• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
LIBERATING THEORY
ByMichael Albert Leslie Cagan Noam Chomsky Robin Hahnel Mel King Lydia SargentHolly SklarSOUTH END PRESS / 116 St Botolph St. / Boston MA. 02115-i-Copyright © 1986 by Michael Albert Leslie Cagan Noam Chomsky Robin Hahnel MelKing Lydia Sargent Holly SklarEditing, typesetting, and layout by South End Press Charts and graphs by Elizabeth StahlCover design by Elizabeth StahlCopyrights are required for book production in the United States. However, in our case, itis a disliked necessity. Thus, any properly footnoted quotation of up to 500 sequentialwords may be used without permission, so long as the total number of words quoted doesnot exceed 2,000. For longer quotations or for a greater number of total words, authorsshould write to South End Press for permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Liberating theory. 1. Social sciences--Methodology. 2. United States--Social conditions-1945- United States--Politics and government--1945- 4. United States--Economicconditions--1945- . I. Albert, Michael, 1947. II Title. H61.L514 1986 306
′
.0973 86-13032 ISBN 0-89608-307-1 ISBN 0-89608-306-3 (pbk.) 20/30South End Press, 116 Saint Botolph Street, Boston, MA 02115 98 97 96 95 94 5 6 7 8 9-ii-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We wish to thank the extended network of people who influenced this project throughwriting, discussion and, in some cases, lengthy interviews: Peter Bohmer, MichaelBronski, Sandy Carter, Ward Churchill, Marilyn Clement, David Dellinger, Ros Everdell,Jeanne Gallo, Dick Greenwood, Todd Jailer, Barbara Joseph, Joyce King, WinonaLaDuke, Antonia Pantoja, Cynthia Peters, Helen Rodriguez, Rosaria Salerno, JohnSchall, Juliet Schor, Stephen Shalom, Howard Stanback, Jack Tchen, and Leah Wise.Special thanks to Elizabeth Stahl for her skillful production work.-iii-
Selected Titles of Interest
 
Michael Albert:
Stop the Killing Train: Radical Visions for Radical Change
;
 LookingForward 
and
Unorthodox Marxism
with Robin Hahnel; and
 Beyond Survival
withDavid Dellinger.Leslie Cagan: "Feminism and Militarism" in
 Beyond Survival
; "Something NewEmerges: The Growth of a Socialist Feminist" in
They Should Have Served That Cupof Coffee
.Noam Chomsky:
Year 501: The Conquest Continues, Rethinking Camelot, Necessary Illusions
, and
On Power and Ideology
.Robin Hahnel:
 Looking Forward, Unorthodox Marxism, Marxism and Socialist Theory
, and
Socialism Today and Tomorrow
, all with Michael Albert.Mel King:
Chain of Change
;
From Access to Power: Black Politics and Power 
, withJames Jennings.Lydia Sargent:
Women and Revolution
;
Playbook 
, with Maxine Klein and HowardZinn.Holly Sklar:
Streets of Hope: The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood 
, withPeter Medoff;
Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management 
;
Poverty in the American Dream
, with Karin Stallard andBarbara Ehrenreich.-iv-
About The Authors
 Michael Albert 
edits
 Z Magazine
. He has previously been involved in diverse movementsand organizations concerning anti-war, community, and socialist organizing.
 Leslie Cagan
is an organizer who has been involved in hundreds of movement events andprojects. She is currently working in the Cuba solidarity movement.
 Noam Chomsky
is a professor of linguistics at MIT in Cambridge, MA and has been atireless critic of U.S. foreign policy and historian of its logic and abuses. He haschampioned human rights all over the world and has participated in diverse struggles forsocial change and against U.S. imperialism.
 Robin Hahnel
is a professor of economics at American University in Washington D.C.and a participant in diverse anti-war, community, socialist, and anti-interventionistmovements.
 Mel King
is a professor at MIT and director of the Community Fellows program. He hasbeen a local elected official and grassroots organizer in Boston and led countless electoraland extraelectoral struggles for community reform and advance.
 Lydia Sargent 
edits
 Z Magazine
and is a director, playwright, and actor with the NewburyStreet Theater in Boston. She has been involved in the feminist and anti-war movements.
 
 Holly Sklar 
is the author or co-author of several books, including
Washington's War on Nicaragua
, which won an Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center forthe Study of Human Rights in the United States. She is a columnist for
 Z Magazine
.-v-
 [This page intentionally left blank.] 
 
-vi-
Comments By The Authors On Liberating Theory
 Michael Albert 
: Winning limited respite from harsh oppression is an essential day-to-daypriority. But even a brief survey of the recurrence of new forms of old oppressions--newVietnams, new starvation, new racism, new violence against women, new denials of rights and degradation of potentials--shows that establishing a humane society is the onlyway to attain lasting liberation. Nonetheless, in recent years "the left" has largely lost itscapacity to project an uplifting conception of human possibilities and a plausible pictureof how people's potentials might be fulfilled. Since I believe
 Liberating Theory
can helpreinvigorate our desires for and capacities to achieve a better future, I worked on andadvocate its conceptual framework and hope others will do likewise.
 Leslie Cagan
: Usually my writing focuses on leaflets, organizing materials, calls foraction, and fund appeal letters. Working on
 Liberating Theory
has allowed us theopportunity to bring together a sample of the diversity of our struggles and has allowedme to think more sharply about theory. The demands of daily political activism andorganizing often mean a lack of attention to theory. It is my hope that this collectivewriting effort will offer social/political activists a nudge in the direction of taking the task of building our theory more seriously.I believe it will be possible to bring fundamental, revolutionary change to this country.Out of the everyday struggles of people throughout this nation and around the world, welearn new ways to name the problems and define new solutions. At the same time, ourorganizing and mobilizing needs a framework that gives direction to our efforts.I hope this book will be read by people active in a wide range of political, social, andeconomic struggles, as well as those just beginning to think about such issues. This book does not solve the problem or give us magical formulas for organizing. What I hope itdoes do is provoke discussion, open up debate, motivate further theoretical work and playsome role in inspiring us all.-vii-
 Noam Chomsky
: We often tend to focus our attention on today's atrocities and on effortsto mitigate them, at least I do, recognizing, however, that we are at best applying abandaid to a cancer that will erupt elsewhere. If we are to go beyond, our work must be
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...