[Marxism] Re: OFFLIST:re: Re: " The only democracy in the MiddleEast

[Einde O'Callaghan <einde@xxxxxx>]

alexander locascio wrote:
> Konkret and Jungle World are Anti-German?  Only if you think any attempt to
> shed any light at all on German imperialism is evidence of "Anti-German"
> sentiment.
Since they are seen as such by those describing themselves as
"Antideutschen" I think this is a fair comment. I've always felt that
the ideology of the antideutschen is simply a mirror image of German
nationalism, except instead of the Germans being uniquely the good guys
of the world all germans are irredeemably the bad guys of the world.
this has nothing particular to do with exposing German imperialism, its
simply reverse nationalism, but still sharing the same nationalist
mindset as radical nationalists.
> There is such a thing as justified criticism of Israel and the historical
> nature of Zionism, but it has nothing to do with your own organization's
> Comic Book fetishism of the Palestinians and cheerleading for Hamas.
Since Palestine is occupied by a settler colonial state (this is not to
deny that an Israeli nationality has developed there similar to the
Afrikaner nationality that developed in South Africa) it is legitimate
for the population to resist the occupation.

To recognise this and to recognise that we in teh imperialist countries
can't dictate the leadership of national liberation movements to the
oppressed, even if we don't agree with the ideology of this leadership
has got nothing to do wihth cheerleading for hamas or any other
organisation.

I supported the struggle of the Vietnamese people against American
imperialism even though I was an opponent of Stalinism and Ho Chi Minh
had been responsible for the liquidation of teh Vietnamese trotskyists
in 1945 while they were the leadership of the anti-colonial movement in
South vietnam.

It has nothing to do with the ideology of the liberation movement, it#s
simply basic Leninist anti-imperialism.
> I wouldn't go as far as to accuse Linksruck of being anti-semitic, though.
> This sort of Johnny-come-lately boutique Mau Mau leftism is more an
> expression of disaffected University student ennui than any principled Jew
> hatred.
Such comments are beneath contempt aso I won't even bother to reply to
them. And the use of the term "Mau Mau" in this way is a racist insult
against the anti-imperialist movement of the Kenyan peoples.
> P.S.  I've never quite been able to grasp why in the IST cosmology, Fidel
> Castro is an implacable foe of working class aspirations, while Al-Qaeda and
> Hamas are the shining hope of humanity.  Maybe you could enlighten me.
This is a complete fabrication. We see Castro as an anti-imperialist
(and support him as such against American imperialism), but we don't see
Cuba as being socialist - I'm simply explaining our position, not
wishing to start a polemic on the list as I know that many people here
including Louis Proyect disagree with us on this issue. This won't stop
us uniting to defend Cuba against US imperialism.

We don't see Al-Qaeda or Hamas as offering a genuine way forward - why
don't you actually read some of our analyses of political Islam? - we
merely recognise that they have to a certain extent (particularly in the
case of Hamas) gained support among the oppressed masses, partly because
of the failures of secular nationalism and Stalinism in the Middle East.

Einde O'Callaghan


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