"But here's the twist. [Reformist Social-Democratic Leftist Nelson] Lichtenstein is part of a perfectly Rortyite reformist Campaign for a Living Wage at the University of Virginia. This campaign is not about ending sexism, racism, or homophobia, but about getting janitorial staff a few extra bucks an hour. Who are its volunteers? Primarily, says Lichtenstein, faculty and graduate students from the pomo literature and theory crowd."
I have to note, despite my occasional slurs on pomo (part of a reflex of a recovering theory boy :), when I was a grad student, the pomo-oriented students were some of the strongest folks in support of the picket lines when the grad union went on strike.
But then, the whole Sociology faculty from moderate Dems to radical Marxists were extremely supportive of grad students during the whole UC-Berkeley grad organizing drive. There were other departments, notably English, where progressive faculty did not extend their politics to economic justice and I had serious problems with almost the whole faculty during budget crises when their first priority was their own privileges, but any uniform comment on the faculty left only goes so far.
The worst you can say about them is that they tend to marginalize themselves by spending most of their time discussing issues in incomprehensible lingo in forums read by no one but themselves.
-- Nathan Newman