[lbo-talk] Noam on intellectuals

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Mon Feb 12 09:24:44 PST 2007


Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>
> I said that, in the absence of the "political context where organic
> intellectuals of the class, other workers, and traditional
> intellectuals can meet regularly and work together" in the USA,
> "religious institutions come close to providing a substitute for what
> Gramsci had in mind." It's significant that the most influential
> Black intellectuals, Martin Luther King,

Angela Davis spoke here last night & one of the bib points she made was that the women of Birmingham were doing just fine, thank you with the boycott before someone persuaded them they needed a respectable spokes_man_ & so they invited the non-activist Martin Luther King to come aboard. An interesting case of the base pushing the leader. But a number of those women would 'qualify' as intellectuls (though most of them were maids by occupation.

Bob Moses was admirable, but still he resigned leadership -- which isn't admirable. So did a lot of good people, & they were missed. He did then try to launch a movement to teach young blacks algebra -- which was a great idea. Everyone should have a good grasp of algebra. Political context in the '60s did not make for sustained building of a left. For one thing, but I don't think it is central, is that except for those in the SWP, the CP, & the old Pacifist movement people we were too inexperienced. Our last gasp, I think, was when the women who had done such a good job of building momentum for ERA turned respectable and sank into the comfort of the DP.

Jerry Monaco wrote:
>
> Organizing.
>
> On 2/11/07, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> > Just a stray thought (see Subject Line) that struck me while reading
> > Yoshie's post.

There was organizing in the late '30s and '40s; there was organizing in the mid '70s and a good deal of hard and well-done organizing in the mid-80s. There is now. Jerry's suggestion won't fly.

Carrol



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