Lou, why not give us the whole text instead of the parts that are
ironical. You know this section hardly does justice to the argument
Linebaugh is making in support of Marx and Engels...
And ain't it funny, when pomo's make the same exact kind of argument about
Marx and Engels you have a Dick Cheney, but when the "post-colonialists'
'world systems' folks make the argument that Marx was 'eurocentric,
teleological', etc. hey you just grab it and run with it. Ahmad's section
on Marx on India I think does more than a fair job of refuting simplistic
accounts of Marx's views on colonialism, teloeology, etc.
Steve
On Mon, 28 May 2001, Louis Proyect wrote:
> Michael Perelman wrote:
> >Let's keep this under control. Jim gave a very nice description of Marx's
> >analysis of the mode of production. Lou asked him to relate those
> >abstract topics to Latin America, which Marx and most of us do not know
> >all that well.
> >
> >Marx was not familiar with the internet either.
>
> Michael, the Internet was an invention of the late 20th century. It had not
> been invented when Marx was writing. However, colonial society had existed
> for more than 300 years when Marx was writing. He reflected his milieu by
> neglecting this social reality. Peter Linebaugh honed in on the problem
> with this May Day article:
>
> May 1, 2001 A May Day Meditation
>
> by Peter Linebaugh
>
> Comrades and Friends, May Day Greetings!
>
> Here is 'the day.' The day we long to become a "journee'," those days of
> the French Revolution when a throne would topple, the powerful would
> tumble, slavery be abolished, or the commons restored.
>
> Meanwhile, we search for a demo for the day, or we gather daffodils and
> some "may" for our loved ones and the kitchen table. We greet strangers
> with a smile and "Happy May Day!" We think of comrades around the world, in
> Africa, India, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico, Hong Kong. With our comrades we
> remember recent victories, and we mutter against, and curse our rulers. We
> take a few minutes to freshen up our knowledge of what happened there in
> Chicago in 1886 and 1887 before striding out into the fight of the day.
>
> So during this moment of studying the day, I'm going to take a text from
> Frederick Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, and I'll ask you to
> take it down from the top shelf of the spare room where you stuck it when
> Reagan came to power, or to go down into the basement and dig it out of a
> mildewed carton whence you might have disdainfully put it during the
> Clinton years. No where does Engels mention the slave trade. No where does
> Engels mention the witch burnings. No where does Engels mention the
> genocide of the indigenous peoples. He writes, "A durable reign of the
> bourgeoisie has been possible only in countries like America, where
> feudalism was unknown, and society at the very beginning started from a
> bourgeois basis."
>
> Dearie me. Dear, dear, dear!
>
> He has forgotten everything, it seems. He has swallowed hook, line, and
> sinker the whole schemata of: Savagery leads to Barbarism leads to
> Feudalism leads to Capitalism which, in turn, with a bit of luck, &c., &c.,
> will be transformed, down the line, in the future, when the times are ripe,
> &c. &c. into socialism and communism. He has overlooked the struggle of the
> Indians, or the indigenous people, of the red, white, and black Indians.
> The fact is that commonism preceded capitalism on the north American
> continent, not feudalism. The genocide was so complete, the racism so
> effective, that there is not even a trace or relic of memory of the prior
> societies.
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
>
>
