======================================================================
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
======================================================================
On 5/1/14 4:08 AM, glparrama...@greenleft.org.au wrote:
Boris Kagarlitsky on eastern Ukraine: The logic of a revolt
http://links.org.au/node/3838
Kagarlitsky is an embarrassment--comparing Donetsk to the Paris Commune
when peaceful protesters are violently repressed by pro-Russia thugs and
reporters are abducted and beaten for days on end. If you read his
prolix article, there is not a single reference to a mass demonstration
in the east. He draws a parallel between Maidan and the Donetsk People's
Republic without mentioning this. It is worth reposting this:
https://therussianreader.wordpress.com/tag/boris-kagarlitsky/
In an editorial published on the web site Rabkor.ru, entitled
“Anti-Maidan and the Future of Protests,” Kagarlitsky (or his alter ego:
unfortunately, the article has no byline) describes the events in
Ukraine as follows: “Nothing testifies to the class character of the
confrontation that has unfolded in Ukraine like the two crowds that
gathered on April 7 in Kharkov. At one end of the square, the
well-dressed, well-groomed and prosperous middle class, the
intelligentsia, and students stood under yellow-and-blue Ukrainian
national flags. Across the square from them had gathered poorly and
badly dressed people, workers and youth from the city’s outskirts,
bearing red banners, Russian tricolors, and St. George’s Ribbons.”
According to Kagarlitsky, this is nothing more or less than a vision of
the future of Russia, where only the “state apparatus despised by
liberal intellectuals defends them from direct confrontation with those
same masses they dub ‘white trash.’”
The fact that the venerable sociologist has been forced to resort to
such demagogic methods as assessing the class makeup of protesters by
reversing the proverb “It’s not the gay coat that makes the gentleman”
indicates the conjectural nature of his scheme. (I wonder how much time
Kagarlitsky spent poring over photos from Donetsk with a magnifying
glass.) When discussing the social aspect of Maidan, most analysts have
noted the dramatic changes that occurred as the protests were
radicalized. “At the Euromaidan that existed before November 30–December
1,” notes political analyst Vasily Stoyakin, “it was Kyivans who
dominated, and in many ways the ‘face’ of Maidan was made up by young
people and the intelligentsia, albeit with a slight admixture of
political activists. Many students, people with higher educations, and
creative people attended it. […] After November 30, when the clashes
began, […] a lot of blue-collar workers without higher educations
arrived, in large part from the western regions.”
________________________________________________
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
