[lbo-talk] T Gitlin & some other matters

[Carrol Cox]

I haven't participated in the Ellen Willis thread, but re a passing
reference to Gitlin. Were he to die I at least would either simply
ignore the passing or preface my remarks with a point from Martin Van
Buren's journals (as channeled by Pound) on the death of Daniel Webster:

de mortuis wrote Mr Van Buren
don't quite apply in a case of this character.

	Canto XXXVII

I'll venture one very tentative remark on the present discussion. Doug
might have waited a bit to remark on her zionism, but the response to
that might have been in a lower key. And her zionism is a topic that has
come up on this list in the past. BUT I will add to (or subtract from)
that by noting that never before has a comment on her zionism been
accompanied by any recognition of her importance in the feminist
movement.

And moving from that to another question. There are really quite a few
persons whose work is of importance to left concerns, who are most
definitely of and for the left, who nevertheless diverge sharply on some
one issue from other leftists. Abortion. Israel. Right to die. Police.
Death Penalty.

Further yet. As some grating exchanges over the last several months on
three lists (pen-l, marxism, lbo-talk) have shown, there are
extraordinarily sharp differences on the centrality/non centrality of
u.s. imperialism for left analysis. There are even sharper differences
on whether the preceding sentence is an accurate statement of what the
quarrel has been about. And another turn. I have at times been tempted
in that bundle of threads to suggest that some males have
(unconsciously?) taken some delight in ganging up on an uppity woman
while wrapping themselves in the robes of feminism.

Carrol