[lbo-talk] Style and Politics, was RE: Libya

[Voyou]

On Wed, 2011-03-23 at 08:22 +1100, Mike Beggs wrote:
> "To recap briefly: if you share the cause of a people’s revolution,
> and express solidarity with them, then a request for support from a
> legitimite leadership, puts the question of how you should relate to
> your own state (and its military) in a different light.

This seems like a reasonable point, but this:


> "The request immediately reshapes reality, because it puts upon you a
> question that you must answer – will I help in the manner requested of
> me (in this instance, by campaigning for an NFZ and arms supplies), or
> will I refuse the request?

shows how it is mistaken, I think. It depends on the belief that somehow
military intervention could be an act on the part of the western left,
that the western left could force western states to intervene even if
the states did not wish to. I don't think that's the case. Western
militaries do not act on behalf of the western left, so nothing they do
can possibly be an act of solidarity from that left.

Now, it may be that there is nothing the western left can do in
solidarity with the Libyan rebels, and in such a situation we might be
glad that someone else is acting where we cannot; but this would be a
humanitarian consideration, not a matter of solidarity. Or you might
argue that, in this instance, whatever interests are leading the west to
intervene happen to align with left-wing interests, so the intervention
should be supported; but this is a kind of left realpolitik argument,
again, not an argument on the basis of solidarity.

So solidarity with the Libyan revolution doesn't demand that we support
western military intervention, because such intervention is not an act
of solidarity from us.


> "Solidarity is an activity, not a passive condition.

This is true - but supporting western military intervention is
passivity, not activity. Furthermore, I don't see how you can put
forward western military intervention as active solidarity by the
western left without presupposing that western militaries sometimes act,
and can be made to act, in ways which are not in the interests of
western powers. This seems to me to be wrong, and I think believing it
or encouraging people to believe it, would be a serious mistake.

-- 

    "I had never understood why Socialism need imply the arraying 

     of oneself in a green curtain or a terra-cotta rug, or the 

     cultivation of flowing locks, blue shirts, and a peculiar cut 

     of clothes." -- Isabel Meredith, _A Girl Among the Anarchists_     
Voyou Desoeuvre                                 <http://blog.voyou.org/>