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I don't believe that Joseph Green understands very much about the theory of Permanent Revolution. It is, as a theory (and a programmatic perspective) proven by negative example all the time, *especially* in Egypt, to cite one example, Tunisia another and the list tragically goes on. Has PR been used (and still is) dogmatically with sad consequences? Of course it has. One the starkest examples is post-WWII India where the Calcutta Trotskyist organization, based on their incorrect understanding of PR, exclaimed that Indian independence from Britain would be impossible to achieve short of the revolution growing over into a full fledged socialist one. India achieved "independence" in the formal sense exactly as had all of Latin America 120 years previously. But this doesn't mean the totality of democratic tasks can be achieved without a total confrontation with the 'national' capitalists. And, even where independence is acheived, the *subordination* of the recently independent countries to the Imperialist center was always occurring, if not immediately, then as a constant process, which reverses those gains, even if it takes decades to do so. The basis of PR, *especially in this Century* is that Imperialism will always use it's local agents, the local clientele capitalists in the still capitalist states to push, and reverse, every gain ever made by the working class and peasantry in developing countries. That is clearly evident in Egypt where the formal democratic gains were pushed aside by the very pro-capitalist (albeit bonapartist) army on behest of the Imperialists. David Walters _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
