The co-moderators have been working on this document internally for a number of weeks. We now want to put it out on the list to generate comments, discussion, and debate about the future of this list. And we are interested in soliciting volunteers. I am posting it on the list (and will make it sticky on the message board), as a message on the groups.io Wiki page for the list, and i will add a link to the Wiki document on the home page of the list.
Les

What should be done with the Marxism List?

The Marxism list (marxmail@groups.io) has survived in one form or another for more than two decades, thanks in large part to founder, Louis Proyect and to Les Schaffer.

Nevertheless, the list has not been growing in numbers nor in diversity. The list has not kept up with the times such as social networking. 

So now what?

We don’t need to repeat the dire straits human society has found itself in. That’s why we should try to reinvigorate this list. Marxism is something that has always lived on the margins of capitalist society. Our situation is nothing new. It is a new ebb in the tide of revolution, and so far it is not yet as bad as the dark years at the height of Fascism and Nazism in the 1930’s and 40’s. 

We think that this list has the potential to bring the best and the brightest Marxists and revolutionaries together to discuss the situation we face AND what needs to be done.

Lou’s political history

A long time ago Louis said that his vision of this list was the creation of a modern day version of Mariátegui’s salon in Lima. 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Carlos_Mari%C3%A1tegui

Lou envisioned a lively, no-holds barred, discussion by the best and the brightest of every brand of Marxism around. And, since it was happening in his virtual living room, he would be the arbiter. When someone was drunk, he might toss him out, or let him rave on for a while. And if he didn’t like the topic you were debating, he might throw you out even if you weren’t drunk.

Louis’ online salon made a contribution to Marxism that should continue. Louis  rejected the cookie cutter approach to building revolutionary parties of the Zinovievist Third International. He thought each country required a separate, detailed analysis and its own separate strategy and tactics. 

So now what?

We envision new working class parties committed to global socialism with a planned world economy whose priorities should be ending the global environmental crisis and ending world poverty. We envision feminist, environmentalist and third world centric, working class parties that will include various stripes of Marxists, anarchists, and small D democrats. 

In light of this, what should this list do and how should we do it?

Step 1

We have already accomplished Step 1! The list survived Louis' demise thanks to Les, and thanks to all of us. 

The conversation and debate now are as good as they have been at any point in the last five years. We have brought back people and topics that had not been on the list for years. Nuclear power is one example. We continue to press list participants to engage in comradely discussion rather than flame wars.

Step 2

The next step will be more difficult. We need to change the list to reflect the major changes that have occurred in our environment.

Here are some challenges. 

1. The list is English only. Only very rarely does anyone contribute anything in any other language. This limits not only who reads the list and who writes for the list, but the topics and takes on those topics. 

2. The list is stuck in the 20th century text-only version of the internet. Where are our Facebook page, our Twitter and Telegram accounts, our Instagram and TikTok accounts? Where are our videos?

3. The majority of us are the remnants of the new left of the 1960’s and 1970’s. We need to expand the list to include greater diversity. 

4. We should actively recruit new voices and new faces to the list as Louis once did.

5. We need more volunteers to do the work.

Working Groups

We would like to form working groups to address these challenges.

1. The Moderators Group will moderator and coordinate all of the groups.

2. The discussion topic group will generate topics and recruit contributors on those topics.

3. The outreach group will recruit new people to the list.

4. The technical group will manage our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. accounts.

Please post your comments on this document and the future of this list, and let us know if you would like to volunteer and help.

Thanks, The Moderators Group

(Les Schaffer, Mark Baugher, David Walters, Anthony Boynton)

 

Thanks for your analysis 

When you say that the rest of the net has moved on, do you mean social media?

How are young socialists connecting? Can we play?

On Feb 3, 2023, at 10:01 AM, Roger Kulp <leucovorinsaves@...> wrote:

This is in resonse to Marv Gandall,and his comment about "the decline and demise of its aging constituency of Marxists" . It is not the content and subject matter of the topics on this list that is irrelevant to younger Marxists, it's the nature of this list itself.

I am a very active member of one of the larger Marxist-Leninist parties in the USA. It isn't the DSA, that's all I will say. I am a member of one of the largest branches of the party outside of DC, and NYC. We are appproaching 100 active members in our branch, and even more semiactive members,and friends of the party. Like a lot of radical political organizations, we have large bursts, and upticks in our membership numbers, and periods where our membership remains relatively stable, all based on the external political circumstances. We have also made allies with communist parties around the world, and have sent regular delegations to Cuba, and Venezuela.

A brief summary of the demographics of our branch breaks down like this. We have two members over 70, a retired health care worker, and a semiretired college professor, the only other person in our branch who has heard of Marxmail, myself in my 60s, three members in their 40s a genuine Marxist attorney, a rare treasure, a high school history teacher, and a primary care physician at a low income health clinic. The rest of our membership is made of people under 35. Millennials, and older Generation Z people. They mostly seem to be a mix of graduate students, and workers in low income jobs, although there is one guy who is both the son of Central American immigrants, and a head of a local of a carpenters union. Our party has what might be called a subparty at high schools,and universities, called Students For Socialism. These are people from the downwardly mobile generations hurt by the neoliberal US policies of the last fifty years, and have personally experienced the lies, fraud and oppression of the US capitalist system. These people are too busy with both party work, and the struggles of their daily lives to be reading, and posting, at an old school email/ bulletin board, like Marxmail. While lists like Marxmail have their good points, and educational benefits, they are pretty much a relic of the early years ofthe internet. The rest of the web has long since moved on.