[Marxism] Fwd: Times of Oman | Column :: Isis is the backlash of an unreal revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (This is from the op-ed page editor of the Oman Times. Odd to see my described as a classical academician but even odder to see me misquoted. I was criticizing Tariq Ali in my review of Gilbert Achcar's The People Want, who said that there were no revolutions. I wrote in my review Using Tariq Ali's yardstick, Vietnam had no revolution when it drove out the American imperialists. In other words, Ali was dismissing the Arab Spring as a non-event, a view I obviously do not share.) Raging debates in academic circles notwithstanding, Marxist ideologue Tariq Ali is right in claiming that there were no revolutions, not in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, nor Yemen in the 2010-2014 period. Fundamentally, Arab Spring, was nothing more than misguided uprising which was bound to fail and give rise to counter revolutionary and extreme reactionary force like Isis. In essence, Arab Spring resembles what classical academician Louis Proyect asserts. It looks like the false revolution what Vietnam experienced in 1975 when it expelled the Americans and overthrew the landlord-capitalist clique in Saigon. Deep down, Proyect's analysis of the Vietnamese revolution is spot on. Vietnam had no revolution when it drove out the American imperialists. Just look at the millionaires in Vietnam today, profiting off of sweatshops. The so-called national revolution in 1975 changed little as the same class against which the Vietnamese revolted still continues to rule the nation. full: http://www.timesofoman.com/Columns/2086/Article-Isis-is-the-backlash-of-an-unreal-revolution Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Times of Oman | Column :: Isis is the backlash of an unreal revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Jul 6, 2014, at 8:26 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote: (This is from the op-ed page editor of the Oman Times. Odd to see my described as a classical academician but even odder to see me misquoted. I was criticizing Tariq Ali in my review of Gilbert Achcar's The People Want, who said that there were no revolutions. I wrote in my review Using Tariq Ali's yardstick, Vietnam had no revolution when it drove out the American imperialists. In other words, Ali was dismissing the Arab Spring as a non-event... To say that some upheaval is not a revolution is in no way to imply that it was a non-event. If any non-constitutional transfer of power (say al Sisi v. Morsi or Bush v. Gore) is to be called a revolution, that would empty the word of any meaning except proclaiming one's solidarity with the new power-holders. Marxists, though, usually prefer to use the word as signifying a democratic political and social transformation establishing the proletariat as the leading class in society. In any case, that's my preferred usage. Academics, of course, prefer an abstract categorization of such power-transfers as either political or social revolutions whatever their class content. , a view I obviously do not share...[that] Vietnam had no revolution when it drove out the American imperialists. Just look at the millionaires in Vietnam today, profiting off of sweatshops. The so-called national revolution in 1975 changed little as the same class against which the Vietnamese revolted still continues to rule the nation. full: http://www.timesofoman.com/Columns/2086/Article-Isis-is-the-backlash-of-an-unreal-revolution Shane Mage Thunderbolt steers all things. Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64 Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Times of Oman | Column :: Isis is the backlash of an unreal revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 7/6/14 10:59 AM, Shane Mage wrote: To say that some upheaval is not a revolution is in no way to imply that it was a non-event. If any non-constitutional transfer of power (say al Sisi v. Morsi or Bush v. Gore) is to be called a revolution, that would empty the word of any meaning except proclaiming one's solidarity with the new power-holders. Marxists, though, usually prefer to use the word as signifying a democratic political and social transformation establishing the proletariat as the leading class in society. In any case, that's my preferred usage. Actually, Gilbert Achcar does not use the word revolution. He instead refers to 'thawra', the Arab word for revolt. Even in that context, it would be wrong to refer to Morsi's election as a revolt. It was instead a bid to maintain the status quo. As the prince says in The Leopard: everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
