Yoshie:
Well, there is no evidence that people in Brazil or Iran would prefer a Louis Proyect or a Doug Henwood to Lula or Ahmadinejad. That's the reality.
Odd that a Marxist would be so into popularity contests. In any case, this impresses me about as much as Chris Doss's references to Stalin's popularity. If I was the last person on earth, I'd say that Stalin was a brutal dictator who made a mockery of Marxist principles. By the same token, nothing could get me to support Lula, the Bill Clinton of Brazil. Nor Ahmadinejad, who rise to prominence early in his career was based on his record of knocking the teeth out of Marxist activists.
The Paris Commune exemplifies only the Paris Commune, it seems to me. It's one of a kind, and it didn't last.
Have you read "State and Revolution"? It is online at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/index.htm. I also recommend Karl Marx's "The Civil War in France", which can be read at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1871/civil-war-france/index.htm.
When a country has a large informal sector and the informal sector produces most political activists on the Left, what kind of political and economic program might make sense?
I advocate socialism everywhere. You of course are entitled to your own beliefs.
I'm thinking of Amin's writings on the multi-polar world order.
This doesn't exactly inspire me to do further research on google. My wife's dissertation required her to read a ton of poli-sci books that refer to "multi-polar world orders". I think they should give her a PhD just for having the patience to wade through this kind of blather.
There is always a filter. I'm subscribed to more lists than I can count, and I have no time to read all of them. Maybe I catch just one percent of postings.
Oh, by the way, thanks for ignoring my invitation to resub to Marxmail. I don't think that would have worked out at all. I'll check with you in a year or two to see if the Ahmadinejad fan club thing has eased up.
