From: Jerry Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Sat Nov 12 2005 - 07:34:29 EST
> Yet it remains true that RD basically took over Grossmann's > interpretation of Capital without ever citing him. She even > speaks of the third volume as Marx's closest approximation! > She repeated HG's criticism of Luxemburg. My point > is of course political: as a leader of anti Stalinist political > organization she could not admit what she had to admit > as a scholar--her 'economics' were taken from a political > Stalinist. Mattick dealt with the problem much more honestly. Rosdolsky and Mandel, both Trotskyists, were influenced by Grossmann and had no problem citing his works in a favorable context. Of course, _many_ have read both RD and HG -- yet none (save you) have attributed intellectual dishonesty to RD. Your 'political' point attributes a personal and intellectual dishonesty to Raya Dunayevskaya which is contrary to what I have read about her life and heard about her from those who knew and wrote about her. While I am not a great fan of her writings, especially her perspectives on state capitalism, I have a lot of respect for her political life: by all accounts (except yours) she was a committed, brave, and _honest_ revolutionary -- someone who told the truth the way she saw it even at a great personal risk and cost to herself. btw, the idea that Dunayevskaya and Shoul were the same person assumes that no one in New York City while Shoul taught at Brooklyn College and Bard College and Boston at UMass would have noticed the similarity! Yet, RD was a quite well-known figure on the anti-Stalinist Left by this time and she had supporters and opponents in both locations. The idea that RD would have, without anyone taking notice, worked for capital and the state (the government of Puerto Rico and the Gillette Corporation) is also absurd. In solidarity, Jerry PS: While I'm not going to tell them, I can assure you that an attack on the integrity of RD will not go unnoticed by members of the News and Letters Committees -- including 2 former OPE-L members. I'm not sure you comprehend how many people will feel that your claim is insulting.
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