[lbo-talk] Nationalism & Internationalism Re: Benny Morris responds

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu Jan 29 22:08:00 PST 2004


Grant wrote:


>>>"Crypto-imperialist" in what sense?
>>
>>Like many others [Aflaq] assumed that the French Communist Party
>>favoured the independence of French colonies, but this illusion was
>>broken in 1936 when the Popular Front government left the colonial
>>structure intact, and the Syrian communists accepted this as an
>>accomplished fact.
>
>I'm not here to defend the strategies of the PCF and the 3rd
>International in the 1930s; however, there was the bigger picture of
>the fascist threat in Europe, the Popular Front, etc. The PCF did
>not hold power in its own right and its coalition partners did not
>support decolonisation.

Resolute anti-colonial actions would have been the best policy against fascism: "Fearing the revolution more than Franco, the government had rejected all proposals (including those of Abdel-Krim and other Moors) to incite revolution in Morocco under a declaration of independence for Morocco" (Felix Morrow, _Revolution and Counter Revolution in Spain_, 1938, Chapter 10 "The May Days: Barricades in Barcelona," <http://www.marxists.org/archive/morrow-felix/1938/revolution-spain/ch15.htm>).

***** If not by sea or by land, there was still another way of striking at Franco's Moroccan base. We quote Camillo Berneri:

The fascist army's base of operations is in Morocco. We should intensify the propaganda in favour of Moroccan autonomy on every sector of Pan-Islamic influence. Madrid should make unequivocal declarations, announcing the abandonment of Morocco and the protection of Moroccan autonomy. France views with concern the possibility of repercussions and insurrections in North Africa and Syria; England sees the agitation for Egyptian autonomy being reinforced as well as that of the Arabs in Palestine. It is necessary to make the most of such fears by adopting a policy which threatens to unloose revolt in the Islamic world.

For such a policy money is needed and speed to send agitators and organizers to all centres of Arab emigration, to all the frontier zones of French Morocco. (Guerra di Classe, October 24, 1936.)

But the Loyalist government, far from arousing French and English fears by inciting insurrection in Spanish Morocco, proceeded to offer them concessions in Morocco! On February 9, 1937, Foreign Minister del Vayo delivered to France and England a note, the exact text of which was never revealed but was stated later, without denial by the cabinet, to include the following points:

1. Proposing to base its European policy on active collaboration with Great Britain and France, the Spanish government proposes the modification of the African situation.

2. Desiring a rapid end to the civil war, now susceptible of being prolonged by German and Italian aid, the government is disposed to make certain sacrifices in the Spanish zone of Morocco, if the British and French governments should take steps to prevent Italo-German intervention in Spanish affairs.

The first inkling of the existence of this shameful note came a month after its dispatch, in the French and English press on March 19, when Eden made a passing reference to it. The CNT ministers swore they had not been consulted in its dispatch. Berneri addressed them bitingly: 'You are in a government which has offered France and England advantages in Morocco, while from July, 1936, it should have been obligatory on us to proclaim officially the political autonomy of Morocco .... the hour has come to make known that you, Montseny, and the other anarchist ministers are not in agreement with the nature and purport of such proposals .... It goes without saying that one cannot guarantee English and French interests in Morocco and at the same time agitate for an insurrection there .... But this policy must change. And to change it, a clear and strong statement of our own intentions must be made - because at Valencia, some influences are at work to make peace with Franco.' (Guerra di Classe, April 14, 1937.) But the anarchist leaders remained silent, and Morocco remained undisturbed in Franco's power.[3]

(Felix Morrow, _Revolution and Counter Revolution in Spain_, 1938, Chapter 15 "The Military Struggle Under Giral and Caballero," <http://www.marxists.org/archive/morrow-felix/1938/revolution-spain/ch15.htm>) *****

Steve Cushion, "The Question of Moroccan Independence and Its effect on the Spanish Civil War": <http://www.lgu.ac.uk/langstud/med/med/morocco.htm>.

***** We do not and never have put all wars on the same plane. Marx and Engels supported the revolutionary struggle of the Irish against Great Britain, of the Poles against the tsar, even though in these two nationalist wars the leaders were, for the most part, members of the bourgeoisie and even at times of the feudal aristocracy . . . at all events, Catholic reactionaries. When Abdel-Krim rose up against France, the democrats and Social Democrats spoke with hate of the struggle of a "savage tyrant" against the "democracy." The party of Leon Blum supported this point of view. But we, Marxists and Bolsheviks, considered the struggle of the Riffians against imperialist domination as a progressive war.

(Leon Trotsky, "On the Sino-Japanese War," September 23, 1937, <http://www.zhongguo.org/trotsky/revbetrayed/images/China/58.htm>) *****

During the Rif War, the Riffian guerrillas, led by Abd El Krim, defeated over 20,000 Spaniards, killing 12,000 of them, at Anual, Morocco, in 1921 ("Disaster at Anual," <http://www.bartleby.com/67/1921.html>). Humiliated, Spanish General Fernandez Silvestre committed suicide. In the end, it took the combined Spanish and French forces of more than 250,000 to subdue Krim and his guerillas. When Franco revolted, Abd El Krim was confined to the French island of Réunion. What if Leon Blum had released Krim and the Spanish Republican government and the USSR had provided him with military hardware?

Postscript:

Additional Resources:

Carolyn P. Boyd, _Praetorian Politics in Liberal Spain_ (1979): <http://libro.uca.edu/boyd/>.

Sebastian Balfour, _Deadly Embrace: Morocco and the Road to the Spanish Civil War_: Table of Contents, <http://www.oup-usa.org/toc/tc_0199252963.html>; Chapter 1 "The Invasion of Morocco," <http://www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-925296-3.pdf>.

Peter Symes, "The Notes of the Rif Revolt," _International Bank Note Society Journal_ 41.3 (2002), <http://www.pjsymes.com.au/articles/RifRevolt.htm>; and "Banknotes of the Rif," <http://www.imperial-collection.net/rif_republic.html>. -- Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>



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