> a scenario in which workers
> start by striking against the particular abuses of Jewish capitalists,
> then become radicalized to the point of calling for the total
> expropriation of *Jewish* capitalists, but have "not yet" evolved to the
> point of calling for general expropriation. This would be troubling to
> say the least.
Fortunately this remains a purely conjectural scenario, as far as the contemporary world is concerned.
I must say this exchange has really amazed me. Unimagined abysses of stultitude are opening before my feet. I had no idea that so much of the "left" was still mired in a mid-70s Village Voice mentality.
I recall a demo, back in '82, against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. I was plodding around with my placard, somewhere near the UN, when a grizzle-bearded garden gnome, obviously fresh off the crosstown bus from from the West Side, popped up in my face screaming "What about the Tadzhiks?! Why aren't you protesting about the Tadzhiks?!" He was genuinely furious -- literally spraying saliva on my glasses.
Why *my* face? Probably because there weren't too many other people there who weren't Palestinian or Lebanese or black, at that stage of the game. No doubt he saw me, quite reasonably, as the potential weak link.
Unfortunately for him, I have a strong sense of the comical, so "What about the Tadzhiks" has become one of my touchstone phrases -- the label on a mental file-folder.
This has been a "What about the Tadzhiks?!" conversation.
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Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com