paralysis of the German Social Democracy during the rise
> of Nazism and I am beginning to wonder if we are experiencing something
> analogous here. Maybe I'll have some more to say about this in coming
> weeks, since I want to write a longer piece on all this.

In part there is a _mere_ problem of labelling here. I think both Ian &
Lou are focusing on _public_ liberals -- DP politicians, journalists,
journals, name-brand professors, thinktanks, etc. The problem looks
different if you ask who are the potential constituents of a mass left
movement at the present time, AND WHAT DO THEY CALL THEMSELVES.

This kind of merely verbal confusion is inseparable from the fact that
there are far more 'things' out there in the world to name than there
are words in any language, and there is just no getting away from using
the same word in a number of different (even opposing) senses. Most of
the people I am working with in the local anti-war group would call
themselves liberals, and would be merely confused by the usage of the
word on this list or other left forums.

Leaving aside the problem of labels, formal liberalism in this country
has been moving steadily to the left for at least 50 years, so I'm not
sure if it's really even a real question. Liberalism as a movement has
been dead for sometime. That's why so many DP supporters (who call
themselves liberals) are so apt to talk about DP cowardice. I would
assume that the DP leadership is courageous and principled: i.e., the
results they produce are exactly the results they aim at, and they are
quite willing to lose elections if that is the way of deflecting the
development of mass movements for change.

Carrol


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