At 09:58 AM 2/23/98 -0500, Louis wrote:
>In "What is to be Done" Lenin cites 3 examples of what tasks a "vanguard"
>should undertake...
Lous, why did you feel the need to cite Lenin chapter & verse to argue that
sectarianism is bad?
>Harvey draws a dichotomy between proletarian concerns: working conditions,
>wages, rights to a job, etc. He sneers at the "middle class" concerns
>raised on Earth Day in 1970.
But it _was_ organized around middle class concerns--at least, that's what
I remember back in elementary school, when I participated. :) And that
was a real problem. Nice middle class people like me had legitimate
concerns, but it was pretty elitist to push a strategy where blue collar
jobs would be on the line & middle class jobs weren't. Had someone pointed
that out to me at the time and suggested a strategy that would save trees,
dolphins, _and_ people, I would've been very happy (and I might have stayed
active in the environmental movement).
>His latest book is a highly sophisticated attempt to set directions for
>Marxist participation in the green movement. Anybody who took his advice to
>heart would soon alienate green activists. It is filled with lectures about
>the need to break with green reformism. Deep ecologists are regarded with
>barely disguised hostility.
>
>The problem is that any social movement--feminism, gay liberation, black
>liberation--has its own dynamics. You can not project "correct" Marxist
>schemas on such movements from the sidelines. That is what the Spartacist
>League does.
But criticizing green reformism or deep ecologists is hardly an outside
activity. Various wings of the environmentalist movement fight each other
all the time. I know plenty of environmental activists who think green
reformism ala the cuddling up with Clinton turned out to be a real disaster
and many who think that the deep ecology folks are off the deep end. Just
because Harvey calls himself a Marxist (assuming he does these days) &
writes books that badly need editing is no reason to ban him from the
intra-envrionmental fray.
I look forward to seeing your close reading of Harvey--supplemented by that
wonderful scanner of yours.
In Solidarity,
Anders Schneiderman
P.S. For the record, I think Harvey is a very smart guy--one of the most
interesting lefty theorists around. I just wish he wrote more clearly.
However, Harvey is also one of the few theorists who gets down & dirty in
politics. I remember a prof at UC Berkeley who sneered at Harvey because
he did door-knocking, getting-out-the-vote, and other unglamorous work,
which in my book is a pretty cool thing for a theorist to do.
