[lbo-talk] "Authoritarian" -- define, please

[Doug Henwood]

John Lacny wrote:

>But "authoritarian" has a very different functional definition among some US
>leftists (I have rarely seen it used in the sense I'm about to describe by a
>leftist from outside the US). It's basically some leftists' equivalent of
>saying "anti-American." They know that "anti-American" is not an appropriate
>term of derision -- since the right uses it to attack leftists in general,
>including putative "anti-authoritarians" -- but they use it in the same way
>to attack other leftists.

Isn't it used to signify something that's either wholly in the grip 
of - or merely tained by - "Leninism," or "Stalinism"? Which, from 
what I've heard, can mean anything from decmoratic centralist parties 
to having a formal organization and procedures to having any 
aspiration for taking state power. Picket lines in these senses can 
be taken to be authoritarian becuase they suggest - with a hint of 
menacing force in some cases - that people should not cross them. It 
has special resonance in the US because it fits nicely with the 
dominant individualist/libertarian ethos.

Rejecting it must have something to do with the term "post-left," 
which I've seen Chuck apply to himself (and others) on the aut-op-sy 
list. What does post-left mean? Is it anything like post-Marxist or 
post-feminist?

Doug