[Marxism] Tea time in the moderator's parlor

[Anthony Boynton <anthony.boynton@xxxxxxxxx>]

Regarding the membership of the marxismlist, and the most recent expulsion
of Walter Lipman, here are my few pennies worth. Louis Proyect, our
moderator, once - probably more than once - likened this list to his parlor.
He invites people to it to chat over tea and crumpets, hoping to provoke
scintillating conversations that may spark more important things outside of
the parlor.

This is not a democratically organized membership group where we elect our
moderator, and vote on who gets to be a member.

I for one am happy to move from group to group, (thread to thread)
participating or not in the convrsations that are going on. I feel perfectly
at ease when there are conversations that are boring, reformist, sectarian,
or even worse ...because I can just ignore them like at any large tea party.
(Here I should add that I prefer cocktail parties, but adding booze to the
parlor might lead to brawls.)

So, the only people I am for expelling are the cops who come here to gather
information and try to foment animosity among the real leftists on this
list.

I see no good political reason for our host to 86 Walter, even if Walter's
politics are not to Louis's liking, and even if Walter gets strident about
his reformism sometimes. He is certainly not the only reformist on the list,
nor the only strident contributor.

But Louis is the host of this parlor.

People on this list could set up a democratically organized list as an
alternative to Lou's list, but that would take a lot of work which only a
few people - like Lou and Les - really want to do. So I bet that no such
organization is about to be born.

In any case, I am sure Walter will be back if he wants to come back.

More later, Anthony
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