At 06:01 PM 2/25/2005 -0800, Steve Gabosch wrote:Yes, that would be an interesting discussion to read. Where does one get SWP internal bulletins from the 1940's?
In New York, the best place is Tamiment Library at NYU, where I did a great deal of research in the '90s. Also Prometheus Research Library, a much more reasonable outfit than its parent organization the Spartacist League. They were very helpful to me.
I think maybe the Center for Socialist History in Berkeley has this stuff too. And there are probably other places.
Thanks. Are these collections fairly complete?
I notice, Ralph, the occasional disparaging remark about Engels and the one below about Novack. I think I can make a case that while one may disagree with their views, their writings and thinking emanated from world views that were based on a scientific methodology, not on idiosyncratic intellectual inventions, muddled thinking, or just plain subjectivism. I think I can also make a case, even more controversial for some, that Marx and Engels were consistent, and, furthermore, Novack was reasonably consistent with them. That last one is especially controversial, of course. And as for the problem of "dialectical laws," I think Novack explains or defends the concept pretty well, along the lines that Engels used it.
Well, I'm not part of the anti-Engels Engels-betrayed-Marx industry. However, these are not sacred texts, so we do have to read them critically. Perhaps Novack was faithful in rendering Engels' confusion, I don't remember. But Novack was terribly confused, as was Trotsky, on these matters. However, confusion abounded in those days, e.g. that awful book by John Somerville.
Fair enough. Evidence for "consistency" versus "confusion" seems like a productive line of inquiry down the road. And I agree that if Engels and Trotsky were confused, George Novack, who considered himself a disciple of them, most certainly would have been!
BTW, what awful book and who was John Somerville?
Best, - Steve
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