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<DIV><FONT size=2>The intellectual left is always looking for armies to
lead. The narodniks tried to immerse themselves in the ubquitous Russian peasant
culture. "Workerist" tendencies were always strong among left-wing
students, some of whom went into the factories (myself included) when
there was a trade union and socialist culture - or even the residue of one -
within the working class. In this period, when religious and
nationalist impulses predominate within the mass of the population, it's
inevitable there will be those on the left calling for a turn to these
organized communities in the belief they have superceded "class" and in hopes of
scoring a breakthrough. We used to call this the "greener pastures"
theory of left politics; maybe some still do. This isn't
necessarily said in criticism. Who wouldn't agree with Marx that
"philosophers have only interpreted the world... the point however is to change
it", and how can do you do so, without accurately identifying the
agents who appear most able to change it?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>My sense, though, is that when intellectuals have
historically become an important part of mass movements, they have usually
been sought out by organic leaders of these movements whose consciousness
has grown as a result of their own experience in struggle, rather than the
other way round. They then nurture each others' understanding and the
intellectuals frequently move quickly into leadership positions. But these have
to be real mass struggles, not imagined ones by hopeful
intellectuals.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Until that stage is reached, it doesn't much matter
whether left intellectuals restrict their activities to small sects and
list serves or become more widely involved in such movements as exist
- at least insofar as being able to exert any meaningful influence on those
movements. The real benefit in this period accrues to the individual
who experiences personal growth and satisfaction and acquires the essential
first-hand knowledge which informs theory. Jim Straub is a good example; he
can always be counted on to inject a healthy dose of realism into these
discussions from his vantage point in the labour movement.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Jim's point about the types of compromises which are required
for "mass work" is an essential one. Left intellectuals who have gone into mass
movements have immediately been confronted with the choice of standing at the
back of the hall and peddling their "line" to an unresponsive audience or
becoming involved in the structure and politics of the organization in order to
gain and exercise leadership withiin it in pursuit of its more limited
objectives. Those from left sects who have chosen to participate
meaningfully in mass organizations have frequently found themselves in
conflict with their leaders and comrades at a distance who have accused
them of "adaptation to the backward pressures of the masses", "liquidation
into the mass movement", "careerism", etc. This fear of losing their best
cadre to the mass movements into which they are sent - a not unreasonable fear,
it has turned out - is one of the underlying reasons for the sectarian character
of the small left groups in a period when their language and
policies are way in front of the masses. If the LBO list were run like a
tightly-disciplined "vanguard party", you could expect it wouldn't be long
before people like Jim Straub would be chastized for not selling the party press
or pushing the party line hard enough and for adapting to the backward
pressures of the members, the trade union leaders, and the Democratic
party.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Anyway, these are just a few more thoughts to flesh
out Jim's sobering take below on Yoshie's proposals, which deserve to
be seen as those of a serious political person. They're having a
similar debate over on Marxmail about other greener pastures being sought
in similar desperation.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT><FONT
size=2>==============================================================</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=rustbeltjacobin@gmail.com href="mailto:rustbeltjacobin@gmail.com">Jim
Straub</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org
href="mailto:lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org">lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, December 02, 2006 1:22
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [lbo-talk] Re: Time to Get
Religion</DIV>
<DIV><BR> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>When Yoshie first broadened her "populist-religions-better-MLs-than-MLs"
line to attempt to include the US awhile ago, I suspected she had a broader
ideological hypothesis behind the scenes we were seeing glimpses of. So
it's good to see a straight-up mission statement on the subject. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And I'm really, really, really in favor of any operational plan for the
left that involves us engaging with ordinary religious people instead of
smaller and smaller sects of each other exclusively.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But before going into any big picture
world-historical-ideological-whatevers, isn't it worth point out the
obvious? How on EARTH is a left bent on whittling itself down to smaller
and smaller islands of purity, and fighting bizzarre doctrinal disputes that
have nothing to do with 99% of the people in our country, and incapable of
engaging politically with people whose views are even somewhat different than
our own, ever POSSIBLY going to engage politically with religious america,
which is infinitely MORE challenging to get down with for a lefto? You
want to have smackdown debates about who is more islamophobic because they
don't support the right shia party, or dismiss the 'left-wing of capital'
(which as far as I can tell means mainstream leftists in the US), or wouldn't
vote for Strickland over Blackwell (Yoshie?), or whatever? I got news
for ya--- you ain't seen nuthin in terms of false consciousness yet! </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Certainly I stand my ground in some (when you think about it)
unnecessarily shrill arguments about unions or whole foods or whatever,
but other than e-mail and beers with friends, I talk to nobody
but working-class republicans every day, and go to these churches most
sunday. And I just have a hard time imagining someone hawking a trot
paper at them, much less building a political movement there. Not that
I'm saying it shouldn't be done, but, ... </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And don't go there about mainline congregations, small and shrinking
and upper middle class, where lefties who sit on policy boards issue left
resolutions about political issues the general membership couldn't care less
about. Or the unitarian universalists, the nice folks thomas jefferson
was pretty sure would be a majority of the us population by now, who are
probably a bit smaller in size than freedom road socialist organization at
this point. Or american judaism, which has a smaller presence in the US
working class than many of the smallest and wackiest christian sects. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>No, if you're talking about us getting with the religion that is going to
dominate the hell out of future american spiritual life, we gotta talk about
megachurches, we gotta talk about the pentecostalists!, the Mormons! The
Jehova's Witnesses (of whom five people in the service unit I'm working on at
the elko hospital now can't join the union because its against their
religion), assemblies of god, missouri synod, church of the nazarene, holyness
christianity, the megachurch on the edge of town, the rubes who actually
attended Ted Haggard's sermons all these meth-smoking-blowjob years. We
gotta talk about TD Jakes, Left Behind, the purpose driven life and the
Ray of Jabez. Yeah, some goofy fucking shit! The big kahuna of
them all, the southern baptists--- who are a lot bigger (-outside- of
the south!) than almost any other denomination! </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I do believe you'll find some 'insufficiently anti-imperialst' positions
there.<BR> </DIV>
<DIV>However, having shouted all that through chortled laughter, I have to say
I applaud the effort yoshie is taking in rethinking our un-sacred cows and
re-engaging with the thought of most ordinary people in this country.
And also, events as they accelerate in Iraq do seem to be bearing out some of
her points about Sadr. So much so I get the feeling he may not still be
alive for us to argue about this time next
month. </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>