Table Of Content

Issue #10 / February 2009 2 The New School occupation and the was decided that we would stay, and although we would allow the workers to come in, we wouldn’t allow people to buy things from the cafeteria. But then, I think it was Pat Korte and a professor from CUNY that suggested that direction of student politics we find out if Chartwells was unionized; it turned out they The Platypus Review Submission guidelines were. We got into contact with someone from their union, STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Articles can range in length from 750–1,500 words. We will Unite Here, and we found out that the workers would be consider longer pieces but prefer that they be submitted compensated and that it was part of their union contract Taking stock of the multifaceted universe of positions as proposals. An interview with Atlee McFellin that they couldn’t cross a picket line, and that this action and goals that constitute Left politics today, we are left Please send article submissions and any inquiries about this constituted a picket line. Truthfully, we kind of lucked out with the disquieting suspicion that perhaps a deeper project to: [email protected] in that regard. If it would have been the case that they commonality underlies this apparent variety: what Pam C. Nogales C. weren’t unionized and that they were paid by the hour, Staff exists today is built on the desiccated remains of what I am not sure how well it would have gone—certainly Senior Editor: was once felt to be possible. media would have been different. Part of the problem the In order to make sense of the present, we find it Ian Morrison The Platypus Review ThE OccUPATiON OF ThE NEw SchOOl Graduate that was one of the issues, oddly enough, there was no entire time was that even the people who were the most necessary to disentangle the vast accumulation of Faculty building on 65 5th Ave. began in the late evening real brainstorming for the occupation. In the two meet- excited and eager hadn’t put any thought into how it was Editors: positions on the Left, and to evaluate their saliency on December 17, 2008 and lasted over thirty hours. In the ings a good amount of contention emerged, and I was actually going down, in fact, they purposely didn’t put any Pam C. Nogales C. for an emancipatory politics of the present. Doing this build-up to the action, differences arose respecting the clearly on one side because I didn’t favor the occupation. forethought into it. Laurie Rojas work implies a reconsideration of what we mean by Issue #10 | February 2009 aims and potential effectiveness of an occupation. It seemed like nothing was planned, nothing was really Soren Whited “the Left”. Against both a negotiating committee and concrete thought out, and it simply consisted of a bunch of people PN: What do you think were the most important of the This task necessarily begins from what we see as a demands, a group calling itself the “Autonomous Faction wanting to get some steam out in a very unconstructive demands to the administration? Editorial Advisor: prevalent feature of the Left today: a general disen- of Non-cooperation Against the Division of Labor,” pushed manner—I’m sure that some people are going to be ex- Spencer A. Leonard to extend the occupation. On the other side, leaders of the tremely pissed off that I say this, but that is basically what AM: For us at the New School—and this is something chantment with the present state of progressive politics. We feel that this disenchantment cannot be cast Radical Student Union, such as Atlee McFellin, originally it was. the RSU has been working on for a year now— the aim Designer: off by sheer will, by “carrying on the fight,” but must be opposed the occupation on the basis that it was uncoordi- There was a lot of speculation and skepticism about is to force the university to divest from any company that Laurie Rojas addressed and itself made an object of critique. Thus nated, ill-considered, and, therefore, likely to fail. Despite the effectiveness of any type of action, especially since the profits from war. Obviously the university doesn’t disclose we begin with what immediately confronts us. these reservations, in the end RSU members did participate bulk of students were going into finals. There were even their investments, and I should say that we didn’t achieve Copy Editor: The editorial board of The Platypus Review is in the occupation in conjuction with the Autonomous Faction some of us that had a final during the second meeting. this demand, oddly enough. The creation of the Socially Tana Forrester and other student groups. The question of the occupation was much more on the Responsible Investment committee is the most important motivated by a sense that the very concepts of the 1 Nothing Left to say “political” and the “Left” have become so inclusive as Although the media coverage of the New School occupa- table in the second meeting; two people even premised of all the demands won in the occupation. It was part Web Editor: A critique of the Guardian’s coverage of the 2008 Mumbai attacks to be meaningless. The Review seeks to be a forum tion portrayed it as a victory for the students (1), most of the invitation to the meeting with “bring your sleeping of our campaign to bring attention to war profiteering, Laurie Rojas among a variety of tendencies and approaches to these the demands have yet to be met (2). Not only is McFellin’s bags.” Nobody did. The plan, put forward by a couple of specifically L-3 Communications, and how we understand Spencer A. Leonard categories of thought and action—not out of a concern primary demand for the establishment of a “Socially Re- but I do not think we are officially part of any others. people, was to actually stay at 65 Fifth Ave. that night, but what L-3 and its history symbolize in terms of the power with inclusion for its own sake, but rather to provoke The Platypus Review is funded by: sponsible Committee” yet to be approved, but many of the there were only about six to eight people who were actu- dynamics that exist within global capitalism today. We administration’s concessions have not yet been implement- PN: Briefly walk me through the brainstorming stage of the ally willing to go through with it. So myself and a couple will be working with New York City UFPJ and a variety of productive disagreement and to open shared goals as The University of Chicago Student Government 2 The New School occupation sites of contestation. In this way, the recriminations School of the Art Institute of Chicago Student Government ed. The action's long-term significance, however, may be New School occupation into the first night in the building. of other people talked them out of it, and said “If you are other organizations in the “Yes We Can: Beyond War a and accusations arising from political disputes of the The Platypus Affiliated Society An interview with Atlee McFellin more in the influence it exerts over the direction of student going to do it, at least wait one more day.” It was clear that New Economy is Possible” campaign, established in their past might be elevated to an ongoing critique that politics. Both student groups and activist networks payed AM: It started when the New School faculty gave both there was no support, there was no outreach done, there national assembly, to help us build a national movement Pam C. Nogales C. seeks to clarify its object. closed attention to the occupation and expressed admira- Robert Millard, treasurer of the board of trustees, and Bob was really nothing besides a couple of people deciding that to divest from war profiteers, specifically around Iraq and The editorial board wishes to provide an ongoing pub- NEW website: tion for it. In the coming months we are likely to see further Kerrey, president of the university, their vote of no-confi- they wanted to do an occupation. It seemed like nothing Afghanistan. My hope is that we can also begin to weaken lic forum wherein questioning and reconsidering one’s www.platypus1917.org ramifications of the New School occupation. dence. We organized a demonstration outside and inside had been done, and I was very skeptical. We weren’t really companies that foster ecological destruction and devasta- 3 Afghanistan, internationalism and the Left. own convictions is not seen as a weakness, but as part This interview which has been edited for publication was of the same building as the board of trustees’ meeting. sure if the occupation was going to happen, even by the tion and companies that sell arms to Israel. of the necessary work of building a revolutionary politics. An interview with Terry Glavin conducted on January 15, 2009. It is the first in a series of After that, other students, mostly graduate students at the end of that meeting. critical interrogations intending to clarify the politics that New School for Social Research, sent a few e-mails out By 8:00pm the following day, the occupation was on PN: Let’s delve into the demand for a Socially Responsible We hope to create and sustain a space for interrogating Andony Melathopoulos propel such activities as the New School occupation and the through various departmental listservs asking for an open its way. When we all finally sat down in the cafeteria of Investment (SRI) committee. The booklet written by the and clarifying the variety of positions and orientations overall direction of the student movement today. meeting to discuss the faculty vote. the New School there was a heated debate about whether Radical Student Union describes this committee as an currently represented on the political Left, in which There were two meetings before the occupation about we were going to form a negotiating committee and use advisory body to the Board of Trustees that is supposed to questions may be raised and discussions pursued that Pam Nogales: What is your relationship to the new Stu- how to respond. Apart from the occupation, we talked the demands that we drafted to argue for the changes prevent unethical New School investments. Could you say do not find a place within existing Left discourses, lo- dents for a Democratic Society? about the demands we wanted to make and the things we we articulated at the meetings. Through a deliberating more about this advisory role? cally or Internationally. As long as submissions exhibit a wanted to change in the university. A lot of the discus- process we were able to compile the changes we wanted genuine commitment to this project, all kinds of content Atlee McFellin: We are still part of SDS, but I don’t know sion was about constituting some type of organization, to achieve, we took those, typed them, printed them in the AM: The usage of the word “advisory” implies that this will be considered for publication. for how much longer. We call ourselves the Radical although most of the people there had no experience basement, and then four of us took them to the security body would help the trustees make these decisions, and 10 Student Union (RSU). We are also members of United for organizing, and didn’t really want an “organization.” They guard and said “these are our demands.” The look on his was used simply to appear more inviting to the president Peace and Justice (UFPJ), and the Student Environmental were of the opinion that somehow there was—to use those face was quite funny. When he heard us, he replied with of the university and the board of trustees. However, in the Action Coalition. There may be other groups that we are terrible buzzwords—an organic and egalitarian constitu- something like, “Demands? What?” run-up to the creation of the SRI committee at the main affiliated with, like the Responsible Endowments Coalition, tion-making process that was happening at these meet- Later on, the cafeteria workers, hired by an outside trustee meeting in April, we are organizing faculty and ings. Now of course there wasn’t. And it was not egalitar- company, Chartwells, would soon have to enter the cafete- staff support so that we can push for veto power over in- www.platypus1917.org ian, and not really democratic in any sense of the word, ria. Were we going to stop the Chartwells workers from vestment decisions. We can only achieve this is if we have and certainly not an organization. coming into work and earning their pay? If we had, we the capacity to shut down the university until this demand 1 See, nyc.indymedia.org, gawker.com, cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com In the brainstorming stages of the occupation… well, may have lost the justification for the action. Ultimately, it is met. Now, as unlikely as that sounds, there is a really http://www.newschoolinexile.com/files/Kerrey_Letter.pdf good chance for this in the spring. The faculty is still very "Occupation" continues bellow Occupation, continued from above 4 egap no seunitnoc "tfeL gnihtoN" run, they are going to be ineffectual in building a larger much in support of getting rid of President Bob Kerrey and AM: Look at it this way: There are steps that can be taken between war profiteers and financial institutions. eht ro seotsefinam nairatirohtua fo tnetnoc eht troper ot detcejbus erew sweJ erehw ,esuoH dabahC eht ta yllaic .noitide enilno sti ot era naidrauG eht ot secnerefer llA 1 eht fo layarteb eht rof dna noitazilanigram nwo sti rof movement. Ultimately they are going to fail to foster lead- Vice President James Murtha, and we have been making if we want a much more revolutionary democratic society, PN: What should the student movement do to transform the ot tsilanruoj a rof gniht eno si tI .]80/31/1 ”,rorriM eht -epse ,sweJ auq sweJ fo gnitnuh etarebiled eht dessentiw yaw eht deraperp tfeL eht ,tnorf ralupop tsinilatS-larebil ership to continue the job. better and stronger relationships with the faculty who and I don’t just mean in the political sphere but an aboli- limitations of political consciousness today in order to cre- ni retsnoM ehT“[ ”erom yna tuoba klat ot tnaw t’nod ew ti ecnis ,11/9 fo esoht naht yltsahg erom neve erew iabmuM a otni flesti gnivlossid yb taht gniugra ” ’,ycarcomed‘ fo In Eric Fromm’s Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the have gotten involved. tion of the distinction between the political and the eco- ate a better ground for a revolutionary politics in the future? sgniht“ eht fo ”su“ dnimer ot dna hturt eht llet ot stsi ni skcatta eht fo scitoimes eht ,tcepser niatrec a nI rebmevoN eht gniwollA .tnetni reh si snoitapuccoerp evitca selpicnirp rof degaw . . . raw“ a troppus ot serutrevo tsi Psychology of Ethics, he distinguishes between rational and Moreover, in the present economic crisis the New nomic—like what Marx and Engels talked about. We are in -rorret eht nopu yler ew ,oot ,nmuloc s’yoR itahdnurA .dnuoforp era skcatta iabmuM ruo morf 11/9 gnicalpsid dna gnihsinimid ,yrartnoc eht nO -lairepmi tsniaga denraw eh hcihw ni ”,aidnI fo srekroW School is specifically hard pressed to come up with rea- a university that has an endowment of 00 million dollars, AM: I think that the student movement can play a role irrational forms of authority. The example that he uses for nI .]80/03/11 naidrauG ”rimhsaK ni noituloS a rof deeN eht morf wofl ot dnuob secneuqesnoc cigetarts lanoiger eht .esuap lapoG evig 11/9 ”gnihsinimid“ fo regnad eht seod roN eht ot retteL nepO nA“ ni 9391 ni eussi eht sserdda ot sonable fiscal solutions, therefore it needs a significant which is not a lot for a university. In this situation there beyond the transformation of the university while it makes the irrational form of authority is the bureaucrats within thgilhgiH seiticortA iabmuM“[ ”rimhsaK fo elpoep eht ,11/9 htiw sa ,yllaniF .)aoG ot etuor ne srevar rof nekatsim .stneve owt eht fo seitiralucitrap eht htiw denrecnoc ton si esohc ykstorT noeL ,seitilibissop hcus gnitapicitnA .sixA change. For any other university it’s different, but for the are things that we can do in the short term that will help arguments about education in society. I think that it is the democratic process who try to perpetuate their posi- fo tnemtaert-lli“ eht dna ”noitartsinimda hsuB eht ylisae eb ,sdnah rieht ni seflir tluassa eht rof tub ,thgim ohw eceip eht ,revocsid noos sredaer reh sa ,ecnis ,luftieced si elt tsicsaf eht ot esuac sih fo egitserp eht dna ecnatsissa New School, strange as it sounds, the solution lies in to create the foundation for a more revolutionary economy extremely important to connect with other movements, for tion, their authority, in what happens in the daily life of the fo eruliaf tcejba eht . . .fo txetnoc eht ni nees eb ot nem gnuoy sselnoisserpxe fo mrof cimoc yldrusba eht ni -it siht neve tuB ”.seidegart htob sehsinimid 11/9 ot iabmuM yratilim gnidnel dna aidnI hsitirB gnipacse yllautneve becoming much more radical, for example, divesting from and society that is directly democratic—or however you example, groups fighting for housing rights and against organization. Whereas a rational form of leadership is one evah stneve cfiirroh eht“ taht naidrauG eht fo sredaer tiebla( elbakatsimnu saw ecanem citsicsaf eht taht os ,weiv gnirapmoC“ taht stressa lapoG adavmayirP ,skcatta iabmuM ,tsilanoitan gnidael a sa degreme esoB ardnahC sahbuS war profiteers and investing in renewable energy manu- want to describe it. foreclosures and evictions. Some of us are already in- that, in its operation, seeks to eliminate the need for its pu-desiw eht smrofni ,elpmyrlaD mailliW ,niev emas nialp ni ,kaeps ot os ,edam erew skcatta eht ,sesac htob nI eht no lairotide naidrauG 800 ,4 rebmeceD reh fo eltit eht nI tsicsaf-otpyrc eht ,erehT .aidnI ni eripme rieht evreserp facturing. In light of Obama’s economic recovery plan, with its volved in this kind of work. We could revolutionize student authority. The best type of leader is one that does just that: eht nI .dlrow eht revo lla sweJ no nosaes nepo si ti taht .yteicos nredom fo serusaelp enaforp eht erew stegrat eht skcatta iabmuM eht dna 11/9 ot elggurts hsitirB eht ni delaever ylkrats tsom erew We will be providing this advisory role while at the emphasis on the environment, the RSU thinks that the power by taking this power and working alongside working develops leaders that eliminate the need for that initial snaem azaG dna knaB tseW eht fo noitapucco s’learsI ,sesac htob nI .grebmoolB dna inailuiG sroyaM fo msilarebil troffe raw deillA eht fo snoitcidartnoc eht ,acirfA htroN same time forming something that will allow for us to New School should do two things. One, it should invest in people, people in neighborhoods against gentrification, as person. Obviously, a good leader will encourage others to :devlosba tliug sih evah ot ”enitselaP“ drow cigam -oen eht no ton saw kcatta 11/9 eht sa tsuj ,yarekcahT laB fo .secnatsmucric lacirotsih sti ot pu ecaf yltsenoh ot yti ni sa taht erawa erew dlanoDcaM ekil stsitfeL .s04 dna build a much stronger and forceful anti-war movement. renewable energy production; The university should take a means to unite people in their struggle. develop their capacities. eht rettu ylno deen eh weJ a sllik milsuM a emityna scitilop tsinivuahc udniH eht no ton erew iabmuM no skcatta -libani s’tfeL eht ni detoor era seceip eseht fo sgnimoctrohs s0391 eht ni aisA htuoS dna ,tsaE elddiM eht ,acirfA I think that there is a great possibility that we will attain a portion of its endowment and invest it in democratic, Some people at the New School are going to respond ,nietsrevliS rof ,taht edulcnoc ylefas yam ew siht morF eht ,oslA .msilatipac yraropmetnoc fo sretnec-evren taerg ehT ”.tfeL eht fo htaed eht“ smret supytalP tahw yfilpmexe htroN ni stsilanoitan naidnI dna ,barA ,naisreP gnoma veto power by April. It is extremely important to be able to and maybe even worker-owned, global energy production. to responsible investment, but of course I want more. As PN: How could the new student movement succeed where .]800/4/1 naidrauG ”aidnI morf noitaripsnI“ nietS s’dlrow fo eno si iabmuM ,kroY weN ekil ,trohs nI .ycarcomed yeht skcatta eht yb desiar seussi eht ssucsid yltnegoc dna lios elitref dnuof taht ”msilairepmi-itna“ tsicsaf taht vote on who the president of the university will be when The other suggestion is that it should invest in cooperative far as we are concerned, what reasonable person doesn’t the old one did not? xelA .fc ,800/4/1 naidrauG ”esuoH dabahC kcattA citsilarulp a fo latipac ,lacitilop eht ton hguoht ,larutluc etalosi ot yticapacni rieht ni taht eugra I ,ecruos siht morf retnuoc ot tes tcejorp adnagaporp etarebiled a sa esora Kerrey is gone, but I think it is even more important for us credit unions. This would be a real solution in that it gives want more? And that is why having a solid analysis is so ot esoohC srekcattA eht did yhW“[ ”enitselaP tsniaga dna laicremmoc eht si iabmuM ,kroY weN ekiL .elggurts skrow gninimaxe nI )1( .naidrauG ehT ylpmis ro naidrauG ”msicsaf-itna“ tsilairepmi s’llihcruhC dna tlevesooR to gain veto power over the investment decisions and con- people access to credit that would be much more ac- key. If we have a solid analysis we can explain why we are AM: Well the old one did not have as well thought out of an semirc rof sserder“ gnikees erew srekcatta eht taht citarcomed lacidar fo yrotsih degrembus fi hcir a htiw ytic retsehcnaM eht ,yadot hsilgnE ni srepapswen yliad noit tracts that the university makes with other corporations. countable to them than the big three. We should fight for trying to take power in the university and move from this analysis. A lot of students that I know of have a stronger gnimialc ”,citimeS-itna ylirassecen ton“ saw esuoH trop lainoloc dlo na si iabmuM ,kroY weN ekil ,revoeroM .seit -alucric-ssam gninael-tfeL tsom s’dlrow eht fo eno ni gni ]845 ,redaeR nasitraP ehT ni ”seulaV citarcomeD fo credit unions owned by the people who have their money question to bigger issues. Who in the short term are we analysis of capitalism and a stronger understanding of his- dabahC no kcatta eht taht stsisni eh daetsnI .suoivbo -lausac fo rebmun mumixam eht gnitciflni fo noitnetni eht -raeppa seceip no sesucof swollof taht esruocsid aidem fo erutuF ehT“[ .tsicsaf a sa tnemucod yhtgnel eht ni ecno PN: The informational booklet printed by the Radical Stu- in them, and which are conceived as part of a long term going to take power from? We are trying to take power tory than those that were provided in the 1960s. I think that eht egdelwonkca ot senilced ,egap lairotide eht no htiw snoitalupop nabru natilopomsoc ylesnetni no msimalsI weiver ehT ”.stsilairepmi-itna“ tsicsaf htiw ynapmoc peek ylno tub ,.cte ,retsgnag a ,feiht a ,reredrum a ,yllub a dent Union describes the necessity for the SRI committee project of building a more democratic society. Even though from the treasurer of the board of trustees. Why? Only be- the difference between the student movement of the 1960s lapoG ekil ,nietsrevliS drahciR tnednopserroc naidrauG yb deripsni skcatta erew htob :elbativeni skcatta iabmuM eht ot sdnet tfeL eht s000 eht ni ,msilairepmi ”tsicsaf-itna“ sa debircsed saw ]reltiH[ ”.ymene eht fo erutan eht“ no in the following paragraph, it would be a small achievement, it would lay the ground- cause he is a board of trustees member and we don’t like and the movement of today is that the first was a genera- ,ygoloedi tsimalsI fo tcepsa railimaf-oot-lla na eb ot htiw nosirapmoc eht sekam — sdiova ylsuoiduts lapoG taht htiw pu dengis tfeL eht s0491 eht nI .degnahc evah sgniht stsidnagaporp sti ot sevitcerid deussi noitamrofnI raW work for a future economy in the here and now that would those power dynamics? No. That is important, but we are tion of people waking up and realizing that the capitalism won yb thguo iabmuM ni yalpsid no msitimeS-itna suo eno eht dna — 11/9 tuoba edam eb ot tniop laicurc ehT emos ,esruoc fO .scitilop yrotapicname fo ecnegreme-er fo ecfifO eht ,oga skeew emoS . . . .raw siht ezicitiloped “SRI considers both the investor’s financial needs challenge the interests determining today’s economy. also doing it because he is both the only the non-executive was something and that the United States was something. -redrum eht hguohT .erofeb nosrep hsiweJ a nees sa ?dediova ylisae os eb yllaer eht stibihni ylevitca hcihw tfeL eht fo stnemges tnatropmi ot sredael ]naciremA[ yb enod si elbissop gnihtyreve and an investment’s impact on society. SRI investors chairman at L-3 Communications, and a former manag- But today is different, those who have overcome their cyni- hcum os reven ,doohilekil lla ni ,dah ohw srellik yb ti htiw nosirapmoc eht nac ,saw 11/9 tahw yficeps yllautca dna msicsaf tsimalsI neewteb ecnailla ticat a sliaverp ereht taht elbaton si tI .elggurts eht ezicitilop ot nac ti lla encourage corporations to improve their practices PN: It seems to me that the link between universities ing director of Lehman Brothers. We are confronting what cism and are part of organizing a better society today are egeis ecilop a fo tsdim eht ni detucexe saw ti dna ytiro ew nehw tuB .sisylana on seriuqer ,)”6/11“ ot derrefer eb ot ,s0391 eht ni sa ,yadoT .msinilatS fo rotirehni eht sniamer seod ,9191 ni ymrA deR eht ro ,thguof seimra yranoit on environmental, social, and governmental issues… and war profiteering is epiphenomenal of a more deeply these corporations represent in the global power dynamic much more in agreement with anti-capitalist sentiment, -irp a saw sweJ gnillik skcatta eht dennalp ohw esoht emoc won sah dna( 800 ht9 rebmevoN ot ht6 rebmevoN ti taht dna s0391 eht ni msicsaf tsniaga tnorF ralupoP eht -uloveR hcnerF eht raw fo dnik eht gnithgfi noitan A With SRI, investors can put their money to work to entrenched and systemic problem, the perennial recon- and how they keep people oppressed and in the conditions anti-imperialist sentiment, and can articulate this in a roF .tuo delgnis osla erew ohw snotirB dna snaciremA morf iabmuM ni ecalp koot taht eerps gnillik eht ylbamuserP fo seruliaf eht fo snossel eht denrael ton sah ti taht yllanfi build a more sustainable world while earning com- stitution of capitalism. Thus we are faced with the task they are in through debt and loans. The IMF and the World much stronger way than students in the 1960s. An analysis eht neve ekilnu ,noitucexe rieht erofeb sgnitaeb egavas .tcejbus eht egnahc ot sniarts lapoG ,gnitirw saw ehs hcihw ssefnoc ot decrof eb dluow ew ,tsixe llits ot dias eb dluoc :swollof sa seitlucfifid esoht desserpxe dlanoDcaM petitive returns both today and over time.” of delving deeper into the problem. In the work I’ve done Bank get their money from companies like Lehman Broth- alone is one thing, as part of our efforts it will lead to a tuoba tneve eht fo sisylana yna gnireffo naht rehtaR .seod tfeL eht fi ,taht smees ti won ylnO .llits su htiw sniamer 3491 thgiwD lautcelletni tsitfeL ,ereht msilairepmi hcnerF fo with SDS members, theorists such as Michael Albert and ers, Bank of America, J.P Morgan, and Citigroup. much more conscious and revolutionary form of organiz- flesti kcatta eht naht erom reh snrecnoc noitcaer .S.U ehT ni defiitnedi dlanoDcaM taht sisirc eht ,aidnI tuoba gnitirw noitallatsnier eht dna acirfA htroN hcnerF fo ”noitarebil“ This seems to me to say that what the SRI committee David Harvey have defined the parameters of this task. People have insipient knowledge of what these finan- ing. I think that this approach is potentially more effec- .ti dniheb snoitnetni eht ssel hcum ,tneve taht fo sruotnoc stsitfeL dna ,stsitfeL naidnI tnenimorp yb nettirw skcatta iab ’seillA eht retfa weiveR nasitraP eht ni gnitirW .II raW is aiming for is a more ethical form of capitalism. Yet, I think that their analyses are insufficient, and despite cial institutions represent. But do they understand the tive—obviously, we have yet to see if it is or not. lautca eht fo gnihton syas ti ,11/9 fo smitciv eht fo gnireffus -muM eht no slairotide tnacfiingis fo weiver gniwollof eht ni dlroW fo ecneirepxe eht ni ylbaton tsom ,erofeb decaf their influence on students’ political activity, the content dynamics of global capital and its relationship to power? I think that as opposed to a lack understanding of the eht fo noitnem yrotcnufrep sekam eceip s’lapoG elihW wohs I sA .qarI ni ”stnemele etaredom“ eht dualppa yeht sa neeb sah taht ammelid a si tI ?msilairepmi tsicsaf-itna AM: Yes, of course, it’s very reformist in that regard. But if of leftist politics remains unclear. You proposed creating Well, it’s not that detailed, and I think that this where we workings of capitalism, one of the biggest barriers today is ”.msitavresnocoen denehtgnerts“ dna neve ,natsikaP dna natsinahgfA ni ”nabilaT doog“ eht fo yti yltnerappa ot dnopser ot woH :ammelid a htiw tfeL you look at the rest of the way we have been framing our a society in which investment could be decided on the come in. Unfortunately, we are privileged, but we can use cynicism: the feeling that very little is possible today. ”,snoitanimoba lagel detaerc“ ”,raw eslaf a dezimitigel“ 11/9 -lainegnoc eht gnirevocsid era yadot srekam raw naciremA eht stneserp rorreT no raW eht ,ecneuqesnoc nI .sei campaign, it is much more radical. Keep in mind that in basis of democratic deliberation, but what that sounds our privilege to the benefit of other people by connecting .yad taht no .S.U eht no kcatta eht ni derujni erew ro deid ohw ,3491 ni srecfifo dna srotartsinimda lainoloc hcnerF yhciV -ranoitcaer suoigiler niatrec fo noitanimile evitceles eht the spring we are going to be creating another group at like is making capitalism more tolerable, thus leaving the the dots, by explaining what foreclosures have to do with PN Postscript: Student politics today prioritizes the need for esoht sa ”hcum sa dereffus evah ohw ]erehwesle[ snoillim dnuof srecfifo naciremA sa tsuJ .yad yb yad ”citamgarp“ ot dettimmoc flah ylno era raw eht fo srotucesorp eht the New School to appeal to people who aren’t going to be mechanism through which agency is mediated intact. How the war and suggesting how to challenge that. An occupa- the democratization of financial structures, the break from fo ecneirepxe eht“ serucsbo ti sa neve ”,ecnaegnev sseldne erom gniworg ”,ycarcomed“ dna ”msicsaf“ fo cirotehr eht taht si nosaer ehT .ti morf raF .rorreT no raW s’aciremA responsive to us when we talk about revolution, and over- is the fight against capital and the ostensible “democrati- tion is only an occupation, that is, when it’s not part of a transnational corporations, and the creation of transparent noitcnas“ ot sa ”dezihsitef“ os tneve na ,retsinis erom neve nodnaba yllaudarg ,detapissid won msaisuhtne lacigoloedi fo dne gniviecer eht no msicsaf elyts-nabilaT ro tsimalsI throwing capitalism, and instituting a much more direct zation” of the system differentiated? Are they? project like creating a democratic university. This is how I decision-making processes. Even at its best— in the struggle gnihtemos ro dlroWcM ni eman dnarb rehtona rehtie si 11/9 evitavresnoc-oen fo hsulb tsrfi rieht ,rorreT no raW eht on si ereht ,kniht emos sa ,esuaceb ton si sihT .tsimal and participatory economy and society. That’s why we put understand what you mentioned earlier about the struggle for dual-power through local control of factories, credit ”.noitazinaciremA sseltneler“ s’aidnI htiw ticilpmoc eb ot fo srotucexe eht elihw ylsselmia tuoba selbmuts tI .detne -sI-itna emoceb tonnac dna ton si ”rorreT no raW“ eht that in there, we want to appeal to a variety of people, but AM: As far as I am concerned—and this of course gets for democracy and the fight against capitalism. We are not unions, and institutions—the student movement's imagina- dna ”setatS detinU eht fo ecneirepxe eht egelivirp ot“ ,seugra -irosid si yadot tfeL eht ,tsap sti hguorht krow ot elbanU ,seimene sti tneregilleb ro srekcab sti erecnis revewoH our goals—from the beginning—are much more radical. back to David Harvey—is that you can’t, at this point, have perfect, but I don’t think we fall into a trap here. I guess tion is finched in by predetermined and unquestioned political ehs ,eb dluow ”11/9 s’aidnI“ demeed eb ot iabmuM no kcatta .htiw nigeb ot ti detautca taht smia tsicsaf-itna yrev stnedecerp lacirotsih peeD a democratic form of capitalism. Why? Well what does this you could say I am not cynical. boundaries. The challenging of these boundaries is often left PN: Do you mean to say that the means toward winning crisis signify for the future of global capitalism? What is out of the equation. more radical ends have to appeal to present thought, happening today is leading us into a period of war. I believe PN: How do you understand leadership within a move- Students play a peculiar role in the recreation of social life. especially in the way that leftists formulate ideas of “prog- that this is the beginning of a much larger period when ment? What is the role of political leadership? While they do not constitute a class in themselves, they are at ress” and “transformation”? That at the present juncture you will have an unraveling of US hegemony. I think that a point in their development where a serious shift in thought dranoeL .A recnepS it is not possible to “sell” revolution to the majority of the this period we are heading into is going to be charac- AM: Leadership is unavoidable and necessary. It’s and thus political education can take place. This raises the population, and that a leftist politics has to take steps terized by environmental crisis, and to a lesser extent necessary because everybody is going to have different question: what role could students play in furthering the scope toward that goal? continual economic crisis, but ultimately it will lead into a strengths and weaknesses depending on levels of experi- and depth of an anti-capitalist politics and how do we begin skcattA iabmuM 800 eht fo egarevoC s’naidrauG eht fo euqitirc A political crisis in which the United States will have to deal ence. Leaders are essential, as long as they don’t hinder this kind of work today? |P AM: Yes. For some people it may not take these steps, but with rising powers. War mongers, Democrat or Repub- the development of a democratically based organizational for most it will. lican, are going to be favoring these developments. That structure, and as long as they don’t impede in the process yas ot tfel gnihtoN is why part of what we’ve been doing at the New School of others developing their own capacity to be leaders. If PN: How do you formulate the interconnectedness be- is fostering the seed for a new type of economy in the they do, then that is a problem. It’s a problem because tween present demands and future goals in your politics? short term while creating an analysis of the relationship even though those leaders might be effective in the short 1 9002 yraurbeF / 01# eussI weiveR supytalP ehT 3 The Platypus Review Issue #10 / February 2009 4 Afghanistan, internationalism and the Left implosion of capital markets, entrenched tyranny, slavery, Nothing Left, continued from page 1 and so on - is no less all-devouring than the abyss the Spanish people faced. Where much of the “Left” appears to be encumbered by a sense of nostalgia or parent-envy, An interview with Terry Glavin standing in the shadows of its predecessors, I tend to see the conditions humanity faces today as every bit as daunt- While 9/11 posed for everyone worldwide the question of promote LeT’s attempts to Islamicize the resistance to interchangeably describable in the rhetoric of Clausewitz ing and terrifying as the conditions faced by our parents’ modern Islamism, Gopal’s editorial reveals once again India’s long-standing military occupation of Kashmir. This or of jihad. The Mumbai attacks and LeT’s rising promi- and grandparents’ generations, and requiring a stiffness of how the Left continues to rely on its old reflex responses collusion between elements inside the Pakistani Army nence also represents a fusion of al-Qaeda’s international Andony Melathopoulos resolve no less martial. I don’t know why we would expect — supposed “anti-imperialism” — to defer any confronta- and LeT is inextricably related to the Mumbai attacks. For agenda to long-standing projects of the Pakistani military anything less of ourselves today than our predecessors tion with the full scope of the barbarism in our time. In years the Pakistani military has permitted jihadis fighting and ISI. The following interview was conducted as an email left, but we were more than happy to welcome Liberals and “Left” argument was, in a word, a fraud. gave of themselves in Spain all those years ago. But the this way, the piece tends to obscure or deny what is sa- in Kashmir free rein to train and recruit in Pakistan creat- exchange between Andony Melathopoulos and Terry Glavin even Conservatives, especially of the old “Red Tory” kind. I dealt with this rather gingerly at first, writing only “Left” today calls us to much less. The most charitable lient for advancing (or even imagining) a politics genuinely ing the milieu from which the Mumbai attacks came. Even Reaction in-progress in December 2008. Terry Glavin is a Canadian journalist, In that way, it’s a pretty classic popular-front approach. about the obvious challenges Afghanistan presented in a thing one can say of the so-called anti-imperialist “Left” capable of both countering fascism and reconstituting an if the LeT and the other organizations of Kashmiri and Af- While it is certainly well for commentators such as Gopal an outspoken critic of the anti-war movement’s call to Our founders included women’s rights activists and several Canadian context, and relying on Afghan emigres to provide is that it summons us to neutrality, to indifference, to the emancipatory politics in South Asia. ghan jihadis which the ISI has created are no longer under to wish that cool heads should prevail in the Govern- withdrawal foreign troops from Afghanistan and a founder of left-wing writers and academics, but also a former federal whatever opinions were necessarily asserted in whatever antisocial pathology of “minding our own business.” their control, it can scarcely disclaim all responsibility for ment of India’s deliberations regarding its response, her the Afghanistan Canada Solidarity Committee (afghanistan- Liberal cabinet minister and two former federal Conserva- I wrote. But I quickly understood that even in this, I had The Pakistan connection their actions. Moreover, as confirmed by the July 7th 008 ignoring of the manifestly Islamist character of the attack, canada-solidarity.org). tive cabinet ministers. What surprised me, quite frankly, transgressed into the heretical. AM: I am uneasy with the idea that the problems of the All indications identify the culprit of the Mumbai attacks to bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, the ISI is cer- the apparent link to LeT, and the internal tensions within was just how much support there was for the sort of posi- What I began to see quite clearly - and it was the Af- “Left” can be solved by simply developing a stomach for be the notorious Pakistani Islamist organization Lashkar- tainly directly engaged in the promotion of the Taliban and the Pakistani state weakens that very plea for modera- Andony Melathopoulos: You just returned from a trip to tion we were staking out, across the board. ghanistan debate that allowed me to see it, was that in the getting our hands dirty. Maybe the problems with the statements terrorists make in the course of an attack; it is e-Taiba [LeT], a group the CIA and Pakistani Inter-Servic- the sabotaging of the Karzai government in Afghanistan. tion and peaceful negotiations. Her commentary leaves Afghanistan and have been busy writing about your experi- Perhaps less like the U.S, but certainly much like the main, the “Left,” on such an epochal question - and related “so-called anti-imperialist ‘Left’ ” are not primarily that quite another matter to rationalize such statements in the es Intelligence [ISI] founded in the early 1980s to foment We catch a glimpse of such Pakistani army councils when unspecified what the purpose of any negotiation might ence in the Canadian news media and, most recently, in case in Britain, Canada’s “anti-war” movement has indeed as it was to the rising challenge of Islamist barbarism they lack duty or stomach, but rather, their theory is inad- manner of Silverstein, Dalrymple, and Roy. jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Beginning in the President Asif Ali Zardari, upon being pressed regarding be. After all, it is clear that, as in the past, Pakistan will an online piece in Democratiya (“Afghanistan: A Choice of crawled into bed with the forces of reaction. I mean this not throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast equate, or frozen in the past. Isn’t the pragmatism that you Highlighting the political significance of the attack on early 1990s, it shifted focus to Indian Kashmir. It was in LeT involvement, tellingly exclaims: “Even if these activ- first try to deny all involvement, then refuse to extradite Comrades,” Winter (15), 008). What are the main points in some oblique or metaphorical way, but quite specifi- Asia - was simply not on the side of progress, was not on deem to be a necessity only so because there is no work- Chabad House cannot be allowed to obscure the fact that one of LeT’s Rawalpindi safe houses that the principal ar- ists are linked to the LeT, who do you think we are fight- its citizens to face trial, and, in the end, will release all you are trying to convey in your writing? cally. The main “anti-war” organizations in Canada have the side of emancipation, was not on the side of “peace”, ers’ movement and because there is no theory to navigate there was also something quite discriminating about the chitect of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was ing?” [quoted in Bernard-Henri Levy, “Let’s Give Pakistan those it has rounded up under pressure from the U.S. In nurtured fraternal ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, with even. Not in the matter of Afghanistan, obviously and even a nascent movement? seemingly more indiscriminate killing of commuters at apprehended in 003. Late the previous year, Pakistani the Attention It Deserves” Wall Street Journal 1/3/08]. the course of this response, Pakistan will no doubt take Terry Glavin: If I’m trying to convey any position of my Hezbollah and Hamas. You can look it up for yourself. When certainly. The “Left” had retreated into a sort of parochial the Victoria Terminus. It is not enough to say simply that, authorities took al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah from a That is, the resistance to the newly elected government’s the opportunity to point out the manner in which India own about Afghanistan, specifically, it arises from the the head of the Canadian Labour Congress refers to the isolationism, and there was no role for a journalist like me TG: I think I might be uneasy with it as well, because compared to the foreigners and the rich people at the Taj LeT safe house in Faisalabad. assertion of its authority over the military (a highly fraught has in the past used terror attacks as an occasion to one firm conviction I have reached in my investigations Taliban as the Afghan “resistance” and the New Demo- except to reassure the “Left” of its virtue, assist in the con- developing a stomach for dirty hands alone won’t help the and Oberoi Hotels, the victims there were poorer, working LeT is not hidden away in remote tribal areas beyond proposition) derives from those elements still promoting a frame inconvenient dissidents and advance repressive over the years, which was confirmed over and over again cratic Party (social democrats) fields “star” candidates who struction of comforting falsehoods, and otherwise engage Left, and I don’t say it will. I’m not in the least bit uneasy people, though this is true. It is also worth pointing out the reach of the Pakistani state. It recruits, indoctrinates, jihadi-based foreign policy. purposes. At any rate, it is not clear that Pakistan can be in Afghanistan. And it’s this: What we in the “West” say call the Taliban mere “dissidents,” you know that some- in the regurgitation of platitudes and pieties. about placing a good degree of trust in the basic instincts that at the train station, the attackers fired directly into and trains members for military action in full view of the LeT is chiefly a player in the growth industry that is pressured to take on the jihadi groups at all. As Fareed to ourselves about Afghanistan - the way we talk about thing rather unusually toxic is at work. of ordinary people when they are committed to coming to crowds. The Muslims among the dead there were not Pakistani Army, which must, therefore, be said to protect Islamist terror attacks against India, a country al-Qaeda Zakaria’s December 8, 008 CNN interview with former Afghanistan - really matters. And the implications of the As for Fred Halliday’s analysis, let’s remember what AM: Clearly the anti-war movement is a different kind of the aid of their fellow human beings. unintended victims. They were punished for living and it. And it is worth noting that there is nothing on the Indian rightly perceives as a weak link in the Zionist-Crusader- ISI chief Hamid Gul suggests, the institutional culture of “troops out” position - the spectre that this position might his invocation of Spain in the 1930s, in the Afghan context, Left than the one you have in mind. Can you tell me a little I don’t know that I simply assign “pragmatism” in the working in peace in secular democratic India, i.e. of hav- side comparable to Pakistan’s harboring of such “non- Infidel alliance with which so many of its recent propagan- Pakistani military intelligence is so completely Islami- actually succeed, has an enormously corrosive impact on is about. I don’t cite the cause of the international brigades about where your politics come from? How did you come place that I would prefer to see, say, a robust proletarian ing failed to join the jihad. Of course, the Hindus regarded state actors.” Of course, the Pakistani government’s first da broadcasts have been preoccupied. While, in knowing cized as to permit a senior spokesman to state publicly, Afghan society. in Spain merely as a spirited call to arms, but rather in the to the Left in the first place? internationalism, but neither am I certain that a revivified as pagans were positively marked for slaughter. As for the reaction to the news of the Mumbai attacks was, as usual, tones, area specialists insist on the great significance of on global media, that 9/11 and the Mumbai attacks It’s why I’m convinced that the worst threat Afghani- light that Halliday casts on the current situation. Just as global consciousness needs to wait for a “new” or rearticu- attacks on Mumbai’s elite hotels, likewise, the clear intent to flatly deny claims that the attackers were Pakistani, or the theological distinctions between jihadi groups, bin were “an inside job” perpetrated by the “Zionists and stan faces is not the threat of “re-Talibanization” by the Spain served as a proving ground and a crucible of the hor- TG: When I was a kid I was quite intensely informed by the lated theory, or that any of us need to wait for a revivified was to comingle on their marble floors the blood of dying that LeT was involved. But the important investigation of Laden himself is clear in his reiterated calls for unity. He the neo-cons.” This is from a man who claimed in 00 theocratic fascists who like to say to the West, “You have rors that were to follow, Afghanistan has provided a train- Irish republican politics in the community, and the Chile democratic-socialist internationalism in order to be able to unbelievers of all sorts — Zionist, Crusader, and Infidel. Guardian journalist Saeed Shah helped confound these knows, even if they do not, that there is only one modern that “jihad has the UN sanction,” and who is rumored to all the clocks, but we have all the time.” It’s from the clock- ing ground and a crucible for a kind of fascism that has solidarity work after Allende was killed, and I was drawn think clearly or act as effectively as our means allow. At the There again was the same unbridled murderousness that denials. This he did by finding the one of many villages jihad and that, in Pakistan, it is bidding for the soul of the have relayed information to the Taliban in advance of U.S. watching West, and the “international community,” which been unleashed throughout Central Asia, the Maghreb, and to the Revolutionary Marxist Group and the League for same time, action without something at least approaching has been a significant feature of previous attacks, such as in Pakistan named Faridkot, where in his statement to Army. As bin Laden’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri strikes. Given the fact that such opinions can be held by a should be saying, unequivocally: “We’re staying as long the Levant, to say nothing of the relatively minor horrors it Socialist Action and such Trotskyist groups. But when I got a theory by which to navigate is just as useless. The “anti- the 006 commuter train in Mumbai and the serial bomb- the Indian police the sole surviving terrorist, Ajmal Amir (otherwise notorious for his recent slander of Barack man in Gul’s position, deepest anxieties are not unwar- as we’re needed and wanted, period. We won’t abandon unleashed on New York, Washington, Madrid, and London. older I noticed it was the old Communist Party warhorses globalization” movement might be the most vivid example ings earlier in 008 in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kasab, claimed he was born. To confirm that he had in fact Obama as a “House Slave”), stated in his April 006 mes- ranted. We might add that Gul’s conspiracy-mongering is Afghanistan again, ever.” I am offering the observation that history has repeated who were always doing the heavy lifting. Not the dizzy of such uselessness, although I’m not even sure that its and Delhi, to name just a few. These rather elementary found the attacker’s village and that LeT recruiters were sage “To the People of Pakistan:” not confined to military circles, but is widely represented itself, and is repeating itself, and there is no shortage of ideologues from the universities or the Soviet apologists, global pow-wow circuit antic-making can be considered aspects of the politics behind the Mumbai attacks rarely indeed active there, Shah spoke to local people. One con- Musharraf was the primary backer of [America’s] ouster in the Pakistani media today [for which see, most recently, AM: Like you, Fred Halliday and Christopher Hitchens have isolationist “pacifists” and Little Englanders on the left, but the party’s union men and women. You could count on “action” except in the symbolic sense. So maybe that’s not merit mention in the analysis to be found in the Guard- firmed the story on condition of anonymity, adding, “We of the Islamic Emirate from Kabul. . . As a result of Kamal Siddiqi’s “Everyone at Fault Except Us” in The taken unpopular stands against the anti-war movement. and no shortage of Charles Lindberghs, animating the them. For anything. The party was a disgrace, but the par- the best example. The World Social Forum, then. There you ian. But while the “Left” cannot remain at this elementary know that boy [caught in Mumbai] is from Faridkot. . . . We Musharraf’s betrayal, Indian intelligence has crept close News (Islamabad) 1/15/08]. As for Pakistan’s bureau- This has been in response to their former comrades in the “anti-war” movement today. tisans were good people. It was like the church in that way. go. There was a kind of “theory” that animated its proceed- level of analysis, neither can it afford to ignore the obvious. knew from the first night [of the attack]. They brainwash to the Pakistan-Afghan border. . . [Consequently] the cratic and scientific elite, it will do well to remember that New Left Review and the Nation for crawling “in bed with Nobody takes the Pope seriously but when you get in a jam ings. Where did that get us? While Gopal is right to claim that in many respects 9/11 our youth about jihad. There are people who do it in this Pakistani Army, with the exit of the Taliban government the “father” of the country’s nuclear program, A. Q. Khan, the forces of reaction” (Hitchens). Is the Canadian “Left” AM: How did you first become interested in Afghanistan? it’s the Knights of Columbus you’ll be wanting, and they’re So rather than simply retreating into theory, maybe the is not unique as a point of comparison (there have been village.” [Saeed Shah, “Mumbai Terrorist came from Paki- from Kabul, became a double loser: first, the Pakistani in February 1984 dismissed concerns about Pakistan’s bedding down with these same forces? Was forming the Is there a defining moment or incident that drew your at- always there for you. And that’s what’s really got working best use intellectuals of the “Left” can make of themselves many other Islamist terrorist attacks besides 9/11), her stan, local Villagers Confirm” Guardian 1/7/08]. Given Army lost the strategic depth which Afghanistan, with its nuclear program as “a figment of the Zionist mind.” Afghanistan Canada Solidarity Committee an attempt to tention there? people to the point we’d reached by the time I came of age, on this aimless voyage is to strip away and jettison all the aim seems not to locate the attacks in an alternative histo- Islamabad’s proven mendacity, Washington’s opportunism, highlands and mountains, can offer it in any Pakistani-In- Three years later, Khan reversed himself to gleefully an- provide a positive internationalist response to the anti-war with all the relative comforts that were available only to the ideational-package flotsam from the anti-imperialist, anti- ry of recent Islamist terrorism, as, for instance, in relation and Delhi’s capacity for evidence-tampering and deception dian confrontation. And second, the Pakistani Army’s back nounce that Pakistan had succeeded in constructing what movement? TG: A few years ago, when I was still writing my column for wealthy just a century before. globalization, anti-war, and counterculture “Left”, and see to the bombing in Pakistan in September of the Islamabad of the public (most notoriously in the botched frame-up became exposed to a regime hostile to it and allied with he called an “Islamic bomb” [Leonard Weiss, “Pakistan: the Georgia Straight - which claims to be North America’s One of the things you notice about the international if anything remains. Marriott that killed 53 and injured more than 50. Rather, of the alleged plotters of the December 13, 001 attack its enemies. It’s Déjà vu all Over Again” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists TG: When the Solidarity Committee came together, we oldest “alternative newsweekly” - I found that the conven- volunteers in the Spanish war, for instance, perhaps espe- the Mumbai attacks are treated as have no determinate on the Indian Parliament), Shah’s brand of investigative Zawahiri demonstrates perfect familiarity with the “na- 60:3 (May/June 004), 55-56]. were all in agreement that rather than contribute to an al- tional left-wing polemics on the question of Afghanistan cially in the enormous Canadian contingent, was a distaste AM: I am sympathetic with your characterisation of character whatsoever, Gopal preferring to speak only of journalism is invaluable. His reports in the Guardian were tional security” language in which top ISI officers have Gopal’s analysis leaves unspecified a fact crucial for ready infantilized conversation, we wanted to try to change simply couldn’t be sustained by resort to facts or argument bordering on outright hostility to ideological and party-line the theory of the “Left” as incoherent and its prac- a “massacre of defenceless innocents.” Presumably the significant and sound — in stark contrast to the irrespon- long rationalized their support for Islamist fascism. The the Left to recognize, that Pakistan is subject to and an the public conversation, and we’ve seen real successes in from anything vaguely resembling a working-class, inter- considerations, and a searing, gut-felt duty to one’s com- tice as powerless. You don’t, however, seem prepared same is true of the bomb detonated December 5th, 008 sible commentary we are addressing here. civil war within the Muslim world has long since become a exporter of a murderous fascism that goes unopposed doing that. We wanted to provide space for Afghan-Canadi- nationalist standpoint. Most importantly, I started talking rades in struggle. The precipice where most people in the to “jettison” the example of the Canadian volunteers in the in a market outside a Shi’a mosque in Peshawar in which Though officially denied in Islamabad, there can be no struggle inside the state apparatus of Pakistan. The Army by any mass political organization inside the country and an voices, and to make the “progressive” case for engage- to Afghan emigres, and to women who had done progres- world stand today, in so many respects - natural-resource Spanish Civil War. Why does this hold a key to a revived people were killed and more than 90 were wounded. doubt that many in the Pakistani Army and ISI approve and has become so Islamized that its strategic aims are now which enjoys informal state support. Radical street dem- ment in Afghanistan. Our founders were mainly from the sive work in Afghanistan, and soon realized that the entire exhaustion, food scarcity and famine, failed states, the internationalism for you? Doesn’t the persistence of this "Afghanistan" continues bellow Afghanistan, Nothing, NEW continued from above continued from above website: historical imagination only prove that the “Left” has never see why so many Afghans rejoiced just as we did here in a not-American context, and for reasons that are differ- forces to help them achieve these things. Troops in. onstrations and political organizing in Pakistan have been Certainly, recognizing Islamist responsibility and ISI stituting Leftist politics in South Asia rides to no small really been able to overcome, or work through, the failed Canada, especially here on the west coast, in December of ent from the main anti-war justifications and arguments So I am forced to decide. And I’ve made my decision. largely moribund for some decades now, as these have complicity implies no support for the opportunistic use to extent on the ability of the U.S. and NATO to defeat the Popular Front tactics of the 1930s? Doesn’t this just em- 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. There was abroad in 003. By this I mean two things. been the near-exclusive domain of reactionary and jingo- which the Mumbai attacks be put by India’s military and Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Left has a stake phasize how the “Left” is both afraid of taking power and of jubilation up and down the coast, and there were bonfires. Firstly, I wouldn’t have opposed American intervention AM: This decision seems an accommodation to the fact istic displays, the recent “lawyers’ movement” notwith- political parties. As its entire long history shows, when in historical processes that at present it is powerless to working for common goals - and by common goals I mean We celebrated, but not because of the terrible thing that owing to any squeamishness at the prospect of Americans that an international Left does not exist. Is the decision for standing. The little labor organization that once existed in the Left evades such facts as ill-suited to its preferred affect. creating a common ideology? had happened to America, but because after two years coming home in body bags from Fallujah, for instance. one intervention over another any more a decision than the the country is now utterly dispirited and depoliticized. At understanding of the political environment, not only does It has long been evident that with respect to “the allied with the British, fighting the Axis powers in Europe, After all, why shouldn’t they be the bodies of Americans? anti-war movement’s “decision” to end either war; are not the same time, given the permanent political crisis in the it confess its own helplessness in the face of the present, war on TV” the scattered fragments of the Left can do TG: I think I’ve dealt with the business of “ideology” as Canadians knew that at long last, America was in the fight. I know this sounds cold, but if any soldiers had to die in all these “decisions” ultimately determined by the realities region, a circumstance to which all the relevant political but threatens in the process to betray — yet again — what little more than watch the bullets fly. However, we might far as I’m comfortable in doing, but I am not prepared to It had become in American interests to join the fight. the “liberation” of the Iraqi people, it would be hard to of U.S. power? You suggest multilateral actors (e.g. 39- actors, not least the NATO commanders in Afghanistan, should be its own most fundamental commitments. even take some comfort in the fact that, once again in simply “jettison” the instructive example of the Canadian You don’t need to consult your Hegel to know that from argue, given the history of American complicity with the nation ISAF) and the U.N. are capable of overcoming this are reconciled, the demand for the reigning-in of fascism, the recent elections, most people in Pakistan rejected volunteers in the Spanish War. I don’t know that I’d go so contingency comes opportunity, and after September 11th, entrenchment of the Baathist regime, that it should not be reality but this doesn’t seem consistent with the example whether “Hindu” or “Muslim,” serves only to reinforce The possibility of a Left the appeal of the religious parties. Despite the prevail- far as to say it holds the “key” to a revived internationalism, Americans were drawn back into the fight in Afghanistan, American soldiers. of Afghanistan, where the desired U.N. and multilateral at- the status quo. That is, at present this demand only In urging that the Mumbai attacks are not to be compared ing depoliticization, many recognized that they too have g but it certainly does set a standard, and a similar popular- and anyone who imagines that this was a bad thing simply Secondly, in the lead-up to the 003 invasion of Iraq, tention occurred only after it was in the U.S.’s interest (i.e. translates into support for the Indian National Congress to 9/11, Gopal, as we have seen, was not concerned with stakes in the struggle against Islamism, and did not allow r front strategy is not doomed to failure at all. In the 1930s, hasn’t been paying attention, and anyone who would when the debates and arguments really counted, the na- following a direct attack). Moreover, I am unsure why you or the Pakistan People’s Party, political defenders of the the actual events themselves so much as the potential their discontent with the status quo to lead to a reconcili- o Western armies were not arrayed against Franco, Hitler wonder why so many Afghans rejoiced has not been paying ture of the decision facing Canadians was wholly different think that multilateral actors and the U.N. are a desirable wretched cronyism that prevails in both countries. Indian response. Instead of strengthening democracy ation with it. The Left ought to attend more closely to the . and Mussolini. Today, the US, NATO and ISAF is in the fight attention. than the decision facing Americans. For Canadians, the counterweight to the U.S. Do you think they are agents of While Gopal is not wrong to note the crimes of the and the struggle against authoritarianism (much less any dilemma the Pakistani people are forced to negotiate on 7 in Afghanistan, and with the exception of the Americans’ Here’s what we have cause to be worried about. It is questions were: Why should we sign up as a junior partner the Left? Do you think they are able to pose a challenge to Bush administration, neither it nor American imperial- attempt to criticize and advance the politics of the Left), account of a failed politics, i.e. a choice between two right- 1 disgraceful appeasements of the Pakistan military and precisely that President-elect Obama will fulfill his prom- in a very risky, largely unilateral war, a war of such a mas- the present system of global capital? Do you think they are ism is responsible for the attacks on Mumbai. Nor does a Gopal proposes something else: “Rather than imitate the wing alternatives. Certainly, as has been shown here, 9 intelligence complex, the armies of the West are, in fact, on ises to the American people efficiently and cost-effectively sive scale? Why would we sign up with the Americans in a vehicle for developing a worker-based internationalism recitation of the sordid history of U.S. support for military US . . . India has the option of turning to its own unique anti-imperialism in our time has become a smokescreen the right side. I really think it’s important to acknowledge by striking some sordid arrangement with the three main the invasion and overthrow of a UN member state, without that can meaningfully challenge and overcome U.S. power? dictator General Zia ul-Haq’s Islamicization of Pakistan history in seeking an end to the violence.” Invoking Gan- that obscures more than it reveals. It alone offers no way 1 that, to get over it. The Taliban are not the Vietcong. The chains of command within the Taliban in order to get at a clear UN mandate, with world opinion mainly against and for the Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s funda- dhi, she declares, “India has no need to cede its unique forward. While we cannot contemplate without horror an s Sixties are over. It actually is possible for the American al Qaeda. ‘Give us al Qaeda and we’ll cut you loose,’ an the idea? Why would we join in an Anglo-American war on TG: I don’t think any of these things. But I do think that mentally alter the fact that the jihadis have their own cultural resources for the derivative language of 9/11.” Islamist victory in Pakistan or Afghanistan or Kashmir. At u military to be on the right side of a struggle, and as some Obama White House might well propose. And where is evidence that was at best shaky, for purposes that were contingency produces opportunity, you work with the cards deeply reactionary agenda that is wholly irreconcilable To the same purpose Arundhati Roy relates her recogni- the same time, it is impossible to imagine its defeat at the p wag said, “It would be lovely if the Nelson Mandela Appre- the American Left that could prevent or forestall such a at best shadowy, and in the absence of any framework for you’re dealt, and sometimes, history will happen to deal with secular democratic politics in South Asia. () In this tion that “November isn’t September, 008 isn’t 001, hands of such “enemies” as it now faces. That is, in pres- ciation Society had the means to take on the job, but until squalid betrayal, or mount even a minor protest rally about multilateral consideration about which tyranny to invade you a decent hand. Helplessness and powerlessness are era of political imbecility, it requires emphasizing that Pakistan isn’t Afghanistan and India isn’t America.” Like ent circumstances the “War on Terror” is no more horrific y that happens, I’m afraid we’re going to have to settle for it? There is no such American Left. It doesn’t exist. in the world, and when, and under what agreed-upon the worst kinds of illusions, and here’s how Afghanistan opposition to this ISI-jihadi nexus in Pakistan implies no Gopal, Roy dismisses as trifling the “war on TV,” attempt- to contemplate than is the peace to be made with it. If, t the 101st Airborne Division.” With millions of Afghan refugees fleeing to Iran and grounds? is not like Spain: we don’t need to arm civilian volunteers tempering of the critique of the Hindutvavadis or Hindu ing to insert it into the familiar framework for under- rather than railing against or rallying on behalf of one or a Pakistan and Tajikistan, and all the schools shut down and Afghanistan is almost a mirror-image opposite of the and get them there. Our soldiers are there already. They’re fascists in India, nor any diminution of their crimes, such standing Hindu-Muslim antagonism in South Asia, that of another right-wing politics, the Left would be complicit l AM: In your Democratiya piece you describe the forth- the newspapers and radio stations shuttered and looted, circumstances and trajectory that have prevailed in Iraq. To well-trained, and fairly well-paid. In Afghanistan, teaching as the 199 demolition of the Babri Masjid and the 00 so-called “communal violence” which she duly attributes with neither barbarous war nor rotten peace, it will have p coming Obama presidency as articulating the words that the American “Left” would experience something of a fris- begin with, Afghanistan re-entered the public conscious- a single girl how to read her own name is a revolutionary anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat. On the contrary. to the legacy of British colonial mendacity. If indeed Gopal to subject itself to searching critical reflection. Though . Afghans want to hear most: “We will not leave you. We will son. Noam Chomsky would trace the consistent trajectory ness in 001 as a thoroughly rogue state, with diplomatic act, and $1,500 in Yankee currency employs a teacher for At least since the time of Zia, the political order in acknowledges any danger to emanate from Pakistan, she as “a newspaper of record” the Guardian will continue w not betray you. We will not abandon you”. What is it about of American conduct in the region. Cindy Sheehan would recognition only from the Taliban’s sponsor (Pakistan) and an entire year. Is the “Left” so bankrupt that it can’t even Pakistan has rested on a despicable alliance between leaves it to the American Empire to sort out. As for the documenting atrocities symptomatically expressive of the w Obama’s approach that makes you think that the U.S. will mumble something about maybe not challenging Nancy the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates (the home states do this? military despotism and Islamicism. This alliance, which political (as opposed to cultural) resources available to ongoing political regression like the attacks on Mumbai, it finally make a serious sustained effort to rebuild Afghani- Pelosi again four years down the road. Amy Goodman of the deranged oil millionaires who helped bankroll them). To more directly answer your question, I would go so has functioned during both civilian and military govern- India, Gopal declines to specify which of those is up to the will do so without the critical awareness that this is what w stan? conduct some brain numbing interview with Tariq Ali, and Afghanistan’s seat at the UN was occupied by the Taliban’s far as to suggest that, with some “ifs” engaged, then yes, ments, is responsible for many thousands of corpses of task of opposing the fascism on display on 11/6. Should it’s doing. |P in the pages of The Nation, Tom Hayden and Naomi Klein arch-enemies, the Northern Alliance. The country had we could even be deciding which military interventions Leftist activists, trade unionists, and intellectuals. Neither we inquire as to India’s political as opposed to cultural TG: America’s conduct has been far more callous and might write opposing essays. Klein could gloat over the been cleaved in half by war and savagery, and every year, were necessary and useful to the cause of human prog- the Bush administration nor recent Pakistani leadership, resources, Gopal would offer nothing in reply. But the filthy and duplicitous and disgraceful and foolish than we front-row view we’ve all been given of American capital- the territory under Taliban control was churning out thou- ress, and which ones were not. It is quite easy to imagine whether that of Musharraf or Zardari, has done anything degeneracy of the Indian left is a rich subject. After all, News have time or space to consider here, and yes, in a perfect ism’s true face revealing itself in Afghanistan. Hayden sands of Chechen, Filipino, Kashmiri, Algerian and Moroc- circumstances like that as being well within the realm of to disrupt it. Indeed, they are on the side historically of the Indian Left in recent years has been guilty of active world, perhaps Donald Rumsfeld would be brought before could take the contrary opinion: No, Obama is one of us, can jihadists to be dispatched to their assignments around possibility. But in order to wield that degree of influence in those who perpetrated those crimes. Rather than empha- complicity with Islamism as, for instance, in the 007 ex- Events an American court, tried before an American judge, and he’s bringing the troops home, let’s get high. the world from well-funded training camps. A quarter of democratic societies, it would at least help somewhat if we size this complicity, Gopal reserves her concern for what pulsion of Bangladeshi asylum seeker, feminist, and critic Calendars sentenced to spend the rest of his life in an American So, for now at least, we’re left with all this “hope” and the population was scattered to the ends of the earth as rededicated ourselves to universal human progress, demo- the Indian government might do. If anything, what we of Islamism, Taslima Nasreen by the Communist Party of prison. But we’re living in the here and the now, in the real “change” stuff. For now, it will have to do. refugees. Almost a third of the unfortunates who remained cratic egalitarianism, and freedom from slavery, misogyny, have seen is something that demonstrates the strength India (Marxist)-led Government of West Bengal. History world, and all I have to go on as far as the new American in the country were on the verge of starvation. The Taliban illiteracy and obscurantism. If these things are possible, of Indian democracy, as with the immediate acceptance In the world Guardian writers prefer not to face, the Chapters president is concerned is his word. I have no cause to doubt AM: You make a distinction between the intervention in Iraq were hated by the people, the entire, war-blasted place then yes, “multilateral actors” and the UN could indeed be of responsibility and resignation by the Indian Home Min- Left is in no position to affect outcomes. Still, acknowl- what little he has actually said on the subject because it is and the intervention in Afghanistan. You only support the was a humanitarian disaster of the first order. Deposing "agents of the Left,” and even US power could be harnessed ister Shivraj Patil, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao edging circumstances and the Left’s exhaustion is the Readings in America’s interests to proceed as Obama has given the intervention in Afghanistan. Why? the Taliban was going to be like a walk in the park. Inter- in the cause of the historic mission of the Left, and the ir- Deshmukh, and Home Minister of Maharashtra R. R. Patil. only way forward. For, to invert Marx’s famous thesis, we Articles world to believe he will proceed. I haven’t heard him say vention? What took you so long? What’s not to like? rational occupation with overcoming “US power” might be Her concern to restrain India also sits uneasily with the will not be in position to change the world, until and un- America will “finally make a serious sustained effort to TG: Because the distinctions and differences abound. To be As I have persisted in noticing, for some years, what seen for the irrelevant distraction that it usually is. statements of President Zardari of Pakistan who, writing less we understand it. And the crucial conditioning factor Interviews rebuild Afghanistan,” in such a direct way. And this is what painfully specific, the way I would prefer to put my answer the Afghan people have been very clear about in respect I will concede to you, and to Platypus, that in order in the New York Times, seems precisely to pin his hope of current events is the death of the Left. In the here- Discussion we do have cause to worry about. to your question is that I wholeheartedly support “interven- of what they actually want, and what the “Left” has been to even imagine such things, it may first be necessary to on leveraging U.S. and Indian pressure to strengthen his and-now, it is clear that the political struggle against Is- Afghans need to believe they will not be abandoned tion” but not necessarily “the intervention” in Afghanistan, arguing for in the rich countries of the world, are diametri- give in to “the desire for a tabula rasa, for a start from hand against the military establishment and the home- lamism in South Asia, as elsewhere, has a military aspect Reviews again. They have to be convinced it is true, otherwise they and I would have preferred to at least cautiously support an cally opposed. What the “Left” has been saying, among scratch,” as the Platypus statement of purpose puts it. I grown Islamism that seeks to overthrow his government. and that any marginally desirable political outcome will Rss feeds will have all the fight and the hope drained out of them, intervention in Iraq, but certainly not “the intervention” as other absurd things, is troops out. In a baker’s dozen’s would further concede that this may well require that the have been brought about at least in part by means of the and they are already reeling from enough dashed hopes. it was conceived and prosecuted. worth of polls I am aware of, the Afghan people consistent- living dead of the “Left” as we now know it should be put violence of state action. Moreover, as most Leftists would Videos Look at how it came to pass that America returned to In the case of Iraq, I found myself on the “no war” side ly and overwhelmingly say they want democracy, peace, down, eliminated, rejected, and jettisoned. doubtless be loathe to admit, the very prospect of recon- On this period in Pakistan see, Platypus Historians Group, “The Failure Audio Afghanistan in the autumn months of 001 and you will in a specifically Canadian context, or maybe I should say security, and jobs, and they want and need international Fine by me. Avante. Allons-y. Let’s go. |P of Pakistan: A Concise History of the Left” in PR (February 008).