From owner-marxism-international  Mon Apr 14 23:20:00 1997
From: christi-ann@juno.com
Subject: Re: M-I: PANIC LEFTIST: FRAME SIX
Message-ID: <19970414.222555.4951.0.Christi-Ann@juno.com>
References: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970414202951.8111A-100000@lictor.acsu.buffalo.edu>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 22:24:03 EDT

Hello.

I've been reading this list for a few weeks now, and I would like to make
a comment or two, directly aimed at the Panicky Buffaloes (or whatever
they're calling themselves), as well as the post-modernists among you.

I, as a member of the proletariat, appreciate the fact that you are
trying to help us workers better ourselves and create a just society for
all.  However, in order to attract us, you've got to speak our language.

I am not stupid by any means; I did go to college for a short time.  But
I can't understand a single damn word in any of your posts, and I gather
that the rest of us in the working class, who probably didn't make it any
further than high school, won't understand it either.  How do you expect
to attract anybody to your cause when even Einstein wouldn't be able to
make heads or tails of what you're saying?

Yes, I know that Marx is not an easy read; if I get stuck trying to
understand something that he wrote, I go to someone who's more
knowledgable and have them explain it to me in terms that I can grasp. 
However, I think that Marx, realizing that the only way the movement
could get going was to have others make it easy enough for the people to
understand, would not want a bunch of academians analyzing every jot and
tittle that he wrote to such an extent that only they get it.

Theory is nice and all, but theory doesn't pay the rent, put gas in the
car, put food in our stomachs and clothes on our backs.  Us workers don't
want papers written by three CUNY Buffaloes that only they can read, or
stodgy eletist professors telling us that what we know to be true can't
be true because that's not how *they* see the truth.

We want better paying jobs with shorter hours and more security, and we
want more of them.  We want health care access for everyone, regardless
of their ability to pay.  We want a society where your inherent worth
isn't based on gender, age, skin color, religious beliefs (or lack
thereof), country of origin, or sexual preference.  We want to be able to
get an education limited only by our interest and our intellectual
ablility, not by our ability to pay.

We'll never get any of these things if you keep going the way you are.

Thank you.

Christi-Ann



Love must be tried and tested and proved.  It must be tried as
though by fire.  And fire burns.
--  Dorothy Day




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