Eric Alterman's banal reflections (May 25) on divisions in the left are confused as well. After all, the identity mongers he caricatures are the primary volunteers for the Living Wage campaign he lauds. And what's wrong with thinking through the ideas of W.E.B. DuBois and Angela Davis--both the kind of political pragmatist Alterman seems to prefer? Why does he not see this? What's wrong with opposition to the death penalty, i.e., supporting Mumia Abu-Jamal? Does Alterboy's snipe at Foucault suggest that the left should not concern itself with the inner .workings of prisons or mental health clinics ? After the success of of The Bell Curve and Alien Nation, should a rational left simply scoff at those who worry about ethnic cleansing, American -style? And then what is Alterman's criticism of the liberal left? Again, Alterman is very confused; on the authority of a former Secretary of State, he opposes the liberal left for an indulgence towards the nascent identity politics of nineteenth century bohemian homosexual poet? So he seems to have only one concern--the pox spread by the radical/academic left..This stuff belongs in The New Republic. Of course Alterman supports unions, but he has nothing to say about the limits and reach of recent AFL-CIO efforts: he is no Peter Rachleff , Adolph Reed, Jr, or Jeremy Brecher with a solid grounding in autonomous class organization. One suspects that he invokes the politics of class not out of profound commitment but as a debating tactic for neoconservative white guys in left clothing , as Robin Kelley aptly named the type, to shut up the faggots, n-words and bitches.
Best,
Rakesh Bhandari Princeton, NJ