Re: [Marxism] On Marxism's failure in the USA

[Anthony Boynton <anthony.boynton@xxxxxxxxx>]

As far as I can tell Marxism has "failed" everywhere on planet Earth, at
least in the sense that the worldwide socialist revolution has not yet taken
place. The "failure" of Marxism in the United States is not qualitatively
different than the failure of the United States in France, Argentina,
England or Thailand.

Marxism in the United States has had some particular failures of its own, in
both theory and practice. In terms of theory most Marxists in the the United
States assumed that the model of British capitalism studied by Marx, and
later extended by Lenin et. al could simply be mechanical superimposed over
the United States. This type of theoretical vulgarity was, and is, common
outside of Europe, and accounts for a lot of the stupidity passed off as
Marxism during the 20th century. Although not solely the property of
Stalinism, the tendency was exacerbated enormously by that church.

In the USA the historical analysis of the CP-USA as well as that of George
Novak of the SWP fits into that mold. The most original things to come out
of US Marxists came from the dependency theorists, and the work of Harry
Braverman.

Theoretical poverty was related to poverty in practice where Marxists at
their best were good militant trade unionists, protest organizers, and
lawyers. Most Marxists int he US have attached themselves to an imperialist
political organization, the Democratic Party, and in doing so have doomed
themselves forever to political irrelevance and much worse. Those who did
not failed to successfully take advantage of the very few opportunities
history has offered to break the grip of the two party political system of
imperialism.

I guess the Marxism list offers the best chance the world has for ending the
historical irrelevancy of Marxism int he USA. Are you up to it?

Anthony
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