Tisaranee Gunasekara, a Colombo-based journalist, is the author of an article titled "Promoting Tyranny" that was first published on 3 October 2010 (and apparently re-published on 4 October) on the website of the Sri Lankan newspaper "The Sunday Leader".
The full text of the article can be read free of charge here:
www.thesundayleader.lk/2010/10/04/promoting-tyranny/
Excerpts: "[Sri Lankan] President Mahinda Rajapaksa's speech to the UN General Assembly [...] opined that international humanitarian laws should be changed to give states carte blanche to combat terrorism. The Rajapaksa proposal would normalise excess and enable sovereign states to act as they wish, unconstrained by laws and norms, against whomever or whatever they designate 'terrorist'. [...] And in this anti-democratic world, the Rajapaksas would be able to pursue their dynastic agenda, with total impunity. The Rajapaksas [...] face little or no impediment nationally to their single-minded pursuit of absolute and long term power. [...] Being cognizant of the Rajapaksa proposal is important not because the international community will accept it but because it demonstrates the endemically tyrannical nature of the Rajapaksa vision and mission. [...] The successful transformation of a democracy into a family oligarchy requires the creation of a new value system with absolute, unquestioning obedience of the ruled to the rulers as its leitmotiv. Those citizens who refuse to abide by this cardinal rule will be ostracized from the national community. In the present national and international climate what better epithet to justify such persecution as that of terrorist? [...]
"The regime moves with ruthless efficacy against any opponent or act of opposition it deems effective, the incarceration of [former opposition presidential candidate] Gen. Fonseka and the persecution of a printing press owner and his family for printing a poster comparing the President to Hitler being the latest cases in point. The Rajapaksas tend to justify their anti-democratic policies and deeds by flavouring them with nationalistic and patriotic rhetoric. International humanitarian norms are castigated as imperialist constraints on Sri Lanka's right to defend herself and her people. [...] Lofty words hiding an ignoble reality; the regime while incarcerating 8,000 ordinary Tamils as [Tamil] Tiger suspects is treating as estimable guests known Tiger leaders [...]. The real criterion therefore is not whether one was a Tiger or not but whether one is willing to support the Rajapaksas or not. Life can be pleasant for those who are willing to submit to the Rajapaksas and exceedingly unpleasant if not downright dangerous for those who are not, as the curiously similar fates of the 8,000 Tiger suspects and the Army Commander who defeated the Tigers clearly indicate. When national interest is equated with Rajapaksa interest and patriotism with loyalty to the Rajapaksas, any opponent of the Ruling Family can be deemed a terrorist and a traitor and treated as such."
Although not mentioned, it stands to reason that the article was also published in last Sunday's print edition.
Showing posts with label nationalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nationalism. Show all posts
06 October 2010
01 September 2010
Book: Nineteenth-Century Nationalism and Twentieth-Century Anti-democratic Ideals
Ieva Zake, "Nineteenth-Century Nationalism and Twentieth-Century
Anti-democratic Ideals: The Case of Latvia, 1840s to 1980s" (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008):
www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=7319&pc=9
Publisher's description: "This study analyzes political writings of the Latvian intellectuals who pursued the ideas of national identity and liberation, over a period of nearly one hundred and fifty years. In addition to providing a better general understanding of intellectuals' behavior and influence, it illuminates the largely neglected subject of the differences between the political, social, and cultural influence of Western and Eastern European intellectuals."
Endorsements: "One cannot help but be struck by the intellectual honesty of the author, who is unsparing in her critical analysis of the often provincial, intolerant, and undemocratic strains within Latvian Nationalist thought. ... At the same time, the author acknowledges the dedication of these educated men and women to national liberation and to the cultivation of cultural identity in often difficult circumstances."
(Nils Muižnieks, University of Latvia)
"Without doubt, this thoroughly documented and well researched book is an original and significant contribution to scholarship. It combines new historical information with important sociological and political analysis by a native of the area discussed." (Paul Hollander, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
"Providing the reader with a fresh outlook, based on a solid source base, the author offers an appealing examination of why, as was the case of many of the East Central European countries squeezed between colossal Russia and almighty Germany, nationalism at times seemed a synonym to liberation, and national culture safeguarding."
(Anna A. Mazurkiewicz, University of Gdansk, Poland)
Latvian-born Ieva Zake is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Rowan University in the USA.
Anti-democratic Ideals: The Case of Latvia, 1840s to 1980s" (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008):
www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=7319&pc=9
Publisher's description: "This study analyzes political writings of the Latvian intellectuals who pursued the ideas of national identity and liberation, over a period of nearly one hundred and fifty years. In addition to providing a better general understanding of intellectuals' behavior and influence, it illuminates the largely neglected subject of the differences between the political, social, and cultural influence of Western and Eastern European intellectuals."
Endorsements: "One cannot help but be struck by the intellectual honesty of the author, who is unsparing in her critical analysis of the often provincial, intolerant, and undemocratic strains within Latvian Nationalist thought. ... At the same time, the author acknowledges the dedication of these educated men and women to national liberation and to the cultivation of cultural identity in often difficult circumstances."
(Nils Muižnieks, University of Latvia)
"Without doubt, this thoroughly documented and well researched book is an original and significant contribution to scholarship. It combines new historical information with important sociological and political analysis by a native of the area discussed." (Paul Hollander, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
"Providing the reader with a fresh outlook, based on a solid source base, the author offers an appealing examination of why, as was the case of many of the East Central European countries squeezed between colossal Russia and almighty Germany, nationalism at times seemed a synonym to liberation, and national culture safeguarding."
(Anna A. Mazurkiewicz, University of Gdansk, Poland)
Latvian-born Ieva Zake is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Rowan University in the USA.
03 April 2010
Book: The French Revolution and the Russian Anti-Democratic Tradition
Dmitry Shlapentokh, "The French Revolution and the Russian Anti-Democratic Tradition: A Case of False Consciousness" (Transaction Publishers, 1997):
www.transactionpub.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TRANSPUB&Product_Code=978-1-56000-244-4
Publisher's description: "The political uncertainty following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rejection of the revolutionary model has brought Russian political thought full circle as democratic forces contend with authoritarian nationalism. This volume is essential to understanding the antidemocratic tradition in Russia and the persistent danger of totalitarianism."
The book is fully searchable on Google Book Search (including table of contents):
http://books.google.com/books?id=eVKOSX0E2bUC&printsec=frontcover
Dmitry Shlapentokh, born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union, is Associate Professor of History at Indiana University South Bend.
www.transactionpub.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TRANSPUB&Product_Code=978-1-56000-244-4
Publisher's description: "The political uncertainty following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rejection of the revolutionary model has brought Russian political thought full circle as democratic forces contend with authoritarian nationalism. This volume is essential to understanding the antidemocratic tradition in Russia and the persistent danger of totalitarianism."
The book is fully searchable on Google Book Search (including table of contents):
http://books.google.com/books?id=eVKOSX0E2bUC&printsec=frontcover
Dmitry Shlapentokh, born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union, is Associate Professor of History at Indiana University South Bend.
24 February 2010
Book: A Mass Movement Against Democracy: The Threat of the Sangh Parivar
A short announcement for a book about which I can find almost no information: Shankar Gopalakrishnan, "A Mass Movement Against Democracy: The Threat of the Sangh Parivar" (New Delhi, India: Aakar Books, 2009):
http://aakarbooks.com/bookdetail.php?book_id=304
According to the publisher's website, "Shankar Gopalakrishnan is an activist of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of tribal and forest dweller mass organizations struggling for the rights of forest communities. He has written on forest policy, tribal rights, law development, communalism, Special Economic Zones and neoliberal economic policies. His academic training is in development studies and mathematics".
The book was published in association with the Society for Rural, Urban and Tribal Initiative (SRUTI) in New Delhi, on whose website I found only one reference to it: "Shankar Gopal has finalised the booklet [77 pages] on understanding the functioning of the Sangha parivar and its fascist programs". On the website of a university library in the US which acquired the book, it is described thus: "On the ideology of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, sociopolitical organization".
According to a quick online search, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak [or: Swayamsevak] Sangh (RSS) is a Hindu nationalist volunteer organization. Sangh Parivar denotes the family of more than thirty organizations, with millions of members, associated with the RSS, among them national unions of labourers, farmers, fishermen, teachers, students, artists, lawyers, and financial consultants, and the World Hindu Council, but also the BJP, the political party that led the National Democratic Alliance coalition government which ruled India between 1998 and 2004.
http://aakarbooks.com/bookdetail.php?book_id=304
According to the publisher's website, "Shankar Gopalakrishnan is an activist of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of tribal and forest dweller mass organizations struggling for the rights of forest communities. He has written on forest policy, tribal rights, law development, communalism, Special Economic Zones and neoliberal economic policies. His academic training is in development studies and mathematics".
The book was published in association with the Society for Rural, Urban and Tribal Initiative (SRUTI) in New Delhi, on whose website I found only one reference to it: "Shankar Gopal has finalised the booklet [77 pages] on understanding the functioning of the Sangha parivar and its fascist programs". On the website of a university library in the US which acquired the book, it is described thus: "On the ideology of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, sociopolitical organization".
According to a quick online search, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak [or: Swayamsevak] Sangh (RSS) is a Hindu nationalist volunteer organization. Sangh Parivar denotes the family of more than thirty organizations, with millions of members, associated with the RSS, among them national unions of labourers, farmers, fishermen, teachers, students, artists, lawyers, and financial consultants, and the World Hindu Council, but also the BJP, the political party that led the National Democratic Alliance coalition government which ruled India between 1998 and 2004.
15 February 2010
Article: The Charisma of Autocracy: Bal Thackeray's Dictatorship in Shiv Sena
In 2002, the Indian journal "Manushi: A Journal about Women and Society" published an article by Julia Eckert titled "The Charisma of Autocracy: Bal Thackeray's Dictatorship in Shiv Sena" (130: pp. 13-9). Shiv Sena is a regional far-right/Hindu nationalist political party in the Indian state of Maharashtra (of which Mumbai is the capital), that more recently has been seeking to go national. It was part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance coalition government that ruled India between 1998 and 2004.
The article can be read free of charge here:
www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/PDF%20ISSUE%20130(1.4)/3.%20The%20Charisma%20of%20Autocracy.pdf
Excerpts: "The autocratic control of Bal Thackeray over the Shiv Sena is probably the party's most notorious feature. [...] [T]he movement's founder [...] is said to rule the organisation with dictatorial powers. It is his charismatic appeal that is assumed to inspire his followers, and it is his 'remote control' which is said to govern Mumbai. [...] Bal Thackeray has time and again advocated a 'benevolent dictatorship' as the most beneficial form of government for India. [...]
"Accordingly, dictatorial rule and anti-democratic structures within the Shiv Sena are [...] part of the projected counter-politics of 'getting things done' and justified by the failure of other forms of decision making, namely the parliamentary one. [...] Corruption is in this construction intrinsically linked to democratic procedure, and democratically legitimised power. [...] The theme of 'betrayal by democracy' as well as that of the dangers of party rivalry holds sway far beyond the Sena's constituency."
In 2003, Oxford University Press published Eckert's monograph "The Charisma of Direct Action: Power, Politics and the Shiv Sena":
www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/ComparativePolitics/IndiaPakistan/?view=usa&ci=9780195660449
Publisher's description: "This book is a study of the Shiv Sena, a minor but most influential affiliate of the Hindu nationalist movement. It discusses the politics and appeal of the party which has been governing Mumbai and has achieved electoral success in a democracy that it often dispises [sic]. Through an analysis of the Shiv Sena, the book attempts to understand anti-pluralist movements of voilent [sic] direct action in particular."
Julia M. Eckert is now a Professor in the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Berne, Switzerland.
The article can be read free of charge here:
www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/PDF%20ISSUE%20130(1.4)/3.%20The%20Charisma%20of%20Autocracy.pdf
Excerpts: "The autocratic control of Bal Thackeray over the Shiv Sena is probably the party's most notorious feature. [...] [T]he movement's founder [...] is said to rule the organisation with dictatorial powers. It is his charismatic appeal that is assumed to inspire his followers, and it is his 'remote control' which is said to govern Mumbai. [...] Bal Thackeray has time and again advocated a 'benevolent dictatorship' as the most beneficial form of government for India. [...]
"Accordingly, dictatorial rule and anti-democratic structures within the Shiv Sena are [...] part of the projected counter-politics of 'getting things done' and justified by the failure of other forms of decision making, namely the parliamentary one. [...] Corruption is in this construction intrinsically linked to democratic procedure, and democratically legitimised power. [...] The theme of 'betrayal by democracy' as well as that of the dangers of party rivalry holds sway far beyond the Sena's constituency."
In 2003, Oxford University Press published Eckert's monograph "The Charisma of Direct Action: Power, Politics and the Shiv Sena":
www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/ComparativePolitics/IndiaPakistan/?view=usa&ci=9780195660449
Publisher's description: "This book is a study of the Shiv Sena, a minor but most influential affiliate of the Hindu nationalist movement. It discusses the politics and appeal of the party which has been governing Mumbai and has achieved electoral success in a democracy that it often dispises [sic]. Through an analysis of the Shiv Sena, the book attempts to understand anti-pluralist movements of voilent [sic] direct action in particular."
Julia M. Eckert is now a Professor in the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Berne, Switzerland.
04 February 2010
Article: Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction
Graham D. Macklin, "Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction" ("Patterns of Prejudice",
39 [3], September 2005: pp. 301-26):
www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/00313220500198292
Abstract: "Formed in 1996 by former National Front activist Troy Southgate, the National Revolutionary Faction (NRF) is a 'national-anarchist' groupuscule. In contrast to the International Third Position, the reactionary Catholic fascist sect from which it emerged, the NRF promotes a radical anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist 'anarchist' agenda of autonomous rural communities within a decentralized, pan-European framework. While the NRF retains an ideological core that is readily identifiable as fascist, that ideology is far from a mimetic atavism. As a result of its increasing radicalization the NRF has attempted to move 'beyond left and right', transcending the traditional limits of national-Bolshevism, to forge a seemingly incongruous synthesis of fascism and anarchism.
"Through its print and online publications, the NRF seeks to utilize its unique ideological position to exploit a burgeoning counter culture of industrial heavy metal music, paganism, esotericism, occultism and Satanism that, it believes, holds the key to the spiritual reinvigoration of western society ready for an essentially Evolian revolt against the culturally and racially enervating forces of American global capitalism. A detailed examination of its history, activism, structure and continued ideological morphology reveals the NRF as an ideological crucible for a growing international network of dissident 'national-revolutionaries' who are currently recalibrating their ideals in order to overcome their acute marginalization."
Excerpts: "This case study of the National Revolutionary Faction (NRF) provides a salutary example of fascism's cogent syncretic core and its ability to produce novel and pragmatic syntheses. [...] Even [Southgate's] assimilation of Noam Chomsky's scathing analysis of social control and hypocrisy at the amoral heart of American-led liberal democracy was refracted through the conspiratorial ideological lens provided by The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. [...] In order to 'change society completely' the NRF purloined anarchist thinkers like Proudhon, Kropotkin and Bakunin, using their revolutionary rhetoric to justify the overthrow of liberal social democracy [... .]
"NRF ideology is totally devoid of anarchism's humanistic social philosophy, which is rejected as 'infected' with feminism, homosexuality and Marxism. In its place Southgate has propagated a 'third position' anarchism based not on 'moral' rights but on Darwinian struggle, which would illuminate the 'natural order' from which every group with 'insurrectionist potential' could unite to destroy 'One World' tyranny with a 'primal bloodlust'. [...] Southgate's view of 'Traditional Anarchy' is suffused with [Julius] Evola's advocacy of 'self-rule by an elite' and the creation of a racial hierarchy conditioned by 'genetics' that, despite its alleged 'anarchism', looks favourably on the heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon England as a model of racial 'kingship'. [...]
"To liberate Europe from the all-encompassing 'blanket cosmopolitanism' of American-led consumerism, not to mention the 'occupying force' of its military presence in Europe, Southgate advocates relinquishing 'the very idea of the West'. [...] The increasing ability of groupuscules like the NRF to absorb and mirror left-wing and environmental causes, effortlessly refracting their concerns about globalization and liberal democracy through their own antisemitic and racist framework, creates a dangerous conflation between ecology and anti-immigration as a way of restoring the 'organic balance' of nature."
In January 2005, Southgate founded the French "Nouvelle Droite"-inspired "New Right" group in the UK which defines itself as "opposed to liberalism, democracy and egalitarianism and fight[ing] to restore the eternal values and principles that have become submerged beneath the corrosive tsunami of the modern world".
This article offers extensive bibliographical references to related literature.
Graham D. Macklin is now a Leverhulme Research Fellow in the Institute of Design, Culture and the Arts at the University of Teesside.
39 [3], September 2005: pp. 301-26):
www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/00313220500198292
Abstract: "Formed in 1996 by former National Front activist Troy Southgate, the National Revolutionary Faction (NRF) is a 'national-anarchist' groupuscule. In contrast to the International Third Position, the reactionary Catholic fascist sect from which it emerged, the NRF promotes a radical anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist 'anarchist' agenda of autonomous rural communities within a decentralized, pan-European framework. While the NRF retains an ideological core that is readily identifiable as fascist, that ideology is far from a mimetic atavism. As a result of its increasing radicalization the NRF has attempted to move 'beyond left and right', transcending the traditional limits of national-Bolshevism, to forge a seemingly incongruous synthesis of fascism and anarchism.
"Through its print and online publications, the NRF seeks to utilize its unique ideological position to exploit a burgeoning counter culture of industrial heavy metal music, paganism, esotericism, occultism and Satanism that, it believes, holds the key to the spiritual reinvigoration of western society ready for an essentially Evolian revolt against the culturally and racially enervating forces of American global capitalism. A detailed examination of its history, activism, structure and continued ideological morphology reveals the NRF as an ideological crucible for a growing international network of dissident 'national-revolutionaries' who are currently recalibrating their ideals in order to overcome their acute marginalization."
Excerpts: "This case study of the National Revolutionary Faction (NRF) provides a salutary example of fascism's cogent syncretic core and its ability to produce novel and pragmatic syntheses. [...] Even [Southgate's] assimilation of Noam Chomsky's scathing analysis of social control and hypocrisy at the amoral heart of American-led liberal democracy was refracted through the conspiratorial ideological lens provided by The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. [...] In order to 'change society completely' the NRF purloined anarchist thinkers like Proudhon, Kropotkin and Bakunin, using their revolutionary rhetoric to justify the overthrow of liberal social democracy [... .]
"NRF ideology is totally devoid of anarchism's humanistic social philosophy, which is rejected as 'infected' with feminism, homosexuality and Marxism. In its place Southgate has propagated a 'third position' anarchism based not on 'moral' rights but on Darwinian struggle, which would illuminate the 'natural order' from which every group with 'insurrectionist potential' could unite to destroy 'One World' tyranny with a 'primal bloodlust'. [...] Southgate's view of 'Traditional Anarchy' is suffused with [Julius] Evola's advocacy of 'self-rule by an elite' and the creation of a racial hierarchy conditioned by 'genetics' that, despite its alleged 'anarchism', looks favourably on the heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon England as a model of racial 'kingship'. [...]
"To liberate Europe from the all-encompassing 'blanket cosmopolitanism' of American-led consumerism, not to mention the 'occupying force' of its military presence in Europe, Southgate advocates relinquishing 'the very idea of the West'. [...] The increasing ability of groupuscules like the NRF to absorb and mirror left-wing and environmental causes, effortlessly refracting their concerns about globalization and liberal democracy through their own antisemitic and racist framework, creates a dangerous conflation between ecology and anti-immigration as a way of restoring the 'organic balance' of nature."
In January 2005, Southgate founded the French "Nouvelle Droite"-inspired "New Right" group in the UK which defines itself as "opposed to liberalism, democracy and egalitarianism and fight[ing] to restore the eternal values and principles that have become submerged beneath the corrosive tsunami of the modern world".
This article offers extensive bibliographical references to related literature.
Graham D. Macklin is now a Leverhulme Research Fellow in the Institute of Design, Culture and the Arts at the University of Teesside.
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