Kautsky parle

[james withrow]

On Thu, 3 Sep 1998, Michael Eisenscher wrote: 
"Workers can understand Marxist concepts, but not if they are 
presented as 
you do here. I have never heard "rentier classes," "bourgeois society,"
"value theory," "proletariat," "fetishistic expression," "surplus labor
time," or "necessary labor time" roll off the tongues of workers with
whom I have dealt over the course of more than 30 years of union work." 
Dennis commented:"Well, translated into 1990s terms, you could reel off
the 
afore-mentioned 
Marxian categories as "Wall Street greedheads", "corporations",
"critical thinking", "ordinary working people", "false problems",
"Nike's greed" and "whatever your job is, you deserve fair
compensation". There remains the small problem of "the revolution". How
about "Massive, Sudden Global Grooviness"? To the Linux-barricades,
comrades!" 

Alec protested:"That's pretty "Extreme", don't you think, Dennis?" 

 
_______________________________________________

No, Alec, it's not extreme.  In fact, I'd get rid of that "critical
thinking" part, too.   Once again, let me say that the Far Left may have
some important points to make.  It's a shame that most of us will never
know because we can't understand the jargon.

What makes this more remarkable is that the left (or slightly left of
center) has some role models for discourse.  As someone wisely pointed
out recently, the gay rights movement has been helped tremendously by
Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey.  It's a shame that Oprah has such a
pro-capitalism economic view.  If we had someone like her to explain
class struggle-- or someone like her to ask leading questions of
ordinary people and then nod respectfully as they answered-- we'd be
closer to class consciousness than we are now.

  

                               James