From J. Moore's Recommended Books section at his website
THE LEFT: A READING GUIDE
X. Looking to the Future with an Optimism of the Intellect and a Tenacity of
the Will
Edward J. McCaughan, Reinventing Revolution: The Renovation of Left
Discourse in Cuba and Mexico (Boulder: Westview Press, 1997). Based on
interviews with a large number of Leftist intellectuals in these two
countries which have had nationalist and anti-imperialist revolutions,
argues that alongside existing orthodox socialist and liberal currents a
third rennovative Leftist perspective is emerging, although differently in
each case, in the aftermath of the changes in the former Soviet bloc and
despite the ideological popularity of neoliberalism. While continuing to
uphold traditional socialist values about social justice and equality and
the relevance of more nationalistic policies, this perspective takes issues
with both Leninist and liberal conceptions of politics in favor of more
direct forms of democracy and a greater autonomy of civil society from the
state. This current is said to have its basis in the many activist
intellectuals who came out of the New Left generation of 1968.
Antonio Negri, The Politics of Subversion: A Manifesto for the Twenty-First
Century (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989).
Nick Witheford, Autonomist Marxism and the Information Society, Capital
Class (Spring 1994): 85-125.
- Original Message -
From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2001 11:01 AM
Subject: [PEN-L:13877] Feedback from Jay Moore on Hardt-Negri
I thank Louis for his critique of Empire. I'm glad that he actually made
it through -- which I couldn't do because I was so digusted with it both
by
the more general issues Louis hits on and by its near-total divorce from
an
examination of the facts on the ground. (Negri may have an excuse since
he's been in prison but what about Hardt?) This is supposed to be the Das
Kapital for the 21st century? Hah! Compare Marx's richly detailed
description taken from the British Blue Books of the disastrous effects of
industrial capitalism's rise on the working people in both core and
periphery. There's nothing like that whatsoever in Empire. It operates
exclusively (except for a paltry few anecdotes) in abstraction.
One thing, however, I would say to Louis and others who may be trying to
get a fix on where these cats are coming from is that the linchpin for the
whole theoretical edifice is Negri's keen interest in Marx's Grundrisse.
He wrote a long exigesis of it some years ago when he was associating in
France with Althusser's school -- sort of his response to their exigesis
of
Capital. Much more so than the few short (but much-quoted) articles by
Marx about the alleged civilizing effects of British colonialism in India,
the Grundrisse (written roughly around the same time period) is chock
full of sections that are conducive to that approach (although somewhat
more dialectical in Marx's original hands). If you want to pull out the
rug
from under all of this stuff, that's where you have to go, I think. Good
luck. I'm not!
best, jay
www.neravt.com/left/
Louis Proyect
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