File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1997/97-02-10.192, message 62


Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 21:31:25 +0100
From: m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Hugh Rodwell)
Subject: M-TH: Re: The Pack


Jukka is quite right:


>As a former (quite clumsy) ice hockey junior of 'Giants of East' I've
>sort of hoped that all-European hockey league could be possible in
>order to compete with NHL. But as necessarily fully 'professional'
>and commercial it would mean that teams would concentrate to central
>European major cities (only such cities as Helsinki and Stockholm
>could have teams). Peripheral (northern) areas would lose best
>players to euro-league.  Finally the quality of Finnish and Swedish
>icehockey would come down - we won't have such national leagues, as
>today, in the future if euroleague will someday be realized. What do
>you think about it? Has such concentration happened in USA with other
>sports during 20th century? (Obviously ice hockey teams have went to
>south but what about, say, baseball and football? Have there been
>such concentration?)


The irony of the present stage of development in North American
(imperialist heartland) ice-hockey is that it is spear-headed by the
products of state planning and national recreation priorities in the
degenerated and deformed workers' states (the SU and Czechoslovakia) and
the products of health-and-strength-for-all welfare state egalitarian
recreation priorities of the Nordic welfare states (at least Sweden and
Finland -- at present coached by a Swede). Now of course the curse of
capital is blighting the development of the youngsters who will be needed
to replace the current heroes in the ex-SU, and the destruction of the
welfare state means the destruction of mass participation and recruitment
in the Nordic countries.

Hakaa paalle!

Cheers,

Hugh




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