Marxism as Theory and movement

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri May 10 09:01:55 PDT 2002


Justin Schwartz wrote:


>Historical materialism in some form is not only true but obviously
>true. Class analysis is inavualble and essential for understanding
>society. Marxism as a movement, organozed around traditional
>symbols, vocabulary, and organizational forms, is dead as a doornail
>outside a few embattled locales--maybe Kerela? Maybe Cuba. Berkeley,
>Madison, Ann ARbor, parts of Greenwich Village, the Kite in
>Cambridge (if that still exists), etc. In the West it is beyond
>recussitation.

Weirdly, Liza Featherstone, on a little tour of the northwest to promote her book, Students Against Sweatshops, told me yesterday that the campus Republicans at the very conservative Western Oregon University (located in a dry county, filled with would-be cops and soldiers) have organized a debate on capitalism. As a system, pro or con. This is not an activist campus. So why are they doing this? Is there something in the air that makes them nervous?

Doug



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