[Marxism] 20,000 march on Jena

[John Edmundson]

On Thu, 2007-09-20 at 21:48 -0400, Greg McDonald wrote:
> While some people may want to dismiss the relevance and  impact of  
> the '60's, it might be worthwhile to ponder what the situation in  
> Jena would look like if the civil rights movement had not taken  
> place...

I suspect there's a bit of a straw man emerging here. It seems to me
that the debate has been between:

a) people (Joaquin et al) who argue that the 60s was a pivotal time that
may show us how a revolutionary moment might look or occur, and that we
need to better understand how it emerged at a time of affluence and
growth and

b) people (like Phil) who claim that the 60s was able to be contained
because it didn't represent a fundamental challenge to capitalism, even
though it did bring some very real and beneficial changes.

Also, there's some difference of opinion about whether the movements in
the West (primarily the US) were influenced/inspired by 3rd world
independence struggles or vice versa.

There isn't, as far as I can see, a third group trying to claim the 60s
were irrelevant.

Incidentally, I'm in camp b). I think the 60s were important, are in
some ways inspirational and definitely did result in the radicalisation
of a whole layer of activists, many of whom are on this list. But, at
the same time, I think Phil is absolutely correct (and not simply in a
'benefit of hindsight' sort of way) when he states that the "result" of
the 60s radicalisation was the modernising of Western capitalism.
Cheers,
John