Apologies in advance if it did.]
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Alec Ramsdell wrote:
>
> >A few days ago Doug mentioned that Tahir is an
> >autonomist Marxist. What are some distinguishing
> >characteristics of this autonomist Marxism?
>
> Sometimes people are prickly about these
> attributions. If so, Tahir,
> sorry. Just evoking a tendency - antistatist,
> antihierarchical,
> antiparty, pro the self-organizing activity of the
> working class.
>
> Here's a bit from Harry Cleaver's intro to his AM
> archive:
>
<http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/txarchintro.html>.
This looks like an excellent resource, thanks. Also . . .
> >These archives contain a wide variety of material
> related to those
> >threads of the Marxist tradition which have
> emphasized the
> >self-activity of the working class. "Autonomist "is
> used here in
> >several senses: 1. the autonomy of the working
> class vis a vis
> >capital, 2. the autonomy of workers vis a vis their
> official
> >organizations, e.g., trade unions or parties, 3.
> the autonomy of
> >various sectors of the class from each other, e.g.,
> that of blacks
> >from whites, women from men, etc.
Tahir, what's your angle on sense 3? I understand the necessity of identifying and organizing in groups in so far as it enables collective political agency. But how does one deal with the subsequent reification of categories where they're detached from the social, historical, and political contingencies that made them matter in the first place? Where the latter can inspire things like the bell curve and other bogus racial determinations . . .
A quick question after a short read.
Alec
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