Re: [Marxism] Re: marxist difficulty in theorizing the nation?

[glparramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This might contribute to the discussion.

Norm.

http://www.dsp.org.au/links/back/issue13/Dixon.htm

Marvin Gandall wrote:
> > From "Leon Trotsky" (sic):
>
>
> > Exactly what elements of a nationality did the
> > European Jews have that made them a nation?  And what
> > was lacking in the marxist definition of nation?
>
> -------------------------
> I think it could be argued that at one time East European Jews did
> constitute a nation by virtue of a common history, language (Yiddish),
> culture, ethnicity and residency in a more or less continguous territory.
> The Bosheviks recognized them as such. That nation was largely destroyed by
> the Holocaust. A related but more controversial notion, which the
> Spartacists used to advance, is that a Hebrew-speaking nation has formed in
> the Middle East which also has these attributes, and which therefore also
> has the right to self-determination and, presumably, statehood. (I still
> favour a unitary, secular, democratic Palestinian state with cultural
> guarantees for both the Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking communities.)
>
> Otherwise, it seems to me, what unites observant Jews around the world is
> religion, in the same way it unites practicing Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists
> and other denominations. I don't see,for example, how it could be argued
> that Norwegian and Yemeni Jews who neither speak the same language, occupy
> the same territory, share the same history, etc. can be construed as
> belonging to the same "nation".
>
> There has been more than a century of emigration by East European Jews. The
> first generation, like all immigrants, carried the national culture with
> them. But succeeding generations, progressively abandoned that culture,
> assimilated, intermarried, moved into mixed communities, and shares only a
> common ancestry. Ultimately, all humanity shares a common ancestry. I
> suppose if someone wants to still identify with that or any other religion
> and/or culture for reasons of nostalgia or to find a community to belong to,
> that is harmless enough and mostly a curiosity to me.
>
> Marv Gandall


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