La Lutta Continua
Among hundreds of thousands: Safia Amajan, teacher, public servant. Malalai Kakar, armed feminist, public servant. Sitara Achakzai, parliamentarian, feminist. Karine Blais, Canadian, soldier.
You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend.
- Dolores Ibarruri.
UPDATE: From the oppressed women of Iran, a message of solidarity to their Afghan sisters.
UPDATE II: CASC - Now more than ever, Canada must stand up for Afghan freedom.
You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend.
- Dolores Ibarruri.
UPDATE: From the oppressed women of Iran, a message of solidarity to their Afghan sisters.
UPDATE II: CASC - Now more than ever, Canada must stand up for Afghan freedom.
posted by Terry Glavin at 10:20 AM
10 Comments:
Quoting Ibarruri sullies the memory of those brave Afghan and Canadian women, Terry.
Ibarruri was a hard-bitten leader of the party that strangled the Spanish revolution and which has the blood of many Spanish and Catalan revolutionaries on its hands--even if many of those revolutionaries were themselves deluded. What on earth were you thinking?
I'm willing to stand corrected if there's some new research about Ibarruri that I don't know about. For example, if it turns out that she opposed the torture and murder of POUM leader Andres Nin and so many others.
But if there isn't, then surely she is one of the last people that a democratic internationalist like yourself should be quoting.
The women that have fallen in the struggle to defeat the Taliban and build a freer and more humane Afghanistan deserve an honorable eulogy.
This is rather off topic, and a distraction, but I could just as easily say that to cite the persecution of POUM is to sully Ibarruri's name, and also to sully the memory of the many brave party members of the time who should not be held accountable in a retrospective judgment of the pro-Stalinist party leadership.
See: http://tinyurl.com/d54k74
Also, I think you'll find that under Ibarruri's leadership, the Spanish Communist Party was the first European communist party to break with the Soviets, in the 1970s.
It's a little overwrought to say that a critical comment about a quote on your blog is "off topic, and a distraction." You chose to post the quote, so it's legitimate to ask you to answer for it.
At any rate, I can only shake my head at this: "I could just as easily say that to cite the persecution of POUM is to sully Ibarruri's name." You could easily say it, but it would be completely wrong and, as I'm sure you know, utterly ridiculous.
Readers can consult works by Victor Alba and Stephen Schwartz, as well as Ronald Radosh, for the details of how the Soviets/Spanish CP crushed the Spanish revolution--and also weakened the very Republic they were ostensibly defending.
I'll leave it at that on this topic. One can only hope that next time someone falls fighting Islamo-fascism you don't decide to honor them by quoting Erich Honecker!
(PS. The Italian CP broke with the Russians before the Spanish did, and it was largely thanks to Santaigo Carrillo, not Ibarruri, that the Spanish did.)
Sheesh, Parvus. You need to chill.
"Readers can consult works by Victor Alba and Stephen Schwartz, as well as Ronald Radosh, for the details of how the Soviets/Spanish CP crushed the Spanish revolution. . ."
The link I provided you is from an essay I wrote in Vancouver Review that tells that very same story.
NB The Update:
While everyone in "the west" was having a good cry about the so-called Taliban-style rape law in Afghanistan. . . Iranian-style rape law, more like. Nary a peep has come from the same sanctimonious Canadian crowd about any of that, I notice:
"Unfortunately, most of the discriminatory cases that are included in the Shiia Family Law in Afghanistan are more or less present in Family Laws in Iran as well but thanks to the 100-year old movement for the equality of women in Iran, such discriminatory laws are faced with serious challenges from a considerable number of women in Iran. If you have followed the activities of Iranian women, you must know that last year a bill entitled The Law Supporting the Family that seriously threatened the rights of Iranian women was on the threshold of approval at the Iranian parliament. Women activists and equal rights advocates in Iran from all groups, ideologies, ethnicities, and genders were united and eventually managed to stand up against the approval of this law that violated women’s rights and stopped its debate at the parliament."
Indeed.
http://tinyurl.com/dd2c67
Just a style critique -- pleaze bear with me...
What is it with you Canuckistanis and your friggin tinyurls? I like to know where the fuck I'm going before I get there ... especially as;
1. I might not want to go there because it's smelly, or
2. the same as above, only in addition, boring and/or pointless fucking shit...
3. Some firewalls block tinyurls -- there's something you didn't know I bet.
Pleeze send cheezburguzzz.
Quoting Ibarruri pisses off the pricks. Keep it up, Terry.
Congrats on your high quality contribution to the discussion, Graeme. Way to keep that brain workin'!
Sorry Terry but I have to agree with Parvus. A quick google search reveals that Ibarruri maliciously persecuted POUM during the civil war (thereby weakening the anti-fascist effort). Not sure how that is "retrospectively" sullying the pro-stalinist leadership of which she was a part. And if it is, George Orwell, who was a POUM volunteer, developed his hatred of communism because of the actions of hard-bitten stalinists like Ibarruri, as is vividly described in Homage to Catalonia.
You might also consider that if she were alive today, she'd probably be making excuses for islamists just like most of the reconstructed stalinists who are still alive.
Anyway reasonable men can agree to disagree. keep up the good work.
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