From owner-marxism-international  Sun Apr  6 16:29:56 1997
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 1997 16:28:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3@columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Re: M-I: PANIC LEFT: TAKE THREE
In-Reply-To: <l03010d08af6db45c551e@[166.84.250.86]>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.95L.970406161111.11583C-100000@kiaora.cc.columbia.edu>

On Sun, 6 Apr 1997, Doug Henwood wrote:

> scripture. Many of us hope that this newish medium would be a way to gather
> the lively and thoughtful Marxians around the world together; certainly the
> "objective" situation of the world today should be a fertile field for a
> rebirth of left politics. But the odds seem very long, as the repeated
> experiences of the Spoons Marxism lists show. There are probably some
> organizational things that could be done to promote a more fruitful
> exchange, but we're not making history here with tools of our own choosing.
> 

Louis: I think the answer is to have lower expectations about what a
mailing list should do. I have lost my appetite for wide-open lists where
generals without troops can charge into battle.

Right now I have no interest in polemics. I am looking for a way to
exchange ideas with people who are generally moving in the same direction.
I have gotten to know Alan Wald pretty well over the past month or so and
we have exchanged ideas about Trotskyism, etc. Meanwhile Scott is pretty
close to Paul Buhle. And all of these people have collaborated with Paul
LeBlanc. Within this group of people, there are some significant
differences about the history and prospects of the US left. I would like
to help create a space where such differences can be aired out in a calm
fashion.

This is impossible on the current lists. Any serious scholar of the US
left would take one look at the stew of visceral anti-Marxism, personal
obsessions and virulent sectarianism that is served up daily on M-I and
run away in terror. 

My guess is that the Internet will soon combine political forums with the
journals that can anchor them. The Nation magazine has a pretty
sophisticated one. UTNE reader also has something. This covers the liberal
side of the spectrum. Z Magazine has a bulletin board that is not part of
the Internet however. My hope is that I can help MR create this sort of
resource.

One of the reasons I am anxious to pull away as rapidly as possible from
m-i is that it really gives me the creeps to have 5 or 6 people writing
obsessively about me and my ideas on a daily basis when I have given them
no sign that I even recognize their existence. They are the cyberspace
equivalent of lurkers.

Another problem is that there has been a steady brain-drain of people who
have no motivation to be on m-i in its current condition. These are some
really good folks who I got to know fairly well through private exchanges:
Rob Schaap, Dennis Grammenos, Richard Bos, Will Brown just to name a few.
I don't blame them for going away. It is hard sticking it out when things
just seem to get worse and worse.

I have a new biography of Che Guevara that I just picked up that really
looks interesting. It is 816 pages and contains insights based on
brand-new information from Cuban and former Soviet Union archives. This is
just the sort of book that I would like to write about for the list, but I
simply don't want to be exposed to another round of ritual denunciations
about Stalinism, centrism, betrayal, etc.

Something better is needed.

Lou



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