Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 06:14:02 +0100
From: Richard Bos <Richard.Bos-AT-hagcott.meganet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Richard's Lament:  Was: Define Racism


Louis R Godena wrote:
> 
> Richard Bos offers this bit of melancholia:
> 
> >I think that this was the case in the past. That is, in the sixties and
> > seventies when it was a bit of a fashion statement for some people who
> > went of to be pillars of the establishment or pet "Media Marxists".
> 
> > Now the story is quite different. Our movement is in a rock bottom, no
> > frills, no luxury, no prestige position. Those people wouldn't touch real
> > Marxism with a bargepole on a long stick! Most of the active Marxists
> > that I meet are working class people who are involved because they have
> > nothing to lose, and are pissed off enough with this wretched system to
> > actually have a chance of getting somewhere this time!
> 
> It may surprise Richard to know,  as it surprised me,  that the number of
> Marxist-oriented works emanating from major trade and academic publishers
> has enjoyed a substantial increase for 1996-97.    Analyzing the general
> catalogues (as well as the descriptive lists for forthcoming books) of
> Cambridge,  Oxford,  Harvard,  California,  Princeton,  Yale,  Macmillan/St
> Martins,  Random House,  Little, Brown,  Doubleday, and several others (not
> to mention the general left publishers like Pantheon,  Monthly Review,  or
> South End Press,  one finds a surprising increase in the number of books
> owing some part of themselves to Marxian theory.    The traditional fields
> are well represented--history,  philosophy,  political science,  critical
> theory,  etc.,  together with (this year) music,  population studies,  art
> and society,  feminism,  and sexuality.     True,  Marx is still
> under-represented (to put it mildly) in high budget--high visibility "mass
> market" titles,  but the substantial increase in progressive works is,  in
> itself,  remarkable.
> 
> A (tentative) signal of a possible Left revival in western publishing,  perhaps?
> 
> Louis (G)
> 

I wasn't lamenting anything Louis. I was trying to say that our movement 
has gone back to it's roots. It is numerically very weak, but 
ideologically in a stronger position than in the past. I know that is 
what the sects say to justify their existance, but what I am talking 
about crosses organisational boundries. I feel more optimistic about our 
future now than I have for a long time.

No it doesn't surprise me to know about the upsurge in Marxist related 
publishing; you do not have to be a white, male, middle-class, 
intellectual to write a book. There are some working-class writers who 
could do a much better job than most of the acedemics I can think of. 

-- 
Best wishes,

Richard.                     
      New Worker Online http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2853



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