Re: A daring assumption (was Re: East Timor and all that.)

["Alan Bradley" <abradley1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky
> Please note that none of the above runs against the interests of the
> Australian bourgeoisie, much to the contrary: expelling Holland from
> Indonesia was a potential asset, as was demonstrated later by the
> tragic events of 1965. This does not judge the honesty of the
> militants and even leaderships of the organizations mentioned by
> Greg. I am just putting the whole thing in a particular perspective,
> which is the perspective of the Australian ruling class. Am I wrong?

"Interests" is a strange concept.  It is, of course, not the same as
"policy".

The policy of the Australian state (with its Labor government) in the late
40s was in line with British policy at the time:  no decolonisations!

The Indonesian independence movement was of course part of a wave of such
movements after WW2:  India, Burma, Vietnam, Korea, the Philippines,
Malaya...  China too, I suppose, although it has special characteristics.

To agree with your suggestion, we would have to say that it would have been
possible to unpack the Indonesian case from its context.  I suppose that it
would be possible to say that tossing out the Dutch would be in the
interests of Australian capital, but only if tossing out the French and
British was as well.

Thinking about it:  what you are saying is that supporting part of one of
the great waves of anti-imperialist struggle was somehow pro-imperialist.

OK, as it happened, the US benefited from the collapse of the European
colonial empires.  After a fashion, Australia and New Zealand probably did
too.  But does that somehow change the nature of the anti-imperialist
struggles, or the solidarity struggles waged within the Imperialist states?

I think not.  The Australian working class did their duty.  They were not
class collaborators.

(All their _other_ manifestations of backwardness should be left aside for
the purposes of this discussion.)

Alan Bradley
abradley1@xxxxxxxxxxx