From the July-August 2017 issue of News & Letters
Chicago—In the assisted living facility where I live, most people are as old as I am, 92 or even older. Everyone knows I was a coal miner. It fascinates many people, and so it opens the door for me in many respects: When I speak, people listen.
Among the aides at the assisted living facility, there is one woman with whom I am reading a basic work by Raya Dunayevskaya, The Philosophic Moment of Marxist-Humanism. When she gets through working, she starts reading it, marks where she left off, and then picks it up next time.
Another woman is studying G.W.F. Hegel. She started with Phenomenology of Mind. I told her it is difficult, but she is gaining some knowledge. I am pleased with that development. I don’t yet know what will come from these contacts. I hope to report more on it next year.
—Andy Phillips
Andy Phillips is the co-author of The Coal Miners’ General Strike of 1949-50 and the Birth of Marxist-Humanism in the U.S.
Read about this first industry-wide strike against automation in U.S. history—
The Coal Miners’ General Strike of 1949-50 and the Birth of Marxist-Humanism in the U.S.
“A Missing Page from American Labor History,” by Andy Phillips
“The Emergence of a New Movement from Practice that is Itself a Form of Theory,” by Raya Dunayevskaya
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