> > I don't know what the intentions of Negri & Hardt
>> were, and I have
>> ceased to be very interested in what its admiring
>> readers get from it,
>> but it looks very much to me as a banal replay of
>> the traditional tune
>> of the ultra-left: All is hopeless. Struggle is
>> pointless.
>>
>> Carro
>
>No, Carrol, that is not the message of Hardt and
>Negri..quite to the contrary, their message is one of
>revolutionary hope....however not along the lines of
>national liberation, which at this point leads to a
>dead end.
I've heard the same -- minus Hardt & Negri's "revolutionary hope" that doesn't have any ground to stand on in their own analysis -- from many who are not on the left in any sense. For instance, Paul Johnson, "Colonialism's Back -- and Not a Moment Too Soon," _New York Times Magazine_ (18 April 1993). Here's Dennis Brutus's summary of Johnson's argument:
***** What the World Bank has recommended are both massive cuts in the education budgets of African countries -- spending cuts reaching 50 percent for some universities (for buildings and salaries of staff and teachers) -- and cuts in enrollment. Paul Johnson, a writer for the New York Times Magazine, describes such external initiatives in an article entitled "Colonialism's Back and Not a Moment Too Soon."[5] In this article, Johnson makes three points about African countries: (1) they are economically bankrupt; (2) they have discovered that they cannot govern themselves; and (3) they are now asking the colonial powers to return to run them. As unbelievable as these assertions may seem, they reflect the position of both the World Bank and the IMF as they extend their hegemony over Africa and other "less-developed" regions of the planet. (Dennis Brutus, "Africa 2000 in the New Global Context: A Commentary," at <http://www.pir.org/ppost13.html>) ***** -- Yoshie
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