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Brilliant. Richard does a great job of looking at the specifics of imperialist interventions (and lack thereof) -- and I say interventions plural because he distinguishes between different interests, and resulting different words and deeds, within that camp (as well as divergences between them and subimperialist powers, and within the latter as well). I'm a little uneasy with Richard's repeated use of the term "principal contradiction," because of the way Maoists have abused it, but I think with a little explication we can see that his conclusion in this area are correct. To be specific: One source of resentment by the revolutionaries against Assad is the latter's failure to effectively or seriously oppose imperialist and Zionist oppression of Syria and of the region as a whole. So one could say the "secondary contradiction" of the regime v. working class dispute within Syria is also in part a product of the "principal contradiction," i.e. the dispute between the Syrian nation (or the Arab Nation as a whole) and imperialism and Zionism. So while at the moment the battle is occurring primarily along the fault lines of this supposedly "secondary" contradiction, it is doing so as part of a decades-long "principal" contradiction between the nation and imperialism. Anyway to simplify matters and stop further reliance on these problematic terms, one need only look back to what Trotsky wrote about Spain, China and the Soviet Union, and the need (and right) of each country's masses to overthrow regimes which were sabotaging an effective fight against the bourgeoisie internally or externally, and that this might have to happen in the very darkest moments of the battle against those bourgeoisies. On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 11:54 AM, Louis Proyect <l...@panix.com> wrote: > > Richard Seymour responds to John Rees > > http://www.leninology.com/**2012/08/a-note-on-** > complexities-of-syrian.html<http://www.leninology.com/2012/08/a-note-on-complexities-of-syrian.html> > > ________________________________________________ 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
