American politics [was Reps delaying

James Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Sat Sep 18 16:38:31 PDT 1999


On Sat, 18 Sep 1999 13:10:28 -0500 "Peter Kilander" <peterk at enteract.com> writes:
>Max:
>>I don't think there is any parallel in the U.S. Of the Chicago 7,
>only Tom
>>Hayden went into mainstream politics and never got higher than state
>>assemblyman. Bobby Seale, David Dellinger, and Lee Wiener are
>>still left, far as I know, and in no danger of Cabinet appointments.
>>Abby Hoffman stayed left till his death.
>
>I saw Abbie Hoffman, Timothy Leary, and Stokely Carmichael at a
>Vanderbilt
>University
>event months before Hoffman died (I think it was around '89). He
>walked on
>stage grinning and giving the audience the finger. Keep an eye out for
>a
>soon to be released major motion picture on Hoffman staring Vincent
>D'Onofrio as Abbie and Janeane Garofalo as his wife, Anita.
>
>[clip]
>>The Clintonoids are all "Big
>>Chill" types of ex-radicals, as far as I can see -- people who were
>>either on the fringes of real left action, or in elite positions
>within
>>the Democratic party of that period (i.e., Clinton as a McGovern
>>state coordinator).
>
>I believe Germany's Gerald Shroeder is a "Big Chill" type, too. Jospin
>was
>once a Trot, right?

I believe both statements are correct. Schroeder's foreign minister, a Green, used to be notorious for leading street demonstrations against the US presence in Europe. All this raises the question that has been broached before by Charles Brown as to what extent are the ruling classes dependent on ex-leftists including ex-Marxists for their intellectual firepower. To what extent do our bourgeoisie require the services of ex-Marxists for the formation of their own class consciousness?

Jim Farmelant
>

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