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Actually, its present topics and response are fine. I wrote that line in momentary pique at the arrogance of a bystander in declaring so pompously aboaut "A left" that doesn't exist, and in that manner asserting a evaluation of that non-existent left that is not only wrong but ....
-- And this will be the first time in 45 years of political activity that I have used the following epithet, and the last time --
...Stalinist.
In fact I think it echoes some arguments in _Foundations of Leninism_.
"The Left" would have a better chance of emerging from present struggles if there were fewer kibitzers from the bleachers and a few more people actively engaged _some_ kind of political collective in their own localities.
The Left oif the -60s (a highly diverse left but coherent nevertheless and accurately described with "The Left") emerged on the national scene out of the logic of countless such local struggles -- none of which were "disciplined" except in the sense of continual internal debate over their practice.
And it occurs to me that there is an exact epithet for the subject line, from a domestic source: It's Lernerist (from Michael Lerner's practice in the '60s and '70s. The call for "discipline" not internally generated from ongoing discussion of current practice means, whatever the intentions of the speaker, in a demand that "The [non-existent] Left" obey its self-appointed leaders.
Notice: leftist leaders have to be self-nominated, and that self-nomination is confirmed not by formal votes but by the internal discussion of local groups resulting in the confirmation in their practice of the direction called for by the candidate leader.
We may or may not be entering a new upsurge in the struggle for democracy which more or less ended in the early '70s. I stick to my pessimism of the intellect. But let us assume that Egypt and Wisconsin are a beginning, as were the Montgomery bus strike and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (the 'defeat' of whicvh at the 1964 DP Convention marks a convenient transition point to the second phase of the developing struggle. Look up Fannie Lou Hamer's speech there (which LBJ attempted to take out of the news by calling a press conference: it sort of worked and sort of didn't.)
_The Struggle Moves North_
(And I'm running out of time just now: To be continued)
Carrol
Carrol