Re: Avoid Sectarianism & Opportunism (was Re: victimology)

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:

>>In general I have a strong belief that the most deeply felt need of both
>>men and women of Mexico and Central America is to grow up and flourish in
>>their home villages.
>
>Capitalism & imperialism do not allow them to, and more women than
>ever have & will be drawn into wage labor.  We need to organize
>wherever the masses find themselves.  Migration may bring new
>miseries to migrant workers, whether they end up in Northern Mexico
>or the USA, but Marxists do not oppose migration for this reason.
>Marxists' job is to do what we can to bring about socialism, not to
>foster impossible nostalgia or to lecture women to go back to their
>home villages & flourish there.  The masses _cannot_ flourish under
>capitalism whether they remain in their hometowns or migrate to big
>cities.

Some listers may remember Zeynep Toufeckioglu, who briefly shone on
the early Marxism lists and then disappeared back into Istanbul.
Zeynep spent a couple of months traveling around Chiapas a few years
ago. When she passed through New York on her return, she told me that
the women of Chiapas were not permitted to speak to men unless spoken
to. Does that qualify as flourishing in their home villages?

Doug