Re: [Marxism] The Left and Support For Islamic Resistance

[Ruthless Critic of All that Exists <ok.president+nbsy@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 3:41 AM, <Jscotlive@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Shane:
>
> Obviously, nobody should "justify" the unjustifiable or "obscure" the
> obvious for any reason. Equally, nobody should deprecate or obscure
> the  truth about any regime because of a greater hatred for another--
>
> Reply:
>
> You make this sound like a board game. Has it ever occurred to you that as
> Marxists our enemy is at home, period, and that perhaps those regimes that
> you
> consider unsavoury have emerged from material conditions created by our own
> imperialist governments?


Two problems with this sentence:

(1) It assumes (note the all-encompassing "our" in  "our own imperialist
governments") that all Marxists (or at least, all Marxists on Marxmail)
necessarily live in imperialist countries! But that is not the case.
Consider India, a country with a significant number of Marxists (some 60 of
the 500-odd seats in Parliament are held by communist parties and allies).
For Indian Marxists, the sentence above most certainly does not apply, as
the "unsavory" repressive religious thugs in Iran did not emerge from
material conditions where the Indian governments had any role to play.

(2) Even for Marxists in the imperialist countries: yes, for them, some of
the regimes that they
consider unsavoury have emerged from material conditions created by their
own
imperialist governments? But so what? Why should that preclude one from
criticizing the unsavory regimes' actions?

By your logic, Marxists in the imperialist countries would also have to stop
criticizing Zionism, too, because, after all, Zionism could flourish only
because material conditions to do so were  created imperialism!



>
> The title of this thread reveals much about the Marxist understanding of
> whoever started it. I wonder if during the Second World War Marxists around
> the
> world held discussions under such titles as 'The Left and Support For
> Christian Resistance In France'.
>
> Change the title to 'The Left and Support For Resistance' and you
>  substitute
> Marxism for paternalism.
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