Lebanon's victory electrifies Egyptian dissidents: what of the European left?
During Israel's assault on Lebanon, the European Social Forum issued a statement of solidarity with the Lebanese resistance. It's only a statement, yes, but I don't think that even this would have happened if reformists like Bernard Cassen of Attac had hegemonised the anticapitalist movement. The great success of the London ESF in 2004 was characterised by its commitment to anti-imperialism, whereas people like Cassen (and even, regrettably, George Monbiot) have argued instead that the movement should hope for the EU to act as a counterweight to the US: a grand mistake, I think. It is this kind of orientation that leads to left leaders urging the EU to be more 'active' in the Middle East. (Ironically, there was at one point a coalescence between the positions of Michael Hardt and Bernard Cassen over the allegedly baleful effect of the antiwar movement on anticapitalism: the former because he sees no relevance to nation-states at all and therefore no point in focusing resistance toward them, while the latter thinks they can tame capitalism and therefore perhaps also tame US 'unilateralism').
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