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Think Louis has it pretty well lined up here. I think all Marxists would defend a Moslem woman from the French states' diktat regarding the wearing of veils, just as we would defend Moslem women who do not wear the veil from reprisals from Moslem religious leaders. The issue is the bourgeois state's goals in their opposition to the veil, and those goals clearly include everything but the emancipation of women from oppression-- the goal is quite obviously to single out, to target, to scapegoat a religion as alien, backward, barbaric, and the members of any ethnicity practicing that religion as outside the social requirements of even bougeois due process. The issue is not whether this woman wears a veil or not, but what are her political views? What are her views on the condition of capitalism, the necessity, prospects, and agent for its overthrow-- that kind of stuff-- exactly the kind of stuff we would use to evaluate any candidate. Dennis' analogy to Malcolm X is useful...up to a point. It's one thing for every organization to defend the Nation of Islam from racist attacks. It's quite a different thing to present a member of the Nation of Islam, who believes in blue-eyed white devils [think Lula mention blue-eyed white devils last year as being the cause of the current economic predicament] as a candidate representing a Marxist party, and then create a platform for said candidate to denounce blue-eyed white devils. While NPA says it's not a Marxist party, it does represent itself as a working class party that believes, supports, revolutionary change. All that being said, since the NPA is not a Marxist party, their candidate who wears a veil should be defended by Marxists from attack and discrimination based on her wearing a veil.. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shane Mage" <shm...@pipeline.com> ________________________________________________ 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
