Re: An letter to Against the Current

[Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky <gorojovsky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

En relación a Re: An letter to Against the Current,
el 18 May 01, a las 21:57, Grinker dijo:

> If it does come to a real crunch situation e.g. if sanctions
> (nothing else than war by other means) are imposed, or there is some
> other form of western intervention, solidarity with Zimbabwe is
> definitely required.  It is not the business of a principled left to
> interrogate the politics of nationalist leaders in countries under
> active threat from the west while the last remnants of their
> sovereignty are in the process of being whittled away.

I would go ahead a little bit.  Russell G. is depicting a situation
from "outside", so to say. From this point of view it makes sense to
reserve support for the "crunch situation". But INSIDE the country,
the division between a national movement and a movement which opposes
it is not sporadic. It is always there, and it should be a basic task
of any serious Leftist to enhance its relevance even in the times when
the lines get blurred.

On the one hand, this is an issue of principles. But on the other, it
is also an issue of political expediency. People judge the _deeds_ and
the concrete standings in front of every strategic option. Thus, a
revolutionary politician in these our countries should be ALWAYS ready
to remember that the country is, either in fact or potentially (which
means "in disguise" more than anything else) under attack from
imperialism. This is the existential condition of the working masses
outside the core, and it is to this existential condition that our
policies should be tuned in the first place.

This implies to be always very careful with our attacks on the leaders
of the national movement, even when we can "predict" their ultimate
fate. Think of Nasser. Yes, all of us "knew" that this military
bonapartist leader "had to" betray the movement at some time. But he
never did. He simply died before he made the predictions true. All
those who gave a cold support with permanent warnings that Nasser
would betray people were "fooled" by biology (and biology is a part of
history).  We had to wait for a Sa'adat to see the movement betrayed.



Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
gorojovsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx