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On 5/16/2010 6:45 AM, Greg McDonald wrote: > But > just as the indigenous of Bolivia are the most exploited sector of the > working class there, so to the only layer of the working class in > motion in the USA is also among the most exploited here, namely, the > immigrant workers. SArtesian makes a similar point: "Just as the civil rights struggle was the appearance of a struggle whose essence is the emancipation of black labor, the current battle of immigrant rights appears as a battle over identity, but is in essence nothing but another pre-emptive attack of capital upon the most vulnerable of the workers" These sorts of statements, typical of the left in the imperialist countries, run the risk of taking a half truth and by cleaving off the other half, winding up with a falsehood. I'm almost 100% certain that is the case with SArtesian, but I don't recall with any specificity if Greg has expressed similar views. As the Cuban Revolution shows in exemplary fashion, behind and underneath the national question lie class questions. But that does not mean the national question can simply be liquidated into the class question, nor generally "social group" question (women, gays, oppressed nationalities/ethnicities, etc.). I don't have the time and stamina now to do a more comprehensive exposition, but I've written tons on this subject over the years on this list, the earlier posts under another name, so I will just refer comrades who may be interested to a few of them. The first one is "Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua: revolutionary movements for national salvation," which is here: http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2002w39/msg00181.htm I would add that if I'd written that today I would also have included the current Bolivian and Ecuadorean processes, and I would not have counterposed what was going on in Argentina back then to Venezuela in that categorical fashion. There is a key difference in the leadership but what is going on in Argentina is also a national movement against imperialist domination. The second post deals with the counterposition of the class struggle to the national movements by way of saying that since what underlies national oppression and national conflict are the contending interests of different classes, therefore the task of revolutionaries is to switch the movement from national rails to class-struggle rails as rapidly and thoroughly as possible. The post is, "RE: [Marxism] A clarification on Peronism, Zionism and Socialism" http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2005w15/msg00010.htm A third post focuses on the same sorts of issues but as refracted through the traditions and debates of the Trotskyist movement and Trotskyist-descended organizations: "The Permanent Revolution debate is a useless, phony debate" and is here: http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2003w27/msg00019.htm Finally, when I went to Google to look for those posts I didn't have in mind finding what I wrote at the time of the 2006 Latino immigrant rights protests, but it turned up nonetheless. But it struck me as I re-read those posts that some people here, like Manuel, who weren't around the list then, might be interested, and others might be curious just how I apply the sorts of concepts that I outline in general terms in the earlier posts. I'm sure I could find them with minimal effort on the list archive, but I'm lazy and saw first a British website that republished some of them together under the title "Latino Demos - Marxmail discussion," here: http://socialistresistance.co.uk/Latinodemos.htm Joaquín ________________________________________________ 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
