Permanent Revolution in the Middle East
| July 13th, 2008 | Crossposted from The Blog and the BulletFarfahinne blogs on a speech she attended in London during the Marxism 2008 festival sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party:
Alex Callinicos, is a leading figure on the left internationally and a major Marxist theoretician. He is a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and has participated in every major anti-capitalist mobilization since Seattle.
his talk was very interesting, it was titled : the Permanent Revolution in the Middle East. one of the most important things he said, that the struggle of the Palestinian People is not limited to the Palestinians themselves. It’s a broader one that involves the struggle of workers against the Arab Local Regimes who are the agents of Israel and imperialism. the conflict’s way out is the permanent Revolution that breaks the bounderies of individual societies.
July 13th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
So Saudi Arabia’s discrimination against women and Iran’s killing of queer youth is *Israel’s* fault?
This is one of the most offensive and anti-Semitic things I’ve seen. Barry, please talk to Jack about this - unless he’s showing that the Left has to get rid of the bigots within its ranks, this post does not belong on your blog.
This comment was written by Aaron V..Report this comment to the moderators
July 13th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
“the struggle of workers against the Arab Local Regimes who are the agents of Israel”
This does read oddly.
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July 13th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
This post does not make a lot of sense without the transcript of the speech.
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July 14th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Yeah, I feel certain it doesn’t mean what Aaron thinks, but I only have the most general sense of what it does mean.
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July 14th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
If it doesn’t mean what Aaron thinks (and that’s how it reads to me as well), a clarification is in order to provide context and explanation.
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July 14th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
“one of the most important things he said, that the struggle of the Palestinian People is not limited to the Palestinians themselves. It’s a broader one that involves the struggle of workers against the Arab Local Regimes who are the agents of Israel and imperialism. the conflict’s way out is the permanent Revolution that breaks the bounderies of individual societies.”
It seems to me that the Palestinian struggle has been more useful to Arab Local Regimes who want to ignore any problems in their own country than the reverse.
And ‘who are agents of Israel…’ ventures into crazy territory.
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July 14th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
It could be accurate to say that Arab governments are agents of Israel in that they’re not really interested in removing Israel, just in having a powerful external enemy, with all the ready political benefits that entails.
But I have to agree with those who don’t see this as revolutionary. Where’s the class solidarity with the Israeli working class, for starters?
It’s true that anti-Israeli activism crosses national boundaries but that doesn’t make it internationalist, just pan-Arab nationalist - eg nationalism towards a nation that doesn’t exist at the moment.
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July 14th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
But being an “agent” of something implies control and direction — an agent represents me or my interests. There’s no indication that Israel is directing these Arab states — explicitly or implicitly — with regards to their policy on Israel. I can buy that Arab states aren’t actually interested in any of the things they say about Israel (just useful rhetoric), but it’s misleading to say they’re “agents”.
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July 14th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I’d like to see a clarification too, since as it stands the claim is, at best, ridiculous and insane. (Which is why I find myself going “it must means something other than what it says.”)
But since this is the “Alas” software auto-quoting Jack’s blog quoting Farfahinne paraphrasing a speech she saw in London, I think that no clarification is likely to come.
I agree with you, Aaron; I would rather that this post not have been posted here.
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July 15th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Why do you people still believe in Marxism and communism ?
This comment was written by robert berger.The former soviet union was a brutally repressive police state
which trampled on human rights and oppressed ethnic minorities
horribly. Worker’s paradise ? What a joke ! There was widespread poverty and communist party bigwigs had all sorts of priveleges denied to the soviet masses. Soviet jews were subject to all manner
of indignities and denial of their human rights.
Sure, America has all sorts of problems with poverty, unemployment , crime and inequality, but the US government, for all
the bad things it has done , has not killed millions of its own
citizens. And nobody is imprisoned or executed for speaking out
against the government.
And look at China’s brutal oppression of the Tibetans.
Also, in Xinjiang province in China’s far west, near Afghanistan
and Russian central asia, the muslim Uighurs, who are ethnic
Turks with caucasian features, and an eastern branch of the Turks,
are being victimized terribly. Many have been hearded into
work camps where they live under the most brutal conditions.
And you think things are bad in America.
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July 15th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I agree with David - “agents of Israel” pretty clearly implies that those states are being controlled by Israel.
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July 16th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I may be unpopular saying this, but I don’t think promoting flat out Communism is the way to achieve things. One cannot force a society to be completely equal with no stratification. The human hunger for power and supremacy is too much, and eventually it will be horribly abused and become a police state, like most Communists regimes. You also can’t force a society to change abruptly Socialism doesn’t have to manifest itself in a second Peoples Republic of Kampuchea fiasco. I prefer more proven models like Europe. Its far from perfect. but its better in many ways then what we have in the US. All I’m saying is that the ultimate Utopian vision of a Communist paradise is dangerous and frankly unrealistic.
This comment was written by Molly.NOTE-I’m willing to debate this point, but civilly with no flaming or cheap smears
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