Carrol Cox wrote: >There is a quite false assumption here that there is always something to >be done. This case, unfortunately, is one in which the first response has >to be: There is nothing to be done. > >Please note that the assumption that "something" has to be be done is >strictly a result of the way in which the bourgeois press treats the world, >carefully picking out what "problems" demand solution and what problems >do not even exist. The problem of severe malnutrition for those children >in the U.S. whose mothers were kicked off welfare does not exist. The >problem of [you name it] does not exist. The only problem in the world >now is in East Timor. (Never mind the deaths of children from disease >and malnutrition in Iraq.) Why do you immediately feel that whenever >the bourgeois press yelps every marxist must mount her silver stallion >with a Hi Ho Silver, Away!??? Radicals and progressives have, for 24 years, been campaigning on behalf of the people of East Timor. Radicals and progressives were, for many years prior to the acknowledgment of the Western political and media establishment, campaigning against apartheid in South Africa. My concern for East Timor predates 1999. I am hardly alone in this respect (see John Pilger article). The situation today, however, is very different from that that has prevailed over the previous 24 years. That the bourgeois news media is aware of the situation means that greater awareness of the gravity of the situation, together with the history behind it, including Western complicity, duplicity, racism, etc., is more likely to result. Informed, articulate critique from radical and progressive sources is more likely than ever before to make its way into outlets which reach the wider population. It's a matter of recognising the change in circumstances and, armed with understanding, acting as best one can. >There is nothing we can do except continue developing and (when >possible) spreading our understanding of imperialism and its role >in the world today. Maybe if I shout loud enough the folks stranded in the mountains of East Timor in fear for their lives, and fortunate enough to understand English, will gain a better understanding of the evils of U.S. hegemonic imperialist global capitalist enslaving racist eurocentric exploitation. Or something like that. >Nothing any marxist does will save so much as one sprained finger >in East Timor. It is either self-indulgence or ignorance to think "we" >have to "do something." What have you done today to increase >wages in South Africa? What have you done today to reduce >malaria in Guatemala? What have you done today to reduce the >prison population in the FSU? This can be interpreted as a convenient "excuse me". Or hopeless nihilism. I believe that the efforts of dedicated campaigners like John Pilger and Amnesty International and all other radical and progressive campaigners combined have helped to bring about a set of circumstances favourable to those concerned to bring about change in Western governments' policies towards Indonesia and East Timor. We cannot rely on our governments to act in good faith. That is why "doing something" is now more vital than ever, keeping the pressure on that they will not renege and continue the dirty dealing which has been the shameful history of this particular episode. Is this naive? Maybe. But it's a whole lot more inspiring than your "tough-minded", "realistic" hand-washing which, for all its avowedly progressive rationale, ends up being as precisely tough-minded and realistic as Henry Kissinger and all those other players of the great global Cold War game. Michael
