Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 07:29:05 -0800 (PST) From: Scott McLemee <mclemee-AT-igc.apc.org> Subject: M-I: Cyberseminar Report: Johnson-Forest Tendency Certain annoying interruptions (read: making a living) have delayed my report for the cyberseminar on the revolutionary nature/potential of the working class. But I hope to post the first of two parts by the end of this week, and the conclusion by next Sunday. At the suggestion of Louis Proyect, though, a few words on the topic of the report. The Johnson-Forest Tendency is probably better known within the broad left (academic and activist alike) than ever before -- though more as a rumor or a legend than in any substantive way. In large measure this renown is a function of the growing interest in C. L. R. James (1901-1989), whose history of the Haitian revolution THE BLACK JACOBINS (1938) is one of the landmark works of Marxist historiography in English, to make no grander claim for it. During a prolonged stay in the United States (1938-53), he wrote for the Trotskyist press under the party name "J. R. Johnson"; together with Trotsky's former secretary and sometime translator Raya Dunayevskaya ("F. Forest"), he lead an opposition current that regarded the Soviet Union as "state capitalist" >from at least 1936 onward. If that were the only distinguishing feature of "Johnsonism," it would scarcely be of interest to any but sectarian trivia hounds. But the disagreement with Trotsky (and for that matter with Max Shachtman and others) drove James and associates into a close study of Marx's and Lenin's work -- and the Johnsonite insistence on the revolutionary nature of the American working class inspired them to focus on the "lifeworld" of the factory and the newly proletarianized African-Americans and women ignored by most of the Trotskyist left of the day. The first chapter of my report will chronicle the history and publications of the Tendency. The first English translation of extracts >from Marx's 1844 manuscripts appeared in a mimeographed edition prepared by the group -- a fact at least as significant to understanding its ideas as the differences on "the Russian question." The Tendency was particularly interested in getting workers, youth, and women to write about their experiences, and one of the documents I will discuss at length in the second part of my report, THE AMERICAN WORKER, is exemplary of this. I have been researching the history of the Tendency for a few years, and edited a couple of books of James's writings. Once I get a handle on the technology, it might make sense to post some Johnsonite documents to the list -- if there is sufficient interest. Anyway, I've got to apply my nose, again, to the grindstone -- so it may be Thursday or Friday before the first installment of the report goes out. In the meantime, anyone so inclined might have a look at the book MARXISM AND FREEDOM (1958) by Raya Dunayevskaya. After the Tendency distintegrated in 1955, she very shrewdly gathered up her ex-comrades' work and wrote it up, with her own "spin" but without mentioning their names. Talk about expropriation of labor! Scott McLemee 20 Jan 1997 --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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