On 8/7/06, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>At least, there was an organized alternative to the Communist Party in
>places like Spain back then.
>
>We can't do any politics based on nostalgia, though. Can't you look
>at the real world today and evaluate organized social forces that
>exist in it?
>--
>Yoshie
Of course. I don't feel any particular need, however, to take sides in the
internal politics of Somalia, for example. There has been a struggle
between Islamists and warlords. I supported the warlords against the US
occupiers in 1993 and would support the Islamists against a new
intervention (and that would include Ethiopia as well.) But I don't go
around making ridiculous statements pumping up the reputation of whoever is
in power in Somalia. Trotsky's attitude toward Ethiopia's resistance to
Italian fascism is one that I would identify with.
Who cares what Trotsky's attitude was? You have to think on your own,
in each concrete case.
In terms of organized social forces in Iran today, the only ones are those
that are hostile to the working class as an independent force. Ahmadinejad
and the liberal reformers or hardline clerics he has clashed with all
represent tendencies within the Iranian ruling class.
Whatever tendency in the Iranian ruling class Ahmadienjead represents,
he's preferable to both the liberal formers and the hard-line clerics,
and that's the opinion of the Iranian masses at this point in history,
who could have made a different choice but didn't. You can't
substitute your thinking for their thinking.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>
