From owner-marxism-international  Sun Apr  6 14:10:24 1997
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 1997 14:10:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian M Ganter <bmganter@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Subject: M-I: PANIC LEFT-4
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970405124332.2987L-100000@destrier.acsu.buffalo.edu>



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Revolutionary Marxist Collective at U/Buffalo





PANIC LEFT-4  (footnote 1)




It is a symptom of theoretical confusion among the "left" that even a
heterodox leftist--Malecki--who has distanced himself from the reformists
on the list thinks the "limit text" of of our practices as Revolutionary
Marxist-Leninists should be a response to the question: what do we do in 
remedying the situation of the poor and homeless in Buffalo?  This
question--which is repeated by several others on the list--from Carrol Cox
to Proyect--in the refrain that we are simply muddled-headed "sociology 
majors" who confuse the world of thinking with the world of doing is a 
version of the "local" politics--more apporpriate for NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 
crowds than people who call themselves "marxists" let alone "Marxist"-- 
that assumes that the situation of the poor in Buffalo can be addressed
outside and in isolation of the situation of the poor in Manila, in New 
Delhi, in Nottingham...  The situation of the poor in Buffalo is
not isolable from the situation of the poor in other cities of the
metropole or the peripheries nor is it a "homelessness" issue or a "food"
issue: it is the issue of "food," "health," education," massive global 
armament, "prostitution",etc ... in short the situation of the "poor" and
the "homeless" in Buffalo cannot be addressed "locally"--it requires a
"global" solution.  The only global solution is, as we made it clear in
our "Red Critique" is REVOLUTION.  

The END of the global solution is exactly what is behind Proyect's
notion of "Lenin in Context" which he invokes in one of his most recent
posts as a wake-up-to-reality call for the RMC/Buffalo.  "Lenin in
Context" is little more than a version of this Cox/Malecki/Rose "local"
politics (see Proyects *Lenin Vs. Marxism-Leninism* text written in line
w/ Committees of Correspondence, a text we have cited below).  "Lenin
in Context" in this latter text (where pages and pages are devoted to this
exact question)  actually amounts to a mocking and revision of democratic
centralism, an abandonment of "vanguard party" as a sign of a mindless cultism,
and a jettisoning of proletarian internationalism.  One of the most effective
dimensions of the Bolshevik Party according to Proyect in this text in
fact is their aversion to "internationalism" and their adherence on the 
contrary to the Stalinist (localist) model of party building: 
"Another thing that the Bolsheviks and the Cuban model have in common"
Proyect writes "is that they do not define themselves by historical 
or [!] international questions.  Lenin, like Castro, focused on issues of
the class-struggle in his own country."

Maleckis's "realistic" politics  ("What do you do in Buffalo ?") is a
rehearsal of the this same "localism" promoted by Proyect as "Lenin in
context".  Henwood as well is embracing this NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
localism.  He has localized the world-historical situation to such an
extent that he now urges us the RMC/Buffalo to get back to "reality" and
publish a critique  on pomo theory, the very critique we circulated on
the "Performative Left" on this list--less than a week ago!  "Local"
circumstances have seemingly made this critique already "obsolete" and
"ahistorical" according to Henwood's logic.

	We are not running for "Mayor" of Buffalo--we are working for a world 
revolution.  If the Cox-Proyect-Henwood-Dumain axis has sold out to the
"free market" crowd and come to regard REVOLUTION and global politics as   
"laughable" , the laughter is not at REVOLUTION and the REVOLUTIONARY, it
is at their corrupt cynicism...The Cox-...axix is the axis of capitalist
fascism that represents itself as a "left" simply to acquire more
crediblity to act as a fifth column of capital.  

The marker of this fascism is, as we have argued its nervous deflection of 
all conceptual practices by "style".  We published a short and accessible 
text by  Zavarzadeh to  provide a short outline of the characteristics of
this new fascism. We repeat (since it looks Louis Proyect and  Scott
McLemee especially are already afflicted by political senility and cannot
hold any ideas in their head more than two seconds) this new fascism is
image-savy, witty, expert in word play and master of short declarative
sentences....these are the apparatuses of fascist propaganda. This writing
in a language that looks transparent and  thus promises the "truth" of the
world in actuality is a cultivated mode of relayinging the fascist
"message". (SIDE NOTE: the Cox-Proyect-Dumain-Henwood axis should ask
itself why its suporters [malgosia askanas]  are now quoting Heidegger to
dispell the theoretical difficulties and global politics of "Red
Critique") However this mode of propaganda has nothing to do with the
Bolshevik emphasis of propaganada.  In the Bolshevik Revolution 
propaganda was never limited to a reductive and bare-bone "message". 
The most advanced forms of art and experimental work were encouraged: keep 
in mind the Bolshevik proaganda encouraged Mayakovsky...The reductive
"socialist realism" which is the basis of Louis Proyect's and Carol Cox's
screaming for "readability" and "style", is basically a Stalinist invention.
Leninist tradition is one of emphasis on depth of thinking ("workers as 
socialist theorists") and artistic experimentation. It is a mark of
bankruptcy of the left on the net that Cox and Proyect have assumed the
mantle of Zhadanov and become style-police...

A. Austin--a Zhdanovian in disguise--asks: are you going to "alienate" us
all?  The answer is YES and YES and YES..."Alienation" as the great
Brechtian tradition of experimental writing shows--is the condition of 
possiblity of change: unless one is alienated from oneself and from the 
familiar has been made de-familiar there will be no change...


____________________

FOOTNOTE:

We have adopted the term "panic" ironically--to show the underlying 
similiarities between the reformist left on the net and the very leftism
that they think they are opposing-the pomo left. But the irony is lost on the 
very people who insist on "style"...To the  "masters" of style, the
"Buffalo boys" have to explain, patiently since most are suffering from
amnesia...that yes, the "panic" (as in "panic left") is IRONIC! Wake up!






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		FORTHCOMING: PANIC LEFT, PT.5: 
	    		 		 On Cyberfascism
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published Panic Left-3 and Panic Left -4 which I have alreday sent you.)















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