there's no judgement in that. it's just the way it is.
i'd also point out that the "oh my god, they're commies" etc. is also a big problem. i'd hazard a guess that democrats and liberals spend a lot more time shunning pinkos and reds than the reverse -- *and* they have institutionalized power to back them up!
here's a practical for instance with workers justice center. we are going to create workshops and classes. one woman is going to run a workshop on the ways employers try to squash worker solidarity. a leftist cares about worker solidarity. when people are in the workshop and they complain about bosses and the things the do, which she anticipates, her goal is to get them to see how solidarity is being undermined and how to resist that if at all possible. if it's impossible to do because the person fears losing their job, then the goal of the workers justice center is to provide a place where people can go to at least be with other people who "get it" - because there are so few people who do. if you talk to your friends from this solidarity perspective, they don't get it.
if a non-leftist was running that workshop, she would counsel people to come to see the issue as a personal problem to be worked out with therapy or an attitude adjustment, she would teach people coping mechanisms, or she would help people find employment elsewhere if the situation is unbearable. depending on the situation, she might counsel using the HR department or suing the company.
those are two very different ways of putting a marxist analysis into practice, and those differences matter. the first person, the leftist, is in her small way trying to change the world. the second person is trying to get the individual to accommodate herself to it. for the first, the answer is solidarity. for the second, the answer is the individual.
so carrol, are you saying that leftists are only those people who *do* something?
i was reading Karl Marx and the Philsophy of Praxis again. Kitching, the author, would say that praxis would include participating on a discussion list. I take it you don't agree with that?
shag
At 05:12 PM 4/25/2010, SA wrote:
>shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
>>what's a leftist? who's a leftist? what's left movement? what is left
>>struggle?
>>
>>i'm actually trying to avoid expounding on those questions myself. but in
>>the avoidance, i keep thinking: do we have to answer that question? and
>>how can we not answer it? or, in avoiding answering it, are we not giving
>>an answer anyway?
>
>One thing that's struck me about the one comparative case I follow
>somewhat, which is France, is how differently the term "Left" is used by
>the far left over there. In the US, among the far left, the word "Left"
>seems to be bestowed as an honorific; individuals and groups are evaluated
>as to whether or not they "deserve" to be deemed part of the "Left." There
>is always a search for heretics, a very American trait - "she's not
>*really* a leftist," etc.
>
>In France, the term "Left," when applied by a speaker who is himself on
>the far left, connotes no stamp of approval. It's just a descriptive term.
>The Socialist Party is part of "la gauche," that's just a plain fact, not
>a judgment. The revolutionaries in the NPA categorize even the right-wing
>leaders in the PS as part of la gauche. The far left is distinguished from
>the center-left by the terms "extrême gauche," "gauche de la gauche," or
>"gauche radicale."
>
>My hunch - just a hunch - is that the absence of a revolutionary tradition
>in the US has created an ominpresent anxiety among leftists. In France, no
>matter how centrist the PS gets, everybody knows it's at least descended
>from a party (the SFIO) that was officially revolutionary. But in the US,
>very few leftists (even very radical ones) are members of explicitly
>revolutionary groups (or groups descended from revolutionary groups).
>Worse, everyone is constantly forced to mingle dangerously with unreliable
>liberal and progressive elements.
>
>In those conditions, how can you tell who's *really* a leftist? How do I
>know that guy in my group isn't *really* just a liberal? How do I know
>*you're* not a liberal? Oh my god, what if you *are*a liberal? Does that
>make *me* a liberal? Etc.
>
>SA
>
>
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