[Marxism] Em-pah

["OpenSentence Type Foundry" <typefoundry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Well, *that's*  a real joke. Here we have the Militant, which is
> *refusing* to demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of "its own"
> imperialism from Iraq, which counsels Iraqis to rely on "civic"
> organizing, and which denounces the struggles of the Iraqi and
> Palestinian people as "bourgeois," going after the British antiwar
> movement because is has the temerity to do what the SWP *won't* do,
> which is to militantly oppose Washington's war.
>
> They're very upset that people are toppling over effigies of George W.
> and torching the American flag. They say it is chauvinism, by the Brits
> against the United States.
>
> All the stuff about British nationalism and so on is bull. What's really
> going on here is that the Militant is capitulating to American "great
> nation" chauvinism. Because, is it really true that British chauvinism
> is going to be re-enforced by a mass movement against the very concrete
> expression of that chauvinism, Britain's participation in an imperialist
> war?

> The only "principles" involved in the SWP's position are national
> chauvinism and white racism. They have decreed that the struggle of the
> Iraqi people and the Arab nation against their European and
> European-descended colonialism, neocolonialism, Zionism, imperialism and
> military occupation is meaningless and bourgeois; that what is really
> important is the fight between the imperialist nations over how to
> divide the Iraqi pie.

The US is not a nation-state, Jose.  Deal, although you can still have a raw
one if you want.  Britain is not a nation-state, either; it is the remnant
of an empire, and a far more racist place than the US if you were to ask its
inhabitants of color; so you'll have to find a different reason for the
unacceptability of the SWP's position, on pain of not having a reason.
Furthermore, the person who established that really pretty obvious point
about the US (Benedict Anderson) suggested on the basis *of South America*
that nationalism can never be viewed as anything but a post-imperialist
phenomenon, as nations come into being where divisions of empire once were
*and not before*.  As for imperialists with funny accents, W. has one
himself and maybe people in the US really don't feel so good about *that*
(if they're permitted to have their own problems, that is).

Jeff Rubard



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The SWP has always had problems of consistency in the extent to which it
personalized or encouraged the personalization of these issues.  In
1972, the SWP--through the SMC/PACs--but also using the
MILITANT--organized protests against the resumed bombing of Vietnam with
the slogan "Stop this Man!" next to a cartoon of Nixon.  I also remember
the buttons with "inoperative" lettered across his image.  However, the
SWP also abstained entirely from the impeachment demos on the grounds
that the problem was the system not the individual running it.

While socialists should always couple criticisms of individual leaders
like Nixon or Dubya to the problems of the system.  However, there was
nothing inherently wrong with attacking personages that have pursued
policies that make them clearly attackable.  Nixon and his entire crew
should have been stopped.  Reagan and that entire lot of war criminals
should have been stopped.  The murderous dishonesty of the current US
chief of state--and all his collaborators on both sides of the aisle,
including Democratic presidential contenders--should be stopped.

What's more, as millions of fair-minded working people understand with
no difficulty whatseover--when officeholders break their own rules, they
should be bounced out of office.  Calling for this measure particularly
resonates with those who are largely victims of the arbitrary nature of
those rules themselves.  Bush and his co-conspirators (including some of
the most prominent Democratic presidential contenders) should not only
be stopped but driven from office.

Solidarity!
Mark L.



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