Re: [Marxism] Re: East Timor replies (or who will intervene to save black Australians?)

[Lajany Otum <lajany_otum@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ben Courtice  wrote: Lajany wrote:
"Astoundingly, we are asked to believe that Australian foreign policy
towards the third world, like its US counterpart, can be separated from
its policies towards its "domestic third world." Namely, while the
Australian state is doing its best to incarcerate and oppress its own
black population and to expropriate their land and resources, it is
acting (inadvertently and against its own interests apparently) to
protect the rights and interests of the downtrodden and oppressed in the
rest of the South Pacific."

I don't think you've bothered to read what the discussion is actually
about, have you?

No-one here has claimed that Australia or NZ is going to "protect the
rights and interests of the downtrodden and oppressed in the rest of the
South Pacific."

There is only one argument, now historical, relating to the tactics of
the 1999 events. Otherwise the Australian left opposes Australia's
intervention in the Solomon Islands, historically in Bougainville, in
PNG, and is campaigning against Australia's imperial designs in East
Timor (and is prepared to campaign for Australian troops to leave there
as soon as that becomes an issue with the East Timorese people).

Please read the argument before you post a contribution!

Ben Courtice

 Ben,
 By your own admission above, your lofty position opposes Australian regional 
"imperial designs" in the region  in the abstract, but not in their concrete 
manifestations --  the case in point being the current invasion of Timor and 
the ongoing meddling by the Australian state-military in the small nation's 
political and economic internal affairs.

 Let us consider for a moment the statement that you are "prepared to campaign 
for Australian troops to leave there as soon as that becomes an issue for the 
East Timorese people," which raises a number of interesting questions. First, 
as a general principle, when is colonial occupation OK? Second, your statement 
suggests that imperialist power muscling into the affairs of Third World 
nations should only be opposed "when it becomes an issue" for the  people of 
the  said Third World nations, and who's prerogative is it to decide precisely 
when it "has become an issue"?  For instance, we hear very few, if any, African 
voices speaking out against the construction of US forward bases on that 
continent. According to your "principle" above above,does this mean it is "not 
an issue for the people " there and that the American left (such as it is) 
therefore has no obligation to oppose the construction of these bases? Luckily 
we have not heard anything so indefensible from any of the
 American comrades on the list.

 In any case, the practical effect of your unprincipled and dishonest position 
on Australia's invasion of Timor is to deny the principle of equality between 
peoples and turn a blind eye to (that is, condone in practice) the intervention 
of Australia in the affairs of a small neighbouring state. This is big power 
chauvinism at its most despicable.

 L. Otum



                
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