File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9707, message 10


Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 13:26:54 -0400
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: M-I: The Cultural Front


At 11:33 AM 7/1/97 -0400, you wrote:
> On PM the progressive paper.
>
>Gee they were so anti racist -- they only supported World War II and the
>internment of the Japanese.   Great.  Very Progressive.
>
>Congrats
>Comrade Brown Generic Trotskyist League 40%off


The "generic Trotskyist League"? 40% off? Comrade Brown?

Buh-Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! Chortle!! Tee-hee!!!

Did I tell you the one about the Trot who goes into a saloon with a parrot
on his shoulder? The parrot sez to the bartender....

When I read bullshit like Comrade Brown's, it makes me embarrassed to admit
that I was ever part of this movement.

Yes, PM supported WWII and the internment of the Japanese. This was wrong
as John Hess pointed out in his review. Eugene V. Debs' party also had
wrong positions on the "Negro question" and Jack London was virulently
racist toward the Japanese.

Karl Marx considered the Serbs and Mexicans lower types of nationalities
that should have been absorbed by Germany and the USA. In "Conditions of
the Working Class in England", Engels described the Irish in absolutely
racist terms.

So what is the point?

No movement is immune from the pressures of bourgeois society. Imperialist
war brings out the worst in everybody, including a progressive publication
like PM. So how do you avoid reflecting alien class pressures? My suspicion
is that the "generic Trotskyists" will never reflect alien class pressures
because they are so insulated from society that such pressures can never be
felt. At least the "40%" tips us off that they prefer being wise-crackers
to revolutionaries. What a sad commentary on the status of Trotskyism. The
Old Man must be rotating in his grave at a sufficient velocity to create
enough electrical energy to light up the state of Rhode Island for the
month of July.

Louis P.







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