billy bragg's translation of the internationale goes like this: "stand up all victims of oppression for the tyrants fear your might <...> let racist ignorance be ended for respect makes the empires fall" sorry i have nothing better for reference.
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> > I don't consider myself to be "part of" any country.
> Have a passport? Pay taxes? Like it or not, you're part of it.
that's a very technical way of looking at the world. i have a french passport but i've been living in japan and paying taxes here for a few years and intend to be here for quite a few more. what am i a part of ? does my experience (and yoshie's and other lboer's and migrants generally speaking) say more about what it is to be (or not to be) a part of something ? or are we just exceptions that do not matter. i think being a migrant tells a lot about what you are made to think you are a part of.
didn't chuck mean that his concern is not exclusively in the us and as such does not feel bound there ? why do you have to reduce his identity to the state that exploits/dominates him ? it is not exactly easy nor romantic to be a 'citizen of the world'. his 'not being part of any country' sounds like 'being of every country'. ain't it the way we ought to see our 'participation' if we want to reduce or abolish state oppression ?
From: "Michael McIntyre" <mmcintyr at depaul.edu>
> Two points about Chomsky and one about the medium.
> (1) What does one of Chomsky's elementary principles - that you concern yourself first with the crimes of your country - mean, if not that citizenship is of fundamental importance?
but isn't it rather only a way for chomsky to give practical examples that people feel close to ? no doubt they would not care so much about the power of the state or about citizenship if chomsky argued by using ussr/british/chinese etc examples. it seems to me citizenship in the way chomsky means it goes way beyond participating to a well behaved state.
jc helary