Gerry,
As far as I know the Lenin criteria for
imperialism/semi-colony/colony has not changed, much as the post-als
would like us to believe the opposite.
Surplus value pumped out of NZ by finance capital from the 1840's to
the present confirms NZ as NOT imperialist, despite its relatively
priviledged white aristocracy of labour. NZ is closer to Argentina
which Lenin characterised as a "financial colony" of Britain. Today
its financial dependency is spread over Australia, Britain, Japan and
the US.
I regard Australia as sub, or semi-imperialist, at most a very minor
imperialist state, since it generates a relatively larger
proportion of surplus outside Australia, including NZ. In reality, NZ
economically is a sort of 7th state of Australia. But Australia still
has considerable surplus sucked out by US, Japanese etc capital.
When it comes to the crunch I would not defend Australia
against any other imperialist power.
Bob's understanding of imperialism is stuffed by the Sparts who don't
want to take the side of semi-colonies, especially LA ones, against
their own prized US, unless absolutely forced to do so by the
intrusion of reality. Much easier to sell dual defeatism to the US
labor aristocracy -even the middle class as its close enough to
pacifism- than taking the slogan the "main enemy is at home"
seriously.
This dates back to the 2ww period with the SWP (US) failed to clearly
pose the national question in the LA semi-colonies, especially
Argentina, in relation to the US (not to mention the sell-out on the
question of fascism). In other words, the Sparts use subjective
categories that happen to fit in with their US chauvinist stance on
the world. Fundmentally, this method is imperio-centric since it puts
the consciousness of the US labor aristocracy at the centre of its
world.
In a war between the US and NZ I will bloc militarily with the NZ
bourgeoisie.
Dave
> Hi Dave (B). I must have missed this before:
>
> > In reality these are imperialist troops (or in NZ's case of a
> > bloated semi-colony) prepared to back up the Indonesian military if
> > it can't keep the lid on the upsurge of mass struggles. The cross
> > class backing they are generating at home now will serve the
> > imperialists well if it comes to that.
>
> There is agreement between us regarding whether Australia is an
> imperialist nation (it is), but why do you consider NZ to be a "bloated
> semi-colony"? It would seem to me that if we can characterize Australia
> as imperialist, then we should also characterize NZ as imperialist.
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
>
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