The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Four: The Myth of Creating Socialist Spaces

Professor Noonan, an academic leftist, argues that the Nemak return to work provides lessons for the left. Indeed, it does--but unfortunately he fails to draw further lessons from the situation. He says the following: As regards work, the structural dependence on paid employment is what makes people working class. This structural dependence is what, above … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Four: The Myth of Creating Socialist Spaces →

The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Three: Collective Bargaining and the Interests of the Working Class

This is a continuation of a critique of an academic leftist (aka academic historical materialist), the philosopher Jeff Noonan. Another example of the limitations of Professor Noonan's analysis is the following (from Thinkings 4: Collected Interventions, Readings, Evocations, 2014-2015,page 10): And sometimes it is necessary to struggle to protect or extend our rights as workers to … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Three: Collective Bargaining and the Interests of the Working Class →

The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Two: Collective Bargaining and the Interests of the Working Class

Professor Jeff Noonan, as contained in a reference to his work in a previous post( The Poverty of Academic Marxism, Part One), claimed that historical materialism must evolve. This seems to imply that his form of historical materialism, under present conditions, is superior to the historical materialism proposed by Marx. Professor Noonan claims the following … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Two: Collective Bargaining and the Interests of the Working Class →

The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part One

I had a short debate with the academic philosopher Jeff Noonan on his blog. I am pasting it here since there was no further reply to my criticisms on his post. [Jeff's reply] Hi Fred, Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful comments. Some brief replies: [My initial reply]: Some of the above post is dead … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part One →