"anti-imperialism" and third worldism

There is a very popular trend amongst first world radicals to fetishize the third world in a very dangerous way.

This is pretty problematic in many aspects. For one, there is this dominant "white guilt" that is spread throught the white activist movement. This creates a very intolerable atmosphere of political correctness, to the extent that criticizing "anti-imperialist" third world movements is seen with contempt and sometimes smeared as "western chauvinism". Class analysis and internationalism is thrown out of the window.

For example, this kind of mechanistic "anti-imperialism" has led to all kinds of support to reactionary groups posing as "freedom fighters"--from armed, sectarian nationalist gangs (PKK), to islamic extremists.

This "anti-imperialism" generally see each opressed nation as "homogenous", without taking into account that there is class division, and that the national capitalists have opposing interests to the workers. This class collaborationism is really dangerous, because it generally means the effective disarment of the working class and its subordination to the national bourgeosie. Ghandi's conservatism, and its refusal to confront indian landowners because "they were indian" is an example of how terrible this kind of thinking is.

There is also this prevailing sentiment that "imperialism" is in the economic benefit of most whites. This is far from true. The surplus coming out of the neocolonies generally end up in the wallets of capitalists--not workers. Instead, we see trillions of dollars being spent in the war machine, instead of that money going to healthcare, universities, etc. We also see how our brothers and sisters get sent to be butchered for imperialist interests.

Furthermore, the extreme hatred for the west and the fetishization of the third world sometimes renders the radical unable to criticize reactionary elements in third world culture. One example could be Islam. It is true that the reactionary right, particularly in europe, disguises racism as Islamophobia, and makes out of islam a vile caricature. However, there is also a real threat of militant islam, and it is also true that most muslims worldwide are much more militant than their christian counterparts. Covering your ears and shouting really hard doesn't makes the problem go away.

There is nothing wrong with hating class society, but we must hate it in all its manifestations: not only the western one.

Marx once said that "workers have no country", and the slogan still has relevance. We see how the bourgeosie, in the name of "national interests", both in the neocolonies and imperial countries, effectively supress the rage to live and against civilization in its present state. The war against class society and capital is a global war.







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