Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 20:33:59 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
To: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Factional warfare victorious


On Fri, 29 Mar 1996, hariette spierings wrote:

> Comrades:  We have won a famous victory  The postings of despair and idiotic
> provocations of our die hard enemies, are but the black vomit of those who
> have totally failed in a very public manner.
> 

Louis: Adolfo is correct. He has won a victory. I am going directly to 
the list with my assessment of the situation.

Hans Ebhar, a professor at Utah, and Jon Beasley-Murray, a graduate 
student at Duke University have a solution to the problem. They have 
persuaded Lisa that a new list be created. This list will be called 
something like "Philosophical Marxism" or some such thing. The notion is 
that polite discussion of literature, anthropology, history, economics, 
etc. take place without the bothersome presence of "vanguard" parties. 
The idea is that the Marxism list will be turned over to Adolfo and his 
fellow warriors.

I have a different take on the problem. I don't think our problem is fear 
of debate. It is a different problem entirely. It is simply that a 
faction has used its iron discipline to throw the list off-kilter. Any 
group of 5 or 6 people can easily do this, especially when the people 
who are dealing with the faction are inexperienced in these sorts of 
matters as Lisa and Jon are. If they have the ear of someone who is 
sympathetic to the PCP faction such as Communist Labor Party ex-member 
Professor Ebhar, it compounds the problem.

As for me, I'm out of here. I don't agree with the solution that is being 
proposed, but I only speak for myself. There is another mailing list that 
will be much more congenial to the interests I have on the front-burner.

Good luck to you all.


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