There's a small British journal called "Imprints" that is basically an exercise in cheerleading for the analytical Marxist crowd (Cohen, Roemer, et al.) Most of these folks, Roemer especially, have converged with liberal egalitarians like Rawls. Callinicos has recently come around to a critical engagement with this stuff. The most recent issue of Imprints has a long interview with Callinicos that sets all of this in context. If you can't find the journal, email me a snail mail address and I'll drop a copy in the mail.
Michael McIntyre
>>> ilagardien at yahoo.com 04/24/02 10:53AM >>>
Hi everyone
I feel bad about my post on Equality and Socialists; perhaps I should explain. I am doing a literature review chapter as part of my first year of the PhD. I am looking, specifically, at the literature on equality/inequality. I think I may have taken the quote out of context.
While reading the book, Equality by Alex Callinicos (Polity 2000), I came across this text in the main body: "* the fact that New Labour's ethical commitments are apparently identical with those of more traditional socialists offers and opportunity to appriase the Third Way in terms that both its adherents and its Left-wing critics would acknowledge as valid" (p 38). A Footnote/Endnote, actualy, directs one to the following on page 139:
"Brian Barry argues against identifying socialism with equality: 'If taken as fundamental equality * the equal claim to considerations of all human beings - it does not distinguish socialism from liberalism or indeed from most (non-racist) forms of modern conservatism. If taken as material equality, it is also inaccurate since very few socialists have ever been or are now in favour of complete material equality.' (Does Society Exist? London 1989). But since Barry goes on to suggest that 'relative equality' is 'a theorem derivable from an adequate account of social justice' his definition of socialism as 'social justice plus collectivism' doesn't seemto differ significantly from two of the values listed by Carling * equality and community."
Apologies for the confusion, or misrepresentation and thanks for your comments.
Cheers
Ismail
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