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On Jul 6, 2014, at 8:26 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
(This is from the op-ed page editor of the Oman Times. Odd to see my
described as a "classical academician" but even odder to see me
misquoted. I was criticizing Tariq Ali in my review of Gilbert
Achcar's
"The People Want", who said that there were no revolutions. I wrote
in my review "Using Tariq Ali's yardstick, Vietnam had no revolution
when it drove out the American imperialists." In other words, Ali
was dismissing the Arab Spring as a non-event...
To say that some upheaval is "not a revolution" is in no way to imply
that it was a "non-event." If any non-constitutional transfer of power
(say al Sisi v. Morsi or Bush v. Gore) is to be called a "revolution,"
that would empty the word of any meaning except proclaiming one's
solidarity with the new power-holders. Marxists, though, usually
prefer to use the word as signifying a democratic political and social
transformation establishing the proletariat as the leading class in
society. In any case, that's my preferred usage. Academics, of
course, prefer an abstract categorization of such power-transfers as
either "political" or "social" "revolutions" whatever their class
content.
, a view I obviously do not share...[that] "Vietnam had no
revolution when it drove out the American imperialists. Just look at
the millionaires in Vietnam today, profiting off of sweatshops." The
so-called national revolution in 1975 changed little as the same
class against which the Vietnamese revolted still continues to rule
the nation.
full:
http://www.timesofoman.com/Columns/2086/Article-Isis-is-the-backlash-of-an-unreal-revolution
Shane Mage
"Thunderbolt steers all things." Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64
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