Replying to Andy was Re: someone's brought up East Timor again so ...

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Andy,


I do edit my bloody posts. Nor am I a dogmatist with or without the
capitals.But I will ignore that provocation and proceed calmly to your post.

I am very sorry you were threatened. I am glad the police proved of assistance.

However if I may say so this is the wrong analogy.  The occasional time
when the police prove of benefit does not negate the historical fact that
the Australian Army has never, not ever supported the cause of the
people.  The evil bastards that went into East Timor, i.e. the Australian
Army, had trained and armed the very same soldiers who did the killing.

By calling for the trainers of the killers to go in we completely white
washed the masters of the butchers.  Now every bloody ad for the Australian
army features East Timor.  The ads tell us of the wonderful things our boys
and girls are doing.  Never have the armed thugs of the Australian army
been so popular.  In one fell swoop the anti-militarism that was the great
gain from the Vietnam protests has been swept away.

That is the great harm that your Party has perpetrated and I for one refuse
to forget it.


The thing that Marxists need to get through their heads is that we are not
NGOs.  Our role is not to be cheer leaders for imperial policy.  If we ever
become so and the DSP certainly did with Norm Dixon on TV screaming Send in
the Troops, we and the people will play a terrible price.

Only in Norm Dixon's fantasies could it be believed that the DSP influenced
the policy of the Australian government.  All you did was to contribute to
the disorientation of the Left by moving away from first principles. It is
the kind of disorientation that Jared has been hammering away at.  It leads
Lefties to become cheer leaders for NATO  and it led the DSP into avatars
of the gunboat diplomacy of the Australian State.


Now Andy be straight with us. Is the Australian army imperialist?  Or has
your organisation abandoned the concept of imperialism along with the
theory of Permanent Revolution?(If you do not know anything about
Australian involvement in Sudan, South Africa, Turkey, Malaysia, Korea, and
Vietnam I will tell you.)Could you give us an instance of an imperialist
Army that did any good?  Would you put your hand on your heart and say that
Australia has ever intended good for East Timor since supporting the
Indonesian invasion in 1975?

But let us get to the central illusion that you and your party are laboring
under.  You actually seem to genuinely believe that not only did you
persuade the Australian Govt to get the Australian Army in but that the
Australians actually used the troops to stop the killing.  The Indonesians
were brought to heel by the Americans.  as Phil Ferguson has repeatedly
pointed out on this list, we are dealing with a new phase of
imperialism.  Post cold War the old butchers are no longer necessary.  That
is why Suharto was wheeled off stage.  Imperialists no longer speak of the
evils of communism.  They carry the banners of democracy and free
trade.  As often as not their advance forces are the Non government
Agencies and occasionally disoriented leftists who actually insist they invade.

regards

Gary