The revolution that has really lasted is the democratic revolution emerging from France and the US in the 18th century

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

[Originally published on a weblog called “What Is Liberalism?”]

Harry of Harry’s Place is taking a long leave of absence from his weblog. This is very sad, since his weblog is possibly the most important British weblog there is. Harry has, over the last 3 years, boldly made the case for a progressive politics that defends the liberal ideal everywhere, and works to advance it throughout the world. I’ll miss him. A few of his closing thoughts:

Of course the left has always had its splits, divisions and in-fights and if we look back to the Spanish civil war there was certainly no love lost between the Anarchists, the Trotskyists and (Stalin’s) Communists. But the difference with today is that back in the time when the International Brigades were fighting fascism in Spain, no-one on the left actually urged support for Franco.

But that is, effectively, what Murray, German and Galloway have asked the left to do for the past three years – to support first a Ba’athist-fascist dictator (because ‘victory to Iraq’ could mean nothing else) and then after his defeat to back the murdering dead-enders of his overthrown regime in alliance with the greenshirts who wish to create a new ‘year zero’ Taliban regime in Iraq. It remains a matter of astonishment that a large swathe of left opinion has been able to either support this turn to fascism or to turn a blind eye to it in the interests of anti-war unity.

But, while being on the other side in a struggle against fascism is something unprecedented, it is no novita that part of the left has been willing to defend the indefensible and justify the unjustifiable. What these last few years have illustrated is that some have really learnt nothing from the last century and the millions of dead from the campaigns of ‘resistance’ and ‘struggle’ of Stalin and Mao. I laugh when the Stopperbloggers trot out their jibe about my student political affiliation to the Communist Party – after all which is worse – to have been naïve or mistaken as an 18-year-old or to be, now, in 2005 as a middle-aged man, 16 years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, actually and still a Stalinist in the manner of Murray or Galloway? Or, even more obscenely in the case of the SWP after decades of being stridently opposed to Stalinism to suddenly, in 2003, years after that movement died, to take on the politics of Uncle Joe and his followers and to adopt an open-Stalinist as your frontman?

The second link between the politics I held as a teenager and those I have expressed here as a 35-year-old lays not in a continuum but in the rejection of the doomed and dangerous ideology of Stalinism in its various shades and shapes. Not, I stress, a rejection of socialism, or the various philosophies that make up that broad school of thinking, because I remain convinced that capitalism cannot be the best humanity is capable of. Instead it is a rejection of the view of some on the left that socialism consists of a defeat of liberal democracy. Whatever economically socialism may turn out to be, it has to be based on an extension and broadening of the liberties and rights gained by democratic societies so far.

Rejecting illiberal politics required a conscious evaluation of political and moral values. In this respect the point I wish to make has already been made very well by John Lloyd:

“When I ceased to be a communist and therefore ditched an essentially undemocratic philosophy, I adopted democracy as a new faith with the real fervour of the convert. We centre-left ex-communists believe passionately in democracy because we’ve reasoned ourselves towards it, so we are perhaps more prepared to support wars that establish or defend it.

“We are articulating the democrats’ case for war. Our belief is that the revolution that has really lasted is the democratic revolution emerging from France and the US in the 18th century. We believe that liberal democracy still holds out a promise to all societies – all our political values are based on this – so we must support those who are fighting for it within their own societies, like in Iraq.”

That is where I have been coming from. I have a chuckle when critics talk about the ‘shift to the right’ of those of us from a socialist or liberal background who have supported the liberation of Iraq and see the need to defeat totalitarianism in all its forms. For surely, there is nothing more radical or revolutionary than millions of people emerging from decades of oppression to begin the task of building a free society? Those Afghan, Kurdish and Iraqi citizens voting for the first time in their lives have been similiar moments, albeit in different circumstances, to the ending of apartheid or the falling of the Berlin wall – chapters in human liberation. What is truly odd is that so many who call themselves progressives squirmed with discomfort and unease at those events.

Over these past three years on this blog, I’ve tried to articulate my passion for democracy and the need to defend and support those struggling to achieve free societies. I’ve done so through a medium which, it seems to me, is the perfect tool for anyone who wants to exercise one of the key elements of democracy – free speech.

Post external references

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    http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2005/09/28/if_it_means_anything_at_all.php
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