[lbo-talk] Catalonia the latest flashpoint in the Euro crisis

Carl G. Estabrook galliher at illinois.edu
Fri Sep 21 07:21:43 PDT 2012


There are important modern counter-examples. E.g., single-payer healthcare came to Canada as a result of a certain local autonomy; in the US, centralism brought us Obama care and defeated efforts (Hawaii, even Illinois) to emulate Saskatchewan.

Another argument for the benefits of regional autonomy comes vis the late C. Hitchens, quoting a better historian than himself:

"[Perry Anderson's] undergirding assumption [is] that American imperialism remains, if I may so condense it, the primary enemy ... A few years ago, when we jointly addressed a gathering in New York, he startled me by announcing that he thought the Confederacy should have been allowed to secede. His reasoning was elegant enough — slavery was historically doomed in any case; two semi-continental states would have been more natural; American expansionism would have been checked; Lincoln was a bloodthirsty Bismarckian étatiste and megalomaniac..." (Cf. Gore Vidal.)

--CGE

On Sep 21, 2012, at 9:00 AM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:


> [WS:] Frankly, I do not think much will come out of it. At best (or
> worst, depending on one's perspective) it would Quebec redux - a few
> symbolic gestures symbolizing local autonomy.
>
> Personally, I am against separatist movements on any kind - we need to
> move toward a global government and national separatism seems like a
> step back.
>
> --
> Wojtek
>
> "An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



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