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So you can understand someone being assaulted might call the police, but so long as you are not being beaten up, you can maintain your ideological "purity." So if a friend is being beaten up and ask you to call the police for him [like supporting the call of the Syrian people for intervention] your repsonse would be "I'm just not going to call the police my friend." Have I got that right? On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 9:40 AM, Manuel Barrera <mtom...@hotmail.com> wrote: > ====================================================================== > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > ====================================================================== > > > > "I can think of many other examples in which the revolutionary have been > able to exploit contradictions among imperialists to their advantage. Once > you deny those possibilities you seriously limit the possibility of > revolution." > > Nice trick--from "exploiting contradictions" to imperialists as allies --a > little Stalinism never hurt nobody, huh? Oh, but wait, yes it did. > Imperialists as allies "objectively" or otherwise isn't the same thing as > exploiting contradictions. I absolutely love exploiting the contradictions > of the capitalist class. Indeed, if the revolutionary left were to be much > better at it--a point where I most wholeheartedly agree with Binh--we would > be much better able to defend the Syrian revolution. Indeed, my > participation--and recruitment to revolutionary politics--during the era of > Vietnam was one of the greatest object lessons in exploiting contradictions > among the imperialists. We exploited the demagoguery of the so-called > "anti-war" senators and bourgeois liberals to stand up and oppose the > imperialist war; we exploited the proletarian, and exploited, nature of the > U.S. army to win over first, anti-war veterans, then anti-war G.I.s, then > anti-war combat soldiers (not necessarily in that order) to help neutralize > the effectiveness of the war machine. So, exploiting contradictions is an > important tool of any true revolutionary fighter--we don't fight on the > Enemy's terms, we fight on the masses'. However, for us to have been > effective at "exploiting contradictions" we needed three important things: > the revolutionary--that is, the completely anti-imperialist character of > the Vietnamese revolutionary forces (regardless of their leadership's > Stalinist character), the development of organized mass opposition to the > imperialist war (and its machine, I might add), and, politically, our > understanding of the objective class character of all the forces involved > in that struggle including "contradictions" within the ruling classes, the > intransigence of the rightist Vietnamese puppet governments and Stalinized > NVA, and era of worldwide youth radicalization. > > Perhaps such conditions will arise when it comes to Syria, but I hope you > will agree that such conditions are not that clear as yet or necessarily > going to be the same--it is correct that one doesn't engage in "cookie > cutter" organizing. However, we will never become a force that can truly > help the revolutionary character of the Syrian struggle against Assad > unless we recognize the difference between "exploiting contradictions" and > thinking of the imperialists as allies--objectively or not (as opposed > "objectively" to support the revolution by aligning ourselves completely > with bourgeois nationalists who may be seeking to usurp the struggle and > most likely to use imperialist intervention expressly for their > capitalist-inspired purposes). > > If you really feel the need to work with imperialist allies, perhaps it > might be useful if you went to the offices of Congress and began lining up > anti-war senators and representatives to build massive anti-war > demonstrations on the Capitol? You know, as opposed to "winning > [revolutionary] friends and influencing [revolutionary] people" by nodding > profusely in assent when Syrian revolutionary fighters--at the point of a > gun--are forced to shout "hey, somebody--Hillary! Somebody--NATO! Somebody > bomb this Syrian m. . .urderer before he shoots me!" Indeed, if a bunch of > right-wing thugs came after me on the streets and were about to try to kill > me, I'd probably call the cops and hope they aren't part of the same > right-wing hate group so they could immediately protect me. That doesn't > make me a defender of the capitalist state, it just makes me desperate. So, > no, I have no difficulty exploiting contradictions, I'm just not going to > call the police my friend or vote for more cops in the street; or, to the > point, try to justify In Principle that the bourgeois state can be my ally. > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/clayclai%40gmail.com > -- Clay Claiborne, Director Vietnam: American Holocaust <http://VietnamAmericanHolocaust.com> Linux Beach Productions Venice, CA 90291 (310) 581-1536 Read my blogs at the Daily Ko <http://clay-claiborne.dailykos.com/> and WikiLeaks Central <http://wlcentral.org/users/clayclai/track> ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
