The Irish are not dying from a potato famine anymore, they are working in offices instead of factories and the struggle against brit$hit domination has long ago changed from a issue of exploitative oppression to almost purely a cultural one. There is still some issues of class, certainly, but even Northern Ireland is aligned with the imperialist axis and merrily feasts on the worlds poor along with it.
You see, many 1st world Marxist seem to be unable to see how material conditions have changed and thus so have people. If you want to organize a proletarian revolution you need to know where to look and how to recognize potential for a revolutionary class that is genuinely exploited and oppressed to rise up.
Comrade Prairie Fire wrote:
Overall, people’s behaviors are a function of class, nation, gender, etc. This is part of what Marx called historical materialism. However, people are not divided sharply into distinct categories. Rather, the world is a continuum of gray. There are people who may move from the being exploited to being an exploiter. They may retain the outlook of the oppressed for sometime after that, even though it will tend to fade. Sometimes we refer to this as “proletarian memory.” For example, look at Northern Ireland. There is a higher degree of internationalist sentiment there even though Northern Ireland is part of the First World and contains no significant proletariat. National oppression can also help preserve a degree of proletarian, internationalist sentiment in the culture. However, over time, as a country becomes less and less exploited, as it becomes more and more bourgeoisified, proletarian memory fades. — Two questions on exploitation and sociological mobility – http://llco.org/archives/10960
For people scratching their heads over Marcel’s comment, he is young Canadian who has arrived at SDS Weatherman politics all on his own. It is really quite weird to hear the sort of stuff that destroyed a promising youth group in the 1970s being repeated guilelessly today.
The Irish are not dying from a potato famine anymore, they are working in offices instead of factories and the struggle against brit$hit domination has long ago changed from a issue of exploitative oppression to almost purely a cultural one. There is still some issues of class, certainly, but even Northern Ireland is aligned with the imperialist axis and merrily feasts on the worlds poor along with it.
You see, many 1st world Marxist seem to be unable to see how material conditions have changed and thus so have people. If you want to organize a proletarian revolution you need to know where to look and how to recognize potential for a revolutionary class that is genuinely exploited and oppressed to rise up.
Comrade Prairie Fire wrote:
Overall, people’s behaviors are a function of class, nation, gender, etc. This is part of what Marx called historical materialism. However, people are not divided sharply into distinct categories. Rather, the world is a continuum of gray. There are people who may move from the being exploited to being an exploiter. They may retain the outlook of the oppressed for sometime after that, even though it will tend to fade. Sometimes we refer to this as “proletarian memory.” For example, look at Northern Ireland. There is a higher degree of internationalist sentiment there even though Northern Ireland is part of the First World and contains no significant proletariat. National oppression can also help preserve a degree of proletarian, internationalist sentiment in the culture. However, over time, as a country becomes less and less exploited, as it becomes more and more bourgeoisified, proletarian memory fades. — Two questions on exploitation and sociological mobility – http://llco.org/archives/10960
In fact, the Median household income for Ireland was 35,410 EUR (47,317.09 CAD) in 2005 (source http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?datasetcode=SNA_TABLE4) which puts the average Irishman in the bracket of the TOP 0.001% richest people in the world (source http://www.globalrichlist.com/)!
Comment by Marcel — December 11, 2010 @ 1:44 am
For people scratching their heads over Marcel’s comment, he is young Canadian who has arrived at SDS Weatherman politics all on his own. It is really quite weird to hear the sort of stuff that destroyed a promising youth group in the 1970s being repeated guilelessly today.
Comment by louisproyect — December 11, 2010 @ 1:50 am
A new development ‘up your alley’, Louis.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1126/1224284182687.html
http://www.unitedleftalliance.org/
Comment by D_D — December 12, 2010 @ 10:57 pm