RE: [OPE] England and Ireland

From: GERALD LEVY (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Mon Mar 17 2008 - 15:00:16 EDT


> How do you explain or extend the same formulation to those instances where there are regional imbalances and as a result > struggle for separate provinces within the same bourgeois constitution?
 
 
 
Hi Bapuji:
 
 
Good question. The answer is yes, I believe.  For instance, one might
say that the Mexican working class will never be free so long as
the people of Oaxaca are subjugated.  Or, so long as there is caste
oppression in India, the Indian working class will never be free.
 
 
In US history, I think it would have been valid to claim that so long as
there was slavery the US, wage working class would never be free.
This did not mean that the end of slavery represented freedom for 
wage-workers but it constituted a necessary, historical pre-requisite 
for that eventuality.  
 
 
One might also say that so long as women are oppressed, men will
never be free. Yes? 
 
------
 
Hi Dave Z:
 
I agree, of course,  that US reaction does not have its roots in the
occupation of Iraq. That should be clear since US reaction obviously
pre-dated that occupation.  But, I think it is nonetheless true,
paraphrasing Lenin, that "Reaction in the US is strengthened by
the occupation of Iraq".  Yes, it's true, that Iraqis will free
themselves from their occupiers yet class society in the US will
persist but that would represent a defeat for US imperialism and a 
victory for the international working class.
 
 
In solidarity, Jerry
 
--------------------------------------------------------------

"The English working class will never accomplish anything until ithas got rid of Ireland. The English reaction has its roots in thesubjugation of Ireland"  - [Marx, December 10, 1869] "The English working class will never be free until Ireland isfreed from the English yoke. Reaction in England is strengthened by the enslavement of Ireland (just as reaction in Russia is fostered by her enslavement of a number of nations)".- [Lenin - 1915, _The Right of Nations to Self-Determination_,Section 8: "The Utopian Karl Marx and the Practical Rosa Luxemburg"] The same could be said in  relation to Iraq, couldn't it?The US working class will never be free until Iraq is freedfrom the US yoke?  What are some other contemporary extensions? 


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