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@panix.com> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">BrownBingb@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</BLOCKQUOTE> <hr size=1>Do you Yahoo!? <a href="http://rd.yahoo.com/platinum/evt=8162/*http://platinum.yahoo.com/splash.html">Yahoo! Platinum</a> - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, <a href="http://rd.yahoo.com/platinum/evt=8162/*http://platinum.yahoo.com/splash.html">live on your desktop</a>!