On 2012-11-25, at 4:07 PM, Louis Proyect wrote: > On 11/25/12 4:03 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: >> I've decided that the key heritage from the Bolsheviks was that rule over >> which the RSDLP split: that party members had to be members of a local >> chapter. I now believe that with very rare exceptions, that should now be >> included in our definition of "A Leftists." A Leftists must belong to _some_ >> sort of local activist groups. (Past membership in such counts quite a bit >> but is a bit shaky: it is just too hard for anyone not involved in local >> activist politics to theorize the present conjuncture. >> > > Journalists don't have to join groups in order to be part of the left. > Cockburn, Hedges, and Doug are part of the left. Kazin, Wilentz and Todd > Gitlin are not.
Carrol's argument would have more weight if there were still a mass workers' movement as there once was. But the revolutionary and social democratic parties rooted in the trade unions have long since disappeared or made their peace with capitalism. Radical journalists and intellectuals often belonged to these parties, and their commitment and understanding deepened in contact with militant workers in their organizations and neighbourhoods. Today's left-wing intellectuals identify with that tradition, but can only look back at it with nostalgia. They no longer have the same opportunity for organized and sustained political engagement with the masses. There are small transient clusters of students and workers who are sporadically active around various causes, but, unlike the parties of the old left, these have no organic connection to the working class and are far removed from the struggle for power. Should the same political conditions which nurtured the old movement somehow re-emerge, writers and other intellectuals will be drawn to them as in the past. Meantime, they are doing the best with what they have at hand. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
