Spectre Journal #2, a comment
Spectre, Issue 2, Fall 2020
Comments by Steve Leigh
Excellent issue. Very thought provoking and mostly right on point politically. Below are comments on the articles in Spectre, Issue #2, Fall 2020. Highly encourage people to read the journal!!
Insecure: Policing Under Racial Capitalism by Robin DG Kelley :
This is a welcome criticism of class reductionism on the Left and a call for the Left to center the fight against racism. It calls for abolition of police. It also notes how anti-police/anti-racist organizations are often also anti-capitalist which much of the Left does not recognize. Capitalism is always racial. Unfortunately, it accepts the idea that racism was pre-capitalist as well. The U.S. cost of policing was $29.3 B in 1972 and $115 B in 2017 in constant dollars !!! It takes a strong stand against cop unions though seemingly a bit of support for Black police organizations. It is overall anti-police and anti-police unions. Useful and good piece!
Beyond Borders: Nation-States , Migration and the Struggle for the Global Commons Nandita Sharma, author of Home Rule: National Sovereignty and the Separation of Natives and Migrants:
It is a very interesting perspective on immigration issues and very anti-nationalist. The author points out that the quest for national independence led to a recapitulation of the European nation-state model. This model is based on Natives having the right to be in and control their own land. This in turn leaves out Migrants who have no right to live there. There are indigenous Natives and non-Indigenous natives. The new nation states often are as anti-immigrant as the old ones. In some cases even people who have lived in an area for generations are called migrants and kicked out. Nationalism, national identity etc. are implicitly or explicitly founded on racism. Her critique is important and interesting. It raises questions about the Right of Nations to Self-Determination enunciated by Lenin. For Lenin , the importance of it was in breaking imperialist nation workers from chauvinism. However, he never as far as I know clarified the basis of citizenship in independent states. He was obviously opposed to any racism or restriction of rights based on ethnicity etc. However , the very concept lends itself to restriction of rights. Today, the issue of national independence is largely settled so we need to focus on solidarity and opposition to anti-immigrant chauvinism. The author makes the point that often nationalism is used to focus animus on the foreign enemy instead of against capitalism. She notes that the end of slavery resulted in the need for other forms of labor control including immigration controls
Reversing the “ Model” : Thoughts on Jane McAlevey’s Plan for Union Power, Kim Moody:
Moody is of course a prolific labor writer from a Marxist perspective. This is an excellent review of several of McAlevey’s books. He thinks the more militant tactics she proposes are often useful but the orientation is top down vs. bottom up. He notes that the “model” she proposes was actually the result of grass roots rank and file activism rather than paid organizers adopting a strategy. As with his other writings , he stresses the need for a rank and file strategy and orientation for socialists and other rank and file militants rather than relying on union organizers and officials. He also analyzes the decline of union power from the role played by the bureaucracy as a mediating layer. Instead McAleyey’s idea is that the problem is mistaken strategy by union leaders. As with all of Moody’s writing, it is well worth the read!
The Racial Economics of Mass Incarceration: A Critique of Clegg and Usmani, Peter Ikeler and Calvin John Smiley:
This is another useful contribution to the Marxist critique of class reductionism. The article written by Clegg and Usmani in Catalyst is an attempted defense of class reductionism. It underestimates the impact of racism on incarceration rates. It instead only calls for universal programs and a stronger working class movement as a solution to mass incarceration. This article by Ikeler and Smiley is a detailed refutation of that position. It goes through their argument point by point, reinterpreting the data they presented. In doing so they give a defense of Michelle Alexander’s “ The New Jim Crow, Mass Incareration in the Age of Color Blindness”. Ikeler and Smiley argue for a strategy that understands racism as specific issue that needs to be confronted directly instead of hoping that universal programs will solve it. The article refutes the charge that Alexander is race reductionist which is good. However, in correctly defending Alexander ,they don’t make any necessary criticisms ( for example that she sees the rise in incarceration as a response to the white backlash against civil rights rather than as a part of the ruling class led neo-liberal strategy). Overall, this is an excellent article in support of a Leninist rather than class reductionist strategy on fighting racism.
Class , Oppression and the Actuality of Revolution, Neil Davidson:
Neil was one of the most brilliant Marxists of the late 20th and early 21st century. His recent passing is a tremendous loss for the Marxist movement. This essay focuses on the interaction of exploitation and oppression. He noted that Marx did not think of human beings as only producers. In fact, seeing people that way is a capitalist viewpoint,that humans are only worthwhile to the extent they can be exploited . Oppression is an integral part of the production process. Theoretically, capitalism could exist without special oppression ( race, gender etc.). However that is not how capitalism developed . This means that in practice capitalism relies on special oppression. As far as an overall approach to fighting oppression, Neil quotes Lenin’s What is to be Done that the socialist ideal is to “ react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression , no matter where it appears , no matter what stratum or class of the people it affects.” At the end, he notes that the Bolsheviks in power took strides toward the liberation of the oppressed , though “ there is no need to downplay the divisions and debates between revolutionaries in Russia after 1917 concerning issues of sex and gender; and there were undoubtedly tensions , gaps and contradictions…” Overall, an interesting and provocative piece which will promote further discussion and reflection. This excerpt is a part of a longer piece Neil was working on at the time of his death “ The Actuality of the Revolution.” As with all of Neil’s books, this will be well worth the read.
The View from Nowhere: On Frank Wilderson’s Afropessimism, Nick Mitchell
The philosophy here under review is aptly named. As Nick shows it is a stance or approach but has no strategy attached to it. It is profoundly pessimistic and ultimately defeatist. It is also philosophically idealist. Afropessimism basically says anti-Blackness is inevitably central to the whole world, not just capitalism . It cannot be taken out of the world. The only solution is to end the world but Afropessimism does not explain what that means or how to get there. Nick says that Afropessimism is also partly autobiographical. He explains the class origins of the philosophy. It is good for activists to gain a better understanding of this philosophy in order to counter its negative effects on activism. Activists are unlikely to confront it as a strategy of struggle. Instead , to the extent it is accepted , it will have a dampening and demobilizing effect on struggle. The author does a great job in dissecting Afropessimism.
Capitalism, Social Reproduction and Emancipation — a review of Social Reproduction Theory and the Socialist Horizon by Aaron Jaffe. Review by Cinzia Arruzza:
This is a very favorable review of an addition to the growing literature on Social Reproduction Theory by one of the developers of that theory. The reviewer puts the book in context of the current Covid Crisis which makes the book even more timely and relevant. Cinzia notes that the book focuses on labor power in a broader sense than just value producing labor and takes a socio-historical approach that rejects universal ahistorical human nature. The book explains the socialist horizon as one of freedom. From the review it seems that this will be an interesting book
