Re: Kosovo? -- And in a while let's remember the List's Parameters

["Michael Hoover" <hoov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> There are a number of maillists where the NATO aggression can be and is
> being discussed and debated in great detail -- lbo in particular, but also
> marxism and pen-l.
> LBO, PEN-L, and
> Marxism, for example, have not had for some time any discourse on the
> particular concerns of women or of the feminist movement -- which is why
> such lists as this are potentially of great importance, and why the
> moderators
> have striven over time to confine the list to topics which are of *direct*
> relationship to marxist feminism, and to discourage topics which while of
> interest to any marxist (including feminist-marxists), are not of direct
> interest
> to the emancipation of women.
> Carrol

in first days/weeks of US/NATO bombing, lists cited above had a lot of
traffic about nationalism, rights to self-determination, Kosovar
Albanians, etc...a topic missing - with a few exceptions - from
discussions about the war on those lists (only ones besides m-fem that
I'm subbed to so other lists may have taken it up) is how nationalism
is always gendered...I'm thinking, for example, of works by Cynthia
Enloe and Anne McClintock..

the nation-state was developed by men, largely for men...state-making
has been bound up with war-making which has been monopolized by men...
revolutionary armies (including Yugoslavian Partisan movement during
WW2) provided exceptions, although evidence points to regression
towards stereotyped gender roles following victory in a number of
instances...

state-making has also been bound up with wealth-making...capitalism,
in part, resulted from opportunities for power and profit generated
by gender relations (and continues to do so, obviously)...

international politics has dealt - and continues to deal - mainly
with state-making and wealth-making...women continue to be mostly
invisible there leaving it a bastion of male power and privilege
(not withstanding a few Thatchers & Albrights in decision-making
circles)...

state-makers have used nationhood (which Marx called an 'illusory
community') to foster a solidarist 'us' and alien 'them'...thus,
male domination of international politics ('high' politics as IR
types are wont to say, in contrast to so-called 'low' politics
which includes 'unimportant' issues such as health)... exists as
if in some gender-neutral realm...Michael Hoover