[Marxism] Marxmail is ten years old

[Joaquin Bustelo]

I think in addition to what Louis has said, I think something else should be
noted, which is that Marxmail has served as one point of convergence and
discussion for what I think is an emerging ... not current, that is too
strong a word, but drift on the revolutionary Marxist left. 

One of its main contributions is a rejection of (at least) a narrow,
pseudo-Leninist, "party building" perspective that holds the Russian
Revolution (or rather, a certain interpretation of its lessons, almost
unanimously upheld for half a century, and I daresay majority-supported even
today) as the key to revolutionary activity. 

Marxmail didn't originate this trend -- Solidarity in the U.S. (albeit more
in practice than in theory) is certainly in the same ballpark, and it
antedates Marxmail by a decade -- and it is a broad one, encompassing at one
end comrades like the DSP in Australia, and, from what I've heard though I
don't follow them closely, groups like the French LCR and others associated
with the (for lack of a better term) Mandel Fourth International -- and at
the other end the hard core "anti-Zinovievists" like Louis. It is far from
being a coherent current (that's why I call it a drift) and further
evolution will surely lead to different currents, but what it has in common
is the debunking of a whole series of sacred-cow myths about "the Leninist
Party," insofar as that refers to the grouping associated with V.I. Lenin
leading up to the Russian Revolution in 1917.

In addition to countless conjunctural political issues, over Marxmail's
decade-long history there's been an on-again, off-again discussion of these
questions that I believe is having a profound influence on the left. It is
not the only space where such as discussion is going on, but it is by far
the most accessible and most serious that I am acquainted with. 

Joaquin