Subject: Re: AUT: The term "left-wing"
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 19:03:47 -0000


not necessarily - there could be authoritarian socialists and communists
(stalinists and trotskyists and their descendants) so that "left" does not
coincide with "liberal" and similarly with the libertarian right who would
regard themselves as conservative but wishing ot a return to more 'liberal'
values of adam smith etc rather than the 'authoritarian' nanny/social
democratic state - you just can't put liberal/conservative on the same
spectrum as left/right.
John Owens
----- Original Message -----
From: "Floyce White" <anti_property-AT-yahoo.com>
To: <aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 6:39 AM
Subject: Re: AUT: The term "left-wing"


> The terms "left" and "right" are euphemisms for
> "liberal" and "conservative" on the pro-capitalist
> spectrum (as if there are no other political
> directions).  Such terms are harmful to the
> anti-capitalist movement.  The dispossessed have no
> blocs of property interest that could generate and
> define ongoing differences deceptively labeled as
> opposites.  To label a "leader" such as Bordiga a
> "left," it is necessary to find someone to label as a
> "right."  This supports the method of "leaders" and
> "followers," where the maximum leader is at the
> "center" of politics and everyone else is peripheral.
> The "left communist" label indirectly supports the
> myth of the liberal-as-communist.  It also supports
> the notion that there is an equally-valid,
> pro-capitalist trend within communist ideas.  The
> label "left communist" reinforces the myth of the
> "right communist," and vice versa.
>
> To allow "Leninists" to pigeonhole you as a
> "left-wing" leftover is to abandon COMMUNIST theory to
> the bourgeoisie.  We must not allow ourselves to be
> limited by the mistakes or shortcomings of the past.
>
> Strangely enough, I dropped much of this argument from
> my fifth article "Communism Is Action Not A Belief"
> because I thought it was not really necessary or relevant.
>
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