Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Canada, Australia, Argentina

[Bill Rosenberg <w.rosenberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't have time to make much contribution to this interesting discussion,
other than to say that New Zealand's experience is similar to what Rob Schaap
related with regard to Australia. New Zealand was probably more successful than
Australia until the UK joined the EU (and both countries began to lose their
privileged access to the UK market), and less successful since then, showing the
weakness and essentially dependent nature of its bourgeoisie.

However I'll relate a little anecdote which to me illustrates an important
point: that nationalism is a danger in the imperial countries, such as the US
and UK, but a necessity in the dependent (and would-be independent) ones, as
long as it is not allowed to become chauvinist. It must be judged by two
standards.

My anecdote: Having observed US government emissaries preaching the
inevitability of "globalisation", interpreted as the end of national borders and
nationalism (always cast in a negative light, on a par with racism), I visited
the US for a computer-related conference last October. A key note speaker (for
some unfathomable reason) was General Collin Powell. His speech was almost
entirely raw and often aggressive US nationalism, clothed in motherhood and
apple pie anecdotes about growing up in the US, making opportunities for the
underprivileged, representing the US against the USSR (Evil Empire), etc.
Sickening, and extraordinarily hypocritical.

Bill