Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 08:40:37 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Post-Marxism


Doug inquires into the meaning of my identification with post-Marxism.

First, I made a point of separating my political position (radical democrat)
from my theoretical stance (post-Marxism). I believe that it is one of the
problems within many parts of the Marxist tradition that the two are
conflated. One can be a radical democrat without operating as a post-Marxist,
and vice versa. I also do not believe that Marxism is a political position;
it can, and does, inform a variety of political positions, from the most
wildly Trotskyist to the most obdurately Stalinist, from Kautskyite social
democracy to Gramscian hegemonists. There is little that is more of a waste
of time and effort, IMHO, than debates about whether or not one is a genuine
Marxist, since they involve silly and worthless attempts to fix a particular
(invariably sectarian) political position as the sole bearer of the Marxist
tradition. When was the last time you heard someone debating about whether or
not someone was a genuine Weberian or a genuine pragmatist? The point should
be, of course, whether or not the analysis has any value in orienting
political action, not whether or not it remains within someone's notion of
the faith. 

Second, post-Marxism is more shorthand for a theoretical terrain than a
particular body of writings or a fixed theoretical position. It is
POST-Marxist in the sense that it no longer accepts central ideas of the
Marxist tradition, such as the Marxian concepts of class and class
subjectivity, the notion that history operates through an immanent logic (of
CLASS struggle), and the concept of communism as a transparent society free
of social conflict and antagonism. It is post-MARXIST in the sense that its
point of departure is the development of certain ideas and themes developed
within the Marxist tradition, such as the Gramscian idea of hegemony, carried
through to the point where they conflict with Marxist ideas that only social
classes organize hegemony.

Leo