[WS:] Interesting thought that crossed my mind too. However, there are developments that seem to contradict this:
1. Latin American industrialization gave birth to a strong left that was subsequently crushed by the fascist reaction, funded in part by the US. Cuba survived.
2. South African industrialization (ca 1918) also gave birth to a strong left that was subsequently split by racist politics dividing black and white working class (and which subsequently led to apartheid.)
3. Kenya development (not quite industrialization) also created a peasant-working class alliance reminiscent of the Western Left, which led to the Mau Mau rebellion, crushed by British imperialists and their African proxies.
3. Tanzania developed what is termed "African socialism" - it was more a a result of Julius Nyerere political acumen than and effect of industrialization, but it developed nonetheless.
4. India has a significant left presence.
It seems that the left development needs to be taken in the context of global development, specifically the existence of the USSR as a superpower. The USSR served as powerful model of development that is an alternative to the British cum US capitalism, not to mention providing material and logistical support for the left movements worldwide. With the dissolution of the USSR, both the model and the material support vanished.
Wojtek
On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 12:50 AM, Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com>wrote:
> Alan: And, please, would you show me or tell me about one of those powerful
> left
> social movements that emerged out of recent good or bad times in North
> America or Europe, like since 1975.
>
> Somebody: It won't even do to condemn the imperialist west anymore. Take a
> look at the industrializing East. The left is pathetic or non-existant in
> the former and current Asian tigers. The industrial revolution fostered the
> socialist and social democratic left in Europe, and to an extent, in North
> America. Not so in the Orient - not even in those countries that never went
> through socialist phases like Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore,
> Malaysia, etc.
>
> At some point, you have to consider if socialism was just a peculiarly
> Western response to early capitalism that was temporarily re-configured to
> meet the demands of Third World peasants - peasants who have become
> remarkably apolitical and even conservative proletarians!
>
>
>
>
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