On Mon, 06 May 2002 11:29:06 -0400 Chuck Munson <chuck at tao.ca> writes:
> Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
>
> Incidentally, I hear that Bookchin is more of a Marxist these days
> than an
> anarchist. More or less, he's gotten pretty confused in his old age.
Actually, Bookchin has always been a Marxist of some sort. As I recall he started out decades ago as a Trot, becoming an anarchist by the 1950s. But even back when he was writing pamphlets like "Listen Marxist", he always insisted upon the Marxian roots of his own thought which include an adherence to the materialist conception of history, acceptance of Marxian political economy, an emphasis on the centrality of class struggle (even though he departs here from traditional Marxist conceptions, in favor of a conception that he derives from Bakunin), and if he is not an orthodox dialectical materialist, he has called himself a "dialectical naturalist."
.
>
> I think I'm with Chomsky with his take on Marxism, in that he
> questions
> why anybody would label themselves as adhering to an ideology named
> after
> one person.
As has been noted previously, Marx & Engels preferred to speak of "scienfic socialism." The term Marxism was originally coined by their political opponents. Marx himself abjured the term, saying according to Engels "Je ne suis pas un marxist" when reading some writing by a French disciple which he disapproved of. What is called Marxism is the work of great many different people, stretching over a period of 150 years. I think it is perhaps unfortunate that the term "Marxism" has stuck, but then again in biology, people speak of Darwinism which in reality is likewise a body of thought that has developed over the past 150 years.
Jim F.
> At the same time, I understand that the word is a
> convenient
> label for a body of thought and practice over the past 150 years. I
> can
> understand why many Marxists are reluctant to give up the term. Many
> anarchists knee jerk when they hear the word, ignoring the fact that
> there
> are many different flavors of Marxism, including our kindred spirits
> among
> the libertarian Marxists.
>
> It would probably help everybody if they spent some time reading
> material
> outside of their usual circles.
>
> It was good to see that books from Tariq Ali and Barbara Eherenreich
> were
> on yesterday's Washington Post bestseller list. A refreshing
> development
> for Book World, which is always dominated by books about dead
> presidents,
> the civil war, and Nazi Germany.
>
> << Chuck0 >>
>
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>
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>
> "...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in
> the world today are anarchists, who are busily
> undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is
> still trying to form committees."
> -- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)
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