>>> sokol at jhu.edu 03/08/01 01:38PM >>>
At 09:38 AM 3/8/01 -0500, Charles wrote:
>Leninist proverb on race: Workers and oppressed peoples of the world, unite !
Charles, I'm nonplussed by this injection of subjectivism. "Workers" is an objectively defined category, i.e. "those who sell their labour power to the owners of the means of production." But "oppressed?" - everyone can feel "oppressed" ferchrissake. In fact, fighting "oppression" is a call to arms by the lunatic right who feel "oppressed" by the IRS, the "gummint," "liberal cultural elite," "reverse discrimination" and the kindred pandemonium of bogeymen - not to mention that the Nazis felt "oppressed" by the Jews, Serbs felt "oppressed" by the Bosniaks, and so on.
(((((((((
CB: Wojtek, your criticism should be directed at Lenin, not me. He actually did modify the slogan. So, you think Lenin was being too subjective ?
Naw, "oppressed" is an objective category too ( See Lenin's polemics on self-determination of oppressed , colonialized nations and peoples ). Or perhaps we can say those laborers systematically placed below average wage-laborers in the wage-labor system , such as slaves, sharecroppers, poor peasants, racially oppresssed, peons, housewives, etc.
Maybe you are thinking of "depressed".