--- "Steven L. Robinson" <srobin21 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Are you saying that there is an Anti-American
> prejudice that exists on the same level of
> anti-Jewish, anti-Arab or anti-Roma prejudice that
> has historically existed in Europe?
No. All three of the examples you give are not only different from Anti-Americanism, but, I would suggest, from each other as well. anti-Arab and anti-Roma prejudice is classical racism, which functions along the line of traditional exclusionary practice. In the case of contemporary anti-Arab and anti-Islam racism in Europe, it takes the form of arguing that "they" have a different culture than "we" and constitute parallel societies. And the rotten thing is that some sectors of the left, such as the hardcore "Anti-Germans" around the journal Bahamas, have gone over completely into anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism, acting as if wife-beating, "honor killings" and such are purely aspects of Muslim societies.
Anti-Semitism (not simply the religious Jew hatred of the middle ages), while containing elements of racism, is also a form of foreshortened anti-capitalism. Moishe Postone's "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism" is for me the most useful text on this. Just Google, it's on the Internet.
Anti-Americanism can also have elements of this foreshortened anti-capitalism, in that the dollar symbol "$" is used as a symbol for money or the figure of "Uncle Sam" is used at protests as a stand-in for imperialism in general. But along with Anti-Americanism is a culturalist critique that has appeals in right-wing milieaus.
> prejudice, but is it ever translated into policy, is
> "anti-Americanism" the basis for mass popular
> movements or for governmental action?
I think there is perhaps a potential basis for mass popular movements, embodied in a figure like Oskar Lafontaine perhaps, who is not above demagogic appeals to Anti-American and anti-immigrant sentiment, but I think ultimately it's a throwback to an era of strongly defined nation-states. Given the high level of foreign direct investment between U.S. and German companies, a real, state-level oppositional movement to the U.S. would have catastrophic consequences, and will thus remain an illusory dream restricted to the aging clientel of the PDS-Left Party and Keynsian trade unionists, and the right-wing of formations such as ATTAC.
A while back, the magazine of the metal worker's federation, IG Metall, made headlines when the cover of its magazine showed a locust wearing "uncle sam" costume intended as a stand-in for equity funds and other investors that "swarm" over German industry and decimate companies for the sake of speculative profit.
This was contemporary with then-SPD leader Franz Münterfering's denunciation of American financial players as "locusts." But this kind of demagogic talk is just a diversion, a way for the SPD to drive attention away from its very real demolition of the welfare state. I think Anti-Americanism has more of a functionalist, demagogic function, but would have catastrophic consequences if it actually became state policy.
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com