black nationalism reflux

[Rakesh Bhandari]

> 
> 
> Max, the friendly warlord, mocks the notion that there are progressive 
and backward nationalisms, this as he faints at Marxism. Take a look at 
the analysis of that Marxist , Lenin.  Not to bore with dogma, but 
the key is to differentiate between oppressor and oppressed nations. 
For example, in the Balkans, the main oppressor nation(s) were the U.S. 
and NATO ( the imperialist nations. great power chauvinism ). In that context, 
the national self-determination of Yugoslavia is defended. It really is not 
at all as capricious as Max cutsies it.  In Viet Nam, the NATIONAL liberation 
front was organized by Marxist leadership for national self-determination of 
the colonially oppressed (by the French and American great power chauvinists) 
Viet Namese nation. Nothing wrong with that nationalism. Get it Max ?
> ___________________

Hi Charles,
Yet Ho Chi Minh's communist front from the outset dealt 
harshly--imprisonment, harrassment, murder--with radical worker and
peasant organizations and militants. 

See NGO VAN 1913 VIET NAM 1920 1945 REVOLUTION ET CONTRE REVOLUTION SOUS
LA DOMINATION COLONIALE <1995>

In his detailed, deeply knowledgable study of the twists and turns of
Communist Rule after 1975, Gabriel Kolko whose anti imperialist
credentials are impeccable (he has detailed as much as anyone the
barbarity of the imperialist assault on Vietnam) seems genuinely surprised
by the corruption, venality, exploitativeness of the govt in power over
a unified Vietnam (Kolko pays special attention to the atrophy of
workers' rights, massive new inequalities from decollectivization, the
terms at which state owned enterprises were privatized, and the general
incompetence and theoretial impoverishment of the leadership, etc). 

But Van's beautifully writen treatment allows (and I have had access to
English transations of excerpts; a full trans is in the works) one to
trace the present problems to the way the party had been organized and
dealt with dissent from the outset. It's time that the American left
progress beyond a simple embrace of third world stalinist govts in the way
that, e.g., the Bulletin of Concerned Asia Scholars (of which I have been
a reader) too often has. 

Now as for my putative assault on the right of the BRC to exist, one will
note that my precise criticism, inspired by Reed,  was centered on the
attempt to achieve 'racial' or 'black operational' (West) unity, left or
otherwise, via a congress organized on racially exclusive terms, which the
BRC leadership (Alkalimat in particular) has progressively relaxed anyway. 
Neither you nor Carroll ever responded point by point to the grounds for
my skepticism, expressed on MLK's birthday this year. Without attending to
the reasons I gave, it is not possible to dismiss my argument as racist. I
have never denied the necessity of an autonomous struggle against racism. 

Yours, Rakesh