In Reply to Wayne Price

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eks
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Jan 12 2007 11:18
In Reply to Wayne Price
Wayne Price wrote:
Speaking to the anti-national liberation/non-anti-imperialist writers: please clarify for me--is it your position that all non-working class struggles are to be rejected? including women's liberation, African-American liberation, Gay liberation, anti-war movement, etc.? or are you only against national liberation? (Of course, all struggles and issues interact and overlap with class. All subsystems of oppression are intertwined and prop each other up. Many nonclass oppressions were originally created by class exploitation, e.g. racism. Nevertheless these oppressions and issues are not simply reducible to class exploitation.)

Yes, we reject them, but before we go on to explain why, we would first like to address your reply to Felix’s points on the issue.

You wrote:

Wayne Price wrote:
Thanks to Felix Frost for responding to my question about whether you anti-national liberationists were also against movements against other nonclass forms of oppression. He writes, "No, I'm all in favour of women's liberation, gay liberation, etc. I'm also in favour of the Iraqi people being liberated from both US imperialism and the reactionary Iraqi resistance. The problem with "national liberation movements" is that they are in fact not liberatory, they only replace one set of rulers with another. And anti-imperialism isn't a real solution to the problem of imperialism..."
OK, but it is also true that the "women's liberation movement", dominated by bourgeois women with a liberal program, is "in fact not liberatory, they would only replace one set of rulers with another." That is, they would only win the right of well-off women to participate in business management, politics, and the military. The same is true of the gay liberation movement, led by liberal supporters of capitalism. So I do not see the difference. You have not explained why revolutionary libertarians would support women's liberation but not national liberation.

While we wouldn’t support those movements, and your accusations of inconsistency therefore don’t apply to us, we do see a difference between support for national liberation movements, and things like the women’s liberation movement. To us the difference is very clear. National liberation movements are directly involved in mobilising the working class for war.

You wrote:

Wayne Price wrote:
Instead you reject national liberation movements because they use violence…You are for the peaceful civil rights struggles which call for reforms in the existing system, but not for revolutionary movements which use violence.

We don’t believe that Felix is against nationalist movements because they use violence, but because they are a part of a trend that leads to war, and is dragging the working class particularly in the Middle East into a deepening cycle of ethnic/sectarian conflict.

Whilst we disagree with his position on the Women’s Liberation Movement, we are in complete agreement with his position on nationalism. For us a rejection of national liberation movements is a class line. It is part of what separates the politics of the communists from all bourgeois factions. Those who support it are part of the ideological drive towards war.

Back to the main point, which is our rejection of support for all sorts of leftist ‘campaigns’, and ‘movements’

For us the disagreements go beyond the rights, or wrongs or arguments about the validity of different bourgeois campaigns, and go to the heart of the question of what revolutionary politics means today.

Wayne talks a lot about ‘supporting’ movements. We would like to ask what this support means in, for example, the case of the war in Iraq. We assume that he is not involved in collecting money for, or smuggling arms to the resistance in Iraq, so we can only assume that what he means by ‘support’ is political support. It seems to us to be quite ironic that for all the talk of ‘critical’ support, and whatever other nonsense, the only support that the these leftists end up giving to the nationalists is political support. Their theories about ‘social insertion’ lead them to tail end after every leftist, nationalist, or bourgeois campaign, but offering a ‘libertarian’, or anarchist ‘alternative’. It is as if the entire communist project were just some sort of radical extension of the social democratic movement.

From this then you must have grasped that we have a fundamentally different view of the tasks of revolutionaries today.

For us the main tasks of revolutionaries are three fold:
* To take part in and to intervene in the defensive struggles of the working class.
*To propagate communist ideas.
*To build communist political organisations in order to be able to perform the first two tasks more effectively.

We fail to understand how any of these tasks are served by supporting all of these identity politics movements.

As an example of how often people fall into following leftist or identity politics ‘campaigns’, and movements, We would like to discuss the recent ‘Reclaim the night’ demonstration that was a recent topic on Libcom. For us the strange thing about this topic was that nobody even questioned what relevance it had to building worker’s power. Nobody even asked what the point of this demonstration was. Instead the discussion was tracked into one criticising ‘bourgeois feminism’ for organising a women’s only march. This basic idea of the march itself was never even touched upon.

We ask openly, how does a march like this move the working class forward in any way? Our contention is that it does not. We also feel that if comrades thought about it deeply they would come to the same conclusions, or at the very least begin to question the whole ‘logic’ behind campaigns, and ‘identity’ politics. We don’t feel that it is our responsibility to prove that this has nothing to do with working class politics. Instead we feel it to be the responsibility of those who blindly follow such ‘movements’ to examine their positions, and prove that it does.

To ask this does not put us on the same side as social reactionaries, just as to reject national liberation struggles does not put us on the same side as the imperialists. What we advocate as an alternative is an activity that is based around the defence of worker’s living standards, and the development of the autonomy, and power of the working class..

We feel that one of the problems of certain anarchists is that they do not actually have a class analysis, but actually have an analysis of class. This is lumped together with a whole mixed bag of other ‘oppressions’. This sort of ‘anarchist’ supports the workers struggle as it is a struggle against ‘oppression’. For us it is not a question of such bourgeois concepts as ‘rights’, or ‘inequality’, but a question of which class holds power within society, the bourgeoisie, or the proletariat.

We agree with that Platformists that there is a need for revolutionary organisations to have a unified intervention in struggles. Where we disagree is in judging the nature of those struggles. For us, communists intervene in the struggles of the working class. For the Platformists the intervention is in any struggles of the ‘masses’ that they see as being of a ‘progressive’ nature. This leads them into following all kinds of bourgeois campaigns. The ultimate logic of which leads them to join the bourgeois in cheerleading the working class being led to the slaughter for the ruling class in the name of national defence for that is the reality of what the position of those supporting Hezbollah, and other national liberation movement is.

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Steven.
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Jan 12 2007 11:28

Er, should this be on the John... WSM thread?

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Devrim
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Jan 12 2007 11:32

No, I don't think that it should. Although it is related to that argument, it brings up a completly new question, which is our relationship to movements, and identity politics. I think that it is a different issue.
Devrim

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Jan 12 2007 11:38

Ok cool.

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Jan 12 2007 20:25

This whole thing about "grasping the movement" seems like a very bourgeois thing to me. The argument which rejects class and states that "revolutionary object is everyone (who protests)" - post-modernism - seems very similar to the platformist idea of being "revolutionary": being involved in a (violent?) struggle. I can't see anything about "class" in the platformism, except the rhetoric: we support class struggle; platformists, really, support pretty much everything.

wangwei
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Jan 12 2007 21:15

I think that this was a very succinct way of discussing the difference between a "class analysis" and an analysis of class as it relates to national liberation.

The thesis of nationalism was best illustrated by Sam Mbah in "African Anarchism" as the ruling class using the lowest common denomitor of a superficial attribute to bind the working class to them. The anti-thesis of nationalism is internationalism.

The Anarchist Communists from NEFAC have argued that they are representing "one pole of thought" within the framework of internationalism. Yeah, they are representing the right wing pole of nationalist reaction. They are supporting the existence of nationalism, and nationalism in any form is death to the working class. The thesis of the working class needs to define itself in opposition to its antithesis, the ruling class.

A major mistake that anarchists, heck the left in general makes, is that they see the imperialists as the worst enemy of the working class. That's so incorrect. The local capitalists are the worst enemies of the working class, as they are closer! I was talking to a comrade from NEFAC who was trying to convince me that if the USA were to invade Venezuela, that we should support Chavez for two reasons: 1.) the working class elected him and 2.) he would be leading the workers against imperialism. This is pure right wing opportunism and is going to turn NEFAC into a reactionary organization roughly akin to the SWP that they left to find the Anarchist path.

1.) Malatesta did a great job explaining elections are a form of minority rule as the ruling class still maintains power and only allows the elections relative to maintaining their bourgeois state. The militarist Chavez is a petty bourgeois reform wavin' the red flag, and his winning of an election doesn't hold any weight with revolutionary Anarchists. ( http://www.marxists.org/archive/malatesta/unk/xx/majmin.htm )

2.)For this point, we should again refer to Malatesta, who in response to Kropotkin and other anarchists who chose the path of right opportunists and supported their nations against "German Militarism", wrote this article http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_archives/malatesta/ForgottenPrinciples.html "ANARCHISTS HAVE FORGOTTEN THEIR PRINCIPLES
By E. MALATESTA (FREEDOM, November 1914)"

Quote:
If, when foreign soldiers invade the sacred soil of the Fatherland, the privileged class were to renounce their privileges, and would act so that the “Fatherland” really became the common property of all the inhabitants, it would then be right that all should fight against the invaders. But if kings wish to remain kings, and the landlords with to take care of their lands and of their houses, and the merchants wish to take care of their goods, and even sell them at a higher price, then the workers, the Socialists and Anarchists, should leave them to their own devices, while being themselves on the look-out for an opportunity to get rid of the oppressors inside the country, as well as of those coming from outside.

In other words, the duty of Anarchists in the case of a revolution by the USA into Venezuela is to depose Chavez with a bullet in his fuckin' head as soon as possible. The cult of personality is necessary for the bourgeois state to strengthen and indemnify the working class to itself. Nothing stops an imperialist invasion cold like a working class insurrection -- see Iraq 1992 for an example of real workers insurrection ending an imperialist adventure.

In defense of this nationalist opportunism on the part of this NEFAC faction, Wayne advances Bakunin and Kroptkin as support. Need we remember that Bakunin was an insurrectionist who ended up believing Naechaev. Kropotkin's opportunism discredited him when he was one of the first to fully understand the Bolsheviks and their ascendancy.

Quote:
Speaking to the anti-national liberation/non-anti-imperialist writers: please clarify for me--is it your position that all non-working class struggles are to be rejected? including women's liberation, African-American liberation, Gay liberation, anti-war movement, etc.?

For somebody who has read as much Marx as he has, he should have a much better class analysis than this. The struggle for gay liberation is the struggle to end sexism, so long as the link is made to understand the fact that sexism is the primary exploitation necessary to maintaining the relationship of capital. The other side of the coin of sexism is hetero-sexism, and the ending of the binary sex roles is necessary to ending capitalist domination.

Gay liberation doesn't lead to workers arming themselves and waving rainbow flags as they march off to defend some gay messiah who will lead them to the promised land because they're all gay -- that would be a national liberation movement.

An essay that I posted on this site a while ago discusses all of the topics in this post from an anarchist position and using a class analysis. I am linking it here and would like people to read it, as it does have a lot to do with Wayne's position, identity politics, and national identity.

paper: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgrrp3x8_2c6dnmw
forum link: http://libcom.org/forums/thought/the-transitions-of-the-social-revolution-paper-i-wrote
other forum: http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/881

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Jan 12 2007 21:22
Quote:
I can't see anything about "class" in the platformism, except the rhetoric: we support class struggle; platformists, really, support pretty much everything.

Well from what I can see the ultra-leftists here can't handle nuanced evaluation. Everything has to be seen through this all or nothing abstraction device, and not given any context. We've had posters in the past few days dismissing the EZLN arrogantly as 'just a bunch of national liberationists', despite the fact that they've socialised their own economy and run their corner of Chiapas directly democratically and have called for an end to capitalism, and have been working for a people's movement in Mexico and across the globe. We've got people here with positions something akin to chauvinism in their dismissal of struggles against imperialism. It's all just a little bit abstract and hobbyist and anti-organisational. For those of us in the real world there are people whose positions on certain questions we don't like or are dubious of, but whom we work with for a better society, and that can include people whose ideology is one of national liberation, in certain contexts.

A friend of mine who wants to join the Sparts told me that the WSM support the Irish Labour Party. Utter bollocks (what was meant that the WSM have been involved in social struggles which the labour party have also been involved in - the Sparts wrote off those social struggles as 'the Labour Party', and therefore saw the WSM as supporting the Labour Party) but symptomatic of the kind of unipolar, metaphysical thinking that is also implicit in ultra-leftism, whereby everything is rendered bad or good (reactionary/reformist or revolutionary) rather than something which is neither wholly the one or the other, yet.

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Jan 12 2007 21:54
Quote:
We've got people here with positions something akin to chauvinism in their dismissal of struggles against imperialism. It's all just a little bit abstract and hobbyist and anti-organisational.

What is this hobbyist Dundee? Is it a new buzz word that you have picked up from Joe Black? Leo is active in Turkey, which is actually a place where it is slightly more dangerous for communists to work than in Scotland. He is also the editor of our new worker's bulletin (which incidentally it is technically illegal for us to distribute. We still do it though),
(first two issues here:
http://libcom.org/forums/enternasyonalist-komunist-sol/gece-notlari-1-aralik
http://libcom.org/forums/enternasyonalist-komunist-sol/gece-notlai-2-ocak )
not what I would describe as a hobyist.

Quote:
For those of us in the real world there are people whose positions on certain questions we don't like or are dubious of, but whom we work with for a better society, and that can include people whose ideology is one of national liberation, in certain contexts.

Of course one works alongside people whose ideology is nationalist, and even fascist. The point is that it is on a class terrain when they are struggling as workers. Last year at my work we organised a strike in defence of a woman who was extremely Islamic, but not because she was a Muslim, but because she was a sacked worker.

The WSM is leftist. Not because they are involved in the same struggles as members of the labour party, but because they will join in with any leftist campaign.

Quote:
but symptomatic of the kind of unipolar, metaphysical thinking that is also implicit in ultra-leftism, whereby everything is rendered bad or good (reactionary/reformist or revolutionary) rather than something which is neither wholly the one or the other, yet.

Yes, you are right here. Workers struggle in defence of class interests is 'good'. Bourgeoisie nationalism, and campaigns are 'bad'. The problem is that you can't see the difference between them. I don't see what is mystical about it though.

Devrim

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Jan 12 2007 22:28

The pro-national liberation people always seems to resort to Dundee's argument about how complex the real world is. I think that the point made by Dev provides the basis for a response to this: national liberation is not on the same level as 'women's liberation' and such like because the former always involves directly mobilising the working class for imperialist wars. This is what makes the question so 'simple': faced with imperialist war, you are either against it and for the class struggle against the ruling class, or for it by arguing that at one level or another workers have some common interest with 'their own' bourgeoisie. This is why imperialist wars have always been a decisive moment for telling which side of the class line a political organisation stands on.

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Jan 12 2007 22:42
wangwei wrote:
This is pure right wing opportunism and is going to turn NEFAC into a reactionary organization roughly akin to the SWP that they left to find the Anarchist path.

NEFAC was in the SWP? What the fuck are you talking about. You have some serious problems if you need to weigh down your argument with outright fabrication.

If you are talking about NEFAC as an organization please cite texts that represent the organization, or someone claiming to represent the organization's position on this.

If you are talking about an individual expressing avowedly individual opinions have the respect and honesty to talk about them as such.

And by the way, what exactly is "a revolution by the USA into Venezuela"? If that's an error it's a telling one!

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Jan 12 2007 22:55

Devrim & Co.

I plan on returning to the WSM/National Lib thread . . .but first a short intervention here.

Although I disagree with your position I have appreciated the way you conduct yourself on these boards. My limited experience with the whole Left Communist/Council Communist trend has been that it is very armchair/academic. I see that you all are trying to be active within the class, and I appreciate that and maybe it lays the basis for meaningful discussion.

OK, I don't think there is any disagreement about the need to oppose the class interests of the bosses at every step. We don't look for any "nice" wing of the rulers to follow or lead.

Here are my concerns about your position:

- In situations of war (for instance Israels invasion of the Palestinian refugee camps 3-4 years ago) When workers are being exterminated, most workers would see THEIR class interest in expelling the invasion. Historically true, no? It's not that the workers are just blinded by the bosses ideology. It is that real circuimstances exist that teh "native" bourgeoise take advantage of and promote their solution for.

I have stated that I am for fighting against these occupations, massacres, invasions, etc. But counterposing a working-class anarchist program against the bosses of middle-class managers Nationalism. It seems to me that y'all just politically remove yourselves from the terrain defacto leaving the only "viable" options for resistance to organizations dominated by Nationalist ideology.

You are in Turkey, right? I bet we have similar critique of the PKK. Yet I would be in favor of attempting to counterpose an anarchist-internationalist position within the struggle to expel the Turkish state from the Kurdish areas. (I don't mean to be flip here. I am not an expert on struggle in Turkey/Kurdistan. I know implementing anything radical is much more risky for you all. I am confident that you will allow me to use concrete examples so that we may better get at differences)

I would be for participating in the Black Liberation struggles of the '50-70's.

My sense is that you all would have rather abstract reasons for abstaining.

To sum up. Workers participate in National Liberation struggles not (just) because of bosses propaganda, but because they see it in their interest to defaet imperialism. The problem of course is that capitalism can contain this kind of revolt, and as you point out, sometimes turn them into generalized slaughter.

How best to defeat imperialism without being contained within capitalism or diverted into nationalist/racist war.

Abstentionist left communist propoganda that minimizes the real oppression workers face from imperialism or anarchist-internationalist intervention?

Forgive the caricature, I'm leaving work and had to make my point quickly.

peace,
and class war

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Jan 12 2007 23:35
Dundee_United wrote:
We've had posters in the past few days dismissing the EZLN arrogantly as 'just a bunch of national liberationists', despite the fact that they've socialised their own economy and run their corner of Chiapas directly democratically and have called for an end to capitalism, and have been working for a people's movement in Mexico and across the globe.

I think it is legitimate to raise concerns about national liberation rhetoric in an allegedly anarchistic organization. I've used the case of DFLP to illustrate my own concerns, but No-one has bothered to reply. I'll try to be clearer about what troubles me: DFLP's betrayal of working class solidarity in favour of nationalist terrorism was a crushing blow to internationalism in Israel and Palestine, and that current has yet to resurface here (except with yours truly sad). I don't want that happening again, with the EZLN setting internationalism back in Mexico and, say, the US.

If that's ultra-leftism, I am not ashamed to be numbered among the ultra-leftists.
(Is there a handshake? I hope there's a handshake! cool)

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Jan 12 2007 23:51
Kdog wrote:
Here are my concerns about your position:
- In situations of war (for instance Israels invasion of the Palestinian refugee camps 3-4 years ago) When workers are being exterminated, most workers would see THEIR class interest in expelling the invasion. Historically true, no? It's not that the workers are just blinded by the bosses ideology. It is that real circuimstances exist that teh "native" bourgeoise take advantage of and promote their solution for.

I think that this comes across as very confused. I don’t see repelling the invasion as a class interest in any way. In what way is it a class interest? In what way is it opposed to the interests of other classes in Palestinian society? I think that the only way that you could argue that it is a class interest is by coming up with some nonsense about the Palestinians being a ‘proletarian nation’, and we both know where that leads.

Also, I think the phrase “most workers see THEIR class interest” should be replaced with “most workers see their interest”. I don’t think that these workers are thinking about class interests, but about national ones.

There are times when it is extremely difficult for workers to fight on a class terrain. Across the entire Middle East there is a danger of workers being completely sucked into nationalist movements, and off the class terrain. This is particularly evident at the moment in Palestine, and Iraq, but even there there are rays of hope. The recent public sector strike in Palestine is just one example. A HAMAS minister at the time condemned the strikers as being “against the national interest”. I think they were.

Kdog wrote:
You are in Turkey, right?

Actually, at the moment I am working for a large car producer in central Europe. The money is better, and it isn’t as cold. Our organisation is in Turkey though, and I will move back there in the summer.

Kdog wrote:
I bet we have similar critique of the PKK

I am not sure that we do. Ours is based upon its nationalism, and the fact that it is partially to blame along with the Turkish state for leading the working class deeper, and deeper into ethnic violence, and war.

Kdog wrote:
Yet I would be in favor of attempting to counterpose an anarchist-internationalist position within the struggle to expel the Turkish state from the Kurdish areas.

We would be in favour of involving ourselves in worker’s struggles in Kurdish areas.

Kdog wrote:
I don't mean to be flip here. I am not an expert on struggle in Turkey/Kurdistan. I know implementing anything radical is much more risky for you all.

We are a small organisation without anybody living in Kurdish areas. I don’t mean to ‘be flip’, but they would shoot you. They have banned leftist parties that support them from operating in their areas on the pain of death. Historically they haven’t been that kind to anarchists either.

Kdog wrote:
To sum up. Workers participate in National Liberation struggles not (just) because of bosses propaganda, but because they see it in their interest to defaet imperialism. The problem of course is that capitalism can contain this kind of revolt, and as you point out, sometimes turn them into generalized slaughter.
How best to defeat imperialism without being contained within capitalism or diverted into nationalist/racist war.

We see that all nations are imperialist, and don’t think that these struggles can defeat imperialism. If workers think they can we tell them that we think they are wrong. The problem with these things is that they do tend to get diverted into ‘nationalist/racist war’.

Also with the PKK, one has to wonder how infiltrated it is by the ‘deep state’, and who is actually running it even. Who are the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons? It is definitely true that their bombs seem to happen at times when the state needs to divert interest from other things

Kdog wrote:
.Abstentionist left communist propoganda that minimizes the real oppression workers face from imperialism or anarchist-internationalist intervention?

No, left communist intervention into the struggles of workers as workers, not as Turks, or Kurds, Sunni, or Alevi, but as workers in the defence of their own class interests.

It is interesting that you use the term ‘abstentionist’. The left communists in Italy proudly took on the name abstensionist after the Russian revolution. They held that there are some areas in which the working class can’t struggle. At the time they were talking about parliament. We still stand by that line today as one of the principles of the workers movement. If you look back on the threads on these boards it is interesting to see how many anarchists are prepared to abandon class positions ‘to keep out the BNP’, or some other nonsense.

Devrim

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Jan 13 2007 01:59

Perhaps I've been too kind.

This is not a serious post, Devrim. Too bad.

To be clear - when I mentioned the invasion and destruction of Jenin, your attitude is that it doesn't matter? That there is no class interest involved? This is your internationalism?

(My solidarity with the working classes of Palestine, includes when they are under seige as well as when they are on strike. Defeating that seige would have been in the interests of all workers. If some workers from Israel could have been convinced to join the defense of Jenin, it would have been a social earthquake. Of course this kind of thinking was not important to the nationalists and islamists - and would apparently not have been important to your organization)

I am quite aware that most nationalist organizations would try and repress militants organizing a libertarian alternative. Where did I indicate otherwise? For me though this is irrelevent as I have no illusions in the good nature of the PKK, IRA, etc. I guess one way to avoid the repression you speak of is to avoid struggle. This has certainly been to me the most obvious aspect of the left communist "tradition".

I am glad you brought up the recent public sector strike in Palestine.

You are not aware that this strike was also a part of the on-going power struggle between Fatah and Hamas? You know that many of these public sector workers got their jobs thru the Fatah patronage system. Fatah having controlled the entire state apparatus until recently. That the workers were left unpaid, in part because of the international freeze of Palestinian funds and "boycott" of the Hamas state, a boycott that Fatah has implicitly given support to. Nonetheless I certainly would have supported building this strike and emphasizing the responsibility of the whole of the interenational ruling class (including the Fatah & Hamas factions) for the conditions that brought about the strike . I don't imagine that would have been popular with Fatah's rulers.

But this is consistent with my position towards the national liberation struggles, whereas your support is inconsistent and reveals, I'm afraid, either:

a) pacifism (since you are willing to support non-violent strikes led by Nationalists, but not armed defense of working-class neighborhoods led by Nationalists - in fact there was probably greater possibilities of fissures and autonomy in that then in this strike)

or

b) ignorance about the situation in Palestine generally and in this strike in particular. I worry that once you did some basic research you might abstain from this strike as well.

Is there another option? I hope so cuz neither of these are very encouraging comrade.

On your glorified abstentionism . . . my comrade who spent years working in the detroit autoplantations used to describe the Sparticist League's rejection of everything not under their leadership as "oppurtunism in fear of it's self".

OK gotta go . . . my sons are demanding Teen Titan action figure time.

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Jan 13 2007 08:30
Alf wrote:
The pro-national liberation people always seems to resort to Dundee's argument about how complex the real world is. I think that the point made by Dev provides the basis for a response to this: national liberation is not on the same level as 'women's liberation' and such like because the former always involves directly mobilising the working class for imperialist wars. This is what makes the question so 'simple': faced with imperialist war, you are either against it and for the class struggle against the ruling class, or for it by arguing that at one level or another workers have some common interest with 'their own' bourgeoisie. This is why imperialist wars have always been a decisive moment for telling which side of the class line a political organisation stands on.

Alf,

simply stated, the national liberation question is important because it has served as an example of large numbers of the working class fighting for their emancipation.

The reality is that often you need to unite as much of society as you can to overthrow a foreign power, before you can build up the domestic strength to engage really deeply the class contradictions that exist within your society. For this reason, almost every revolutionary war has been preceded by a war of national liberation, and followed by a civil war.

A prime example of this is the Ukraine during the Russian Revolution. The anarchists of the Ukraine waged a war of national liberation, and built broad unity with as many divergent political groups and sectors of society as they could in order to expel the invading Austro-Hungarian army. While they diligently carried out land occupations and set up communes where they could, they realized they could not seriously begin to transform the class relationships that existed until they had fully expelled the foreign imperialist armies occupying their soil and actively crushing what little advances they were able to make.

I'm not even really sure what historical examples or possibilities your ideas are predicated upon. Can you give some examples of places where revolutionary movements have forgone national liberation struggles entirely?

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Jan 13 2007 09:23
Kdog wrote:
To be clear - when I mentioned the invasion and destruction of Jenin, your attitude is that it doesn't matter? That there is no class interest involved? This is your internationalism?

Maybe you have misunderstood me here. I was not suggesting in any way that it didn't matter. I was stating that the interests involved are not specific class interests.

Quote:
Defeating that seige would have been in the interests of all workers

How could the siege have been defeated? I don't think that it could have been defeated militarily, do you? I think that the only way for it to have been defeated would be by mass class convulsions in Israel, and by Israeli soldiers refusing to take part in it. There is an, admittedly very small, current in Israeli society that rejects the war. There is also class struggle within Israel itself. These are positive signs to be built around.

Likewise with the war in Turkey, last year we began to see the first signs of a class rejection of the war in the South-East amongst Turkish workers. Again it was very small, but there is quite a widespread realisation now that it is the children of the working class, and the peasantry who are dying in the war, and not those of the bourgeoisie.

Quote:
You are not aware that this strike was also a part of the on-going power struggle between Fatah and Hamas? You know that many of these public sector workers got their jobs thru the Fatah patronage system. Fatah having controlled the entire state apparatus until recently. That the workers were left unpaid, in part because of the international freeze of Palestinian funds and "boycott" of the Hamas state, a boycott that Fatah has implicitly given support to. Nonetheless I certainly would have supported building this strike and emphasizing the responsibility of the whole of the interenational ruling class (including the Fatah & Hamas factions) for the conditions that brought about the strike . I don't imagine that would have been popular with Fatah's rulers.

...b) ignorance about the situation in Palestine generally and in this strike in particular. I worry that once you did some basic research you might abstain from this strike as well.

No, I am aware of the situation in Palestine (I can read Arabic). It is certainly true that this strike was used in a faction fight between Fatah, and HAMAS. The strike, however, was based around class demands, and we would support it. Again, we believe it is something positive that could be built around.

We believe that the Palestinian working class is possibly the most defeated in the region. It is extremly difficult for workers there to fight on a class basis without getting dragged into faction fight between different bourgeois factions. This does not mean that there is no possibility of communist activity, but it is extremely difficult.

Kdog wrote:
I am quite aware that most nationalist organizations would try and repress militants organizing a libertarian alternative. Where did I indicate otherwise? For me though this is irrelevent as I have no illusions in the good nature of the PKK, IRA, etc. I guess one way to avoid the repression you speak of is to avoid struggle. This has certainly been to me the most obvious aspect of the left communist "tradition".

I am not sure where you derive your knowledge of the left communist tradition. In our opinion it was one born in struggle (the German revolution, the situation in Italy in 1919-1920, and the struggle against the degeneration of the Russian state), maintained its class stance throughout the counter revolution (The work of the internationalists in occupied Europe particularly France during the Second World War), and maintains its militant activity today. Yes, I am sure there are armchair intellectuals who call themselves left communists, but then I could throw any amount of rubbish at you based on people who call themselves 'anarchists'. I feel that this line of argument is unproductive though.

The comments on the PKK were just a statement of fact. The problem of organising in the Kurdish areas is not one that we are likely to face soon. We are a small organisation based in one city, and have focused our organising efforts around Ankara, and are trying to reach out to both Istanbul, and Izmir (nearly a third of the population live in these three biggest cities). We have Kurds who are members, but they like most Kurds in Turkey live in the west, and speak very little if no Kurdish. Organising in the East is a problem that for us will have to be addressed in the future. I never advocated ducking away from it though.

Kdog wrote:
But this is consistent with my position towards the national liberation struggles, whereas your support is inconsistent and reveals, I'm afraid, either:

a) pacifism (since you are willing to support non-violent strikes led by Nationalists, but not armed defense of working-class neighborhoods led by Nationalists - in fact there was probably greater possibilities of fissures and autonomy in that then in this strike)

or

b) ignorance about the situation in Palestine generally and in this strike in particular. I worry that once you did some basic research you might abstain from this strike as well.

Is there another option? I hope so cuz neither of these are very encouraging comrade.

It is not a question of supporting non-violent struggles. It is a question of judging whether a struggle is on a class terrain, or not.

Devrim

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Tojiah
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Jan 13 2007 11:02
rise wrote:
... almost every revolutionary war has been preceded by a war of national liberation, and followed by a civil war.

... which resulted in a capitalist state of either the liberal or socialist kind, with a few bouts of fascism added to the mix. What interest does the working class have with that?

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rise
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Jan 13 2007 12:14
tojiah wrote:
... which resulted in a capitalist state of either the liberal or socialist kind, with a few bouts of fascism added to the mix. What interest does the working class have with that?

That's the problem with purism... you never accept progress as progress, and demand some kind of absolutist utopia with every step.

Unfortunately for purists, the world is a lot more complex and doesn't really coutenance that attitude. Sounds like you might as well give up if that's your analysis.

But I'm interested in how you have your thumb on the pulse of the "working class", or what you even think the working class is.

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Tojiah
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Jan 13 2007 12:31
rise wrote:
That's the problem with purism... you never accept progress as progress, and demand some kind of absolutist utopia with every step.

This is all very abstract. You seem to think that national liberation has brought progress at some point. Let's have it, then. Let's do a case study. I'll let you choose the country.

rise wrote:
Unfortunately for purists, the world is a lot more complex and doesn't really coutenance that attitude. Sounds like you might as well give up if that's your analysis.

No, but I'm not going to pretend that things are better than they really are.

rise wrote:
But I'm interested in how you have your thumb on the pulse of the "working class", or what you even think the working class is.

You don't have to be a physician to realize that the working class has no pulse, at least where I am. It's dead. It's been killed softly by the left-bourgeois. That's not just platitudes, you can look at my report on the anti-Israel Business Conference demo, over there in my Israeli General Strike thread. It's very disheartening.

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Joseph Kay
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Jan 13 2007 12:32

rise; it's a bit patronising to suggest anyone who opposes NLMs is a 'purist' who doesn't understand the complexity of the world. i mean if i were under foreign military occupation my reaction would be no different to if my 'own' state sent in troops - a militarisation of capitalist control would warrant me getting together with other workers to organise resistance. 'nations' don't come into it.

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Jan 13 2007 12:58
Quote:
We've had posters in the past few days dismissing the EZLN arrogantly as 'just a bunch of national liberationists',

They are just a branch of national liberationists!

Quote:
despite the fact that they've socialised their own economy and run their corner of Chiapas directly democratically and have called for an end to capitalism, and have been working for a people's movement in Mexico and across the globe.

They are not against "capitalism", they are against foreign capital and they are for national capital. They want "nationalization" not "socialization". They are when they are just a bunch of nationalists and reformists who go around waving the national flag and singing the national anthem. So yay Zapatistas!

This is exactly what I mean when I say there is a tendency that wants to "support" every "movement" and everyone who seem to be "protesting".

Dundee_United
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Jan 13 2007 15:49
Quote:
They are just a branch of national liberationists!

[...]

They are not against "capitalism", they are against foreign capital and they are for national capital. They want "nationalization" not "socialization". They are when they are just a bunch of nationalists and reformists who go around waving the national flag and singing the national anthem. So yay Zapatistas!

This is exactly what I mean when I say there is a tendency that wants to "support" every "movement" and everyone who seem to be "protesting".

Pathetic. Do some further reading.

Quote:
What is this hobbyist Dundee? Is it a new buzz word that you have picked up from Joe Black? Leo is active in Turkey, which is actually a place where it is slightly more dangerous for communists to work than in Scotland. He is also the editor of our new worker's bulletin (which incidentally it is technically illegal for us to distribute. We still do it though),
(first two issues here:
http://libcom.org/forums/enternasyonalist-komunist-sol/gece-notlari-1-aralik
http://libcom.org/forums/enternasyonalist-komunist-sol/gece-notlai-2-ocak )
not what I would describe as a hobyist.

It's hobbyist because refusal to engage with reality means that no matter how 'active' you are you will not be taken seriously. Consider such publications as "world revolution", not yours I know, but a valid example nonetheless. Apart from the obvious error of calling the mag "world revolution" it contains a series of bizarre doctrines for which there is no empirical evidence, which seem deliberately designed to make communists appear loony. Now insisting the EZLN is pure and simple a nationalist organisation is part of what I'm talking about. Everything has been abstracted to political principles, but those principles and ideas are never revised in light of the fact that they are hideously impractical in the real world. Futhermore don't go pulling rank. I'm more than aware of the difficulties you guys face organising in Turkey (for that you have my respect) but you're making assumptions about me, and I rather suspect I've been shot at more times than Leo (but I wouldn't use that as an argument, because it's just pulling rank).

Quote:
I think it is legitimate to raise concerns about national liberation rhetoric in an allegedly anarchistic organization.

Nobody has said they are 'anarchistic'. As it happens the communities are run on a directly democratic basis with a socialised economy but the EZLN is firmly hierarchical and has its origins in Leninism.

Quote:
I've used the case of DFLP to illustrate my own concerns, but No-one has bothered to reply. I'll try to be clearer about what troubles me: DFLP's betrayal of working class solidarity in favour of nationalist terrorism was a crushing blow to internationalism in Israel and Palestine, and that current has yet to resurface here (except with yours truly Sad). I don't want that happening again, with the EZLN setting internationalism back in Mexico and, say, the US.

No-one has bothered to answer you because it's a pisspoor comparison. You can't compare the EZLN and the Zapatistas to the DFLP. It's like comparing oranges with bananas. You only display your ignorance by insisting that the comparison between a nationalist terrorist organisation and a commune and movement with some contradictions be made.

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Jan 13 2007 16:39
Quote:
Pathetic. Do some further reading.

I would suggest you to do the same thing but I seriously doubt that you have the ability to do so.

Just a few quotes from them;

Their reformism:

2nd Communiqué wrote:
Now the possibility of a peaceful transition to democracy and freedom can be put to the test: the electoral process of August 1994. The CND (Convention Nacional Democratica) must demand the carrying out of free and democratic elections

Their advocacy of nationalization and state ownership and support for national capital:

6th Communiqué wrote:
...a full and coordinated defence of national sovereignty, through intransigent opposition to the privatisation of electrical energy, oil, water and natural resources.

Their nationalism:

Third Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle wrote:
Today, we repeat: OUR STRUGGLE IS NATIONAL

Their website: (notice the national flag) http://www.ezln.org/

A few pictures:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39381000/jpg/_39381945_zapatista5.jpg

http://images.villagevoice.com/issues/0109/zap6.jpg

http://lapalabradelmuro.netfirms.com/1ago2003/caracolasch.jpg

Quote:
and I rather suspect I've been shot at more times than Leo

What's your record =P

redtwister
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Jan 13 2007 17:17

This is a little lazy, but I hope relevant. I am going to cut and paste in a discussion i had with someone i have been active with for 21 years, as time and distance have caused us to take somewhat different paths politically and this is exactly a key question.

Quote:
"Now then ... would you consider yourself anti-racist? anti-sexist? then why not anti-imperialist? it seems to me unconscionable that any revolutionary should paint himself into the theoretical corner that you seem to have, by insisting that any anti-racist position is effectively a racial essentialist or nationalist one, that any anti-sexist position is effectively a (bourgeois/reformist) feminist one, and that any anti-imperialist position is synonymous with nationalism and the fallacy of national capitals etc.

It's just a politically sterile position, of the sort that I associate with the worst kind of dogmatic sectarian orthodoxy that works deductively from an abstract position rather than starting with real life."

"I understand your point on this, I think. My concern is not to downplay the fight against racism, sexism or imperialism. Part of the reason I sent you the article on the resistance in Iraq is exactly that it was a vigorous defense of the resistance as not reducible to reactionary mullahs and Islamicists. It is a point of view that does not at all sit well with the dogmatic ultra-lefts [please note, I do not mean by this that all ultra-lefts are dogmatic, only some - CW]. However on the other side, the Trotskyist left seems to be jumping on the bandwagon of "critical" support of Islamists, just as groups engaged in "critical" support of anti-fascism in the 1930's, which in Spain for example meant joining the democratic forces against fascism in a front of "first the fascists, then capitalism", which was suicidal.

This has continued to be the case, such as in Vietnam, where the Trotskyists, in a very large Trotskyist organization, did not take a position independent of Ho Chi Minh's forces, which garnered them being slaughtered and which certainly did not support a communist position within the Vietnamese working class.

One problem, with anti-(take your pick) is the practical content. Is the enemy merely the external invader? Is the enemy men? Is the enemy the white race? How does anti- orient itself relative to bourgeois forces in its own camp? I find it hard to see anti- type politics as not placing the enemy as somewhere other than capital, and therefore accepting alliances with "anti-racist", "anti-imperialist", "anti-sexist" bourgeois forces and politics. And yet what is the outcome in every single case of such alliances? The spread of capital. Not one anti-colonial revolution that followed anti-imperialist politics (and by this I mean the groups which stood formally on anti-imperialist politics, not the anti-imperialism of the oppressed, which also had an element of wanting to be finished with all exploiters and oppressors) resulted in independent class politics. This is not to argue against prioritizing the expulsion of the colonialists, or to prioritize the attack on racism and sexism, but to refuse to give material, moral or intellectual support to political tendencies and parties that will cut our throats in the name of "unity".

I am not suddenly against independent black struggle, but independent in what sense? Independent black struggle or independent black proletarian struggle? I don't expect oppressed workers to wait for the workers racialized as white or gendered as male or nationalized as "American" to get it. I still hold to the position that class unity at the expense of attacking racism, sexism or imperialism is not working class unity. It is making the more radical, active part of our class commit suicide in the name of some bullshit democratic unity, a unity of "the majority" of our class.

Taking off from the perspective that working class is not a sociological category, but a category of struggle, the proletariat is that section of the class acting practically against capital. If that is the resistance in Iraq and the expulsion of the US military and US imperialism from Iraq is the core of that struggle, then we know which side we stand on. However, to sidle up to Islamist political groups and "representatives", to play soft with the reactionary nature of Hezbollah, is unforgivable treason. The issue is not whether or not the workers hold some beliefs that make them sympathetic to these groups, but whether or not the practical activity of the workers is going further and how we orient to and talk about that activity.

That is basically my take on it. I don't think it is one based on abstract principles, but I am trying to see the problem from the side of communism, from what is involved in the radicalization of our class to abolish capital. That seems to me to be the only way to view struggles that does not put us back in the straight jacket of immediate demands versus revolution, with the politics of immediate demands always being foregrounded over the interests of our class as a whole. in that sense, I am trying to think about what it means when Marx argues that communists differ in 1) being the most consistent fighters and 2) in considering the direction of class struggle from the point of view of the interests of the class as a whole, that is, from the point of view of communism and the abolition of capital.

It might help me if you explain to me what you practically think anti-racism, anti-sexism or anti-imperialism entails as a politics distinct from communist politics, and if they are not distinct, what you think those phrases, which for me are historically practically connected to bourgeois politics of racial, gender or oppressed nationality unity with bourgeois forces and politics."

I would add two notes:
1. i do not think that the character of the anti-clonial struggles can be reduced to who won, IMO, there was a tendency in those struggles to want to reject the imposition of the capital-labor relation as such, and that that should have been defended. However, nowhere it seems did that tendency gain political support, certainly not from those who defended national liberation, as they already straight-jacketed the movement politically by defense of the nationalist organizations in those places. The struggle against colonialism could only have succeeded in a proletarian direction if it extended from these countries where capital was tenuoous to the capitalist regions. However, as the national liberationists won, they have since succeeded in enforcing the capital-labor relation as the dominant relation in those places and the politics possible at that time have disappeared. On this, i draw my ideas from and try to extend, what marx wrote about Russia and the mir in the late 1870's, early 1880's.

2. Proletarian class struggle is not just in the workplace or around workplace demands. It also expresses itself in struggles against the intra-class divisions of race, gender, sexuality, etc. and also in armed struggle. I do happen to think that the object of struggle is to break the political power of capital, and this would include things such as demoralization of the military and armed struggle, taking over of police stations and destruction of the police and jails and legal system.

I am not claiming that this is on the agenda very many places at the moment, but in the case of Iraq and Palestine, proletarian politics is not simply about strikes or taking over the factories, it is about the struggle against occupation too. This is where it seems to me that Bordiga has a strong point against councilism in Seize Power or Seize the Facory?

Hm, I would also add that any notion of dictatorship of the proletariat worth its salt is taken as something that can in no way be achieved nationally, but is an international condition. DofP in one country is as asinine as socialism in one country. that is why i do not look at anti-colonial struggles, for example, simply from the point of view of "the revolution" in one place. It is only comprehensible as one moment of the international struggle.

Chris

ernie
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Jan 13 2007 17:21

Dundee_united you say about the ICC that
Everything has been abstracted to political principles, but those principles and ideas are never revised in light of the fact that they are hideously impractical in the real world
What facts are these then? Has internationalism stopped being the foundation of proletarian politics? May be nationalism has improved the workers' lot rather than leading them to the slaughter?
You also say:

Quote:
Apart from the obvious error of calling the mag "world revolution"

What error is that then?

Dundee_United
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Jan 13 2007 17:53
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What's your record =P

Seven separate occasions. tongue

Dundee_United
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Jan 13 2007 17:54
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What error is that then?

No bugger's gonna read it.

Dundee_United
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Jan 13 2007 17:59
Quote:
Just a few quotes from them;

This is precisely my point. You can't see past a few things they have said and done, recognise they are, necessarily, full of contradictions, and yet still positive.

A lot of the recent struggle in Oaxaca, which I'm assuming you are little less critical of, wouldn't have happened without the EZLN's Other Campaign, which has been concretely helping that struggle out since Atenco and before, or without the space they have opened up in the consciousness of certain sections of the working class in Mexico.

Also their sixth declaration was expressly against capitalism, not just foreign capital.

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Jan 13 2007 19:05

Rise wrote:

"simply stated, the national liberation question is important because it has served as an example of large numbers of the working class fighting for their emancipation.

The reality is that often you need to unite as much of society as you can to overthrow a foreign power, before you can build up the domestic strength to engage really deeply the class contradictions that exist within your society. For this reason, almost every revolutionary war has been preceded by a war of national liberation, and followed by a civil war.

A prime example of this is the Ukraine during the Russian Revolution. The anarchists of the Ukraine waged a war of national liberation, and built broad unity with as many divergent political groups and sectors of society as they could in order to expel the invading Austro-Hungarian army. While they diligently carried out land occupations and set up communes where they could, they realized they could not seriously begin to transform the class relationships that existed until they had fully expelled the foreign imperialist armies occupying their soil and actively crushing what little advances they were able to make.

I'm not even really sure what historical examples or possibilities your ideas are predicated upon. Can you give some examples of places where revolutionary movements have forgone national liberation struggles entirely?"

If by revolutionary movements you mean proletarian revolutionary movements, historical experience has shown that there is a complete antagonism between such movements and 'national liberation'. I'm not talking about previous historical periods when it still made sense for the nascent workers' movement to support the bourgeois revolution against feudalism. I'm talking about today's epoch when the bourgeoisie is completely rotten and there is no longer a 'common enemy' against which the working class and the capitalists can form a temporary alliance.

Confusion about the fact that the historical conditions of the former period had radically changed cost the communists in Turkey very dear at the beginning of the 1920s. The Bolsheviks, in their majority, still held to this notion of an 'anti-imperialist alliance' between the bourgeois nationalists and the workers' movement, and called on Turkish communists to follow this policy. In fact this alliance meant tying the communists to their executioners - the nationalists led by Kemal. Same experience in China in 1927 - the 'anti-imperialist' alliance with the Kuomintang led directly to the massacre of the Shanghai workers. Again in the 1920s, the IRA was used to suppress workers' strikes and occupations. In the period following world war two, there is any number of examples of national liberation forces coming to power and immediately suppressing the workers' struggle, from Saigon to Angola and Zimbabwe.

Can I give examples of revolutionary movements that have 'forgone' national liberation struggles? I suspect we have a different definition of 'revolutionary movements' . But we could take the Paris Commune. True that it to some extent began as a 'patriotic' rebellion but it very quickly went beyond this: as soon as the French and Prussian bourgeoisies understood its class nature they united their forces to crush it. This is what led Marx to say that the whole ideal of the national war revealed its historic bankruptcy at that point, in 'old Europe' at least. Or we could look at the Russian revolution. In practise the revolutinary camp was made up of those who understood that what was on the agenda in Russia was no longer a 'democratic' alliance with the bourgeoisie against Czarism but a proletarian insurrection as a first step towards the world revolution; those who thought that some kind of bourgeois revolution was still on the agenda almost all joined the camp of the counter-revolution straight away. The Bolsheviks still had many confusions about national liberation, and as you show in your post, so did the Makhnovists, but the fundamental dynamic of 1917 was anti-national and internationalist.

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Alf
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Jan 13 2007 19:05

Rise wrote:

"simply stated, the national liberation question is important because it has served as an example of large numbers of the working class fighting for their emancipation.

The reality is that often you need to unite as much of society as you can to overthrow a foreign power, before you can build up the domestic strength to engage really deeply the class contradictions that exist within your society. For this reason, almost every revolutionary war has been preceded by a war of national liberation, and followed by a civil war.

A prime example of this is the Ukraine during the Russian Revolution. The anarchists of the Ukraine waged a war of national liberation, and built broad unity with as many divergent political groups and sectors of society as they could in order to expel the invading Austro-Hungarian army. While they diligently carried out land occupations and set up communes where they could, they realized they could not seriously begin to transform the class relationships that existed until they had fully expelled the foreign imperialist armies occupying their soil and actively crushing what little advances they were able to make.

I'm not even really sure what historical examples or possibilities your ideas are predicated upon. Can you give some examples of places where revolutionary movements have forgone national liberation struggles entirely?"

If by revolutionary movements you mean proletarian revolutionary movements, historical experience has shown that there is a complete antagonism between such movements and 'national liberation'. I'm not talking about previous historical periods when it still made sense for the nascent workers' movement to support the bourgeois revolution against feudalism. I'm talking about today's epoch when the bourgeoisie is completely rotten and there is no longer a 'common enemy' against which the working class and the capitalists can form a temporary alliance.

Confusion about the fact that the historical conditions of the former period had radically changed cost the communists in Turkey very dear at the beginning of the 1920s. The Bolsheviks, in their majority, still held to this notion of an 'anti-imperialist alliance' between the bourgeois nationalists and the workers' movement, and called on Turkish communists to follow this policy. In fact this alliance meant tying the communists to their executioners - the nationalists led by Kemal. Same experience in China in 1927 - the 'anti-imperialist' alliance with the Kuomintang led directly to the massacre of the Shanghai workers. Again in the 1920s, the IRA was used to suppress workers' strikes and occupations. In the period following world war two, there is any number of examples of national liberation forces coming to power and immediately suppressing the workers' struggle, from Saigon to Angola and Zimbabwe.

Can I give examples of revolutionary movements that have 'forgone' national liberation struggles? I suspect we have a different definition of 'revolutionary movements' . But we could take the Paris Commune. True that it to some extent began as a 'patriotic' rebellion but it very quickly went beyond this: as soon as the French and Prussian bourgeoisies understood its class nature they united their forces to crush it. This is what led Marx to say that the whole ideal of the national war revealed its historic bankruptcy at that point, in 'old Europe' at least. Or we could look at the Russian revolution. In practise the revolutionary camp was made up of those who understood that what was on the agenda in Russia was no longer a 'democratic' alliance with the bourgeoisie against Czarism but a proletarian insurrection as a first step towards the world revolution; those who thought that some kind of bourgeois revolution was still on the agenda almost all joined the camp of the counter-revolution straight away. The Bolsheviks still had many confusions about national liberation, and as you show in your post, so did the Makhnovists, but the fundamental dynamic of 1917 was anti-national and internationalist.

World Revolution is what we're for -helps to distinguish us from those who think the revolution is 'national'

mic
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Jan 13 2007 19:06

I agree with Leo. IBRP ha collected a list of quotations of the same kind from EZLN:

Quote:
... los zapatistas piensan que, en México - atención, en México - [lo subraya el mismo Marcos - ndr] la recuperación y la defensa de la soberanía nacional hace parte de una revolución antineoliberal. Paradójicamente, el EZLN ha sido acusado de desear la fragmentación de la nación mexicana. La realidad es que los únicos que han hablado de separatismo son los empresarios del estado de Tabasco rico en petróleo y los diputados federales chiapanecos que pertenecen al PRI [...]. Los zapatistas piensan que es necesaria la defensa del Estado nacional frente a la globalización...
Quote:
El gobierno mexicano, las fuerzas políticas, y también la sociedad civil, tienen la oportunidad de hacer de Chiapas un laboratorio para la transición pacífica hacia una democracia plural y respetuosa de la realidad multi-étnica del país [el subrayado es nuestro – ndr], o de permitir que se convierta en el escenario en el cual tendrá lugar un genocidio contra su población indígena.

Unfortunately, I can provide links only to Spanish and Italian material of IBRP, but it's based on a very in-deep and interesting analysis of the social structure of Chiapas and Mexico, which I suggest reading:

Mexico, Chiapas y zapatismo

Messico, Chiapas e zapatismo

As far as I know EZLN hasn't played any important role in Oaxaca, apart from expressing solidarity. In any case, I don't think the policy of EZLN can be of any help to improve the class consciousness of proletarians in Chiapas of elsewhere.