See below, so I don't run afoul of Kelley and her admonition about evil top posting.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Carrol Cox
> Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 11:07 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: Elbaum's "Revolution in the Air"
>
>
>
>
> Chip Berlet wrote:
> >
> One nasty story is of the cadre
> > communist organization (not the one she joined) that forced
> gay and lesbian
> > couples to spilt up and marry heterosexually and move to places like
> > Baltimore to "merge with the industrial working class."
>
> The only group I know of that took that position was the RCP -- and
> incidentally, they have now retreated from that position. I don't know
> if they have improved in other respects or not. They were pretty
> aggressive in their homophobia, and on the open list they created
> recently some posters were hitting them pretty hard for not being more
> blunt in their self-criticism. It's really pretty hard to
> shift from an
> aggressive homophobia (about 20 to 30 years too late) and not say
> bluntly that you fucked up royally.
The group I was talking about ended up the Communist Workers Party.
>
> Other groups, and many posters to this list for that matter,
> were not as
> clumsy in their identification of "working class" with "industrial
> worker" -- but quite frankly I don't see much difference in principle
> between the RCP and those who insist on hanging on to the academic
> sociology of a "middle class." Belief in a "middle class" or
> demographically significant "petty bourgeoisie" makes it almost
> impossible to understand capitalism in the core imperialist nations.
Nice try. The role of the middle class "Burgher Parties" is central to an understanding of how the Nazi's took power in Germany. See the newsletter of the Marxist section of the ASA:
http://www.tryoung.com/fromleft/winter97.htm
Search for "Burgher Parties"
Serious Marxist analysis requires one retracting their analytical cephalus from the alimentary canal of didactic Marxism.
:-)
-Chip
>
> Carrol