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Maybe those white people publicly "recognize" their priviledge because they have been activists for 40 years and have worked side by side with many different kinds of people. Also, where do you work, who pays your salary, and who is funding your remarks?
@tamaranopper I didn't interact much with Erik Olin Wright after 2007 (I was busy teaching, and then became quite ill and then disabled.). On the basis of his remarks at the many brownbag (topical area roundtable)discussions that we both attended, I would say that he was Marxist.
He was an expert on classical Marxism, and I disagreed with him on his work towards a scientific programme of study of Marxist ideas. But we had good conversations, and he knew that I disagreed with him. And I think he was working towards a social democratic model.
@tamaranopper Another professor of political economy at the University of Wisconsin, Joel Rogers, was not a classical Marxist. He taught a course on the varieties of capitalism around the world. The United States version of capitalism is only one such model. I did take his class.
.@tamaranopper I took Joel Rogers course on Comparative Capitalism in the spring of 1993. You'll find it listed on my transcript from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
.@tamaranopper Later in the mid 1990s, I go involved with a leftist third party that Joel Rogers and others were working to create. This small third party was called the New Party. I have the New Party mug in my storage unit.
.@tamaranopper I only got involved with Progressive Dane, the local county level version of the New Party, because my roommate , Mary Bottari, held the Executive Committee meetings in the living room of the apartment we shared near Tenny Park in Madison.
.@tamaranopper The bait they used to get me involved was a tutoring program in the Darbo-Worthington neighborhood of Madison. I love teaching and tutoring, and through tutoring I became interested in the local laws and social structures that affected that neighborhood.
.@tamaranopper Over time I learned how to attend City Council meetings, and how to attend County Board meetings. I went door to door in February in Wisconsin distributing campaign literature for Progressive Dane.I attended meetings for the state level New Progressive Party in WI.
.@tamaranopper The problem with local left third parties is they end up running in liberal districts against good Democrats. We were considering running John Hendricks for the state representative seat from Madison. He would have run against Mark Pocan.
.@tamaranopper I have a clear memory of a meeting we had with a representative from Mark Pocan's campaign. There is probably a recording of that meeting. (any number of people could have been recording meetings in the Progressive Dane office).
.@tamaranopper I really like John Hendricks (he is a lawyer, by the way), and thought he would have been a good candidate. But during the discussion, something "clicked" in my gut/logic/instinct, and I realized it would be a mistake. I said so out loud. I said, let's not do this.
.@tamaranopper So, we didn't run John Hendricks against Mark Pocan for the state assembly seat. We lost the opportunity to build the New Progressive Party at the state level. But today, Mark Pocan is a United States representative and is doing really good work.
.@tamaranopper Before I waste my limited energy having more discussions with you, I need to know if you are a genuine leftist sociologist, or a paid shill working to create division. But I'm not afraid to debate you, and I am willing to defend my ideas about political economy.
.@tamaranopper I am only 56, and I'm not perfect. I will always have more to learn about this world and about activism. But I think you owe me real and proper respect for my lifetime of activism. Having said that, I will also say that younger activists have great new ideas.
.@tamaranopper I am awed and excited by the creativity and energy of younger people as they become activists for a variety of issues. I know that I can learn from them. But I always remember to respect those who are older than I am and were activists in the 60s and the 70s.
.@tamaranopper So, I will say, here on twitter, gossip central for political junkies: Thank you, Baby Boomers. Thank you to the flower children of the 60s, the Woodstock generation, the student activists. Thank you for establishing food coops, for learning about organic farming.
.@tamaranopper Thank you, female Baby Boomers, flower children of the 60s, for working hard to become doctors and lawyers and putting up with incredible abuse and disrespect so that later generations of women would have mentors and role models.
?@tamaranopper Thank you to queer folk for taking care of each other, and protecting each other, and becoming brave enough to step out of the closet so that one day Gay Marriage would be legal throughout the United States.
.@tamaranopper And thank you to people of color, especially African Americans, for playing the game,and rising up through corporate and academic ranks,so that you mentor those who came after and so that in 2008,Barack Obama became the first African-American president in the U.S.
.@tamaranopper Finally, thank you to all the people I've gotten to know throughout my lifetime who helped a somewhat naive, but good-hearted, young white woman develop a greater and deeper understanding of inequity and injustice. I am much wiser now than I was in my 20s.
@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you.
