Re: [Marxism] ISO's conference.

[Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

JB wrote: I think it is unwise to have such positions [on all sorts of 
theoretical, historical and international

questions.] because by their nature they cannot be put to the test of practice. 
And, frankly, I don't think it matters much what theoretical analysis you have 
about Cuba or China PROVIDED your politics are ok, the things in relation to 
Cuba that a group in the US might be able to really affect, like ending the US 
blockade, the occupation of Guantanamo and freeing the five Cuban patriots. 

I tend to agree on the question of theoretical and historical questions, not so 
much because they "can't be put to the test of practice" but because no two 
situations are the same; making a revolution in the U.S. in 2009 is only 
tangentially related to making one in Russia in 1917. To clarify, there is 
nothing wrong with *having* positions on such questions, only in thinking there 
is no possible alternative acceptable position.

But international questions are a different story, and that was, in part, 
precisely the point of my old post to which I posted a link earlier in this 
discussion:

  http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2007w01/msg00146.htm

As the ISO demonstrates, when you have a "negative" (or insufficiently 
positive; you pick the description) attitude towards Cuba, there are 
*consequences* to that - your press doesn't cover even such basics as Cuba's 
revolutionary solidarity with the poor and oppressed of the world. And when you 
don't do that, the chances that your members, or those to whom you circulate 
your press, are going to *actually* get involved with the defense of Cuba, as 
opposed to just saying "we defend Cuba" (under some unspecified hypothetical 
circumstances in some unspecified hypothetical way), are nil.


Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync.
http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_BR_life_in_synch_052009
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu