> You will get my point when you learn to discard the filter through
> which you read my postings. As long as you think that I am thinking
> of "[a]n idealized working class which exists only in [my]
> imagination," you will gain nothing from talking with me, because you
> have already dismissed me as someone not worth listening to. You may
> very well dismiss me -- that's your choice -- but in that case you
> have no reason to respond to my postings. Respond only to those
> whose opinions you think of as worth debating.
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You're wrong, and over-reacting. I really do listen to you. Except for a few
frustrated lapses, I think you make the most detailed and reasoned
presentations of the anti-DP position of anyone on the list. I'm also awed
by your tireless energy and commitment, although in this period I think your
level of activity has to be recommended as mostly a matter of personal
choice rather than political responsibility. Some of your frenzied
co-thinkers do deserve to be dismissed. Maybe the reference to "an idealized
working class which exists only in your own imagination" is a bit harsh, but
I think that's characteristic of many Western Marxists, including very
thoughtful ones, who are alienated by the conservatism of the "actually,
existing" working class in a period of relative stability and the absence of
a workers movement. Your politics, IMO, reflects this.
At the present time, like it or not, I think most politically conscious trade unionists and social movement activists are congregated in and around the Democratic party -- I don't think we really disagree on the nature of the DP leadership or program, although I think these are more contradictory than you sometimes make out -- and on that basis alone it is important to build rather than burn bridges to them. Despite their very real reservations, they still have confidence in their party and leadership, especially given what they see as the Republican alternative, and are more interested in reforming rather than leaving the DP. I don't see how a serious left can fail to take this into account. Strident regular attacks of the kind you launch from the outside, and especially the sectarian Nader-Camejo campaign in the context of the referendum on Bush, strike me as self-defeating exercises which reinforces rather than breaks down the miserable isolation of the left.
If I see working people in large numbers breaking from the DP and joining the Greens, I'll be the first to admit I've been wrong and will reevaluate my assessment of the period. I'd do the same here in Canada if the trade unionists and movement activists start leaving the NDP for the Greens or some other party to their left. But, as you know, I think a significant change in consciousness necessarily has to be preceded by a significant change in social conditions.
Marv Gandall