Yoshie wrote:
On 1/15/07, Marvin Gandall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
That said, if the left and the Islamists were equally vying for the
allegiance of the masses in their own countries, they'd be at each
other's
throats - as in Palestine, for example.
Fatah is not the left, however.
============================
Fatah - or rather, the PLO, which it dominates - still represents the
Palestinian left, such as it is, against Hamas and the rest of the Islamist
movement, which was set up in opposition to it. Fatah has become corrupted,
however, and like Sinn Fein in Ireland, has given up the armed struggle and
is groping for a settlement with the Israelis from a position of weakness.
No other left of any consequence exists in Palestine or elsewhere in the
Middle East. My point, in response to yours, was that if there were a strong
left, it would very likely at some stage come into violent conflict with the
Islamists, in the same way the alliances between the Kuomintang and the CP
and the Iranian left and the militant Islamists disintegrated. While the
Islamists deserve support against US-Israeli aggression and while it's
understandable that small groups of leftists in that part of the world might
want to tactically ally with the Islamists in order to strengthen their
influence within the national movements, this point shouldn't be overlooked
and the differences which seperate the left from the Islamists obscured, as
I think you're inclined to do in pursuit of these aims.
In reply to Daniel Davies, you note that "that Islamists in particular and
Muslims in general can change", which is of course true, but the change you
anticipate would almost always be, almost always is, in the direction of
liberalism - analogous to the development of social democracy within the
early socialist movement - and it presupposes a reduction in the level of
national and social conflict. I'm referring to a situation in which social
tensions are acute and radical Marxists and radical Islamists are competing
for the leadership of the mass movement. In that case, I think it is an
illusion to believe there would be the same possibility of reconciliation
between these contending forces as could be expected between "progressive"
socialists and "progressive" Islamists who stray from their original
convictions and move to the political centre in a less polarized
environment. This isn't intended as a criticism of such an evolution,
incidentally, so much as it is a description of the relationship which
exists between changes in social conditions and corresponding changes in
political outlook.
