[PEN-L:29957] Re: Re: national question again

[Waistline2@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 8/28/02 8:37:20 AM Pacific Daylight Time, laflame@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:


> Ok.  I don't mind sounding dumb.  Who's "the other guy"?
>
> > But, then again this question have been debated by generations of Marxist and observed and recorded over a long period of time. I think I might be among a handful of people left who keep the original Comintern documents (the 1928 and 1930 Resolutions on the Negro Question) on my desk, along with all of Lenin's major writing on this question and all the major writings of the other guy - who was in fact a national minority. UUUUUUUmmmmmmmmm:)


The other guy is Mr. J. V.  Stalin. I have in mind landmark text such as Marxism and the National Question, The October Revolution and the National Question and of course "Concerning the Presentation of the National Question" (May 1921), which explains the emergence of the national-colonial question. "Theses On National Factors in Party and State Affairs"  is also must read material for anyone interested in the presentation of this issue.


In terms of America, "The Negro National Colonial Question" by Nelson Peery remains the best presentation of the national question within the framework of the evolution of American Marxism. Some of the material is outdated but the book is theoretically sound, with Chapter one drawing extensively from Marx economic writings.

Although I have met and encountered many individuals in the past who have actually read the book and may disagree with its point of view, none of these individuals disagreed with the analysis of the economic logic of Southern slavery, which implies and means a national formation. The book was first published in 1972 and my copy is the 2nd (revised) edition from 1975.

A modern presentation of this same question would probably deal with a lot more economic data and would perhaps deal with the aftermath of the Civil War from the standpoint of the defeat of a specific development called "Southern."

Another challenge would be a specific presentation of the evolution of the African American people and the economic logic that drove this development during the transition from manufacture to industry; through the successive phases of industrial development and the mechanization (industrialization) of agriculture; the increased tendency to disperse nations and national formations,  up to this phase of the domination of speculative capital.


Melvin P.