AUT: Re: Can 'entrepeneuring capitalists' save Palestinians?

["Harald Beyer-Arnesen" <haraldba@xxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Hamilton" <s_h_hamilton@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 30. oktober 2002 14.43
Subject: AUT: Can 'entrepeneuring capitalists' save Palestinians?

I will reply to Thiago's interesting and important
questions around anacronism etc in separate
post.

Here to Scott.

I would curious to know where I have written as follows:

> Harald thinks the Palestinian workers should abandon
> the intifida, dismantle the institutions which they
> have set up to fight the intifada and protect
> themselves, and make an alliance with progressive
> entrepeneurs to protest for full civil rights, the
> abolition of Israel, and the establishement of an East
> Mediterranean capitalist confederation.

If you by this imply that I find suicide bombings
as self-oppressive, as no more voluntary than
honour killings, and as a method of upholding
internal oppression, then you are correct. If you
also imply that I stroingly oppose random
killings, and I see these as also undemining the
moral fabric of Palestinian communities,
you are also correct.

If you by this imply that I would like to see real
directly democratic organs of self-organization
emerge and replace the organisations and
institutions controlled by Arafat, Hamas and
Islamic Jihad, you are correct again. You are
further right if you say that I would like to see
such organization emerge throughout the
region, and challenge all  the oppressive and
exploitative forces of the East Meditarrean
and beyond. To see that by following "their
leader" or latest "saviour" they are simul-
taneously following and reinforcing Sharon
and Zionism. This, more than anything, sad
to say, but all to true, sums up the history of
the region since the fall of the Ottoman
Empire, and not social revolutionary move-
ments It is a history quite different from that
of South and Central America.

But I have suggested no such thing as an alliance
with progressive entrepeneurs, or any other
faction of the bourgeoisie. That is your positition
not mine.
        By noticing that the heads of the French and
German States are very reluctant to entering the
next war against Iraq, I am neither suggesting an
alliance with them, or a certain Saddam, even if he
surely also is opposed to this particular war. That
Leninist hardly can imagine any struggle without
an alliance with part of the capitalist class, is well
known. It does not follow from this that everybody
else thinks the same way.

You are saying that I have promoted giving up on
resistance, but that is just an idea you have
created in your own head. I've noticed you've
repeated this over and over again, but it does not
become truer by repetion. If you can point to
where I have wriiten any such thing, so please do.
Should you foud it, no one would be more
surprised than me.

This is what I actually *did write* about the Intifada
28 October in a post where I was replying to Chris

"And as for the "Intifada," as far as I can see it died long
ago. A more radical perpspective very likely would give it a
new life and new forms, and might even grow to include
Israelis of Jewish origins, as well as spread to the region
as a whole."

I am glad you finally got around to mentioning the
existence of workers outside of Gaza and the West
Bank. You write: "With the help of massive solidarity
led by workers in the rest of the Arab world ..."

I would suggest that the very best way they could show
solidarity would be through preparing the ground for
"Intifadas" against "their own" oppressors and
exploiters. Now, your whole (anti-socialist) nationalist
postion have decade after decade undermined this
possibility, being effective in building alliances with
the oppressive forces of these regimes and not the
proletariat. This is only logical, just as Arafat and
Hamas logically follow from taking the nationalist
path. Through this Zionism has also be strengthened
from without, while a radical alternative perspective
would weaken it from within and without.

The "destruction of Israel" parole is more often than
not just a thinly veiled racist slogan where "driving
the Jews into sea" is implicated. One did not call
for the destruction of South Africa" but for the end of
aparatheid, and likewise we should call for the end
of Zionism (nationalism, statism and capitalism.)
That Hamas has a whole other agenda that fits the
former parole better, is however true. That the
Arabic translation of  "Mein Kampf" has gained
a certain popularity, is neither a good reason to
follow behind. But undoubtly another splendid victory
for the cause of national martyrdom.

Harald













> I think that the Palestinians should develop their
> Popular Committees and militia into alternatives to
> Arafat's PA, and continue to fight to protect
> themselves from Israeli occupation and attacks. With
> the help of massive solidarity led by workers in the
> rest of the Arab world and the West, the sort of
> solidarity that the Vietnamese received, the
> Palestinians can succeed in defeating Israel and then
> should go all the way to socialist revolution by
> turning their Popular Committees into organs of direct
> democracy over their liberated territory.
>
> I think that my view is far more in tune with what is
> happening in Palestine than Harald's vision of
> anti-imperialist Israel entrepeneurs joining forces
> with Palestinians. Perhaps though Harald can make his
> argument more credible by naming some of the
> 'entrepeneuring capitalists of the neo-liberal kind'
> who have come out for the abolition of Israel, and who
> are willing to protect the Palestinians who give up
> their arms from Sharon's security forces? Perhaps not.
>
> Cheers
> Scott
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> =====
> "Revolution is not like cricket, not even one day cricket"
>
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