[lbo-talk] Left Writers

[Carrol Cox]

The list of writers below is a random selection done quickly. Because
"left writing" necessarily includes an extremely broad range of genres
-books reviews, for example - I have included writers who I know only as
reviewers simply to suggest that when anyone starts to either praise or
blame a domain as large as that of "left writers," they ought to pause
to contemplate the extent of that domain. My general impression over the
last 35 years is that left writing is, on the whole, and as a
generalization, better than liberal or conservative writing. And I note
in this connection that the few (very very few) examples given by the
sneering-mob are rather clustered in several rather small islands
(Z-Magazine, the liberal Nation, a few journalists, etc.). Before the
'critique' could be very persuasive it would have to at least sample a
larger realms and not consist of merely personal impressions.

Carrol

Asterisks indicate that a sample of the writer is given below.

A List of  leftists who write well:

Bruce Franklin
Stephanie Coontz
Lise Vogel
Amira Baraka
Peter Linebaugh
Carolyn Forche
Gabriel Gudding
Richard Lewontin
Barbara Foley
Jesse Lemisch
Max Elbaum
W. D. Ehrhart
Malini Srinivasan*
Paul Buhle
Bertell Ollman
Stan Goff
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Angela Gilliam**
Ellen Meiksins Wood
Jeffrey Blum
Jim Devine
Michael Yates
Doug Dowd
William Hinton
Jan Carew
Manning Marable
Barbara Jeanne Fields
Alan Wald
Vinay Lal
A. Sivanandan

	*Rural labourers, poor women, Untouchables, the "wretched of the
earth": their lives are discussed, their votes are counted, and their
practices theorised by academics in ivory towers. They are subjects of
study and politics but rarely approached as human beings.

	Viranna: life of an Untouchable is an  oral history, told by Viramma
herself, a Pariah (English/Portuguese/French rendering of Paraiyar: the
largist caste of Dalits in Tamil-speaking areas) woman, singer, mother,
midwife and agricultural labourer in Tamil Nadu, southern India. It is
an insight into the joys and struggles of her life without the filter of
academic theory. . . .

	**So, whether one likes it or not, our [black female anthropolists]
academic work is constrained by the historical fight for full
citizenship. Though such a battle has been primarily a struggle for
"equal access," nonetheless many have nurtured a vicion of national
transformatio as well. In addition, the black scholar has the double
burden of creating a theoretical discourse of opposition within the
field, one that will be at least taken seriously by other scholars. Yet
these two purposes are usually at odds.

	Moreover, the work that black feminist anthropologists do is focused
towards bridging a complex gap between male dominance in the
community-wide struggle against racism and white female dominance in the
battle against sexism. Often the issues of international power and
unequal economic relations have been inserted by black feminist
scholars. . . .

(William Hinton & H. Bruce Franklin have produced  which were obvious
classics from the day of their appearance. Possibly the same should be
said of Peter Linebaugh. I have not read A. Sivandan's, _When Memory
Dies_, but see the review in _Race and Class_ [April-June 1997] by
Victor Anant & the samples quoted there.)