I don't go along with Tony Abdo on this.  The Vietnam protests in the UK
were partly inspired by a visceral reaction to the sight of US bombers on
TV.  It was a naive anti-militarist kind of thing that moved people, even if
activists analysed things more deeply.  The Labour Party in the UK did not
support Cruise missiles in opposition till after 1992, though when in power
in the 1970s it modernised the UK weapons programme (the "Chevalene
project").  Unilateral disarmament was defeated at the polls several times.

As for history, the European left supported some "national movements" in
1848 - the Springtime of Nations as it was called - but Engels opposed this
& Marx seems to have gone along with him here, to judge by the Penguin Marx.
Other broad left analyses, especially in Italy & Spain, were more supportive
of social republican movements, but Marx/Engels certainly weren't.

I think anti-Americanism in UK politics is itself a bit chauvinistic.  The
left has to rethink its ideas after the fall of the Soviet Union, which was
itself imperialistic - see Lenin's theory of nationalities, where cultural
expression is not a basic fact of human nature, but subordinated to
economics.

I don't see that the Australians are acting imperialistically in East Timor.
There are 15  million Australians & 200 million Indonesians - it wouldn't be
sustainable.   And what about Cambodia 1975-79?  Pretty unimpressive for the
New Jerusalem, even all allowances made!

Sorry if this is a bit confused...

Stephen Cowley

This is a comment on:

----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Abdo <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2000 7:49 PM
Subject: [CHOMSKY] Why "Solidarity" Goes Bad