greetings comrades, what is all this beef with richard wolff? why are y'all throwing such mad shade at him? why making such subtle distinctions into the deciding divisions between political lines?
i've found wolff's work inspirational, intellectually rigorous, and directly useful for organizing. his lectures on class radicalized me at a young age, and played a large part in my becoming a marxist. *knowledge and class* is probably the best summary of marxist philosophy and explanation of dialectical materialism. *contending economic theories* has the best 100-ish page introduction to marxian political economy. the journal *rethinking marxism* has published articles on almost every major topic important in marxian theory, from the transformation problem and value to imperialism to ideology and so on. many of wolff and resnick's students have taught economics at universities for decades, as part of a consciously organized political project. the democracy at work organization and economic update podcast have been major communist popular education and general propaganda institutions for a decade. one proof in the effectiveness of wolff's marxism is that he has reached millions of people with a radical message, and many of those people have actually sprang into action. i understand (or perhaps prematurely assume) that most of y'all are anti-althusserian marxism, against the anti-essentialist project, and perhaps would argue wolff's understanding of overdetermination and complex contradiction leads to an abandonment of explanation altogether. does being a marxist require being an economic determinist? in solidarity, will On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 6:58 PM Charlie via groups.io <charles1848= [email protected]> wrote: > A remark by Richard Wolff from the transcript > <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.democracynow.org%2F2024%2F10%2F25%2Fbrics_summit_richard_wolff_patrick_bond%23transcript&data=05%7C02%7Cwchaney%40umass.edu%7C65fe156f25094f236b0508dcf5488879%7C7bd08b0b33954dc194bbd0b2e56a497f%7C0%7C0%7C638654939091587896%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dTT1MzaXULTFpRmpJ50ZFmRfTwR3PDuDMCbdM2n%2B8aM%3D&reserved=0> > : > > The American Empire and our system is in a decline relative to what the > BRICS are about. Are there problems among them? For sure. Do they have > their faults? Absolutely. This is not good and bad, but it is a radical > alteration. And if we continue as a nation to pretend it isn’t happening or > it isn’t important, we will continue to make big strategic mistakes, not > the least of which is to bring us into a war kind of situation that people > are already sensing might be in the air. > > What is this "as a nation" stuff?! The U.S. capitalist ruling class is of > course determined to keep its imperial advantages. So when Wolff talks > about "big strategic mistakes," he paints a picture of a class-united > national U.S. interest. He implies here and no doubt states elsewhere that > U.S. workers need to set the U.S. imperialists right. Ha! > > Then Wolff takes his false line of reasoning out to war. The concept is > that the U.S. imperialists are preparing for war and U.S. workers should > teach them it is a "mistake." He completely covers up for China's drive to > redivide world markets, raw materials, and investment outlets. This must be > at the expense of those who hold those outlets. The drive to war is an > objective antagonism. Wolff's "big strategic mistake" chatter is a block to > U.S. workers confronting the reality: there will be war, perhaps postponed > briefly, but it will happen until there is revolution. > > Conversely, Patrick Bond stated the reality of BRICS regarding Palestine, > for example: > > Nine out of the 10 BRICS countries have very profitable relationships, > like South Africa, number one coal exporter to Israel, and China and India > having companies that run the Haifa Port, you could turn those off and > really put pressure on Israel if they really had the guts. But we see them > talking left, walking right. > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33166): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33166 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109207225/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
