autonomist Marxism

Alec Ramsdell aramsdell at yahoo.com
Fri Sep 20 17:08:48 PDT 2002


Tahir Wood wrote:


> Tahir: Well it seems that I am being asked to
> self-identify as an autonomist,

Oh, not at all - I figured your thinking had strong tendencies in that direction, but also that:

. . . there are
> many currents of leftwing communism that I like in
> one way or another.


> But leaving that aside, let me
> first say that what I like about the autonomist
> tradition, and other similar approaches, is that
> they leave open the question of organisation, like
> Marx did (in contrast to Lenin and his epigones).

An open-endedness that's very appealing, and touches on what motivated me to ask about AM. For a beginner like me Marxism is primarily of analytic value, rather than the source for a handbook of daily living. So I'm always curious about proposals for practical action and how it works.


> I find your question to be not quite clear.

Yeah, I asked it hastily based on very little material. You answered it well, thank you! What I had in mind was how the principle of autonomy might contribute to reification in so far as it articulates social *relations* as essentially distinct *identities*, thereby separating race, gender, ethnicity, etc, from class. As you briefly explain this isn't the case.

Thanks for the further recommendations.

Alec

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