KARL: Thank you for replying Gina. I am not saying you dont mean well.
However I still stand by what I said.
Karl,
As someone who is working on trying to get people out to conference, I
feel that I must respond to your message.
Yes, there are several "lefty media stars" at this years' Socialist
Scholars Conference, and we as an organizing group are proud of that. Rob
Saute and Robin Isserles have worked extremely hard to coordinate this
whole event.
It's tough to be all things to all, but I think the Socialist Scholars
Conference is admirable for what it tries to do -- its not strictly an
"academic" conference nor an "activist/militant" one; it neither preaches
to the choir of those initiated into the arcana of Marxist thought, nor
ignores serious intellectual debate. And it certainly isn't all about the
big names. Anyone who has ever been to this conference (and made the
effort to walk beyond the two main theaters) should know that.
You feelings about these "marxilogists" aside, how do you think peole
would have responded to names like Berta Lujan, Ginny Coughlin, Max
Surjandinata, Jeff Balinger, Cesar Ayala, David Pratt, and Jane Slaughter?
I don't think most people would have heard of them although they are all
doing very respectable activist work on the front lines of issues such as
NAFTA, East Timor, and union democratization. My point is that while you
may have heard Manning Marable a million times, there are still people who
haven't and names like his draw new people into the conference. And for
those of you very comfortable with working on a higher plane of Marxist
analysis, there is room at the conference to engage in debate.
As you know, anyone can organize panels at the Socialist Scholars
Conference--and many different groups and peole have been involved. I hope
you'll put together a panel for next year's conference to fill in what you
perceive as a gap. I have-- it's tough work, and I may only get ten people
to my panel on the role of philanthropy in social movements, but for me,
that's better than sitting back and complaining that no one is organizing
the conference the way I would.
In solidarity,
Gina Neff
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Wed, 19 Mar 1997, Karl Carlile wrote:
> KARL: The kind of circus event is just one more of a multiplicity of
> events on the circus circuit. Basically they constitute no more than
> a means by which many of these lefty media stars promote themselves
> and thereby their pocket, their status and fame. Despite the
> thousands of books published by the marxology industry these
> marxilogists they are still unable to outline the character of the
> modern world and the correct political course to be followed. If
> these guys were a threat to the system there is no way so many of them
> would be employed by the bourgeois colleges that sustain. Many of
> them live comfortable petty bourgeois lives. They like to sniff the
> odd working class ghetto from time to time.
>
> The circus advertised below is an exercise in vanity. Just to
> qualify I am not suggesting that every singe individual contributing to
> the circus is self-serving. However I wuld say that many of them are.
> The production of radical books ( have you read the latest book by
> such and such...) is a profit making exercise as is
> the rock music world with its latest CD by this or that. It just goes
> on endlessly.
>
>
>
>
>
> RADICAL ALTERNATIVES ON THE EVE OF THE MILLENNIUM
>
> 1997 Socialist Scholars Conference
> March 28, 29, 30
> Borough of Manhattan Community College
>
>
> Join Doug Henwood, Robert Heilbroner, Paul Sweezy, Harry Magdoff,
> Bill Tabb, Frances Fox Piven, Bob Fitch, Jane Slaughter, and Ellen Meiksins
> Wood as they debate changes in the labor movement, Marxist theory, the state of
> the economy, market socialism, and other areas where theory and practice meet.
> Listen to the United States' only independent and socialist congressman, Rep.
> Bernie Sanders, dialogue with Joel Rogers of the New Party and In These Times'
> Salim Muwakkil on independent politics..
>
> Some of the more than one hundred plenaries, panels, and workshops will
> include Ellen Meiksins Wood, Aijaz Ahmad, and David Harvey on "Universalism
> and Difference"; Robert Heilbroner, Ros Bologh, and Robert Jay Lifton on "The
> Limits of Conventional Wisdom"; Manning Marable, Joy James, Maulana
> Karenga, Bill Sales, and Bill Fletcher on state of African-American intellectuals;
> Stanley Aronowitz on his most recent book "The Death and Rebirth of American
> Radicalism"; and Stephen Jay Gould, Meera Nanda, and Alan Sokal on "Science
> and the Flight From Reason."
>
> It all starts Friday evening March 28 @ 7:00 PM with opening plenary
> speakers Luciana Castellina, Member of European Parliament from Italy, Bogdan
> Denitch, Barbara Ehrenreich, Rep. Major Owens, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Mexican
> detective novelist, historian and socialist, and Bob Wages, President of the Oil,
> Chemical, and Atomic Workers, AFL-CIO. The theme, of course, is "Radical
> Alternatives on the Eve of the Millennium." Panels run from 10:00 AM to 5:00
> PM Saturday and Sunday. Vendors and representatives from more than fifty
> publishers and organizations will be there on Saturday and Sunday.
>
> Other speakers include: Mimi Abramovitz, Daniel Singer, Harry Magdoff, Istvan
> Meszaros, Barbara Epstein, Ruth Sidel, Carlos Vilas, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, L. A.
> Kauffman, Leo Panitch, Hector Figueroa, David Abdulah, Louise Merriweather,
> Ngugi wa Thiongo, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Alexander Buzgalin, Leith
> Mullins, Axel Queval, Pap Ndale, Jean-Pierre Page, and dozens more...
>
> DETAILS:
>
> When: Friday, March 28 7:00 to 9:30 PM
> Saturday, March 29 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
> Sunday, March 30 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM
>
> Where: Borough of Manhattan Community College
> 199 Chambers Street in downtown Manhattan
>
> Cost: $45.00
> 30.00 (low income)
> 8.00 (undergrads & high school students)
> 20.00 (one day entrance)
>
> For more information call (212) 642-2826 or email us at:
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> or check out our web page at:
>
> www.soc.qc.edu/ssc
> --=====================_858748505==_--
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yours etc.,
> Karl
>
Yours etc.,
Karl
