On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, Doug Henwood wrote:
> > H&N use "communist" because they get all the symbolic credit for doing
> > so but bear no significant risk for doing it.
>
> I don't know. A guy who's done jail time has some standing as a
> risk-taker.
Yeah, but isn't this a "that was then, this is now" kind of thing? If Negri talked and acted then like he's talking and acting now, I don't think he'd have gotten arrested. (Although I could be wrong. Them's was heated times.)
On the other hand, you might have put your finger on why he's so attached to the word communist. It signifies continuity with his own past and solidarity with his old comrades and he wants to say strongly that he still feels both. Sounds fair. Like you say, he's paid his dues.
Michael
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"His works have been translated into French -- they ought to be translated into English. People wonder that Mr. Bentham has not been prosecuted for the boldness and severity of some of his invectives. He might wrap up high treason in one of his inextricable periods, and it would never find its way into Westminster Hall.
-- Hazlitt, "On Bentham"
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