[PEN-L:2176] Re: Malcolm X

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On the other hand, statues or
icons of Lenin in the Soviet Union
were the opposite of harmless
for the bourgeosie  when the
Red Army defeated
Nazis
and the Viet Namese defeated
the US imperialists or the
Cuban revolution, etc, etc.

The role of the statues in the
Soviet Union generally depends
on how one evaluates the
history of the SU in the
world revolutionary struggle,
but I'm not sure that's
a discussion for now.

An interesting case is
that Lenin "himself" is
sitting up there in Red
Square still. One might
say he's harmless since
he's dead, but I like
to think it means that
capitalism can't really,
fully have come to
Russia. If the bourgeoisie
were really, firmly in
control, wouldn't they
bury the body ? I guess
you could say it is used
to placate the masses.

Anyway, going with your
argument, Lenin's general
statement would be
true about himself too,no ?

Charles

>>> Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 01/14 3:53 PM >>>
At 02:24 PM 1/14/99 -0500, you wrote:
Charles Brown writes:
>Lenin , himself, is one that the oppressing
>classes have trouble turning
>into a harmless icon even after
>his death. That's how
>tough he was.

If I remember correctly, Lenin's image has been used in some ads to sell
watches. But since he's a "foreigner," he would never be used in the "West"
as an icon. On the other hand, back in the days of the U.S.S.R. R.I.P.,
Lenin was "canonized" there by the state-party bureaucracy. His statues
were everywhere, despite the fact that Lenin himself didn't want any
statues to be made of him (among other things, because they attract pigeons).

The fact that he was made into a harmless icon can be seen in the way he
was used as a symbol of authority and of Mother Russia. Further, a friend
who was there in the 1970s said that a student or scholar could easily get
into to trouble if one read and quoted non-approved works by Lenin, such as
THE STATE AND REVOLUTION.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html