[lbo-talk] Worker Communist Party of Iraq, April 4, 2004

Grant Lee grantlee at iinet.net.au
Wed Apr 14 16:57:02 PDT 2004


Michael Pugliese cited:


> the reflections of an Iraqi Communist intellectual, Ali Shamsavari
> see, "Post-Marxism and the Middle East, " ed. by Faleh A. Jabar, Al-Saqi
> Books, London.
>
> Fred Halliday of the London School of Economics pronounces himself content
> for Marxism to define the political debate in Arab countries, without
> necessarily providing the answers, though even that minor achievement
fades
> as Halliday sadly acknowledges that "the greatest success of Marxism in
the
> Middle East may have been to provide the Islamists with much of their
> political vocabulary." And in one passage, obvious to most of us but
> dramatic for a radical leftist, he flat-out admits that "Not everything
can
> be ascribed to imperialism."

A fine book (with a misleading title). Chapter 9: "Intentional Development and Marx" by M. P. Cowen and R. W. Shenton is also very good.

Grant.



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