I agree with this in general as with the similar analysis put forward by Louis Proyect. But I think that the reaction against class reductionism may lead one to overlook the extent to which neoliberalism and its toxic version of identity exploitation politics has succeeded in heading off the stampeding dogies of the American herd from any roundup for socialism.
White Americans at least are dying for any excuse to render the issue of race in the most superficial possible terms. Racism and demands based on its separability from the class system in general must be addressed on their own terms, but surely there can't be any resolution to racial conflict without the resolution of class warfare in favor of the workers--and the false consciousness of America's bogus "liberty" in its current neoliberal "colorblind" incarnation is one of the first hurdles to leap over if we are to achieve that. All cheerleading white American positive thinkers believe, in the memorable words of a UVa sophomore I met once, that "it's wrong to put people in classes." Meaning, wrong to discuss the reality of the class system or anything but the "content of a person's character." Moreover, whether the enslaved and their sharecropping descendants were a proletariat or not, they played a pivotal role, at least through the importance of American cotton to England's "satanic mills," in the development of industrial capitalism. What would be the point of arguing with Brenner et al that slavery was "pre-capitalist"? This would be like saying monotremes aren't mammals because they lay eggs. Racism is useful to capitalist hegemony precisely because it seems to live and move on its own. Just a couple of thoughts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#3730): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/3730 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/78364365/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #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]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
