[Reader-list] Politics of Imperialism and CounterStrategies

[Ravi Kumar]

Friends,
The Iraq War has been an instance of the new face of imperialism. There is a deeper process which culminates into such obnoxious manifestations. It emerges from the dynamics of capitalist development, from its desire to sustain its hegemony and expand. The two processes may appear as separate or as simultaneous. This imperialism bases itself on ideological terrain of local as well as global politics. Some might argue that the two are hardly any different. After all, these wars, torture chambers (which are no longer critiqued in the same manner as the Hitler's pogrom despite resemblances), and the new age, unprecedented media management, apart from a process of subtle politics that keeps criticality of general mass at bay, are meant for whom. Whose interest do they serve? Can they be understood in the simple rhetoric of annual fiestas at Porto Alegre or Mumbai? How can we trace the underlying logic and dynamic process of the protests, repression and imperialism today? These are some of the many questions that a recent anthology of articles published by Aakar Books, Delhi tries to raise. It's back cover reads: 



"The God's Cowboy Warrior holds world to ransom. While, Green and Saffron guards all play their part in this Grand Inquisition, extending and intensifying it.

The papers in this collection grounding themselves in diverse Marxist traditions are united in their pursuit to understand the ongoing political conflicts around the globe. Imperialism and all its de-humanized representations are realizations of the systemic logic of capitalism. If alternative has to be anti-capitalist, its evolving forms/ contents have to be identified. One cannot simply go on rhetoricising ad infinitum - "another world possible". Even if we refrain from identifying that 'world', the system will define it in its own way. "Anti-capitalist indifference" leads to barbaric conclusions, reflected in nationalist vandalism of RSS and Shiv Sena in India, Al Qaeda in the Middle East, anti-immigrant racist resurgence in the "advanced" societies - "anti-capitalist capitalism". There is always a danger of being trapped in the systemic dungeon of mystifications reproducing the bourgeois society if the processes leading towards it are not comprehended; and it needs courage to break that trap. The Argentine, Venezuelan, Mexican and Bolivian upheavals and the officialization of sections of the dissent require explanation. Here, we have some representative Marxist modes of understanding the politics in present day Capitalism, i.e., the politics of Imperialism and forces against it."

 

Title: The Politics of Imperialism and its Counterstrategies

Editors: Pratysuh Chandra, Anuradha Ghosh and Ravi Kumar

Contributors: Samir Amin, Massimo De Angelis, Werner Bonefeld, Ronald Chilcote. Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, John Bellamy Foster,  John Holloway, Nathalia E. Jaramillo, Doug Lorimer, Peter Mclaren, Prabhat Patnaik, James Petras, William K. Tabb

Price: Rs.200 (PB); Rs.675 (HB)

Publisher: Aakar Books (aakarb at del2.vsnl.net.in)
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