>>I don't know where you live, but by now there must be a group or
>>groups of activists in almost all cities (and even in some smaller
>>towns) who have been getting together and discussing what is to be
>>done in opposition to the coming war on Iraq and other questions.
>>The question that you raise above is best discussed in that context,
>>because what you want to _and_ can manage to do probably differs
>>greatly depending on the number and demographic composition of
>>existing local activists and activist groups.
>
>I'm in the Philly area, which of course has no shortage of groups of
>many types. I must confess that I was much more active in the 60s
>and 70s than lately, mainly because trying to keep my head above
>water financially has preoccupied me. But I think I can now see my
>way clear to increasing my level of activity again. At any rate, I
>am hoping that it is also possible to have some sort of useful
>discussion in forums such as this list (otherwise what are they
>for?), although it is no doubt harder to do than in local, specific
>activist groups.
Locally (in Columbus, OH), activists will hold a (weekly) Women in Black vigil (this time focused on Plan Colombia, 5-6 PM, 15th Ave. and High St.) on Friday, September 27; do a banner drop against the war on Iraq on Saturday, September 28 (meeting at 2 PM at 15th Ave. and High St., banner-dropping at 3 PM); and hold an anti-war gathering on Sunday, September 29 (5 PM at 15th Ave, and High St. -- in case of rain, in front of the OSU College of Law).
Here's a national action against the war on Iraq, organized by the National Network to End the War Against Iraq (NNEWAI):
***** Non-Violent March Against the War on Iraq.
Sunday, September 29, 2002: Washington, DC 2:00 PM Gathering at Dupont Circle "Embassy March" to VP Cheney's Residence
<http://www.endthewar.org/default-new.htm> *****
I'm on the EPIC (Education for Peace in Iraq Center) alert mailing list (the EPIC homepage: <http://epic-usa.org/>). EPIC alerts have been urging us to lobby members of Congress by phone, e-mail, etc. 9/30 is the emergency lobby day, organized by EPIC, NNEWAI, etc.:
***** WHEN: Monday, September 30, 2002, 8 AM WHERE: Training & Briefing will take place at the United Methodist Building 100 Maryland Ave. NE, across from the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, DC If you can't come to Washington, DC, try to meet with the home offices of your Members of Congress or call them via the Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121.
<http://epic-usa.org/lobbydays/> *****
Vigils, banner-drops, marches, lobbying, meetings. I've also seen an ad against the war on Iraq in the New York Times, taken by Not In Our Name (NION). All worthwhile things to do, though there is no novel tactic here. These tactics don't amount to any coherent strategy aiming for agreed-upon medium- and long-term goals, because it's not that folks in loose local and national anti-war networks belong to or are even trying to create a political party with a comprehensive program for social change now. Networks have been formed ad hoc, decentralized and transitory; groups come and go; activists come and go, in and out of various networks, based on their life cycles, borne on the ebbs and flows of the historical tide. Perhaps, we are all post-leftist anarchists by default in the USA today, whether we like it or not.
>>Marxism, if it is a science at all, is a kind of social science, thus
>>not quite comparable to natural sciences like biology and geology.
>>By the standards of social science like economics, history, literary
>>criticism, sociology, and political science, a small body of commonly
>>accepted knowledge created within the Marxist tradition (which is
>>itself quite heterogeneous) is not shabby, which is not to say that
>>it is accepted at all by those who are not Marxists (though it has
>>had an influence on even those who do not identify themselves as such
>>and moreover reject Marxism's political objectives).
>
>Of course I wasn't assuming that social sciences are exactly like
>physical/biological sciences in all respects. But the problem is
>that the scientific process of collaborative inquiry within a
>community of scientists just doesn't seem to be much in evidence
>among Marxists. The heterogeneity of the Marxist tradition which you
>point to seems to me to disqualify it from being called a "science"
>in any useful sense.
The Marxist tradition in social sciences has been and will always be a minority voice under capitalism. In the non-Marxist mainstream of social sciences, too, though, there has and will always be a contest of ideas between different schools of thought, theoretical frameworks, etc. (even in economics, where neo-classicals have been triumphant for the last couple of decades).
>To mention only one problem, even key terms like "working class" vs.
>"bourgeois" and other classes and "value" don't have precise
>definitions that everyone can agree on. Just who belongs to the
>working class and who doesn't? And is "value" a useful concept at
>this point? Most practicing Marxists these days seem never to have
>understood what Marx meant by it, and don't make any discernible use
>of it, but without it there isn't much of his basic theory left.
There aren't any precise definitions of terms like "class," "race," "culture," "status," etc. that all non-Marxist social scientists can agree upon either, though such terms are used to describe and explain this or that. I suppose that's the nature of social science: human beings trying to describe and explain changing social relations while at the same time endeavoring (consciously or unconsciously) to have their respective explanations adopted by as many as possible and thereby changing the very social relations under analysis.
Let's take the term "imperialism," given the threads on it on this list. What does it mean to a variety of Marxists? What does it mean to a variety of non-Marxists? -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>