>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 03/27/00 12:13PM >>>
Charles Brown wrote:
>You make is seem like "hedge fund Maoist" is denigrating.
Actually I think it's kind of funny.
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CB: Yea, a putdown joke. But as I say, I don't think it has a putdown ring for me with respect to Henry. As I say, we need people on the inside of capitalism. And the example of Engels shows you can do capitalism full blast and still be one of the greatest anti-capitalist revolutionaries of all times. But furthermore, racism is part of the essence of capitalism, as much as wage-labor, so Henry's resentment of capital's history in ripping off China, is apt, and contributes to the authenticity of his anti-capitalism.
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But the serious point I'm trying to make by using it is to show how elitist his brand of revolutionary politics is, with the Party serving as a substitute authoritarian bourgeoisie in the machine of accumulation. So he can approve of the Taylorist restructuring of Chinese work organization, denounce unions as sinister plots, and reject political democracy as a sham. If it were just Henry who just held these sorts of views, it wouldn't be interesting, but he's not alone in them.
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CB: The validity of this whole critique of Henry is dependent upon the implicit critique of the PRC. I don't buy this critique of the PRC. I think it reflects the anti-communism of the liberal left, which has been horrendous for the Western working class in the historical long term. In other words, at least the Chinese Communists had a Communist Revolution. If you , your political trend and country had had one , I could take your criticisms of the PRC a lot more seriously
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He also represents a kind of First World "radical" who lives out his revolutionary life through fantasies about revolutions by the Other, far away from the comforts of East 62nd St. Meanwhile he - again as representative of a type, not just him personally - can denounce the U.S. working class as a racist (as if it were all white) reactionary mass.
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CB: I could see some of this imagery sort of boomeranging.
Also, I don't quite understand your claim that Henry is a First Worlder and that China is an "Other" for him. I think China is a "Same" for Henry Liu. That you think of Henry Liu as a First Worlder with "fantasies" like a white person's about "others" in China is a bit strange, post-modernism run amok sort of.
CB