RE: [Marxism] Re: Militant: 'Stop Bush' protests, marked by nationalism, aid British rulers

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jose G. Perez is right on the money about the SWP's
capitulation to great-nation chauvinism. I didn't at
first realize something about its "reply to a reader"
column, which several readers have reference. Here's
one paragraph pregnant with troubling implications:

"Not only in Iraq and Iran but throughout the Mideast,
anti-imperialist-minded workers and farmers have no
leadership that represents their interests. Decades
of Stalinist counterrevolutionary policies, both by
Moscow and by Stalinist organizations throughout the
Middle East, created a void that bourgeois nationalist
organizations waving Islamic banners fill today-groups
such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Qaeda, which have
nothing in common with the popular liberation
movements that marked an earlier period."
 http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6743/674336.html

Walter resuming: Last I looked, Israel and occupied
Palestine were also in the Middle East and so if the
SWP(USA) isn't arguing for the withdrawal of the USA
troops from occupied Iraq, one wonders if whatever
the SWP(USA) has for sympathizers in Israel, where
they have a bit of "civic space" are calling for the
withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the
occupied territories? Perhaps someone with a faster
internet connection can do this research for us?

Jose G. Perez observes quite correctly:

"What the SWP is doing is strikebreaking against
the Iraqi national resistance movement. They are
totally conscious about this. They describe the
resistance as "remnants" of the "regime" and have
stated quite openly and directly that they are
*against* the victory of these forces. In the
actual war that is really going on today, they are
"neutral" on the side of imperialism."

And these people had the temerity to criticize
Noam Chomsky and Rev. Lucius Walker who briefly
expressed public disagreement from one or another
specific Cuban policy decision earlier this year!
The SWP(USA) attacked Rev. Walker for remarks he
made ON THE PLATFORM HERE AT MAYDAY in opposition
to the island's use of the death penalty standing
right next to Cuba's Commander-in-Chief!

Perhaps Jose would agree with me that it's a bit
misleading to even use the term "coalition" which
is a fraud if there ever was one. In a coalition,
different elements combine to increase the strength
of the collective as a whole. But what kind of a
"coalition" is it when one element is decisive and
the rest is nothing but window dressing. It makes
more sense to speak of the US and its allies or
henchmen (or "henchpersons" if you like...<g>)

Yeah, they have walked through the shadow of social
imperialist temptation. They have looked at and are
tasting the apple. Where will they go next?


Walter Lippmann