Re: Forwarded from Anthony (bourgeois nationalism)

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ from Nestor ]

En relación a Forwarded from Anthony (bourgeois nationalism),
el 21 Apr 01, a las 10:10, Louis Proyect dijo:

> Hi Lou: Thanks for your quick reply, re Chaves, Peron, Kerensky
> et. al. I agee with you position in general - but I think that many
> of the errors of the post WWII Trotskyists of all brands except
> Moreno - were to cross the line from defending to supporting these
> types of figures.

Defending Perón against the gorilla gang meant to support the right of
the Peronists to support him against the gorilla gang. This is what is
meant by _critical support_ in the most "pure olive oil" Trotskyist
tradition. Sorry to disappoint Anthony here, but Moreno and his
followers have systematically been staunch attackers of Peron and
Peronism, even during the times when they ENTERED Peronism and
established a queer doubletalk as a "Peronist" line.

The main point here is whether a Marxist considers him or herself
above the experience of the masses or just a step ahead. Socialism
will not take root in Argentina unless it is deeply felt as the only
way ahead in the national revoultion, a revolution which has had its
last succesful stage in Peronism.

How can you "defend" without "supporting", unless you clean "defend"
from any meaning, is beyond my admittedly limited and too
down-to-earth political mind.

If Anthony means that we should "defend" national bourgeois movements
against imperialism but not "support" them on domestic issues, then
there is a very flawed conception of imperialism at work. What makes
national bourgeois movements revolutionary in Latin America is,
precisely, the fact that imperialism is a DOMESTIC player in the
political game, that there are vast layers of our society that
unknowingly work for imperialism, and that these layers provide the
breeding ground for the diverse "democratic", in fact pro-
imperialist, alternatives. There is no third way out of this
contradiction.

I think that before splitting hairs on "defending" and "supporting" we
should first and foremost debate the central issue with Morenism,
which is whether the main contradiction in Latin America is the
national contradiction with imperialism or, just as it is in the
United States, the "class" contradiction between proletarians and
bourgeois. Inverted commas to express the idea that national
contradictions ARE class contradictions, too.

Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
gorojovsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx