As you know, I agree with Charles about Marxism, but draw the opposite conclusion. Why is it worth arguing about what a Leninist is? Isn't a L-ist someone who calls herself one, who draws her political inspitaion from the October Revolution, and advocates, as a goal, the sort of things, in a broad sensem tha L did -- vanguard parties, insurrectionary strategies? Personally, I think Yoshie and the other self-described L-ists in Soli are Mensheviks, but I don't have a dog (or a Doug) in that fight. jks
Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:BrownBingb at aol.com wrote:
>CB: What's it mean to be a Marxist in the USA in 2003 ? Why is being
>a Marxist in 2003 in the USA less a fringe tendency than being a
>Leninist ?
Marxism is about an understanding of capitalism - the root of value production in exploitation, its transformation into a variety of phenomenal forms, the centrality of class, etc. etc. Leninism is mostly about political practice. You can be a Marxist and believe in vanguard parties or street parties as the central mechanism of political transformation.
Doug
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