.>I would remind that "vulgar materialism" is not an error when analyzing bourgeois motives. The bourgeoisie are vulgar materialists. The dialectics comes in in taking account of the contradictions of class struggle, as you discuss below.<
yes, and my preference would be for Marx's _class struggles in France_ (and _the civil war in France_) rather than Lenin's _state and revolution_ as setting out the mode of analysis.
>Charles: One important element in this for communists is the potential new
level of split in the transnational bourgeoisie between the U.S. and E.U.
sectors which is implied in the above, not to mention a further split with
the Japanese bourgeoisie. The working class must use divide and conquer with
the bourgeoisie as they have on us. What you seem to project is a new
configuration of interimperialist rivalry, with greater contradictions
between imperialist centers.<
I'm not sure how exacerbating the divisions would work as a point of departure other than to shift us into implicitly supporting either the US or the EU. better I think to see the contradictions inherent within the emergent hegemony and work to establish a (as Dennis mentioned some time back) Euro-opposition. this is also partly why I think a focus on the contradictions of the civilised/barbaric motif that is prominent within EU discourse, and as its parallel, the contradictions between railing against the barbarism of the EU's margins (ethnic cleansing) should be turned back on the EU's own ethnic cleansing geared toward the maintenance of the marginality of Yugoslav (and African) labour and hence its role as a cheap pool of labour.
which is why the rants from that fellow that jsc cited ("Is it finally time for outside powers to make the effort necessary to cure a national psychosis inside Serbia that has been destabilizing a corner of Europe for a decade?") should be a declaration we take up in relation to our own countries.
here are some of the stats I posted a while ago on deportations from the UK. they make the deportations from Yugoslavia look negligible:
from the excellent (Brit) National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns website at http://www.ncadc.demon.co.uk/index.html
"Deportations Shame our Nation http://www.ncadc.demon.co.uk/14js/1.html
Provisional figures for deportations and persons refused and removed for 1998, show the true horror of UK immigration laws. National media always concentrate on the numbers coming in but never about the numbers going out. A total of 34,775 persons were kicked out of the UK in 1998 - 668 persons per week - 4 persons per hour.
"The Turn of the Screw"
The purpose of all immigration laws, beginning with the 1906 "Aliens Act" and all the Immigration acts after the war, whether they were Tory or Labour, up to and including the 1996 Asylum and Immigration Act, has been to make it harder and harder for non UK nationals to enter the UK and easier to kick them out if they did enter. Each Act was more oppressive, discriminatory and heart breaking than its predecessor. The 1999 "Immigration and Asylum" bill by comparison makes them all look tame, its sheer viciousness leaves you breathless."
Angela --- rcollins at netlink.com.au