Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 21:00:43 -0500 From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu> Subject: M-I: Workers'/Women's Struggles, State/Civl Society, and Neoliberalism Reading together a number of recent posts that touch on gender-equality issues, I am beginning to feel we must address those issues in connection with the following subjects. 1) Louis Godena's rebuttal of Mark Jones's charges against Zeynep as well as Doug's characterization of Adolfo as "aristocratic" traitor to his class origin put an interesting gloss on Louis Proyect's characterization of feminism as "cross-class movement." Haven't the "actually existing" marxist movements always had "cross-class" inflections? Recognizing this reality, I believe, modifies our analyses of the relationships between marxism and other social movements. 2) The State has been assailed by different forces for different reasons. The State has been attacked from below by those who are disgusted by visible corruption, failures of modernization/development, etc. The State has been also targeted by neoliberal ideology and practice from above. The intersection of these lines of attacks has much to do with a rising interest in civil society/social movements. 3) Non-profit sectors constitute an important area of marxist analyses, esp. in the age of neoliberalism. "Reprivatization of welfare" has and will increase their prominence and is likely to exacerbate the contradictions within social movements as well as capitalism. If the "welfare state" has made reproduction of labor power partially public, neoliberalism will try to reprivatize it. 4) Sociological literature on social movements has a component called "resource-mobilization theory." The funding sources (such as the World Bank and liberal foundations) as well as "cultural capital" have and continue to enable those who are liberal and middle class to mobilize resources to maintain their organizations. On the other hand, religious organizations, conservative foundations, etc. provide those who are conservative and middle class with resources to organize and mobilize people under their banners. I suggest that the question of bourgeois feminism be addressed under this rubric. Sorry to be very sketchy. I am pretty sick today and don't have energy to develop what I said above. I hope somebody will pick it up. Yoshie --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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