File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-03-14.105, message 81


Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 13:12:19 -0500
From: Robert Malecki <malecki-AT-algonet.se>
Subject: M-I: Letter to Cockroach!


Letter to Cockroach!

Dear comrade Malecki

I was glad to receive your messages. It is very important to have a
plece in Internet open to the workers struggle in the world. Your
informations about Albania helped me to write an article. I am a
journalist and work at the international section of a paper in Sao
Paulo, Brazil.
I am specialized in Latin America and could help you with informations
>from here. By now I have started to open my horizons (Internet helped it
a lot) and I am studying the situation of Eastern countries, mainly
China. I am also interested in the situation of the Tibetan people. I am
not sure but I think we have a first difference. In a message you have
put China as a degenerate workers state. I dont agree with it. I think
China is already a capitalist country with a great percentage of state
owned economy.
It is important because change a lot of the policies of the
revolutionaries.
But in reality the main thing I wanted to discuss is the letter of Joao
that I didnt read, just your answer. I agree with almost all your answer
but there are some things that are incredible in this Joao (is he
portuguese?).
When he writes about the national question and the democratic rights, he
has a completely euro-centric vision of the world. I suggest him to come
to Latin America or to go to Africa (maybe the former Portuguese
colonies) and know the reality.
He wrote
>15. "Backward countries and the program of transitory demands"
>
>There are no "colonial or semi-colonial countries" left. Permanent
>revolution is out of business, if it ever made any sense. No
>significative "feudal heritage" can be found anywhere. No national
>independence problems. All countries of some relevance in the world
>today are predominantly capitalist and industrialized, although most of
>them are peripheric and dependent, which is totally another problem.
>There are more hunter-gatherers than "feudals" now-a-days but I suppose
>we're not considering permanent-revolutionizing the inuit, the
>amazonians or Iryan Jaya.
>Permanent revolution was an interesting concept in the sense of world
>revolution. But if we have learned something with the XXth century
>revolutions it is precisely that we can't voluntaristicaly whip out
some
>isolated backward country into socialism just like that.

This is incredible out of reality, even in some countries like Brasil
that in some sense is more developed
than most Europeans country or at least has a bigger economy, we still
have some features of underdevelopment.
And we still some things that remember us the feudal relations. For
example, in all Latin America we can find slavery or semi-slavery in the
countryside, mining, etc. The national question is still a very
important thing in all the underdeveloped countries. Many countries in
Africa, Asia or Latin America have problems with the most basic right:
the right to vote. The national independence problem exist everywhere,
>from Papua Nova Guine to East Timor to Tibet in Asia, Occidental Sahara
in Africa, Suriname in Latin America (and a lot of small islands in
Caribean Sea). There was a war 14 years ago between Argentina and
Britain for a national question, the invasion of Malvinas in 1833 by
England. Although we cant forget the interests of the Argentinian
militaries in this war.
But the national question cannot be forgotten anyway. To think that
there are no national problems or feudal heritage in the world is to
forget also what happens in the most backward muslim countries like
Saudi Arabia or Kuweit, Oman and others. Nos rights for the women,
foreigners, feudal methods of punishment, etc. If Joao thinks these are
not national problems, this is his great mistake and is caused by his
eurocentric vision.
And if he says that there are no national independence problem, he
forgets the question of  economic independence. Or national independence
is just to have a president and a parliament? The policies of almost all
the countries in the world are decided in the corridors of Washington or
the EU. For example, the beggining of the so called reforms in Latin
America was decided in a meeting in Washington and was called Washington
Consensus. What does Joao has to say about it? Is it our national
independence?
Even the industrialized countries like Brasil are dominated by a handful
of multinationals companies like Ford, GM, Volkswagen, etc. Although
Brasil are trying to be a minor imperialist also.
I invite Joao to come to Brasil and travel through the North-East (one
of the regions most underdeveloped of the world), to go to a favela
(shanty town) and see if  the Transitional Program is wrong.
At last we cant forget South Africa. What does he have to say about it?
Thats all by now,

Revolutionary greetings
Marcelo
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