Malcolm X and building a Black Tammany Hall

[Charles Brown]

The conflictual aspect of
the whole is not the "whole"
of a dialectical and Marxist 
approach. The whole is
a struggle (conflict) AND
UNITY of opposites. My concept
of community would follow this
approach. To see something
as only conflictual is as unMarxist
as to see it as only a unity.

Just to get something from
that horse, Marx's, mouth,
in the Chapter entitled "Commodities"
in Vol. I of Capital (page 79 of
my International edition) Karl refers
to "primitive communities" and
"primitive tribal communities" . Just
flipping through the text, on the
previous page, he refers to
"the labour-power of the community."
and says " the total product of the
community is a social product."
On page 89, (chapter entitled
"Exchange" he says, "The exchange
of  commodities, therefore, first
begins on the boundaries of such
communities, at their points of contact
with other similar communities, or with
members of the latter. So soon, howeve,
as products once become commodities in
the external relations of a community, they
also, by reaction, become so in its internal
intercourse." This latter is, of course, a
famous passage and concept. Commodity
exchange began at the borders of 
communites.

I kid you not. Take a look.

Maybe
Marx really wasn't a Marxist, like
he said. Whaddaya think ?

Cholly the Moor


>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 01/07 4:41 PM >>>
Charles Brown wrote:
>Maybe use of "people" ,
>or "oppressed national or
>racial group" instead of
>"community" will clarify this for
>you. But these are "technical"
>terms, like "exploitation" , so
>it is good to have popular
>terms in that we want to
>speak to millions. "Community"
>is a popular term for these.
>
>What are the specifics of your
>Marxist analysis of this contra
>above ? What are the specifics
>of your claim that these phrases
>obscure more than reveal , etc. ?
>I am not familiar with the
>critique of the concept of
>"community".

I suspect that this whole linguistic fashion of naming a ____ community
came from the American habit of euphemism - people who found monosyllables
like "blacks" and "Jews" too harsh thought that "the black community" and
"the Jewish community" was more euphonious and less potentially offensive.

The reason I object to the formulation is that, as I said the first time
around, "community" is a word that creates an artificial unity, something
more organicist than conflictual. I'd have thought that it's a word that
Amatai Etzioni would throw around, not a Marxist like yourself, who'd be
inclined to see stratification and conflict where others might see a whole.
And, as the man said, the whole is the false.

Doug