well, that makes me feel better than i was re zyuganov. your claim of an indistinction between the separatist nationalists and the russian nationalists is more extensive than mine of a collusion by virtue of shared rewards. surely it is possible to oppose the war on those grounds, or rather necessary to do so becuase of these grounds? (i was a little unclear on that in your post.) i did also want to ask you to detail out a little these interesting phone calls.
Angela _________
----- Original Message ----- From: <jmage at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Sunday, 3 October 1999 2:47 Subject: Re: Chechnya: response to Russian invasion?
> those wishing to take sides as among chechen nationalist politicians and
> the crew more or less in charge of this russian government are attempting
> the impossible, since until there is some clear proof to the contrary,
the
> most reasonable and likely hypothesis (apparently supported concretely by
> tapes of berezovsky telephone conversations with chechen nationalists) is
> that they are in collusion. collusion both as to the "islamist" invasions
> of dagestan & the bombings of apartment houses in russia. since it is
most
> likely a single conspiracy, as soon as you take sides with one group of
> conspirators you have taken sides with - not against - the other.
>
> the only side to take is that of their victims (of all nationalities).
talk
> of "self-determination" is blather. there are chechens on all sides of
this
> nightmare; there are even chechen communist internationalists. next some
> types will take sides between groups of chechens, and start calling the
> group they don't like "traitors." this is an idiotic sectarian exercise,
> and should occupy no sensible person for a moment. there are real
> "traitors" (say to "humanity") enough, and they include *both* the
chechen
> nationalist politicians & the yeltsin/chubais/berezovsky crew.
>
> incidentally, angela, you said
>
> >it's election time in russia is all; and i'm not surprised
> >>that zuganov found the tide of chauvinism so irresistable
>
> but the actual zyuganov response to these events has been much better
than
> you (not wholly without reason) expected - here is some tass account of a
> press conference he gave on wednesday:
>
> >No Military Solution to North Caucasus Problems, Zyuganov.
> >
> >MOSCOW, September 29 (Itar-Tass) - There is no military solution to any
of
> >the problems of the Northern Caucasus, Russian Communist Party leader
Gennady
> >Zyuganov said.
> >
> >Zyuganov told a news conference on the Internet on Wednesday that any
> >government is obliged to halt violence and combat terrorism.
> >
> >Asked about the Chechen connection to a series of terrorist blasts in
Moscow,
> >Zyuganov said that "no nation should be blamed". "There are scoundrels
who
> >should answer for what they have done," he said.
>
> john mage
>
>