Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Jan 6, 2008, at 6:06 PM, Joanna wrote:
>
>
> I still don't get what you mean by "identity politics." Organized
> feminism had a lot to do with the improvement of women's economic
> status (and, as Jane Mansbridge argues, informal relations of daily
Yeah. That's o.k. I guess.
As I experienced it at the time what is now called identity politics began to develop _before_ the phrase was coined & theorized. (I forget the theorizations now but they exist.) The basis was quite simple. With the defeat of ERA, with the crushing (externally & internally) of the Panthers, with ebbing of the war, with the Slump of 1974-5, the movement was in full retreat. (Like Thurber's dueller we didn't know it for a while.) So what had been activist groups with a sense of being _part of_ a much larger movement*, gradually turned into what should probably be called self-help groups or discussion groups, etc. Then someone named it, Identity Politics. Some of us went through the motions of opposing it, but we had no real alternative to offer. The New Communist Movement was melting away even before it had achieved its maximum grown.
CISPES was not "Identity Politics," and we worked like hell -- but we no longer felt that we were part of anything larger. Neither could local NAACPs or radical caucuses in unions etc.
In short, we were in Retreat, because the Neoliberal assault overwhelmed us. It was a fairly honorable retreat on the whole.
Carrol