Comments on The Pensive Quill: Left Unity - you must be joking

I stumbled in a totally unrelated websearch via th...

2008-08-18T03:04:00.000+01:00

I stumbled in a totally unrelated websearch via the highbrow-- albeit recommended-- "http://www.3quarksdaily.com" science-art-lit blog upon this post earlier today. Not that you need another cautionary tale of the appeal of the womb, the cult, the persecuted mania of the micro-radical fringe. Still, reminders help. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/01/27/free_bob_avakian/

The point is very clear - left unity will not come...

2008-08-13T19:15:00.000+01:00

The point is very clear - left unity will not come from the sects. And if the sects ever did manage to unite of what significance would it be? Unlike you I do not believe 'the Left is pathetic' for some of the very reasons you point out. I have for long thought the Irrelevant Left is pathetic. Reading Bourdieu and Foucault probably is fun for those who have the time. A bit like reading Marx I imagine.

I'm a big fan, but I'm not sure what your point is...

2008-08-13T00:29:00.000+01:00

I'm a big fan, but I'm not sure what your point is.

Yes, the left is pathetic. Yes, left regroupment is very difficult. Yes, it seems that left sects spend too much time on the space shuttle. Yes, there are more failures than successes -- but there have been successes. And it is important to think about those -- the Left Bloc in Portugal, the Left Party in Germany, the SSP in Scotland, the EACL on the level of the EU -- they all gave it a go and working people were better off because of the effort.

We don't do things because they are easy or that we are necessarily going to win -- we do it because it is right.

You know that more than anyone.

Reading Foucault and Bourdieu is fun, but it doesn't move the ball forward.