Re: [Marxism] What is a subimperialist?

["howard beeth" <beeth.howard@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm with Hari on this. I still have to be sold on this new term, which seems to 
add nada to "comprador" while being obfuscatory because it begs confusion; 
"subimperialist" could be read to mean "little" and opposed to "big" 
imperialist nations rather than national elites of sub-first tier nations who 
function as junior partners to larger, more powerful, first tier imperial 
nations.



Maybe I just haven't completely wrapped my brain around this new concept. I'm 
all for nuance, but at a certain point it fades into too much complexity to be 
very useful in carrying freight.



Howard Beeth

Houston, Texas, USA









 --- On Fri 12/09, hari.kumar@xxxxxxxxxxxx < hari.kumar@xxxxxxxxxxxx > wrote:

From: hari.kumar@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto: hari.kumar@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2005 19:59:04 -0500

Subject: Re: [Marxism] What is a subimperialist?



Firstly, thanks to Renato P & to Nestor for picking up the question. 
<br>Subsidiaries:<br>1) Recommendations of web-links for Ruy Mauro Marini? 
Recommendations for books (English?) by him - what is the definitive volume 
['Ars Long, vita brevis']?<br><br>2) The Comintern used the term "a minor 
partner of imperialism", Renato, to depict the 'white' colonial implants in 
Canada; South Africa; NZ & Oz. <br>Is the formulation here similar?<br><br>3) 
Finally, as an old dog who really finds new tricks hard to learn - how exactly 
is this terminology different from 'comprador' and 'national' capital?<br>A 
please at this juncture; Please no fearsome tirades from the T-ite vigilantes 
here. <br>I am asking an un-emotive question. <br><br>With thanks once more to 
Renata & Nestor for having the courtesy to address honest 
questions.<br>Hari<br><br>> <br><br>During the first years of the military 
regime, Brazil displayed a <br>most menacing "subimperialist" policy, thus 
justifying Ruy Mauro
<br>Marini's definition, which of course did _not_ imply that Brazil had 
<br>become a minor member of the imperialist gang like, say, Denmark or, 
<br>even, Greece.<br><br>What the Brazilian military did in those times was in 
essence what <br>the Hispanic American countries, particularly the River Plate 
basin <br>countries, used to term the "perfidious policies of 
Itamaraty".<br><br>Itamaraty is one of the names of the Brazilian Ministry for 
Foreign <br>Affairs.  The fact is, however, that the policies of Itamaraty were 
<br>neither perfidious nor egregious, but simply and essentially 
<br>_policies_.  The River Plate republics (and most Hispanic American 
<br>republics save for, partially, Mexico) lacked absolutely anything <br>like 
that.  The "policies" of the Argentinean Foreign Affairs <br>Ministery, for 
example, were particularly erratic, futile, snobbish, <br>clumsy and makeshift. 
 <br><br>There were historic and social reasons for this, and it would be long 
<br>to explain
them here, but the fact is that without this fact in mind, <br>it is hard to 
understand what does this issue of Brazilian <br>"subimperialism" 
mean.<br><br>When the coup of 1964 put the whole of Brazil under the 
undisguised <br>and uncontained lordship of imperialist multinationals and 
financial <br>centers, the state naturally followed suit, and so did Itamaraty. 
 <br>Thus, its policies acquired the scent of a rabidly pro-imperialist 
<br>bully's sweat, and they were developed seriously.  <br><br>For example, 
during the mid/late 1960s there was a fear in Bras?lia <br>that the Uruguayan 
Left reached power, and they menaced with <br>invasion.  <br><br>This 
"subimperialism" was unique in that there was nothing the like <br>across 
borders, particularly in Argentina.  <br><br>The Brazilian oligarchy had a long 
tradition of collaboration with <br>foreign powers: it  dates back to the 
implantation in Rio (1808) of <br>the complete Portuguese court by the long and 
strong arm of
Britain.  <br>That is, it starts with very beginnings of the history of 
independent <br>Brazil (and it is even possible to trace it even further back, 
to the <br>1703 Methuen treaty between Lisbon and London).  <br><br>On the 
contrary, the Argentinean diplomacy, whose main target (had it <br>seriously 
intended to match Itamaraty) should have been not just the <br>"reconstitution 
of the old Vice Royalty of the River Plate" [as <br>Itamaraty -completely wrong 
on this- blamed Juan Manuel de Rosas <br>(1829-1853) to attempt] but the 
reunification of at least the <br>republics of Hispanic South America, had in 
the end no target at all, <br>because our own oligarchy lacked any interest in 
South America other <br>than murder the Argentinean population of the Inland 
provinces and <br>keep Buenos Aires safely protected from any American heroic 
<br>adventure.<br><br>The Argentinean dictatorship of 1966-73 attempted to 
match and if <br>possible to challenge and even win over Itamaraty
by offering our own <br>country as the most privileged partner for American 
imperialism.  But <br>not only it was not as sure a partner as Brazil was 
(mainly due to <br>internal reasons, the resilient resistence of Peronism not 
the less <br>important of them), it lacked the diplomatic abilities that 
Itamaraty <br>displayed.<br><br>When the character of the Brazilian policy 
began to change (and this <br>was evident already with Geisel), the policies of 
Itamaraty changed <br>accordingly. <br><br>Today, the idea that Brazil displays 
a "subimperialist" policy is one <br>of the main lines of attack of the not yet 
fully born South American <br>Confederation of 
Nations.<br><br><br>________________________________________________<br>YOU 
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