File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1996/96-08-26.043, message 88


Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 10:03:38 -0500
From: atefeh oliai <atefeho-AT-vms2.macc.wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: The Cyberscoop on Marx and His Obit


Hello Azfar

Enjoyed your reply.

Atefeh



At 07:00 PM 7/20/96 -0800, you wrote:
>Dear Michael,
>
>Thanks very much for your response. So let me see what you've said:
>
>>Marx died over a hundered years ago.
>
>Yes, someone familiar with Marx's biography is likely to know that.
>
>>But his Spirit lives on in the Class Struggle...
>
>So there is a "But." And you suggest his "Spirit" is still alive, his death
>notwithstanding! (cf. Derrida's _Specters of Marx_) And also alive is the
>Class Struggle...(I can't help noticing your de Certeauesque dots).
>
>>And the Class War: Fought out in places like El Salvador where i witnessed
>teenagers carrying guns almost as tall as they were, using them in an
>attempt to Clear the Way for New Life...
>
>As if Marx himself was the commander-in-chief of the kind of "Class War"
>you're mentioning! As if Marx commanded: "Comrades, just keep your bullets
>blazing away at the enemy, and surely you'll have a "New Life." Indeed,  a
>thousand armed battles were fought out in the name of Marx and class war in
>places like India, Bangladesh, too, and some of them are nothing but
>classic instances of a massive waste! Among some communists in Bangladesh,
>the revolutionary motto espoused was simply this: "One cannot be a
>communist unless one's hands are visibly drenched with the blood of at
>least 5 class-enemies" (this motto was, of course, imported from some
>communists in India). Thus, a lot of bullshit went on in the name of class
>war--or in the name of Marx, who, ultimately, for no fault of his own,
>became and has become the greatest culprit!  Well, I think Gramsci also
>gives us the clue that not all wars are class wars--that not all fights are
>revolutionary fights. And I agree.
>
>By the way, machinations to kill Marx were and are frequently framed not
>only by the right but also by some of the so-called left.
>
>>It was unequal, it was unfair, and when the Soviet Union fell, so did the
>hope, sacrifice and toil spent by those who had no choice but to take up
>arms to defend what little they had.
>
>True, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, many Marxists were
>puzzled, disillusioned, helplessly angry, and even many communist parties
>all over the world were simply dissolved. Indeed, this moment marked a
>genuine crisis in the history of political Marxism--though the moment
>doesn't imply the end of Marxism(s) nor the "End of History" as such. Aijaz
>Ahmad speaks eloquently against the simplistic equation of the Soviet
>Union's fall with the death of Marx and Marxism(s). And I would say that
>the Soviet Union fell not because of Marx but because of numerous mindlesss
>anti-Marx programs, actions, etc, that in a way began since the days of
>Stalin (I know some Stalinists might try to kill me now), and, of course,
>there are many other factors, too.
>
>>But Ghosts and Spirits tend to reappear when and where least expected;
>
>I agree. Hamlet took at least occasional cues and clues from the Ghost, but
>then Hamlet was constantly proof-reading his radical manifesto for changing
>the world--for setting the "out-of-joint"-time right. But today the Prince
>of Deconstruction (Derrida) poses as the Prince of Denmark in front of
>Marx's Ghost, and seems to say: Father, your other sons have failed--they
>are not real revolutionaries--they've messed up things, but I--a
>deconstructionist-Marxist or a Marxist-deconstructionist (Radhakrishnan
>somewhere plays with this hyphen quite interestingly)--will certainly
>avenge your death. Amusing!  Marx now turns out to be an "adopted" father
>of Derrida.
>
>
>Well, Michael, now my final point is this: your earlier statement that "On
>top of that, he (Marx) is dead" (with a tellingly heavy accent on the
>epithet "dead") seemed to me to spell a straight finish to the political
>and discursive possibilities of Marx in today's
>"poststructuralist-postmodernist-postcolonial" world. And I can't help
>resisting that kind of DEATH.
>
>Thanks for your time. Om shantih.
>
>With best regards,
>
>
>
>
>
>Azfar Hussain
>
>##############################
>AZFAR HUSSAIN
>Box# 13, 352 Avery Hall
>Department of English
>Washington State University
>Pullman, Washington 99164-5020
>Phones: 509-332-4405 (home)
>        509-335-1803 (work)
>E-mail: azfar-AT-wsu.edu
>##############################
>
>       
>
>
>
>
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