I take the occasion of May Day to announce a new Marxism mailing-list. THE PURPOSE: The primary purpose of the list is to gather together Marxists internationally who are dedicated to a non-dogmatic approach to issues of the class struggle today. Marxism has always been confronted with the problem of avoiding stale formulas handed down from previous generations. This new list is consciously designed to cut across that tendency. We will challenge ourselves on a daily basis to understand social reality without preconceptions. As Marx himself once said, he was no "Marxist." This remains our challenge. Despite the name of the mailing list, we must resist the temptation to turn the powerful method of Marx into some sort of revealed truth. Fortunately, we have examples of creative Marxism to draw upon: Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks, Jose Carlos Mariátegui's journal "Amauta" and the essays of C.L.R. James. The wide range of interests of these Marxist thinkers, and their fresh approach to social reality, must inspire us. Everything came within their purview, from economics to popular culture to psychology to religion. Underpinning their investigations was an intense desire to change society, which is after all the primary purpose of the Marxist movement. THE JOURNAL One of the byproducts of the mailing list will be a web-based journal that will cull together the most valuable messages on a monthly basis. This will allow list members and web researchers to access a rich repository of information. The journal approach can overcome the problems associated with automated archiving of mailing lists which tend to inundate the reader. The inspiration for the journal comes from Lenin's Iskra, which was initiated in the early 1900s to serve as a pole of attraction for Marxists in Czarist Russia. Iskra was never intended to promulgate a monolithic "party line." Rather it was intended to facilitate public debate from various points of view within the socialist movement. Just as the Russian revolutionaries had open debate about the best way to abolish Czarism, our journal will have open debates about how to move the labor movement forward; how to reconcile class with race or gender issues, etc. At some point it is very likely that a formal editorial board will be constituted. This board will function as any print-based entity. It will be responsible for making judgments as to content and readability. THE GROUND-RULES The mailing list will be moderated. While strong and vigorous debate is encouraged, there is an absolute determination to prevent the list from dividing along "Bolshevik" and "Menshevik" lines. These distinctions are utterly meaningless in cyberspace, where nobody is required to connect their ideas with practice. Small sectarian groups or individuals have wreaked havoc on Marxism mailing lists in the past. These self-declared "vanguards" will have no such opportunity this time. The worst enemy of critical Marxist investigation is to allow such sectarians to "intervene" in our discussions. We know from history that it is useless to try to persuade them that they are not the possessors of the absolute truth. Their crude understanding of "democratic centralism" translates into the sort of inability to have a genuine discussion one encounters with religious sects. This tendency is bad enough in Marxism generally. Fortunately we have the power to exclude this problem at the outset. There will not be any "loyalty oath" administered to list members to ascertain whether they belong to some tiny sectarian group or another. That is their privilege. We on the other hand have the right to protect the list from aggressive attempts to divide it along factional lines. If they can abide by the spirit of these rules, they are welcome. THE MODERATOR The list will be moderated by Louis Proyect. Proyect has been active in socialist and peace politics since 1967, and spent 11 years in the American Trotskyist movement. He has profound respect for Leon Trotsky as a Marxist thinker, but views the Trotskyist movement as such as a sectarian mistake. Throughout most of the 80s, he was active in the Central American solidarity movement, first with CISPES and then with Tecnica, an organization that sent computer programmers and other skilled professionals to Nicaragua. The project eventually took root in southern Africa as well, where it worked with SWAPO and the ANC. Recently he has given workshops on the Internet to community and union groups. He is also writing a book on Marxism and the American Indian as an attempt to correct some dogmatic flaws in Marxism. LIST LOCATION The list will be maintained on the Panix computer in NYC, a "public access" Internet Service Provider. One of the problems with using university computers for Marxism lists is that there will always be a temptation for the university to exercise certain institutional muscle, no matter how formally dedicated it is to free speech. Another problem with university-based mailing lists is that they imply a certain academic focus. Nothing can be further from the aim of this new list. Our discussions are meant to facilitate intelligent action in the real world, not replicate the sort of chit-chat that goes on in academic conferences. HOW TO JOIN Send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "sub*scribe marxism." (Eliminate the asterisk in your message.) Please circulate this announcement far and wide to progressive mailing-lists and newsgroups. Comradely, Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED]
