[lbo-talk] Marxism 2009

Bob Morris bob.morris at gmail.com
Mon Aug 17 14:38:14 PDT 2009



>Wojtek Sokolowski. "I think demographic composition of modern society may
explain why the left gained so much popularity then but not now. To make a long story short - the working class of the industrial age maintained strong group cohesion aka solidarity and the left's appeals to that solidarity fell on sympathetic ears."

Yes, class is so blurred and malleable in the US that the entire concept of working class unity becomes almost archaic. A M.D. who makes $150k a year working at Kaiser doesn't own the means of production, but would probably laugh or be insulted if you called him working class. In Marx's time, class boundaries were rigid and obvious. In the US now, not hardly. It's probably different in the UK. A friend there who became a writer said some from the working class area he is from call him a class traitor.


> mart. "I do think the sectarianism (which seems mostly branding because
often there are no good reasons, unlike in empirical sciences, to select amognst one version apart from religion or ideology) drives people off."

Also, there's a real conflict between a micro far left party wanting to recruit and trying to build a real mass movement. If you want to recruit, and most parties do, then you'll mainly be interested in the people on the fringe and will block moderates from ever having power. Which is self-defeating because the party can then never really grow.

Thanks to everyone for their comments.



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