Author of several books in English and numerous articles, lecturer and activist, Loren Goldner left us two days ago.
As I wrote in a preface in 2008:
Loren Goldner is not an ‘academic’ Marxist—in both senses of the word: he does not hold a chair in a university, nor does he waste his time participating in endless Marxological quarrels.
He tries to apply his very personal vision of Marxism to the realities of contemporary class struggles. While reading his writings, the reader will immediately grasp that Loren Goldner’s horizon is not limited to the intellectual or material frontiers of his native United States. He offers us a vision of the world, starting from an international and even anti-national point of view. We may—I would even say we must—not always agree with the author, but we must give him credit for three essential qualities:
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he always seeks to flush out statist Marxists, to dismantle their reasoning and their pseudo-radical demagoguery. His criticism of the statism of the left and far left is a constant, which sets him apart from many so-called “thinkers” of the no global movement or so-called “revolutionaries”;
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he takes up the cause of workers’ struggles, here and now, while maintaining an uncompromising anti-bureaucratic position;
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he is interested in the economic transformations of the capitalist world, which he tries to present to us in a simple (well, when possible…) and understandable way.
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He didn’t have the appropriate academic-political networks in the Anglo-Saxon world to enable his ideas to reach a wide audience. In any case, he was neither a middle-class socialite, nor a Third Worldist, nor a leftist identitarian, so he was unlikely to appeal to the intellectual petit-bourgeoisie.
But this didn’t affect him in the slightest, as he preferred direct contact with grassroots activists, workers, the curious and the self-taught, who contacted him by e-mail or at his conferences, and to whom he always replied with kindness. This enabled him to forge lasting friendships at a distance, then face-to-face when he traveled (from Bolivia to Portugal, via South Korea, Spain, Italy and other countries no doubt), and to benefit from an informal international network of correspondents, friends and acquaintances whom he frequently approached with insatiable curiosity.
Never arrogant, always open to discussion, he was a Marxist or “Marxian” as you will, but certainly not a dogmatist.
In France, his texts were published in two books by Editions Ni patrie ni frontières—Nous vivrons la révolution (2008) and La gauche identitaire contre la classe: aux sources d’une régression (2015).
Tribute to you, Loren, and to your companion!
Ni patrie ni frontières
April 13, 2024