Lou:
> >For such a transition to happen, first of all, the FARC (with aid
>>from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela perhaps) -- or some other social forces
>>if the FARC fail -- have to _win_. Then, it will be up to them --
>>not you -- to reshape Columbia for the benefit of the Columbian
>>masses. What's the FARC program of agriculture, industry, etc. in
>>the event they win?
>
>The FARC advocates substituting food production for coca production in a
>socialist Colombia. In fact they tried to eliminate coca production in
>liberated territories at first, but were overridden by the masses who
>forcefully made the point that without coca, they could not survive.
The masses are sometimes (though not always) much more sensible than
the vanguard....
> >BTW, the FARC wouldn't have been able to expand & maintain their
>>power if they had not taxed coca cultivation and cocaine production
>>to fund its war effort while protecting coca growers. This being the
>>case, it seems inadvisable for liberals & leftists in imperial
>>nations to lend ideological support to the war on drugs by
>>encouraging moral panics about consumption of recreational drugs &
>>other "bad" products.
>
>I am strictly opposed to moral panics. I learned that from reading LM
>magazine, doncha know.
Well, the above has to be a tongue-in-cheek remark, so I was gonna
let it slide, but let me make one point here. There is a reason why
James Heartfield & LM have been among the very few in the West who
have made a very forceful criticism of demonization of Milosevic,
Serbia, Hussein, Iraq, the Rwandan Hutus, etc. & tried to debunk
myths & disinformation: their contempt for moral panics. I think
there is much to be said for that, even though I hardly agree with
them on any other issue (& strongly take exception to their views of
feminism, environmentalism, indigenous peoples' struggles, etc.). In
contrast, the best-known anti-porn & moralist feminist Catherine
MacKinnon served as a feminist advocate for punishing Serbs,
amplifying the views of Caritas & other reactionary Croatian women &
relaying them to the wider world. At one point, she even argued that
pornography is the cause of "Serbs using rape as a weapon of ethnic
cleansing."
Yoshie
