Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 08:47:16 -0500 (EST)
From: louisgodena-AT-ids.net (Louis R Godena)
Subject: M-I: Orthodoxies (note from moderator)



I am glad to see that the debate concerning the Indian "nations" in the US
is proceeding apace.  This is of interest to Americn leftists. especially,
due not only to the seminal issues involved (like national
self-determination), but to its proximity to our cowboy-and-indian culture
which still haunts us in the unlikeliest of ways.  This, too, despite the
fact that the Amerindian has played no role in our history, effectively,
since 1890 (Howard Zinn and his imitators notwithstanding).

I am less happy to see the emergence, on m-i, of what appear to be attempts
at fashioning some sort of left-wing orthodoxy around this issue.
Marxism-international exists as a forum where a wide gamut of views gathered
around Marxism and the left can be exchanged and discussed without resort to
the kind of catechism-quoting that still persists among the fading
"vanguard" sects, here and elsewhere.  Those whose interests lay along those
lines can readily find that sort of thing on the various lists and web-pages
existing for that purpose.  It is not welcome here.  Part of maintaining
this list is preventing the creation of a hostile environment toward those
who share the goals of m-i but whose political appetites differ, in their
particulars, from the general run. 

I would ask that each of you bear that in mind.

Louis Godena,
co-moderator








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