To Julian,
I have been following the exchange about the "Video Essay" with mounting dismay
because the critique of your insightful analysis has not been, as it should
have and as you have repeatedly asked for in your responses, addressed to
substantial aspects of that study but went awfully wrong in three
distinguishable directions:
1) Either it was a (let me call it contemptuous) sweeping rejection of the
study as a whole because the critics didn't like your way of utilizing the
Marxist method to analyse the scary reality of our time instead of using
Marxist categories as hollow slogans in the accustomed way with which they may
feel comfortable, or
2) it was abuse justified by reliance on Western mainstream propaganda
about the warring parties (to which, by the way, you should never have
responded), or
3) it was (let me call it arrogant) admonition for you to go read such and
such publications which will show you that you are wrong without that the
critics condescend to go into any direct debate with you.
So, I went and read the article recommended by Gojko:
Volodymyr
Ishchenko: The class conflict behind Russia's war
https://links.org.au/class-conflict-behind-russias-war
I addressed the following comments concerning this article to Gojko on this
forum on January 9, to which I may ad here, as background information to whom
it may concern, that Volodymyr Ishchenko is an associate researcher at the
renowned German Freie Universität Berlin.
"Your contributions to this Forum, Gojko, always make my day because I consider
that your understanding of Marxist thinking and methodology are nearest to mine.
However, I have a different opinion regarding the article (below) which you
recommend for reading, although the author has delivered a technically perfect
and insightful analysis by means of the Marxist analytical instruments of the
contradictions between "Political Capitalism" and Capitalism in its more
advanced form as "Transnational Capital".
My critique is summarized in two points:
1) The assessment of the colour revolutions is one-sided because these
movements appear in this article as authentic social movements aiming at the
removal of that class of "Political Capitalists" to the advantage of the
exploited classes and there is no mention whatsoever of the promotion of these
movements by the West as a strategy of political war against the national
ruling classes, may they be good or bad, which put up some resistance to the
transnational capital's grasp of their national space. The author masks out the
question of the main and secondary contradictions to the disadvantage of the
reader.
2) The conclusion is the wish that the political capitalists' class more
"mobilisationist politics may create the condition for a more organised,
conscious, mass political opposition rooted in the popular classes than any
post-Soviet country has ever seen, and ultimately for a new
social-revolutionary wave". By what has been said before in that analysis, it
seems that this new social-revolutionary wave should eliminate the class of
political capitalists with view of opening the national spaces to transnational
capital. But this is like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
Best regards" - also to you, Julian
Salua
Priv. Doz. Dr. Salua Nour
E-Mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
Handy: 0049160 9706 7723
Phone: 0049 30 31004064
Von: [email protected] <[email protected]> Im Auftrag von Julian Samboma via
groups.io
Gesendet: Sonntag, 12. Januar 2025 20:17
An: [email protected]
Betreff: Re: [marxmail] Video essay: A Marxian analysis of the Ukraine war
Michael Karadjis,
"Proxy war" not a Marxist concept? Who said it was? So if it is not a Marxist
concept it should not be used in Marxist discourse? Are the full stop (period
to the Yanks), comma, colon and semi-colon Marxist concepts! Lord luv a duck!
You do disappoint, comrade!
My book on the Arab Spring has been available since 2018; it was even reviewed
by Comrade Andrew Stewart in Counterpunch. Since that time no Marxist or
non-Marxist has disputed my positions. Why is that, do you think? If you want
to demolish my arguments in that book, please do so in a reputable magazine -
of which there are many - and send me a copy or link and then I will demolish
your arguments with all the authority which the Marxian dialectic permits. You
cannot critique a whole book by making off-the-cuff ripostes on a message
board. You should know better, comrade!
While you're at it, please feel free to critique my theory of Communicative
Violence. That is also derived from Kindergarten Dialectics! That should be a
breeze for you. I have had no takers before! More grease to the elbow of
Kindergarten Dialectics!
I am not an apologist for Putin. He is just as capitalist as the best (or
worst) of the West, so please do not conflate a dispassionate dialectical
analysis with support for Putin. Disingenuous!
As for someone who mentioned abuse, I can only apologise for coming from an
abusive and very violent culture. You know, "we people" are built that way!
Since no one will take up the gauntlet of critiquing my work in a responsible
manner, I will show you how it is done. Within the week I will critique "The
class conflict behind Russia's war" by Volodymyr Ishchenko, which someone
linked as an example of a "good Marxian or dialectical analysis". I will write
a proper critique, post it as a video essay and send a text copy to the
magazine that published the original for publication. Feel free to send me more
apparently better dialectical analyses.
Mr Ischenko has taken his time to research and write his essay. The least I
could do if I disagree with his positions, is to do him the courtesy of
mounting a comprehensive response. In a word, I will not be flippant or engage
in half-baked responses or "pot-shotting".
Comradely, very
Julian Lahai Samboma
Writer and Filmmaker
M: +44 (0) 7724 502132
eBeefs<https://www.ebeefs.com/>
Books<https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AJulian+Lahai+Samboma&s=relevancerank&text=Julian+Lahai+Samboma&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1>
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