Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Juan Cole's Open Letter to the Left on Libya

Yes, I love Cole's argument that when people on the Left take an absolutely pacifist and anti-imperialist position, we end up with absurd positions, positions that violate our commitment to the the world's underclasses--positions that uphold abstract principles for their own sake and not for the sake of protecting the world's vulnerable people against the world's powerful and brutal. Such positions indeed ridicule our Leftist politics and their commitment to economic and political emancipation for the oppressed. Anti-imperialist sensibilities should not become a wedge that separates us from other values of the Left, especially since, as Cole argues, many of today's "anti-imperialist" leaders are either ideologically located on the Far Right or are political fascists and dictators.

On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 3:10 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

i agree with moses on this one completely. obviously.
here is the heart of the issue for me:
cole writes: The United Nations Security Council authorization for UN member states to intervene to forestall this massacre thus pitched the question. If the Left opposed intervention, it de facto acquiesced in Qaddafi's destruction of a movement embodying the aspirations of most of Libya's workers and poor, along with large numbers of white collar middle class people. Qaddafi would have reestablished himself, with the liberation movement squashed like a bug and the country put back under secret police rule. The implications of a resurgent, angry and wounded Mad Dog, his coffers filled with oil billions, for the democracy movements on either side of Libya, in Egypt and Tunisia, could well have been pernicious.

i  want to make it clear, (as if it weren't already), that i associate my politics with the Left, as cole describes this. i believe left positions are aligned with the people, in any community, rather than the dominant ruling party; and that the left offers resistance to the dominant neoliberal global order.
various people on this list align themselves openly; others not so openly.
i believe that an honest political discussion should include not simply the issues, as if they could be parsed aside from the perspective of the commentator. the dishonesty of various politics, like liberalism, is often predicated on this notion of an abstracted position that rises above factions. in a case like libya, where we have a leader who attempted to portray himself as a revolutionary leader, and where western intervention is positioned against him now, it is crucial that we establish clearly what we are arguing for when making our case. juan cole has done so; and i daresay many with whom i've disagreed have also done so.
ken

On 3/29/11 3:11 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu wrote:

This piece by Juan Cole approximates my position on Libya and my support for the UN-authorized, Arab League-sanctioned, opposition-solicited airstrikes to protect vulnerable civilians and the anti-Gaddafi revolution that they support. He answers all the objections convincingly. 

An Open Letter to the Left on Libya

Juan Cole

http://www.juancole.com/2011/03/an-open-letter-to-the-left-on-libya.html

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There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.


---Mohandas Gandhi

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--  kenneth w. harrow distinguished professor of english michigan state university department of english east lansing, mi 48824-1036 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu

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There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.


---Mohandas Gandhi

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