Michael Perelman:
Yes, what can we do to spread the kind of enthusiasm you are describing
with the lefthook people?
Michael, the system is recruiting people to socialism in ample numbers.
Just the other day I got email from a 9th grade student doing a paper on
Che Guevara and the Cuban revolution. He told me that my articles on Cuba
were the best thing he had seen on the topic. He wanted my permission to
cite me and also asked for a description of the methodology I used in a
graph comparing food, housing, education statistics before and after the
revolution! I referred him to Claes Brudenius, in whose book the graph
appeared originally.
Absolutely, which is why I try to deflect us from behaving
antagonistically on the list. I would rather help us develope a
critique.
I hope this remark is not directed at me. I have not attacked anybody
personally on this list in a very long time. If people are going to get
pissed off because I critique the DSA, you might as well remove me right
now because this is what I do. When print publications backed by people
like George Soros are involved in a full assault on currents to their left,
what medium do you advise for answering them? Should I call people on the
telephone? Buy an ad in the Nation Magazine? I don't think that would be
very productive.
At the same time, a vision of socialism is not to be denied. Not a
detailed, elegant description, but a vision of why people might be
willing to make a break with the devil that they know ....
They should break with that devil because it threatens the planet with
environmental despoliation, war, hunger and disease. We advocate production
based on social need rather than private profit. That's about the long and
tall of it.
Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
