> There have been a number of enlightening works on the history of a
> variety of struggles on the left in the United States: Max Elbaum,
> _Revolution in the Air: From Malcolm and Martin to Lenin, Mao, and
> Che_ (2001); Michael Kazin, _The Populist Persuasion: An American
> History_ (1995); Nelson N. Lichtenstein, _Labor's War at Home: the
> CIO in World War II_ (1992); Robin D.G. Kelley, _Hammer and Hoe:
> Alabama Communists During the Great Depression_ (1990); Mark Naison,
> _Communists in Harlem during the Depression_ (1983); etc. We can
> learn a lot from such works. The problem is that we, lacking in a
> mass movement, are not even in a position to make the same mistakes
> as theirs, whatever mistakes they made respectively.
Does anyone seriously believe that American workers, whether poor or middle class, are gonna be led by Marxist-Leninists or Maoists? Does anyone outside the campus gates truly think that communism is really viable in the United States now or at any time in the near future? Some of the posters here seem to believe that this may be a possibility. If that isn't self-marginalizing and self-defeating, I don't know what is.
DP