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In a message dated 14/06/01 22:43:29 Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Well, Marx *did not*, by any stretch of the imagination, urge a "racial
war"
against the Slavs. "Generosity" has nothing to do with it. >>
Okay, well the following quotes are to be found in the Neue Rheinische Zeitun
No. 194, which was edited by Marx, and the article was written by Engels (it
concerned the revolutions of 1848 in Austria-Hungary). If this doesn't sound
like an invitation to genocide than I don't know what is, and Engels calls it
"a step forward" at that:
"The combatants divided into two large camps: the Germans, Poles and Magyars
took the side of revolution; the remainder, all the Slavs, except for the
Poles, the Rumanians and Transylvanian Saxons, took the side of
counter-revolution. All the earlier history of Austria up to the present day
is proof of this and 1848 confirmed it. AMONG ALL THE LARGE AND SMALL NATIONS
OF AUSTRIA, ONLY THREE STANDARD-BEARERS OF PROGRESS TOOK AND ACTIVE PART IN
HISTORY, AND STILL RETAIN THEIR VITALITY - the Germans, the Poles and the
Magyars. Hence they are now revolutionary. ALL THE OTHER large and small
NATIONALITIES AND PEOPLES ARE DESTINED TO PERISH BEFORE LONG in the
revolutionary world storm. For that reason they are now
counter-revolutionary...the Austrian Germans and Magyars will be set free and
WREAK A BLOODY REVENGE ON THE SLAV BARBARIANS. The general war which will
then break out will SMASH THIS SLAV SONDERBUND AND WIPE OUT ALL THESE PETTY
HIDEBOUND NATIONS, DOWN TO THEIR VERY NAMES. The next world war will result
in the disappearance from the face of the earth not only of reactionary
classes and dynasties, but also of entire reactionary peoples. And THAT, TOO,
IS A STEP FORWARD."
Or how about this:
"A year before the publication of Capital, Marx enthusiastically recommended
to Engels a new book by Pierre Tremaux, called "Origine et transformations de
l'homme et des autres êtres". It was, Marx said, a "very significant advance
over Darwin," for it gave a "basis in nature" (in geological and chemical
changes in the soil) for differences of nationality and race, showing how,
for example, the Slavs had been Tartarized and Mongolized, and why "the
common Negro type is only a degeneration of a far higher one."
Some terms for Slavs in Marxist writings: "Slavic riffraff", "retrograde
races", "cabbage eaters", "ethnic trash".
While I know that these thoughts weren't integral to Marxs work they do
illustrate how entrenched European racism was and continues to be in even
"progressive" discourses coming out of the West. There is almost always an
assumption of superiority in the progressive nature of the institutions and
beliefs identified (rightly or wrongly) with the Western tradition, whether
they be of the "left" or the "right". I think it is incumbent upon all real
revolutionaries to recognize the deeply racist and imperialist character of
even the most "progressive" governments in Western history and the
catastrophic nature of imperialism upon the peoples from whose perspective
history is rarely told (i.e. the overwhelming majority of the world's
population, including the lower classes in the West).
Did you know that Mao's greatest influence was Li Dai Chao, a Chinese
communist who believed that even if the comunist revolution came to power in
a European country, the rest of the world's people would still be forced to
resist the West because it would inevitably adopt racist positions vis-a-vis
the non-white world. Of course I'm grossly oversimplyfying because its
nearly 2 am, but you get the point I hope. No one is beyond reproach, and I
could even call you "racist" as well for claiming that "Dalits" are a single
race/people, when infact this is a caste designation (which is actually
closer to the concept of a class as understood by leftists here than the
concept of race as is generally understood).
<< And, of course, capitalism WAS revolutionary in overthrowing the ancien
regime. >>
This is pretty dogmatic of you. What, pray tell, were the benefits that
capitalism bestowed upon the people of the Third World? What did the last
two hundred years of the globalisation of capitalist world history do to the
global South (other than impoverish it, humiliate it, and destroy it)? Maybe
capitalism has been revolutionary in a Euro-American context, but what about
in Asia, Africa, Latin America, or even Eastern Europe? Can you honestly say
that people are better off now than before the European and American onslaugh
on these continents?
<< The
liberation of the Dalits will not come by their imitating the worst features
of their oppressor, while forsaking all others. That to me sounds like the
basis of a pernicious clerical fascism, the likes of which are already to
common in South Asia and elsewhere. >>
I think you completely misread the article and are not aware of the complex
nature of political positions on the Indian subcontinent (complex from a
Western perspective that is). Visit the site in the article about Ambedkar,
and check out some of his writings. I feel we probably would agree on most
issues, but in this case I simply think you are wrong on several counts.
cheers!
Kosta
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