[Marxism] Re: Reply to Carl Davidson

[Gavin Walker <gmwalker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I want to second Michael Lebowitz's unhappiness at the departure of
Julio Huato.

After 5 years on this list (and more on its precursors), it's time for
me to unsubscribe as well. I haven't participated often over the years,
but have been a close reader and correspondent of many people on the
list.

From my vantage point, there's just too much revolutionary posturing
and not enough serious debate anymore. Like Lebowitz, I read a post
here and a post there, since I can't keep up with the volume of
material. Over recent years, Julio's posts have been of the highest
quality: carefully argued, self-reflexive, and written with a profound
understanding of Marxian thought. The insulting rhetoric and low
analytical level of his opponents in this particular thread is
depressing: the resort to ad hominem attacks, the caricatures of his
argument, and absolute lack of flexible thinking visible here are signs
of ossification, a confusion of strategy and tactics, and increasing
irrelevance.

In fact, the ways in which Julio has been attacked remind me a great
deal of the argumentative strategies of the old Syracuse
"Revolutionary" Collective interventions many years ago: 1) ignore
absolutely any coherent criticisms, 2) imagine a line of thinking that
you don't like, 3) identify that line with the people criticizing you,
and 4) attack this line rather than the original criticism.

To lose him as a poster means a huge loss for the quality of the list.
There's a gradually developing culture here of sectarianism,
intimidation, and censorship that's uncomfortable to see, precisely
because we're often reminded that the goal of this list was to be a
bastion of anti-sectarian Marxist scholarship amid plenty of the
opposite online. The emphasis on the "scholarly" dimension of this list
has likewise been increasingly abdicated - without scholarly standards
of research, argumentation, and willingness to be flexible in debate,
lists like this will implode or ossify.


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