Re: [Marxism] Re: Arab and Islamic World

[RobBollard@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 10/2/2004 1:43:34 AM AUS Eastern Daylight Time,
andypollack@xxxxxxxx writes:


> Yes, but...
> Rob makes some great points about the disjuncture between then and now.
> Another example is Stephen Kinzer's book on the coup against Mossadegh, which,
> despite some great depictions of British racist intransigence, is flawed
> because at every critical turn in the plot he falls back on the 1,400 year 
> history
> of Shiite martyrdom as a psychological explanation. Very annoying.
>
> On the other hand -- the memory of the Arab nation is long, and should be.
> History happens on different levels, and the boost given to the genesis of
> capitalism by conquests in Arab, African and American countries is part of a
> legitimate historical continuum (just as the expropriation of common lands in
> England is part of the long view of history for workers there...)
>
> The problem is the weakness of secular, socialist forces in the Arab world
> able to recount that long view of history to the masses the way they used to.
>

I didn't go into the explanation of why the left has failed (or for that
matter why the secular nationalist currents have also been eclipsed.  Without
going into too much detail here, I would, however, venture to suggest that 
failure
to fight imperialism is a more potent contributor to their failure than their
inability to `recount the long view of history to the masses'.
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