[Marxism] a thought on bombay/mumbai attacks

[Aaron Aarons]

>From: Tom Cod <tcod at hotmail.com>
>Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:31:23 +0000
>
>The below comment is flawed, leaving any economic argument aside, that unwittingly is of a piece with the line the patrician defenders of slavery and colonialism have promoted for centuries.

Those defenders of oppression have always lied about the actual material reality of life under slavery and colonialism, and have also done their best to make sure that life under the systems that replace them is as miserable as possible.

>What comments like that ignore is the immense political and national gain that the overthrow of de jure segregation and the establishment of democratic civil rights for the majority of the people and formal national independence represents and the intangible good represented by the advance of personal and national freedom.

Those intagible goods are very tangible for the small layer of Blacks who can afford to utilize them. And what "national independence" and "national freedom" are you talking about, Tom? Independence from whom? Freedom from whom?

>The abolition of apartheid was a historic milestone in black Africa's struggle for full liberation and an accomplishment of one of the historical tasks of the revolution and progress,

I would argue that the replacement of white rule in whiteface by white rule in blackface was a means of derailing Black Africa's struggle for full liberation. The Oppenheimers, et al., understood this (even if most "leftists" don't) which is why they made their deal with Mandela and the ANC and forced it on the white politicians. The latter and their mass white base, BTW, have, unlike the Black working class, been doing a lot better since that deal was comsummated.

And this talk about "accomplishment of one of the historical tasks of the revolution and progress", and almost every word in Tom's first paragraph, is just sand in the eyes of those who might really fight to change the world.

>as was the abolition of slavery in this country 150 years ago.

Slavery in the U.S. wasn't ended by a deal with the slavemasters. The situation would have been more analogous if the slavemasters had kept their property and their slaves, but given the latter the right to elect their overseers, and given the latter the right to own slaves themselves.

>Moreover, it also represents an important gain in folks' dignity that cannot be measured in economic terms that should not be dismissed in such a flip fashion by any person who is politically serious, "marxist" or not.

I would argue that the Black working class of South Africa displayed a lot more dignity when it organized strikes, boycotts, and other mass struggles against the white regime than it has displayed under the ANC regime. Yes, there have been some substantial proletarian/plebian struggles against the latter and the capitalists it fronts for, but the masses are still generally disoriented by the fact that their former leaders are now among, and/or fronting for, their oppressors and that the Black middle class in general is now on the other side.

>I was "materially better off" in some sense when I was in jail then from when I was homeless after I got out, but actually the relative freedom of being at my personal liberty even in the restricted sense of a lumpen wage slave under captalism was better, obviously.

Being unable to walk more than a few feet in any direction is a big negative in terms of material well-being.

 - Aaron

P.S. I was actively involved in the anti-apartheid struggle at U.C. Berkeley in 1985 and 1986, including being arrested (twice) and injured (once) by the cops. But I never pretended to support the ANC and the direct-action group I worked with, the Campaign Against Apartheid, refused to go along with the Stalinist's demand to recognize the ANC as "the sole legitimate representative of the South African people".

> > Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:56:23 -0800
>> From: aaron at mylists.fastmail.fm
> > Subject: Re: [Marxism] a thought on bombay/mumbai attacks
[SNIP]
> > The main form of struggle against the white-domination-with-a-white-face regime was mass struggle, especially mass strikes. It was not possible, in the face of such mobilization, for that regime to impose the kind of neo-liberal policies that the white-domination-with-a-Black-face regime of the ANC has managed to impose, leaving the Black masses materially worse off, both absolutely and relative to whites, than they were under the openly white regime.
>>