Re: ON INDEPENDENCE OF TINY NATIONAL GROUPS

["José G. Pérez" <jgperez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Jared, the KDE is a bizarre Trotskyist sect that used to be affiliated
with
> Gerry Healy's outfit in Great Britain. I have been debating one of their
> members on the Trotsky newsgroup for the past month on these questions.
> Essentially, they present a very schematic analysis which puts a minus
> where the imperialists put a plus. This is not very dialectical.

The KDE may be bizarre but the theses they put forward, that small nations
and nationalities are inevitably tools of imperialism, is quite a popular
one on this list, as is its underlying postulate, which is the invincibility
of imperialism. Listen to how the KDE puts it:

- It is impossible for East Timor, or for any state of its kind, to be truly
independent. East Timor will either be a part of Indonesia, or a colony of
the great western imperialist powers. As a part of Indonesia, it will also
for the time being be a colony of the west, but it is at least possible for
Indonesia to have a different future. For an "independent" East Timor it
isn't.

What's missing from this group's outlook is a REVOLUTIONARY perspective, the
idea that a revolution is possible, that the people can make it and that in
fact, no power on this earth is stronger than that of the people. Is it
really impossible for East Timor to be truly independent? Of course it isn't
impossible. All that is required is the OVERTHROW OF IMPERIALISM.

The point of supporting the just struggles of nationally oppressed peoples
for their rights, up to and including their right to self-determination, to
separate and set up their own state, is precisely to bring about that
overthrow.

José

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