Sartesian: J's uncritical endorsement gets us behind Arafat and Fatah as anti-imperialist in the 70s, only to have Arafat and Fatah lead an "accommodation" [charitable choice of word] to imperialism. Then it gets us today to the uncritical endorsement of Hamas as anti-imperialist.
Reply: Here you make a crucial point, which speaks to absolute necessity of holding to a dialectical analysis of events instead of lapsing into one rooted in metaphysics. That Arafat and Fatah at one time played a progressive role in the struggle against imperialism is a matter of historical record. Indeed, until Arafat rose to prominence in the 1960s there was no Palestinian resistance, at least none worthy of the name, and even no Palestinian national consciousness. As such it was absolutely correct that anti-imperialists and Marxists offered solidarity with him and the movement he led at that time. However, as with Adams and Sinn Fein, as with the ANC, material conditions changed and he, as you rightly state, became an impediment to the struggle rather than a progressive force in pushing it forward. When this happens, when material conditions change, then so does our analysis of the struggle and the forces involved. Surely this is nothing more than the ABC of Marxism. With regard to Iran, the issue for the Left in the West is whether or not the Opposition, led by Mousvavi and the faction of the ruling elite to which he's tied, is progressive or regressive. I think it's the latter, by and large, due to the fact that as yet it does not enjoy the support of the Iranian working class in any organised or significant weight, and given Mousavi's avowed intention to liberalise Iran's economy to an even greater degree than under the incumbent - this with a view to better relations with the West. The people involved in the protests are largely from the more affluent sectors of Iranian society and in this they are redolent of the mass anti-Chavez mobilisation that attempted to remove him from power back in 2002. Ahamdinejad is certainly no progessive in the mould of Chavez, but within the parameters of an Islamic State he has played a progressive role vis-a-vis his orientation towards the poor and lowest strata of the working class in Iran and in his opposition to US imperialism and Israeli expansionism in the region. ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
