From: Patrick Bond <[email protected]> Date: 27 August 2010 08:04 Subject: Re: [YCLSA Discussion] [Communist University] Philosophical Battlefield
Dominic, there has been no, is no, and will be no threat from pomos here in South Africa. At one point nearly two decades ago, the SACP witnessed a small entryist effort by people associated with Ernesto Laclau, but I gather it was repulsed. There has been a small circle of extremely important African post-structuralists based at Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research around Achille Mbembe, but even there I sense a much stronger interest in poli econ and associated meta-narratives (e.g. crits of 'neoliberalism') than would have been possible a decade ago. Thabo Mbeki had naught to do with the pomo intellectual strain. He's best described as a neoliberal nationalist, full of Western ambitions and Africanist rhetoric, neither of which are consistent with the posties' project. There are real intellectual fights to be had, mainly with liberals who believe that workers are overpaid and too militant, and that the SA state is a 'developmental state' or a semi-welfare state. Those fights we take up in the new book Zuma's Own Goal: Losing SA's "War on Poverty". I don't think anyone in our book bothers with pomo-bashing. It's not really a distraction, in my experience. SA was too far off the map to be circled by those trendy currents. (And even in the decaying West, the pomo threat receded by the late 1990s, I sensed). (Won't say anything about Hinduism or 'reactionary feminism', as those haven't crossed my radar screen.) Ciao, Patrick DomzaNet wrote: > *Philosophy and Religion, Part 10* > > < > http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_D4UK2kWf5ik/THdEjC6ZpII/AAAAAAAACk4/8daEI7CjHys/s1600/10+Meera+Nanda.jpg > > > > *Philosophical Battlefield* > > > /This week brings the last of the ten parts of our CU Generic Course called > “Philosophy, Religion, and Revolution”. There will be three items, of which > this is the first. The suggested item for discussion is the last one: Ron > Press’s “New Tools for Marxists”, linked below./ > > > -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
