I met Sam last year when he was visiting his daughter. Joined SDS very early and in the 70's was in the International Socialists.
Re: Rwanda by Sam Friedman 11 April 2003 20:41 UTC
This is totally not a response to my question, though. You are
asserting that News & Letters (and now New Politics as well) are not
anti-imperialist. In my opinion, that is a very strange claim. Both
magazines have opposed imperialism for many years; and the recent
articles and interchanges in New Politics clearly showed its editor to
be anti-imperialist. What both N&L and NP do say, that I think differs
from what you mean
(but have not yet said), is that they oppose certain governments as
being reactionary, butchers, or whatever; and that they think that it is
more effective anti-imperialist politics (and more effective socialist
politics) to be open about these views, and to discuss them, than to
pretend that everyone supports the political system of the US's target
of the month. Now, I can see where you might disagree with that
perspective. But I cannot for the life of me see why you think it is
pro-imperialist.
Please explain.
best
sam
>>> Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> 04/11/03 02:08PM >>>
Sam Friedman wrote:
>
> Please clarify what you meant.
Okay, here is what I mean. There has been a backlash against anti-
imperialism from a sector of the left that includes the Nation,
New Politics, News and Letters and others. It revolves around nasty attacks
on Ramsey Clark and Noam Chomsky. While not social patriotic in the sense
of Christopher Hitchens, it is definitely harmful. It imposes a litmus test
which requires a ritual denunciation of Slobadan Milosevic,
Saddam Hussein and the villain of the month defined by some George
Soros NGO, the NY Times or NPR. All in all, this reminds me of 1984 when
citizens were required to participate in a hate hour. Once upon a time,
the radical movement in the USA understood that you had to fight
imperialism, whatever the character of the enemy. When Mark Twain
wrote, "I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its
talons on any other land.", nobody asked him to take a pledge against the
Chinese emperor who was under fire from US and British gunboats. Unless we
can reconnect to those traditions, we will be useless.
--
The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
On Sat, 12 Apr 2003 17:17:06 -0400, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
> At 3:15 PM -0700 4/11/03, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>> (By this I mean it [roughly, the sort of imperialist argument that Brad,
>> et al. advocate] refuses to look at the context and causes of US
>> imperialism, and evaluates each case individually.)
>
> The refusal to evaluate each case of US imperialism individually is
> another reason that your liberal credentials are often put into question.
> They call it "knee-jerk anti-imperialism." :->
-- Michael Pugliese
"Without knowing that we knew nothing, we went on talking without listening to each other. Sometimes we flattered and praised each other, understanding that we would be flattered and praised in return. Other times we abused and shouted at each other, as if we were in a madhouse." -Tolstoy