[lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading but Notfor the Reasons the Critics Have in Mind

Seth Ackerman sethackerman1 at verizon.net
Wed Oct 11 14:39:53 PDT 2006


Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:


>Seth:
>
>Some doctrinaire American Marxists like Daniel DeLeon - who had never
>seen a farm in his life - denounced them because they refused to sign on
>to his program of socialization of all means of production, including
>collective farming. At the farmer-labor congresses, the populists would
>try to replace "all" MoP with "socialization of the MoP where
>practicable." Then DeLeon would storm out. The populists were for
>nationalizing the railroads, banks, telegraphs, grain elevators, and all
>industry.
>
>
>[WS:] It is easy to nationalize other people's property, isn't it?
>
>

[joke snipped, even though it's pretty funny]

Well, that's just the point. Socialism would never have happened in the first place if it had advocated socializing the workers' toothbrushes.

Seth



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