I don't know that you're not a Marxist scholar.
What does it take to be one these days?
On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 10:22 AM, Dmytri Kleiner <dk at telekommunisten.net> wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:35:58 -0600, "rayrena" <rayrena at realtime.net> wrote:
>> I dislike a lot of what you write here: how is it not
>> valuable to investigate ("theoretical discourse" ) social
>> formations?
>
> I never said that. I am quite interested in investigations of all sorts.
> However, information is only useful when it is put to use. "spreading the
> word" or "sending a message" is not really putting information to use,
> despite being the primary activity of most activist and analysts.
>
> Engaging in the direct organization of production is.
>
>
>> "Worker's capital," ugh.
>
> Ugn? I suppose you object to the use of the work "capital."
>
> I use this word in the classical sense, Capital is any reproducible
> productive asset.
>
> Since I am not an academic, I stick to the terminology of classical
> heterodox political economy. The idiosyncratic usages among various
> tendencies require specialized knowledge to use correctly, so I try to
> avoid such usage in the name of clarity.
>
>
>> "Leftists who care"?
>> And the whole head-heart divide underlying your distinction
>> between workers and leftists.
>
> I make no such divide.
>
>
>> But I think your emphasis on
>> organization is important, as I see it as recognizing
>> workers' formation as they are, not as they should be. Too
>> many people see a lack of unionization, a lack of influence
>> on the state, and withdrawal from parliamentary politics as
>> a lack of organization. This, more than analysis paralysis,
>> makes soi-disant leftists irrelevant.
>
> It is not analysis paralysis I am talking about. Analysis is important, and
> good analysts build significant value in terms of audience power, my
> criticism is that they squander their audience power by capturing its value
> only with things like google adsence and amazon affiliate links, or not at
> all, instead of promoting actual workers collectives.
>
>
> Cheers.
>
>
> --
> Dmytri Kleiner
> editing text files since 1981
>
> http://www.telekommunisten.net
>
>
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