Marvin Gandall wrote:
>
> I've suggested many times that the left's
> weakness is a reflection of current historical conditions rather than the
> political failings of different individuals and groups, as you and Carrol
> and Yoshie argue in your different ways, or of the ignorant masses, as
> Wojtek would have it.
Marvin, I've always admired you (however sharp our disagreements) for your capacity and willingness to state accurately the views of other posters. This makes me wonder.
Yoshie can speak for herself.
There is no view I have so endlessly repeated as the precise view you here state as your own. Since 1990 or so my position has been, and I begin to state this on marxism in the late '90s and on this list from the beginning, that it is incorrect to criticize "the left" for its failings for two reasons: a) "The Left" does not exist as a coherent force, and hence there is nothing to criticize and b) that the weakness of leftists, their inability to form a left, was NOT due to any errors on their part a function of the strength of capital. I have moreover a number of times used a metaphor from tennis, in which they speak of forced and unforced errors, and I have insisted that the errors of leftists over the last 35 years have been _forced_ errors, a function of what you call "current historical conditions."
I want an apology for this part of this post by you.
Carrol