>But shouldn't someone make sure Alex sees all the nasty things Proyect
>has said about Alex? Sounds like AC doesn't know LP the way we all seem
>to!
Right. Lou, be sure to forward this, in the interest of completeness! There are so many errors in this, it's hard to know where to start, but just for the record...
><http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/archives/Nov1999/msg00274.html>
>
>Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 17:00:20 -0500
>* From: Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com>
>* Subject: Re: Cockburn and Women
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >Here is Katha Pollitt's response to Cockburn's letter.
> >
> >Carrol
>
>For people on this list who do not have the "privilege" to be in the same
>country as Pollitt, Cockburn, and Henwood, let me try to explain what the
>feuding is about. All these people--Henwood, Christopher Hitchens,
>Cockburn, Jeff St. Clair, Ken Finkelstein, Kathe Pollitt, Wendy Kaminer and
>Adolph Reed--travel in the same general circles. They are leftist
>journalists with tangential connections to Marxism, who most often publish
>in venues like the Nation, where Doug serves on the editorial board and
>where Pollitt, Hitchens and Cockburn have regular columns. They also pick
>up spare change writing for glossy commercial magazines like Harper's,
>Vanity Fair and Newsweek, although Doug has not cracked into that world--to
>his credit. None of them ever belonged to radical groups, or if they did it
>was a moment in their writing career. They don't know what it takes to make
>a leaflet, organize a forum, get candidates on the ballot, build a
>demonstration, etc. Neither do they have much knowledge of literature in
>the Marxist tradition. My experience with Pollitt on the Auto-Sys mailing
>list (Negri, Deleuze, etc.) was a real eye-opener. She, like Doug, makes
>all sorts of sweeping generalizations about Marxism based obviously on lack
>of familiarity.
>
>They all have very large egos and are constantly feuding with each other.
>Hitchens is universally despised by the rest, but has much more worldly
>success. He was a constant companion of White House aide, who he "ratted
>out" during the Monica Lewinsky hearings.
>
>They occupy a large space in leftist discourse, because the socialist left
>has gone through such a shattering experience. If this left does revive--as
>surely it will--it will generate its own intellectuals and writers who will
>have much more to say. When one compares the blatherings of all these
>Nation Magazine celebrities to the work of CP or Trotskyist intellectuals
>in the 1930s, it is no comparison. Read Dwight MacDonald. Read Kenneth
>Burke. Read Christopher Caldwell, who died in Spain. There is no comparison.
>
>Louis Proyect
>Marxism mailing list: (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)