----- Original Message ----- From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 10:30 PM Subject: Re: preaching, waiting
> >Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> >
> >>How do you square Adolph Reed & the Labor Party with Hardt &
> >>Negri's anti-statism?
> >
> >Well, I like unions, at least if they're democratic, imaginative,
> >and inclusionary, and I like the idea of political parties, as long
> >as they're not a self-appointed vanguard, and I like the LP's
> >emphasis on organizing rather than electoral politics. So, at best,
> >it looks like an attempt at the self-organization of the working
> >class. In my heart, or gut, or whatever organ it is that's the
> >repository of instinct, I don't like states, but in the practical
> >neighborhood of my brain I realize that states are with us, and will
> >be for a long time, so you try to lobby for the best deal you can
> >get from them. I'm also all for experimentation & stuggle of all
> >kinds; I don't have any magic bullet, so you fight where you can and
> >see what happens.
> >
> >Doug
>
> The LP looks like a self-appointed _rear_guard, though, in the sense
> of sitting on its _ass_. :) Abstention from electoral politics may
> or may not be a good thing at this point in history, but it's not
> clear for what purpose it is organizing itself, how it is planning to
> achieve its goals, etc. It somehow looks to me as if it's even more
> afraid to challenge the Dems (& the AFL-CIO) than Nader/the Greens.
>
> Anyhow, all political parties & organizations are in a sense
> "self-appointed" unless & until they win the allegiance of the masses.
>
> Remember to tell Hardt & Negri to get in touch with "the practical
> neighborhood" of their brains once in a while. :)
>
> Yoshie