[...] "The second was the debate on the nature of Thatcherism, which was introduced by Stuart Hall in a memorable article entitled 'The Great Moving Right Show' in January 1979 and which for the first time used the term 'Thatcherism':
http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/mt/pdf/79_01_hall.pdf The conventional view on both the left and right at the time was that Thatcherism a term that they rejected was simply a contontinuation of Toryism. They could not have been more wrong: nor Marxism Today more right. Within a decade, this too became the conventional wisdom." [...] From the introduction (2006) to the MT archives: http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/mt/index_frame.htm [...] "Marxism Today uniquely combined two characteristics: a level of analysis unrivalled in such a publication together with a commitment to the left. At the core of Marxism Today's importance lay its central arguments. If the 1990s was, true to the idiom of New Labour, characterised by fad and fashion, Marxism Today was quite the opposite: it was a magazine of profound political and intellectual substance. The real yardstick, as always, is the test of time. In this respect, Marxism Today has no peers, either then or since. Of course, as a monthly magazine, which was determinedly topical, many of the articles are clearly of their time and context. But others still shine like beacons, illuminating the time in which they were written, revealing historic turning-points when all around them were blind to such epochal change. Here was Marxism Today at its brilliant best: big picture analysis, hugely relevant, mining the deeper changes which were to transform the whole character of the world in which we lived. In this context, I would like to mention three debates that for me define the historic importance of Marxism Today. The first was the 'Forward March of Labour Halted?', which was initiated by Eric Hobsbawm in September 1978 in a now famous article bearing that title. Hobsbawm argued that the labour movement was in historic decline. He and the magazine were furiously at attacked for propounding such a heresy. Within a decade, or less, it had become the new commonsense. The second was the debate on the nature of Thatcherism, which was introduced by Stuart Hall in a memorable article entitled 'The Great Moving Right Show' in January 1979 and which for the first time used the term 'Thatcherism'. The conventional view on both the left and right at the time was that Thatcherism a term that they rejected was simply a contontinuation of Toryism. They could not have been more wrong: nor Marxism Today more right. Within a decade, this too became the conventional wisdom. Finally, there was the debate on 'New Times', which was inaugurated with the special issue of that name in October 1988. It was, in a multitude of respects, a tour de force. It sought to understand the profound changes in society, culture and the economy, to which neo-liberalism was a response and to which it sought to lay claim. Post-fordism, globalisation, the state, the changing nature of the culture, post-modernism this being the era of 'post-' this, that and everything and much else besides were put under the analytical seearchlight. It was Marxism Today's boldest project of all and attracted enormous publicity. In an important sense, though, unlike the Forward March of Labour Halted and Thatcherism, it was to remain uncompleted, the beginning of something rather than the end: moreover, the MT proposition was to be contested in a most fundamental way, as the rise of Blair and New Labour was subsequently to illustrate. It has not infrequently been suggested that Marxism Today begat Blair. This contains an element of truth in that, like Blair but more than a decade before him, Marxism Today recognised the obsolescence of much of the left's proposition. But in another sense, it is completely wrong: while, Marxism Today's project was the creation of a new kind of left and left proposition - for an utterly transformed world, Blair's project was the opposite, namely acquiescence in the Thatcherite agenda and a denial of the very notion of the left. " [...] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
