I'm against "economic nationalism" at the capitalist core (including Australia as it has existed), period. But, I don't think you can make an abstract pronouncement against it as it might be practiced outside the core from "such a comfortable distance," to use your phrase. For instance, an economy geared toward export monoculture to earn forex to stay on the never-ending debt service treadmill isn't in the interest of the masses in a Third World country. What if some leftist forces took power in a Third World country and were struggling to reshape its political economy to better meet the needs of the masses, *under the present international conditions (capitalist and imperialist)*? Take any country outside the capitalist core -- Indonesia, South Africa, Albania, Venezuela, Congo, Somalia, India, Peru, any country whose conditions you know well -- and think what might be practicable to improve the wellbeing of the masses. (If you take a "country" like Congo or Somalia, you have to take into account that as of now people there don't have a functioning state that controls its entire "territory.") I'm looking for concrete discussion.
Yoshie