I think that Reed's evaluation of C.L.R. James is unfair to James' full life political trajectory. I think that the most popular understandings of James' politics suffer from anti-Marxist interpretations of James' later years. It has been a few years but i think of Farrukh Dhondy's biography of James (Dhondy apparently was a primary caregiver for James in his last years) where Dhondy tells of James' requests to help him hide from Black nationalists who wanted to glom onto him.
I suggest this C.L.R. James statement as a response to Ernest Leif's question: The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the US by C.L.R. James, July 1948 https://www.marxists.org/archive/james-clr/works/1948/07/meyer.htm On Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 7:51 PM Ernestleif <[email protected]> wrote: > To Max Power > > What do you present as an alternative strategy for Black people? > > To link up with the myriad white forces of revolution? > > On Aug 23, 2020, at 9:38 PM, Max Power <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > A fantastic article by Adolph Reed, Jr. Whatever the failings of the > DSA/Jacobin crowd, it’s to their credit that they give priority to Dr. > Reed. > > > > “… a de facto alliance between ostensibly progressive identitarians and > Wall Street Democrats has come together around asserting, along with Paul > Krugman and others, that “horizontal inequality”—i.e., inequality between > statistically defined racial/ethnic groups—is a more important problem than > “vertical inequality,” characterized as inequality between individuals and > households. That distinction instructively makes class and class inequality > disappear, which is consistent with the trajectory of American liberalism > across the more than seven decades since the end of World War II. Moreover, > in a sort of mission creep, opponents of what they decry as a “class-first” > position increasingly have come to denounce any expressions of concern for > economic inequality as in effect catering to white supremacy. This > tendency, which Touré Reed has argued rests on a race-reductionism, has > surfaced and spread within the newly revitalized Democratic Socialists of > America (DSA), as even many among those who consider themselves socialists > object to the organization’s selection of Medicare for All as its key > political campaign on the ground that pursuit of decommodified health care > for all is objectionable because doing so does not sufficiently center > antiracist and anti-disparitarian agendas. I submit that there’s clearly a > problem when anti-socialism is defined as socialism.” > > > > > https://nonsite.org/editorial/what-materialist-black-political-history-actually-looks-like > > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#793): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/793 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76377739/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES<br />#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.<br />#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.<br />#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
