[lbo-talk] Iran before Ahmadinejad (was capital punishment in Iran)

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sat May 5 12:32:50 PDT 2007


On May 5, 2007, at 1:58 PM, ravi wrote:


> Even if that's what Yoshie is suggesting, it's not disingenuous:
> "third world" nationalism is indeed preferable over colonialist (etc)
> nationalism because of the same reason that affirmative action (not a
> principle but a tactic) for black people is preferable to affirmative
> action for white people.

I'd certainly agree that the nationalism of the powerful is a lot different from the nationalism of the powerless; one is an ideology of domination, the other one of possible liberation. But you really have to acknowledge some horrible crap that has occurred under the sign of revolutionary or anti-imperialist nationalism - many awful regimes in Latin America and Africa. It's embarrassing and painful to see such uncritical celebrations of the anti-imperialism of Islamism when the regimes and parties involved are often right in that tradition of awfulness.

Doug



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