No critique of the metropole without the critique of the periphery.
Absolutely. In fact the most genocidal regimes are to be found at the periphery. There should be nothing surprising in this; the fact that these regimes are sponsored often by the metropole does not detract from the fact that the most brutal face of capitalism is in the third world, and the greatest levels of inhumanity. In fact it is hard to think of exceptions to this pattern. One of the reasons why we draw attention to the holocaust so regularly is no doubt because of its spectacularly exceptional nature. However, it seems to me to be just as important to see the world system as a whole. I don't believe, for instance, that there can be a substantial improvement in the condition of the poorest and least democratic countries without a change at the centre of the system. But that should not become an excuse for facile 'third-worldist' hogwash. (The natives are morally superior because they are closer to nature, etc. etc., which I think is only one step, or perhaps only half ! a ! step, removed from the idea that revolutionary change can only be brought about at the periphery). Tahir