Marxism-Thaxis] Sharpening class contradictions Charles Brown CharlesB at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Mon Jan 21 09:35:01 MST 2002
Previous message: [Marxism-Thaxis] Sharpening class contradictions Next message: [Marxism-Thaxis] From the Philosophical Society of England Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thaxis was the first list I was on. So, I want to express a word of virtual thanks to this cybersection as it goes the way of all virtual flesh. Thanks to Rob and my other Thaxis comrades :>) Workers of the World , go for it ! Peace in ! Charles >>> farmelantj at juno.com 01/21/02 05:41AM >>> On Tue, 22 Jan 2002 04:28:40 +0000 bantam at dingoblue.net.au writes: > G'day all, > > I'd written, > > > Or shall we wrap the old list up and slip her quietly into the > > dustbin? > > Well, I think the eloquent silence with which this was greeted can't > be > ignored. If no-one on the list nominates for the position of list > moderator within the week, I shall have to let Hans know Thaxis is > sans > moderator and, very possibly, sans raison d'etre. That raises the issue lie this once thriving list has seemed to have slipped into senescence and may well be ready to die a natural death. Long time subscribers may recall that this list is a continuation of the old Marxism-2 list which was founded by Lisa Rogers in reaction to the takeover of the original Spoon Collective's Marxism List by Maoists in 1995. About a year later, the Spoon Collective decided to break up its Marxism space into several lists including a Marxism-International List, Marxism-Thaxis, and a Marxism-and- Sciences List, as well as a Marxism-General List, a Marxism- Feminism List and I think a Marxism-News List as well. This situation lasted until 1998 when the Spoon Collective decided that it no longer wished to host any of the Marxism lists and they were spun off to their respective moderators, who generally sought and obtained hosting privelages elsewhere. The fates of these various lists has been quite diverse. One of the then most active lists was the Marxism-International List which was turned over to Louis Godena (who was probably the most articulate and erudite of the Maoists that had originally "invaded" the old Marxism List back in 1995). For quite a while that list retained its original vitality, until Godena and his co-moderator Adolfo Olaechea began to purge it of various ideological opponents. As a result many of its most active and interesting participants, if not purged, left on their own accord. As a result two new lists were formed, Louis Proyect's Marxmail List, and Doug Henwood's LBO-Talk List both of which continue to thrive to this day. In the mean time other list were formed as well. Jerry Levy who used to be quite active on Thaxis created his own specialized list that is devoted mainly to rather abstruse discussions of value theory. There is also the Progressive Economists List, which retains a certain vitality. So what happened to this list? This one too used to be quite lively, and for a long time it seemed to carry on more or less in the original spirit of the Marxism-2 list but in more recent times, it has become evident that list traffic has gone way down, and the list simply seems rather lifeless now. Why? I suspect the reason is simply that so many of the people who used to participate here are now most active on the other lists that I have mentioned. Levy used to be quite active here. I can't remember when the last time he ever posted here. And the same is true for most of the other former regulars here. Would different moderators have made a difference? Possibly, Proyect for whatever else one might say about him has been quite aggressive about promoting his list with the result that it has several hundred subscribers. The same can be said about Henwood's LBO-Talk, which also had the advantage of being associated with Henwood's well-known (in leftist circles) newsletter Left Business Observer. And there is also the sad example of Marxism-International which continues with no discernable purpose since the only people who post on it now a days is Godena and Olaechea, and then only at very infrequent intervals. On the other hand it may be that there was little that any moderator or group of moderator could have done about this situation. Back when Thaxis was founded there were only a bare handful of Marxist or left-oriented lists in cyberspace, now there are literally dozens if not hundreds of such lists. This is of course a good thing, since it suggests that there has been indeed a revival of interest in Marxism (after having been declared dead and buried in 1991). At the same time this makes it harder for any one list to thrive since there is now so many competing lists to which people can now choose to participate in. Jim F. > > All the best to all, > Rob. > > This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
