On 3/30/14 1:59 PM, Tom Walker wrote: > Bullshit refers to your "summary" of "left views." It's not a summary, > it's a fabrication.
(This is a reply to Michael Smith as well) Okay, you summarize left views. I am referring to the sort of articles that have appeared on The Nation (especially Stephen F. Cohen), CounterPunch, ZNet, DissidentVoice, Alternet, CommonDreams--not just Global Research and WSWS.org. My views are closer to those of the Ukrainian left, particularly an activist subbed to Marxmail whose analysis I respect. My general inclination is to see things from the POV of Marxists in places like Syria, Ukraine, Iran and other places in the "axis of good". I don't really care if Nicholas Kristof is also for the overthrow of al-Assad. I come to my own conclusions using class criteria. As Leon Trotsky put it in "Learn to Think": http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/05/think.htm In ninety cases out of a hundred the workers actually place a minus sign where the bourgeoisie places a plus sign. In ten cases however they are forced to fix the same sign as the bourgeoisie but with their own seal, in which is expressed their mistrust of the bourgeoisie. The policy of the proletariat is not at all automatically derived from the policy of the bourgeoisie, bearing only the opposite sign – this would make every sectarian a master strategist; no, the revolutionary party must each time orient itself independently in the internal as well as the external situation, arriving at those decisions which correspond best to the interests of the proletariat. This rule applies just as much to the war period as to the period of peace. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
