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

[Shane Mage <shmage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 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:
> ...Has it ever occurred to you that as
> Marxists our enemy is at home, period...

As a "marxist"--and as a human being--the world is my home in a much  
realer sense than any nation-state.  The reactionary regimes in both  
Iran and the USA  are therefore equally "enemies" in that sense.

> ...and that perhaps those regimes that you
> consider unsavoury have emerged from material conditions created by  
> our own
> imperialist governments?...
>
Material conditions are created by world history, not by "imperialist  
governments."  The actions of human beings, including those who  
comprise governments, are parts of the historical process and play a  
(small) role in shaping aspects of that process, but they "create"  
nothing because, in relation to the historical process, they are  
unconscious, they are blind.  Every regime is the outcome of its own  
historical process, internally determined within its given external  
conditions

> ...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...
>
I'm not sure I understand this, but it seems to imply support for  
"resistance," however reactionary, everywhere and always.  Presumably,  
therefore, the endorsement is only for *anti-Imperial* resistance.   
Even so, that position leads to some weird stances.  Consider the  
origin of the word *guerrilla*.  It derives from the  resistance  
movement, a movement with considerable popular support, organized by  
the most reactionary forces in Europe--the Spanish monarchists and  
Catholic Church--against the occupying French Empire of Napoleon I.   
Their success was the beginning of the triumph of the Holy Alliance  
and the final political defeat of the French Revolution.  I certainly  
would not join that pseudo-progressive Ludwig van Beethoven in  
celebrating "Wellington's
  Victory!"


Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos

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