Reparations

[Brad Mayer]

Thanks, Carrol.  This agreeably clarifies things with respect to Art.  I'd 
also add that, at this point in history at least, being a _revolutionary_ 
is more significant than being a marxist.  A lot of counterrevolutionary 
and reactionary BS has floated under the bridge in the name of 
"Marxism".  There is still much "marxist" crap that needs to be blown out 
the tubes, a lot of deck-clearing, before the order of these two terms can 
be reversed.  After all, Marx was first a revolutionary.  This was the 
primary impulse for whatever was innovative in his thought.

-Brad Mayer
Oakland, CA

PS:  Apologies for the messed up Japan/Economist post.  I thought it would 
fly, but it didn't.  It was an interesting article that had some details on 
the Machiavellian internals of the LDP.  However, once again the Minshuto 
(Japan Democratic Party) is not mentioned - it simply fails to appear on 
the Anglo-American bourgeois radar, anywhere.   Interestingly, Minshuto 
_failed_ to win the Chiba prefecture (Kanto region, Tokyo) governorship 
last weekend, despite the LDP crisis.  Instead, it went to an "independent 
grassroots" (i.e., populist) candidate, Akiko Domoto, whose politics cannot 
be discerned at this time.  The turnout was low - ~40%.  The LDP has never 
lost Chiba before.  Not just the LDP, but the entirety of bourgeois 
politics in Japan, continues in deep crisis.


>Joshua Howard wrote:
> >
> >  the American
> > slavery reperations case
>
>We are not talking about a "case" (it's a political not a judicial
>claim) and we are not talking about "slavery reparations." Didn't anyone
>on LBO bother to read what Art said in his posts.
>
>Carrol
>
>Here is Art's original post.
>
>*****
>
>Subject:  Re: Horowitz/Reparations for slavery
>      Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 23:51:07 -0800 (PST)
>     From: Art McGee <mcgee at well.com>
>
>Damn,
>
>I try my best to just lurk and not say anything, because I'm
>too busy doing real activism work and not just chatting and
>talking bullshit on mailing lists, but as is the case when
>white folks try to comment on things that Black folks are
>doing, they are so off track that someone has to speak up:
>
>1. Reparations, as defined by EVERY major reparations
>organization and activist, are NOT simply about slavery, but
>about slavery AND the institutionalized discrimination and
>terrorism that has been inflicted on Black people over 400+
>years. It's NOT either or but AND. Understand? We don't
>think of it as a BINARY opposition. It's NOT slavery only
>or current discrimination only, but BOTH. Got it? Good.
>
>2. Among those of us who are RADICALS, which includes those
>who are REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISTS as well as MARXISTS,
>reparations is only one part of an overall strategy for the
>restructuring of society. There are NO radicals that I know
>of who think that reparations are the solution in and of
>themselves. Only ignorant white folks, some of them who call
>themselves Marxists, think that the reparations campaign
>is a "misguided" or "potentially disastrous" political
>strategy. These people simply don't know what the fuck
>they are talking about, and they obviously have little
>understanding of the Black radical tradition, or contact
>with Black radicals for that matter. If they did, they
>would understand that reparations is a single piece in
>the overall strategic puzzle of societal transformation.
>
>
>Art