[lbo-talk] Platypus: what we are, what we do, and why

[Chris Maisano]

I think when Cutrone says "there is no real potential progressive 'anti-imperialist' politics that provides an actual emancipatory alternative to U.S. policy," he's probably thinking of the fact that there is really no progressive, democratic left to speak of in the places currently dealing with US aggression - Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. The alternative to the US presence in these places is probably the installation of regimes that most of us on the western left probably would not consider to be progressive, and could potentially be quite nasty. If the US left Afghanistan next month, for example, we probably would not see a progressive regime take root there. We'd likely see a reversion to decentralized, clan-based rule and warlordism. I don't think that he's commenting on the political potential of the US left here, though of course I am not a mind reader and could be wrong. 
 
The potential exception here is Iran, which could possibly see the flowering of a mass-based, democratic and progressive political force. The protests that exploded there last year seemed to indicate that this could be a possibility, and the country does have a functioning (though comparatively small) labor movement and progressive intelligentsia.