[lbo-talk] IWW piece on Iranian labor situation

[tfast]

> Yoshie:
>
> Compare Japan -- its wealth, living standard, etc. -- with any former
> colony of any empire, including Japan's own.  It seems clear to me
> that getting colonized by a capitalist empire is not a good deal
> compared to not getting colonized by one.  It shouldn't take a Marxist
> to understand that.
>
> [WS:]
>
> Even if you factor in the atrocities committed by Western powers in
> colonized countries, you need to look into NET EFFECTS of such
atrocities -
> i..e. the difference between atrocities already perpetrated by local
> tyrants, slave traders, non-westerners (e.g. Arabs in sub-Saharan Africa)
> and those committed by Western powers.  In many cases that net effect was
> negative, that is, westerners actually reduced the atrocities (cf. the
> British role in stopping the slave trade practiced by Arabs in East
Africa.)
>

Wo betide to the German who makes such a case for the hollocaust.

Travis