[Marxism] Answers to two questions re Colombia

[Anthony Boynton]

Answers to questions about Colombia:

Nestor’s question about the social backgrounds of
Colombia’s officer corps is a good question to which I
can only give a vague answer. I have never heard of a
general from one of the powerful families in Colombia.
My impression is that there seem to be some
traditional military families, but they are not
considered to be part of the oligarchy.  This is a
very “clubby” country, where which club you belong to
determines which rung on the ladder members of the
bourgeoisie are standing on. Most officers go to the
officers club, the officers vacation resort, the
officers this and the officers that. Non-commissioned
officers also have their own clubs, resorts, etc. A
large part of the petty bourgeoisie and the
professional elite her is connected to the military by
family relations.

Is Colombia an imperialist country? 

In brief, my definition of an imperialist country is
one which dominates another country or other countries
economically and/or militarily. This was also Lenin’s
view and the views of most other Marxists. Only a
deliberate misreading of Lenin et. al.  could lead to
an interpretation that Colombia is an imperialist
country.

If you argue that any country which has a bourgeoisie
which invests in other countries is imperialist, than
Colombia is imperialist, and so is the Sudan, and so
is every single other country on the planet.

A longer definition would take into consideration
other factors like dependency relations. Most of the
Colombian bourgeoisie, including the top layers of the
petty bourgeoisie have investments outside of the
country because they are never sure when they will
have to run for their lives. This is true of the
capitalists and small capitalists of most of the
countries in the world which are oppressed by
imperialism. It is a sign of their oppression by
imperialism, not their oppression of the countries
they are investing in. Otherwise you would have to
define Miami as a colony of Colombia.

Anthony



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