Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: How the CIA Infiltrated the World's Literature

dear oaa

i was thinking about the difference in the first half of the 20th century.

when marx began the communist party in mid-19th c, there was a whole complicated history, and it morphed in russia into Bolsheviks, i.e. communists, who believed in revolution, and mensheviks who believe in evolutionary change.

the leftists of today no longer espouse a real revolution. communism was based on belief in a higher stage, according to marx, than capitalism, and to move from the one to the other was like an electron jumping stages in a quantum leap. the leap for marx meant someone stuck in the thinking of the bourgeoisie, the class that owned the means of production, had to shift into being able to see the world like the proletariat, the working class.

we don't have classes like those any more, in the days of industrial capitalism. you might say our ultrawealthy are in a class by themselves. we no longer have industrial working classes and owners like those of the past for most people.

i think, to cut to the chase, the communists were a group, who became a political movement, who sought to represent the interests of the working class, and believed only revolution could serve their interests. that party and movement became joined to the russian communist party after the revolution in russia.

the socialists broke off from the communist movement, did not seek revolution, attempted to represent working class people within a democratic state with parties that could come to power via elections. by the 1950s the communists had become political parties, too, within nation states, but retained their link to the international movement and to the russian, or chinese, dominant communist parties. the socialists were nationalist parties that competed with the communists for workers' support.

the 1950s saw the cold war, but also the discrediting of the stalinist gulag. the 50s really killed western communism as an inspiring workingclass movement; and the socialists became increasingly rose colored, i.e., democratic leftist social-democrats interested in greens and human rights and more social justice, but nothing like communism that abolished the bourgeoisie and substituted a dictatorship of the proletariat. the communists in europe hardly exist., the marxist notion of a state that would wither away with the end of the bourgeoisie instead became in russia and china state dictatorships, the opposite of withering away; and in both cases are enormous supporters of capitalist industries working under the direction of state capitalist autocracies.

the only really decent marxist locations, i would say, are what derrida identifies as the spirit of marxism, which should be animating socialists. bernie's socialism is social-democracy, nothing really like socialism or communism.

there are many versions of leftism today that seek to retain the ideals of early communism or socialism, but animated by liberation movements in africa or latin america or asia. others animated by leclau and mouffe (socialist ideology and hegemony), or hardt and negri's empire seek to modernize the ideals of communism.

i have to quit since i feel less sure of myself with this, but hope others like gloria might take up the banner and give ideas. my own thoughts on this extend over to edward said, frantz fanon, cesaire, cabral, etc, the revolutionary thinkers of the independence movements, but since then i feel less informed in thought animated by marx.

ken

x

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2021 6:37 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: How the CIA Infiltrated the World's Literature

 

Ken. 

Many cannot distinguish between socialists and communists. 

Perhaps a clarification is in order here along the lines similar to Oga Cornelius's marvellous clinical differentiation between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims and their origins.

OAA

Let those who believe in majority rule clamor for its practice at the centre in Nigeria come 2023.

Sent from my Galaxy

-------- Original message --------

From: "Harrow, Kenneth" <harrow@msu.edu>

Date: 27/08/2021 23:21 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: How the CIA Infiltrated the World's Literature

sorry, her name is popescu. her book is At Penpoint,

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2021 10:34 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: How the CIA Infiltrated the World's Literature

 

yeah yeah yeah.

my favorite scholar on this topic is monica propescu, who recently published a book on it. i did my dissertation in the 1960s on three authors, one of whom was Silone, who worked with the journal that was revealed to be funded by the cia. there is an assumption, i don't share, that when lefties discovered they were being published by presses supported by the cia that automatically made them good anti-communists.

in fact the socialists were largely fighting the communist parties by the 1950s when stalin's gulag had become notorious.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2021 9:59 PM
To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - How the CIA Infiltrated the World's Literature

 

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