On 8/16/20 3:11 PM, Carl Peters wrote:
I think Joseph Green has replied effectively to comments and questions
about his articles on Trotsky and Ethiopia. I would add two things:
(1) Louis Proyect’s “So what?” regarding Selassie’s expansionism and
oppression of national minorities in Ethiopia is a red flag to
activists of today who are demanding a review of the so-called heroes
of history. Proyect’s attitude, “so what” if Cromwell massacred the
Irish, is not acceptable. LP compares it to Mustafa Kemal’s
“suppression” of Armenians and Kurds, which he accepts because
according to him Kemal was “historically progressive.” There was
nothing progressive about the Armenian Holocaust. Nor was there
anything progressive about the slaughter of native peoples in America,
which LP tosses off with a “so what.” Activists of today are demanding
a review of bourgeois heroes like Lincoln and Washington, smashing
statues and demanding a recasting of others, to better reflect these
heroes’ actual position in history. It’s an insult to them to say “so
what?” (2) I’m disappointed that commentators on JG’s articles don’t
talk about their relevance to recent political events and
organizations of today. JG’s articles discuss the relevance of
Trotsky’s views to the views of Trotskyist organizations today like
WWP of the U.S. and SWP of Britain. Working class activists trying to
build opposition to the Iraq war in 2003-04 were faced with an
embarrassing problem, that some of the largest left groups organizing
opposition to Bush’s war actually supported Saddam Hussein. This
helped divide and cripple the movement. The same issue has come up
again and again in recent years, as prominent left groups have openly
supported the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic in Iran,
Bashir Assad in Syria, etc. This is not just an accident or a mistake
but a continuous line crippling the left opposition to imperialism in
the U.S., Britain and elsewhere. JG’s articles try to tie this line to
a common ancestry, Trotsky on Ethiopia. Was this wrong? Commentators,
if they’re going to critique JG’s articles, should comment on their
contemporary political relevance and explain their own stand regarding
“national heroes” like Saddam Hussein, Bashir Assad, the Taliban and
the Khomenei-ites of Iran.
I don't think you have theorized the bourgeois revolution. You might
want to read Neil Davidson's book but this will at least give you an
idea of what I think is the way to understand it dialectically rather
than morally.
https://johnriddell.com/2013/05/15/neil-davidson-on-rethinking-bourgeois-revolution/
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