Date: Thu, 5 May 1994 12:51:02 -0700
Sender: pen-l@ecst.csuchico.edu
From: "R. Anders Schneiderman" <anders@garnet.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: Postmodernism and Politics (was Derrida)
 
On Thu, May 5  1994, Jim Devine wrote:
> On Wed, 4 May 1994, R. Anders Schneiderman wrote:
> >  Frankly, we'd have been
> > better off reading Business Week than Derrida, Foucault, the French
> > Femminists, etc.
>
> I don't know about the French variety, but reading feminist literature
> has really helped my understanding of the world and my politics.
 
No question!  There are plenty of Marxists in the U.S.--academics and
activists--who use what some union folks call the "male, pale, and stale"
approach.  When I attacked postmodernism, I certainly wasn't attacking
femininism or multiculturalism.  One of the good things about academia in
the 80s was that it did help to produce a generation of college-educated
activists who try to take race, class and gender seriously (or at least
give lip service to it :) ).  If only pomo as a whole had given us
similar tools.
 
In Virtual Solidarity,
Anders Schneiderman
Center for Community Economic Research
U.C. Berkeley