Harry Targ
(As the debates around the war on Ukraine have
evolved, one new feature stands out. It has to do with the very conception of
international relations. As an international relations scholar I have always
seen the world from an East/West perspective (during the Cold War), or a
struggle among the big powers (bipolarity versus multipolarity), or United
States imperialism versus everyone else. These views have led to discourses on
colonialism, neo-colonialism, world wars, deterrence, arms races all featuring
the behavior, policies, and consequences of actions by nations of the Global
North and their institutions. If wars and interventions occurred in countries
of the Global South those countries were merely victims in the narrative.
Exposure to the writings of V. J. Prashad,
described below and the quote from Philbrick, suggest that scholars and
activists might need to reconceptualize how they see the world; shifting from a
“big power” or “polarity” lens to examining the behaviors, attitudes, policies
of the vast majority of humankind who have been left out of much scholarly and
activist discourse. If we reconceptualize our view of the world, the horrors of
the Ukraine War may have been a “teachable moment.” Harry
Targ, April 18, 2022)
("We live in a bubble, here in the U.S. and Europe, where we
think the very stark moral and geopolitical stakes, and framework of what we’re
seeing unfolding, is a universal cause,” Barry Pavel, a
senior vice president at the Atlantic Council, told me. “Actually, most of the
governments of the world are not with us.”
( Ian Prasad Philbrick, The ‘Messy Middle,’ The New York Times, April 18, 2022).
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Originally
posted on February 15, 2011
I am teaching a course this semester on United States
relations with the Caribbean and Central America. I use the course to explore
the historic patterns of United States foreign policy from the industrial
revolution to the present. I open the course with reference to Greg Grandin’s
thesis that U.S. conduct in the Western Hemisphere has served as a template or
experiment for its global role as an imperial power.
The course also examines the rise of dependent capitalist regimes in the region
but most importantly resistance to the Colossus of the North. Course discussion
includes assessments of revolution in Haiti, Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, and El
Salvador and how the United States sought to forestall them and undermine their
successes.
This time I chose as the first text a book that reframes world history from a
“bottom-up” perspective. I am using Vijay Prashad’s book, The Darker
Nations: A People’s History of the Third World, which presents a view
of twentieth century world history that gives voice to the peoples of Asia,
Africa, and Latin America. It turns out that the Prashad book has become
extraordinarily timely (I make no claims about whether my students agree or
not) in that it describes in historical and theoretical terms the rise of what
we used to call “The Third World,” or what he calls “The Darker Nations”
beginning with the era of global colonial empire. It identifies leaders,
nations, movements, organizations such as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM),
policies, successes and failures. Although it was published in 2007, it leads
the reader to reflect on the burgeoning mass movements today in the Middle
East, suggesting pitfalls and possible strengths in terms of global progressive
social change.
Prashad’s book identifies three periods of the history of the Darker Nations
that he identifies in chapters as “Quest,” “Pitfalls,” and “Assassinations.” In
each period there are dominant actors--individuals and nations, visions,
policies, and patterns of interaction with rich and powerful countries.
The chapter Prashad called “Quest” summarizes the coming together of
anti-colonial movements and the successive victories that occurred against the
European colonial powers that occupied much of the world’s land mass from the
mid-nineteenth century until the end of World War II. “Quest” begins with an
interesting discussion of the meeting of the new League Against Imperialism
held in Brussels in 1927. It is there that the Third World project is
formulated. It is a project inspired by Communists, Socialists, and
Nationalists who abhorred colonialism and sought to build a global movement to
overthrow it.
In subsequent chapters Prashad traces the development and institutionalization
of the movement, from anti-colonial struggle to independence to the drive to
establish a Third World bloc that would stand between western capitalism and
Soviet socialism. The early leaders of this movement were the leaders of
independence in their own countries: such figures as Jawaharlal Nehru (India);
Ahmed Sukarno (Indonesia); Marshall Tito (Yugoslavia); and Gamal Abdel Nasser
(Egypt). These and other leaders, representing countries from Asia, Africa,
Latin America, and the Middle East, had diverse political ideologies but all
supported political sovereignty and economic development. In general, their
vision was a Social Democratic one.
For a time, given the East/West competition the Third World Project had some
influence on debate and policy primarily through the United Nations. The Third
World Project advocated for a New International Economic Order (NIEO), designed
to regulate and control unbridled global capitalism. As the Socialist bloc deconstructed
the advocacy for the NIEO declined.
Prashad discusses a second “stage” of the Third World Project that surfaced in
the 1970s and beyond. The movement of Darker Nations becomes compromised by the
rise of political elitism, bureaucratization, the demobilization of masses of
people, the crushing of left forces, the rise of particular institutions such
as the military that challenge grassroots politics, and the failure to bring
rural agricultural reforms to the process of modernization. Perhaps most
important to the Prashad narrative is the growing debt crisis, the
incorporation of many Darker Nations into the grip of the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and the rise of a new generation of post
colonial elites who did not share the passion, vision, or experience of their
predecessors.
The third part of Prashad’s book, loosely covering the 1980s to the present, he
calls “Assassinations.” It describes, through case studies, the continuation of
the deformations of the Third World Project described above. The “neo-liberal”
policy agenda embraced by many leaders reduced the role of states in shaping
their own economies, deregulated and downsized public institutions, opened
economies to foreign investors, and shifted from production for domestic
consumption to export-based economies. Gaps between rich and poor grew and as a
result political institutions, particularly armies and police, became more
repressive. However, a few regimes experienced economic growth, the so-called
“Asian Tigers” for example. Others, Saudi Arabia being a prime example,
supported and fostered on a global basis religious fundamentalism and ethnic
hostilities to debase and virtually eliminate the unity embedded in the
original vision of the Third World Project.
The Project of the Darker Nations Today
What we have witnessed over the last twenty days perhaps constitutes what Prashad
might regard as a new stage in the development of the Third World Project.
First, the Middle East revolution, if we wish to call it that for shorthand
reasons, can be seen as a direct reaction to the profound global economic
crisis that has been brought on by neo-liberal globalization.
Second, it clearly is motivated by goals similar to those NAM endorsed in the
1950s, that is some kind of New International Economic Order.
Third, the movements seem to be largely secular, perhaps reflecting a rejection
of the counter-revolutionary programs of Third World elites who promoted
division and reaction to further their own interests.
Fourth, the movements appear to incorporate vast numbers of young people, men
and women, workers and small business people, intellectuals and artists, as
well as those who identify with their religious traditions.
Fifth, the labor movement and the growing percentages of unemployed and
underemployed workers have been playing a passionate and committed role in the
struggles. The estimated forty percent of the world’s population in the
so-called “informal sector” have a stake in revolutionary change as do workers
in transportation, electronics, construction, and manufacturing.
Sixth, this revolution is a non-violent revolution. “Revolutionaries” are
saying no or enough, and are doing so in such numbers that the institutions of
government and the economy can not continue to operate. This culls up memories
of the Gandhi struggles against the British empire and the civil rights
movement in the U.S. South.
Seventh, this is an electronic revolution. As a result of the computer age time
and space as factors confounding communicating and organizing have been
eliminated. Cell phones and social networks do not make revolutions but they
facilitate the kind of organizing that historically was more tedious and
problematic. And, the new technology insures that revolutionary ferment in one
part of the world can be connected to revolutionary ferment elsewhere. In a
certain sense, now all youth can be participants, not just observers.
In a recent interview Prashad summarized some of these elements of the ongoing
struggles:
The Arab revolt that we now witness is something akin to a “1968” for the
Arab World. Sixty per cent of the Arab population is under 30 (70 per cent in
Egypt). Their slogans are about dignity and employment. The resource curse
brought wealth to a small population of their societies, but little economic
development. Social development came to some parts of the Arab world….The
educated lower-middle-class and middle-class youth have not been able to find
jobs. The concatenations of humiliations revolts these young people: no job, no
respect from an authoritarian state, and then to top it off the general malaise
of being a second-class citizen on the world stage…was overwhelming. The chants
on the streets are about this combination of dignity, justice, and jobs. (MRZINE. Monthly
Review.org, February 4, 2011)
Some of the Differences From Before
Comparing the period of the Third World Project with today suggests some
differences and similarities. As Prashad and other historians of the Third
World make clear, the rise of the non-aligned movement gained some influence
because of the Cold War contest between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Now the world consists of a variety of new powers, some from the original
movement (such as India, China, Egypt, and Brazil) whose economic, political,
and military capabilities are challenging the traditional power structures of
international relations. Also, global capitalism is in profound crisis and the
causes of the revolutionary ferment as well as its escalation are intimately connected
with the Middle East revolutions.
Today the danger of escalating state violence and repression remains
significant. Global capitalism is in crisis. Some third world regimes are still
driven by fundamentalisms of one sort or another. And, finally, key decision
makers in centers of global power seem committed still to archaic ideologies,
for example suggesting that Islamic fundamentalism will take over revolutions,
democracy is dangerous, and that the one “democracy” in the Middle East,
Israel, will be further threatened by the movements in the region.
In addition, the Egyptian revolution, while exciting and inspirational suffers
from some of the same weaknesses Prashad described at the dawn of the Third
World Project. Looking back fifty years, the leaders, and the various
participating sectors of the mass movement, had not articulated a systematic
and compelling ideology, beyond the programmatic demands of the NIEO.
Several countries in the forefront of the NAM were military regimes. Placards
of Nasser were prominently displayed in Liberation Square last week. Nasser was
a military leader of the “Free Colonels” movement that overthrew King Farouk in
1952. The same “revolutionary” military created a Hasni Mubarak many years
later. While the military in Egypt today may act in ways that curry the favor
of the protestors, it must be clear that military institutions are driven by
their own interests, not the interests of the people.
So the mass mobilization of the last twenty days that is so exciting, inspiring
hope for the world, is fraught with danger. The people now must struggle to
articulate, advocate for, and institutionalize a program of humane socialism in
every country where they are victorious. The task of progressives in the Global
North is to support the new project and to link its causes and visions to the
struggles that are experienced everywhere.
And finally if we add a 2022 deduction to those listed above we might, quoting Philbrick realize that “we live in a bubble, here in the U.S. and Europe, where we think the very stark moral and geopolitical stakes, and framework of what we’re seeing unfolding, is a universal cause.”
