>> As to your earlier point that Patrick loves jet-setting
>>from Belfast to Alabama to Philadelphia/Baltimore/Washington to
>>Harare to Jo'burg (my initinerary these last 39 years), what's the
>>big deal? We've always said, internationalism of people, not
>>globalisation of capital, right?
Internationalism used to mean taking a stand "at home" against the interests of the (your own) ruling class at home and encouraging others to break their attachments to these people. It doesn't mean travelling around as much as possible between spectacles outside meetings of international institutions (or as many on the left used to think, creating international sections of your own little sect in as many other countries as possible). International conference/protest hopping seems to be the meaning given to the term by the grant-funded leadership of the new international "anti-capitalist" movement.
I've always argued that what really corrupted the old liberation movement leadership in South Africa was taking them away from their mass roots and keeping them either in airports and airport hotels or conference centres, on a fulltime basis. They've been doing this ever since the negotiation process here started after 1990 and their feet have never touched the ground since. Surely some lessons here?
Russell