From: Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky <nestor-AT-sisurb.filo.uba.ar> Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 21:14:09 +0000 Subject: Re: M-I: on nation building El 2 Mar 98 a las 12:49, james m blaut nos dice(n): > James Heartfield neglects the point made by me and Nestor and Gary: > national liberation struggles go on regardless of the colors on the > flag waving overhead. The operative word is "neocolonialism." The word may be "neo", but this is old stuff. The policy so termed was somehow devised before imperialism (in the technical Leninist sense) did appear. It was -you may bet on it- an Englishman, George Canning, and the occasion was the policy to be pursued with former Spanish America. While most British rulers imagined colonial policy as a matter of sending in troops and formal occupation, Canning sensed the relative strengths of South American new born countries (not nations, this is an entirely different thing), and accurately decided that there would not be enough British troops to turn them British. So, he coined a phrase that marked the whole British policy towards Latin America (and, afterwards, North American policies): "The wedge is cast, South America is free. And if we know how to act, South America will be British". By this he meant informal empire over formally independent countries. Is it not the most clear prefiguration of what we now call "neocolonialism"? And it dates back to the 1820s... Before departure, Nestor Gorojovsky --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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