this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/58586

Reviewing the fallout over Gabriel Rockhill's critiques of Western Marxism, Donald Parkinson argues the controversy is ultimately a battle over what kind of intellectual culture the left needs.


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[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

This totally misrepresents Rockhill. His project is much broader and stands firm on sound dialectics: actually analysing the historic material prerequisites for producing theory. No more, no less. The incredibly well researched stories about the CIA, the Frankfurt school and so on: all those are merely examples (incredibly well sourced examples) for applying dialectics to theory production itself. From this clear analysis, it is to be expected that a compatible left will form within capitalism. Rockhill is so obviously correct on this core thesis, it's really no question: he is right at least on this. And it's just as clear, that a honest left that is actually interested in achieving what it claims as it's aims, need to avoid being deemed "compatible" by the CIA who invented the term "compatible left".

Having recognized that Rockhill is at the heart of his thesis correct, it's a natural scientific question as well as a pressing strategic necessity to identify who were part of the compatible left historically as well as today. And here the anti-communist sources cited by Rockhill really speak for themselves.

The problem that people have with Rockhill is, that all his work has led him to the conviction, that imperialism is the principal contradiction of today. So that explains all of this controversy around his work. It has been here long before and it is simply the controversy between the anti-imperialist left and, well, the rest.

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The problem that people have with Rockhill is, that all his work has led him to the conviction, that imperialism is the principal contradiction of today. So that explains all of this controversy around his work. It has been here long before and it is simply the controversy between the anti-imperialist left and, well, the rest.

100-com

Imperialist left, compatible left, western left. These are only so many synonyms for the same thing. There is no question about the centrality of imperialism except among “leftists” in the core. This makes Rockhill one of a very small group of American intellectuals worth listening to. On the other hand, anyone who downplays imperialism shouldn’t be allowed to claim Lenin.

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago

You mean the people being directly called out for being ineffectual and "unintentionally" supporting empire are trying to turn this idea put forward into a battle of meaningless semantics? shocked-pikachu