> Is Lukacs beyond criticism?
>
> Ulhas
One of the times I saw Aronowitz speak at UCSC, this time preceeded by Frederic Jameson who was teaching in the History of Consciousness program there at the time, he waved Lukacs, "Destruction of Reason, " in the air, read a few paragraphs on Nietzsche as the ideologist of fascistfinanzmonopolycapitalismindecline, and laughed.
From a good, short book by a ex-Trot, Cyril Smith, who started out in the CPGB in the 50's. http://www.angelfire.com/nv/readpiss/HowtheMarxistsburiedMarx.html How the "Marxists" Buried Marx
Chapter 2, of Marx at the Millennium by Cyril Smith
>...A fierce dispute broke out, in which Lukacs and Korsch were
,attacked for 'idealism'. At the Fifth World Congress of the
International in 1924, Zinoviev (1883-1936), then President of the
International and allied with Stalin against Trotsky, spoke on 'The
Struggle against the Ultra-lefts and Theoretical Revisionism'. He
included a characteristic onslaught on the two authors and those
intellectuals who supported them. In line with his 'Bolshevisation'
campaign, then in full swing, he denounced them as 'professors', a
species he counterposed to 'honest workers': 'If we get a few more of
these professors spinning out their Marxist theories, we shall be
lost. We cannot tolerate theoretical revisionism of this kind in our
communist international.' Bukharin, soon to replace Zinoviev as
Stalin's ally, is reported to have declared in conversation with
Korsch and other delegates: 'Comrades, we cannot put every piece of
garbage up for discussion.'
The ideas of Korsch and Lukacs, instead of being combated in open debate, were answered with bureaucratic crudity. It is doubtful whether Zinoviev ever bothered to look at the books he was denouncing. Their authors' responses were interesting. Lukacs made his recantation, the first of many. Soon afterwards he wrote his essay, Lenin, a Study in the Unity of his Thought (1924),which opened the way for a new 'orthodoxy' called 'Leninism' - really a code name for Stalinism. Korsch also continued for a time to defend the current Comintern line, attacking both 'Trotskyism' and 'Luxemburgism' on behalf of 'Leninism'. In 1926, however, he developed left-wing criticisms of Stalin's line and was soon thrown out of both the German Party and the International. <SNIP>
-- Michael Pugliese