[lbo-talk] Open letters from Stefano Kourkoulakos and Leo Panitch

[Alan Rudy]

All I can say is that - already predisposed to be uninterested in Nitzan's
work - this only intensifies it.  What a supercilious, superior and snotty
first letter from Kourkoulakos, what an enlightening response from Panitch
and what a mystery that Nitzan thought this worth sending along -
particularly without commenting in a manner that would help us understand
more of what's going on behind the letters.  Perhaps most stunning of all,
is the implicit suggestions that Marx was either right or wrong, that Marx
either wrote about economics OR economics and politics, that these were
issues not already debated for 125 years and that Panitch and others didn't
already have clear stances on them.  It's as if everything from Gramsci to
Harvey, from Benjamin to Offe - much less all the debates around these
issues - didn't exist.

My favorite unremarked moment is when Panitch tells us that Nitzan has
stated (at least in one exchange about one part of one text) that his work
is so qualitatively different from Panitch's that Nitzan wouldn't know where
to start in addressing it... true or not, it is striking that Nitzan in
sending this along to us doesn't comment on it, or how it might have some
bearing - in addition to Panitch's explanation of why he wasn't at last
spring's seminar and how the conference last week was presented to him AND
it was scheduled - on the implicit accusations Koukoulakos makes about
Panitch et al., avoiding (out of fear?) addressing what Koukoulakos appears
to believe is Nitzan's excellent - or at least provocative work.

On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 8:20 AM, Jonathan Nitzan <nitzan at yorku.ca> wrote:


> Open letters from Stefano Kourkoulakos and Leo Panitch
>
> On October 29-31, the Forum on Capital as Power held a three-day conference
> at York University, dedicated to the subject of “Crisis of Capital, Crisis
> of Theory.” Below is an open letter from Stefanos Kourkoulakos. It was sent
> a day before the conference to Professors George Comninel, David McNally,
> Leo Pantich and Jonathan Nitzan who were to participate as Faculty Guest
> Speakers at the event. The letter is followed by a reply from Leo Panitch.
> Both texts are posted with the permission of their authors.
>
> FULL TEXT: http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/303/
>
> ***
>
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> ---
>
> Jonathan Nitzan
> Political Science
> York University
> 4700 Keele St.
> Toronto, Ontario, M3J-1P3
> Canada
> Voice: (416) 736-2100, ext. 88822
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-- 
*********************************************************
Alan P. Rudy
Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
Central Michigan University
124 Anspach Hall
Mt Pleasant, MI 48858
517-881-6319