[lbo-talk] martial law in US

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Aug 11 13:24:53 PDT 2005


Doug:
> There's always the Chomsky and Ernest Mandel position: despite the
> appearance of "losing" in Vietnam, the US left the country an
> absolute wreck, and there was hardly another revolution in the
> so-called Third World afterwards.

Perhaps revolution run out of countries...

Frankly, I do not think that the lack of revolutionary movements after Vietnam had anything to do with the US. Revolutions usually happen in rural countries of certain profile: semi-feudal systems, a lot of absentee landlords, weak urban working classes. Such countries are in an increasingly shorter supply, hence no fertile ground for revolutions.

In fact, not a single country that has even a remote claim to modernity and democracy was taken by a revolution. Fascist coup - yes, but not a communist/leftist revolution. There are good explanations of that, from Gramsci to Barrington Moore and to Rueschemeyer et al. - all boiling down to the observation that revolutions are mainly a feudal phenomenon.

Wojtek



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