File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-04-23.140, message 46


Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 12:08:48 +1000 (EST)
From: Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au>
Subject: Re: M-I: civil society


I have just a few minutes before my lecture and I thought I would fill it in
with my response to the CNN coverage of the end of the siege of the Japanese
embassy.  I only caught the last 30 mins or so of this.  Enough to see the
soldiers cheer and haul down the MRTA flag stamp on it, tear it and throw it
into the street.  I missed the "liberation" of the hostages.  I did however
see five wounded soldiers stretcehered out.  That was at least some comfort.  

Watching this coverage I was struck very forcibly with the banality of the
actual.  After the initial thrill of it all being "LIVE" has passed the
inability of CNN to capture the meaning of what they were showing was all
too apparent.  When they started talking of how Fujimori "hung tough", I got
sick to the heart and turned it all off.

A note though on the guerrillas.  They are all it seems now dead.
Personally as a revolutionary I believed what they attempted was extremely
counter productive and foolish.  Sieges and hostage taking ultimately end up
providing photo opportunities for the rich and the powerful as today when
the dictator turned up sporting a flak jacket and waving at the butchers who
clapped him loudly.

But such criticism apart the guerrillas dreamed and are dead.  I salute
their memory.

regards

Gary



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