[lbo-talk] Alex Cockburn on India: wrong? (was, U.N. seeks aid...)

KJ kjinkhoo at gmail.com
Wed Aug 10 10:06:54 PDT 2005


On 8/11/05, uvj at vsnl.com <uvj at vsnl.com> wrote:
> I agree these are not spectacular figures. East and South Asia's economic performance is better than India. I am simply questioning the popular Leftwing idea that capitalist development in the "Third World" is very difficult, if not altogether impossible.

I do not know how popular is this allegedly popular idea -- was Warren's Imperialism such an unpopular book, or Geoff Kay's, and have Marx's original insights been so thoroughly rejected by marxists?

In my admittedly small circle, that is a non-issue. In any case, at least in the piece that sparked off this whole thread, I didn't get the sense that this was Cockburn's point; maybe I don't know how to read. Rather, wasn't his point the breathlessness with which the signs of growth and dynamism are being touted, while the underside, if you will, of capitalist development is being placed under a jilbab/hijab?

A more popular idea, I thought, is whether there will be convergence between what used to be the "Third World" and the "First". That, and the stubbornness of internal inequalities.

kj



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