Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 13:28:23 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-TH: internal combustion Marxists + freedoms


First of all, regarding Berlin. I have never read any of his writings. So
when James says that I am making use of but reversing his concepts, I don't
know what he means exactly. I should probably check out his work later,
though moral philosophy is not my cup of tea.

But leaving Berlin aside, neither I nor Justin is against freedom. In fact,
we are for it, but we reconceptualize and develop the concepts of freedoms
from marxist points of view. To conceptualize freedom only as being free
from negative interference from the state seems to me to be unnecessarily
limited, though consistent with liberal/libertarian points of view.

Unless James's position is that marxists should not fight for any state
program (health, education, income support, disability benefits, home care
for the elderly, etc.) that have some positive effects on the working
class, I don't think his notions of freedom are very helpful for many
urgent (though often defensive) struggles that people have been waging to
defend the gains made in the past. (Maybe that is the LM position. Stop
defending and struggling for the state-supported reforms, let
contradictions in capitalism ripen, and then fight for socialism.)

People must be enabled--and this often means that, at least currently, for
better or worse, they must be funded by the state--to exercize their rights
and freedoms. In the case of the debate on cars and the environment, people
must gain, first of all, the choice between individual ownership of cars
and mass transportation, that is, the freedom to choose between them
according to their needs, preference, concerns about the environment, and
so on. We need to struggle for such a freedom of choice, especially in the
United States. And for that to happen, uncontrolled suburban development
*must* stop. (And as you probably know, the state *has* been supporting
those developments; why not struggle to have the state support a better
alternative?)

Yoshie





     --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---