>J. Bradford Delong:
>And red-brown alliances scare me: the browns usually seem to have a
>keener nose for what is going on than the reds...
>_______________
>
>CB: Browns ally with social democrats not with reds. The status quo is such
>a blue/brown alliance.
>
>CB
>
>Back in December I sent a piece by a Michael Malkin of the CPGB, from the
>Weekly Worker on anti-semitism in the Russian CP of Zyuganov, to the list.
>Scott Marshall of the National Committee of the CPUSA, called it
>"Trotskyite." (Typical) Once again, I'll recommend it, and the book by
>neo-con Kremlinologist, extensively researched, Walter Laqueur, "Black
>Hundreds:the rise if the extreme right in Russia, " on the Red-Brown
>alliances in Russia....
Aren't Zyuganov & the Russian CP social democrats? I think that's what Trotskyists might call them. There are few Reds in Russia and fewer still in America, so I think a worry about Red-Brown alliance is unfounded.
What we should be more concerned about is run-of-the-mill American nationalism & imperialism. I went to D.C. for A16, and street protests were exciting, but based upon American union bureaucrats' remarks from the stage in the Ellipse, I'm afraid that they won't let up their focus on China, trade deficits, etc. (Worse still, the crowd in the Ellipse didn't challenge the speakers when such remarks were made -- nothing but applause.) The message that cheap labor overseas is bringing down American living standards by posing unfair competition is not compatible with the rest of fine slogans put forward by the protesters in Seattle & D.C.
Yoshie