[Marxism] RE: 1812 and Star-Spanged Banner

[Russell Morse <russell.morse@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sartesian writes --
>Not a slaveholder's bid, but a slaveholders' republic.. not a Second War
>of Independence, but the clash of capitalisms, as Britain had no desire,
>nor intention of occupying the US and restoring it to colonial status.
>
>Popular mobilizations in defense of a slaveholder's republic with
>capitalist expansionary ambitions do not a war for independence nor
>revolutionary contest make.
>
>The issue isn't what immigrants do or don't do, it's what Marxists do,
>endorse, promote.
>
>This song was not part of any revolutionary era; it  belongs in the
>trash heap, along with the Jefferson Memorial, Mt. Vernon... etc.

If this is about what Marxists do, I'd say the *first* thing Marxists do
is try to understand things in their historical context. It's altogether
*un*historical and anachronstic to claim the original SSB "was not part
of any revolutionary era" - of course it was - the era of bourgeois
revolutions which only came to a close in the North
Atlantic world in the latter half of the nineteenth century (1848-1865-1871,
but certainly long after 1812-15).  In hindsight maybe you can claim that
"Britain had no desire, nor intention of occupying the US and restoring
it to colonial status" but the artisans, shopkeepers and workers of
Baltimore had no way of knowing that.  They saw themselves as defending
the American revolution and they were right to do so ... and to sing
about it.
                
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