File spoon-archives/marxism.archive/marxism_1994/94-09-30.000, message 28


Date: Mon, 12 Sep 1994 07:52:22 PDT
From: Andrew Daitsman <adaitsma-AT-trincoll.edu>
Subject: Re: marxism




On Mon, 12 Sep 1994, Philip Goldstein wrote:

> 	Jon Beasley-Murray chastizes the (American) left because it does 
> not believe in revolution anymore -- no outside to oppression either. Is 
> revolution really a matter of faith? and Marxism, obligated to provide 
> hope? What about alternative theories? Gramsci's war of position I take 
> to be an alternative to traditional theories of revolution, and Laclau 
> and Mouffe -- two Brits -- deny that there is an outside or alternative 
                ^^^^^^^^^

????????
Excuse me Phil for not dealing with the substance of your comment, but 
the last time I checked ERNESTO Laclau was Argentine.  I never knew for 
certain, but I always thought Chantal Mouffe was French.

All of which I think is ultimately irrelevant to their political 
philosophy, by the way.  HSS, to me, seems derived from French 
theoretical traditions, perhaps mediated by the immediate political 
context in Great Britain.  But Britain really can stand as a 
representative both of the current crisis in Marxism, and of the more 
general crisis in capitalism.  More extreme there than in other places, 
especially in the implementation of the neo-liberal experiment, but a 
similar process nonetheless.

> to capitalism. Is this fragmentation or genuine theoretical differences? 
> Philip Goldstein
> 

Back in the saddle, sort of,

Andy
Department of History and Latin American Studies
Trinity College
Hartford, CT
adaitsma-AT-trincoll.edu


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