At 10:07 PM 3/31/98 -0500, Michael Yates wrote:
>Friends,
>
>It is one thing to discuss the Sendero Luminoso movement in Peru and to
try to get
>through all of the propaganda put out about it. It is also one thing to
understand
>that people ravaged by brutal repression will often react vioently when
they are
>organized. It is one thing to say that the U.S. has a lot of nerve to
condemn
>violence by oppressed peoples. However, it is another to condemn a person
who
>provides us with some additional information about Sendero and the
Peruvian left
>(always badly divided as I remember) and raises issues about the class
background of
>Guzman and SL leaders and their record to date. It is another to suggest
that
>anyone who raises such issues is some comfortable jerk in a wealthy
country without
>a real clue. Believe me I am no enemy of revolutionary violence. Allende
and even
>the Sandinistas (before so many of them abandoned thier cause) could have
uses more
>of it or some of it.
>
>Michael Yates
>
>p.s. I would like to see some more discussion of Mao and the Cultural
Revolution.
Well, I lived in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution (my Dad was an
exec in a company doing business with China, and I was a rather politically
naive boy back then) - an my only memories of Cultural Revolution was the
ubiquituous rituals of humiliating the "enemies of the revolution" that
took the appearance of a tribunal. In fact, I had an opportunity to
observe such rituals from my window that overlooked the back yard of what
used be a school, but was transformed into an ad hoc "tribunal." Since I
did not speak the language, I did not know what the defendants were accused
of specifically, but most of the offences seemed to be 'thought crimes'
subsumed under the general rubric of 'walking the imperialist path" - or so
proclaimed the signs the defendans had to display on their backs and chests
(I asked for a translation).
Perhaps I was too naive politically back then, but what I saw looked more
to me as power trips of teenage boys (most of the 'prosecutors' were under
20) or shameless opportunism of moral entrepreneurs (China's counterparts
of Pat Robertsons if you will) than a revolutionary movement. But that is
still better that going on a power trip by shooting one's political opponents.
A larger point I am getting at is that a revolution is not a uniform
phenomenon - under lofty ideals are often lurking various scumbags who use
the upheaval as an opportunity to get something for themselves.
Cheers.
Wojtek Sokolowski
Institute for Policy Studies
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD 21218
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
voice: (410) 516-4056
fax: (410) 516-8233
Opinions expressed above are those of this writer only. They do not
represent the views or policies of the Institute for Policy Studies, the
Johns Hopkins University, or anyone else affiliated with these institutions.
