Comments by Arif Dirlik,November 1987 Chinese socialism and problems of Marxism

Abstract

In the year since John Anglim's article was written, many events have affected the future of the island microrepublic. Although the new administrations in Koror and Washington began 1989 on a hopeful note, it rapidly became clear how much Palau's options had been limited by the United States. By the year's end, Palauans were scheduled to go to the polls once again to vote on the Compact of Free Association they have rejected six times in the last six years, with no change in the fundamental issues of land rights, nuclear materials, and sovereignty. Regardless of the outcome, which could go either way, Palau faces a difficult and uncertain future.     

The Latvian student corps and politics in the inter-war period of the twentieth century

Abstract

To date, Latvia's student corps have remained a neglected topic in the country's political history, notwithstanding the size of these organisations and the fact that they have been in existence for more than a century. Those accounts that do exist have for the most part been written by corps members themselves, and have not included any real analysis of the corps' interaction with society or their role in Latvian political life. A study of these issues opens up new avenues towards a better understanding of the activity and influence of interest groups in Latvian politics during the 1920s and 1930s. Unlike many other social organisations, the student corps (also including the alumni societies) are often seen as linked to the activity of the major parties, to the coup d'état of 1934 and to radical Latvian nationalism.     

The French invasion of the Spanish Netherlands and the Provincial Assemblies in the Dutch Republic 1667–1668

Summary

This article examines the role defence provision played in the relations between a prince and his estates in early modern Europe. Using the Duchy of Wurttemberg as an example, it illustrates why the question of defence proved so significant in shaping prince‐estate relations, and how the attitudes that it forced each to adopt reveal much about their differing aims and general outlook. The dominant group within the Wurttemberg estates rejected the duke's preferred solution to the defence question, a standing army, out of fear that its adoption would alter the duchy's traditional political structure. Maintenance of this traditional structure was essential to the defence of the dominant group's vested social and economic interests. The dukes considered a standing army an essential prerequisite to the achievement of their dynastic and political goals. The estates’ rejection of it made conflict unavoidable. Though the estates were successful in opposing ducal policies, their lack of an alternative solution illustrates the general point that estates were unable to develop their own concept to rival their ruler's ‘modernizing’ pretensions. Instead, they remained entrenched in their traditional values and were not able to develop into modern parliaments. In contrast to the princes, however, their outlook was essentially peaceful, because war meant change and change was to be avoided.     

Iurii Samarin's Baltic Escapade

Iurii Samarin, a leading Russian Slavophile, was early in his life assigned to Riga to help reform the Russian administration there. He was shocked and outraged by what he regarded as Russia's abdication of authority in the Baltic region to the German minority. He urged St. Petersburg to reduce the powers of that minority in favor of Russians and the native population. His views were rejected by tsars Nicholas I and Alexander II, who regarded their German subjects as loyal citizens, but they influenced Alexander III.     

Labour Demands,Regime Concessions: Moroccan Unions and the Arab Uprising

This article investigates how public employee unions mobilised to take advantage of Morocco's Arab uprising. Leveraging their positions as operators of public institutions, these unionists exploited the unrest to strategically advance their interests. Two points emerge from this account of state—labour relations in Morocco. First, a spike in labour contestation began in early 2010, presaging the unrest that rocked Moroccan cities in 2011. Second, the unions secured their demands through traditional tactics of labour mobilisation—joining street protests, exaggerating material demands, and threatening negotiation walkouts. This strategy, however, became more efficacious during the Arab uprising. Fearing urban riots that had historically grown from labour protests since the 1980s, regime elites conceded to union demands, many of which they had previously rejected in the 2000s.     

Mubarak's Constitutional Reforms

Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak, is noted for having perfected the art of seemingly introducing reforms while actually consolidating his autocratic rule. In response to domestic and international pressure, he has recently introduced further reforms, in the hope of silencing the opposition and officially rectifying Egypt's poor human rights record. In his speeches and public statements, Mubarak has promised to set Egypt on the road to freedom, human rights, and democracy. He has established a National Council for Human Rights, more freedom for political parties and the press, and a series of constitutional amendments liberalising presidential elections and allowing more democracy, with a great deal of fanfare. This paper will consider the significance in reality of these constitutional amendments, particularly as regards human rights and democracy, the powers of the president and the role of non-governmental organisations and ordinary citizens in decision making. We conclude that, welcome as they are, the reforms have so far not been effective in moderating the president's absolute authority, neither have they lived up to public expectations. Whatever reform measures the Egyptian government has reluctantly introduced have been drained of any real substance by legal stratagems or hedged with all sorts of restrictions.     

Cross-Border Families in Hong Kong: The Role of Social Class and Politics

The massive relocation of industrial activities from Hong Kong to mainland China that followed in the wake of China's acceptance of foreign investment has given rise to two different sets of cross-border familial relations. In the first case, middle-class managers and technicians from Hong Kong have taken “second wives” during their stay in southern China. Hong Kong's mass media have been generally tolerant of this second-wife phenomenon, seeing it merely as a case of funglau (sexually potency), justifying it in terms of middle-class men's “soft spot,” and blaming the first wives for neglecting their duties. In the second case, workers from Hong Kong have crossed into the mainland in search of spouses because they believe that women in China are more affordable than those in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's restrictive immigration policies result in these mainland wives and children having to wait for ten years or more before receiving a one-way permit to migrate to Hong Kong. When they do arrive in Hong Kong, they have been discriminated against and condemned as causing Hong Kong's social and economic problems. This article examines how social class and politics have affected the way in which the mass media and the Hong Kong government have dealt with these two sets of cross-border families.     

Exemption and Nyungar Letters in the West Australian Archives

Rather than rewarding applicants seeking relief from the draconian 1905 Aborigines Act, Exemption Certificates in Western Australia became a bureaucratic weapon to enforce their rigid control through enforced prohibitions on alcohol for Nyungar people. Applications were routinely rejected, regardless of the applicant's way of life, which quickly deteriorated under the “care” of the Aborigines Department. At the same time, new laws further enforcing prohibitions through increased fines and imprisonment, meant few had any hope of release. This combination derailed the exemption process. The injustices were recently revealed by the Ancestors' Words: Nyungar Letter Writing in the Archives Project, which located activist application letters written by Ancestors of today's Nyungar families, letters which were held for many decades in archive files of the Aborigines Department. The files also contained devastating letters of rejection written by the Minister, his officers and local police. The Ancestors' letters of courage and their distressing rejections in reply are examined here in a powerful case study developed in conversations between two Nyungar Elders, the writer's granddaughter, and the project researcher. The study also reveals how the project's respectful return of letters to the Elders can restore these important stories from the past to the flow of living family memories, down the generations.     

The majority as minority: women and contemporary politics in Scotland,New Zealand and Finland,c. 1960–96

SUMMARY

In this article, Catriona Burness seeks to establish the current potential for increasing significantly the level of women's participation in politics in Scotland and the United Kingdom in the light of the experience of their representation in Scotland, New Zealand and Finland since 1960. The comparator countries have been selected because they are small countries of comparable size, with advanced political cultures, in which women have been eligible to vote and be elected to parliaments for a considerable period of time. The article reviews the history of women's representation in each of these countries and seeks to identify patterns in the developments that have taken place. It then discusses the prospects for further advances on the current position, in particular in the light of the probable introduction of a devolved assembly in Scotland.     

UNPACKING THE BLASPHEMY LAWS OF PAKISTAN

Over the years, Pakistan's notorious blasphemy laws have been a central instrument for the persecution of religious minorities. While these laws are colonial in origin, they exist today within the context of a general Islamisation of laws, which combined with the state's inability to hold a monopoly over violence have contributed to growing anarchy in the country. This paper traces the evolution of Pakistan's religious nationalism, presents debates around the blasphemy laws and their implementation, and considers the possibilities for reform.     

Where in the world is South Africa? Lecture by Ambassador Tony Leon 14 February 2013

Most of the current constructs which theoretically underpin foreign policy for this country are either overblown or incoherent; they do not appropriately define or advance or prioritise South Africa's national interests abroad, nor do they acknowledge the tensions embedded in the clash between normative policies and realpolitik. Drawing from ‘real time’ experiences in international diplomacy, this lecture explores some of the dilemmas that South Africa, as a middle-range power in the world, confronts in its international engagements. The cost-effectiveness of South Africa's global projection is also examined, and some practical reforms to achieve better results in the current age of austerity suggested.     

Tokenistic water and neoliberal sanitation in post-apartheid Durban

ABSTRACT

Within the international water sector, Durban's municipal practitioners have been widely celebrated, for innovations in retail pricing, new product development, creative service delivery and community participation. However, in a society as divided as South Africa, with a high degree of neoliberal public policy influence from international sources, the myriad social, economic and environmental contradictions have reached deep into Durban's water and sanitation politics. Distant parts of the city were neglected when it came to ‘uneconomic' water and sewage pipe extension. Tokenistic supplies of water were given to poor people, but in a manner that left them with one-third lower consumption levels. In surveys, the no-flush toilets were overwhelmingly rejected by hundreds of thousands of recipients. It is in the destruction of older water and sanitation policies, and the creation of new ones for poor and working-class black Durban residents, that adds new meaning to critical analysis of ‘roll back' and ‘roll-in’ neoliberalisms.     

Singapore Inc. Goes Shopping Abroad: Profits and Pitfalls

Efficient state-led, market-driven intervention has been the hallmark of Singapore's success story but the exportability of state credibility, systemic efficiencies and local advantages into alien contexts is a matter of academic and political controversy. This article scrutinises Singapore's experience with outward investment in order to objectively examine the role of Temasek and of the government-linked corporations (GLCs). It uses the case of Temasek's investment in Thailand to reflect upon the economic and political impacts of the GLCs' global quest. It shows that resistance to Singaporean acquisitions reflects a combination of factors, including a general turn towards “economic nationalism,” attempts by other governments to replicate the city-state's state-led modernisation, and Temasek's and GLCs' underestimation of the risks that are germane to their international strategy.     

La mujer en México: inequidad,pobreza y violencia

This article explores the main problems that Mexican women endure, especially those which arise from the inequality that they face in numerous social milieus. Despite the undeniable progress that has been made with respect to women's rights and equal opportunities, full gender equality still seems like a distant ideal for Mexico. There have even been important setbacks, such as access to healthcare, legislation that has been enacted that does not respect women's decisions over their bodies, or in the persistence of various forms of violence that they bear. This article will begin by exploring the advancement in rights which women have achieved, in order to later describe the problems that Mexican women still face in terms of work, health, social security, education, poverty, politics, and the violence which they still encounter.     

Netherlands East Indies: The Large Colonial Surplus of Indonesia, 1878‐1939

Surprisingly few previous contributions to estimates of Indonesia's colonial surplus have been made, all of them using the export surplus method. Having defined the colonial surplus, the export surplus method is rejected here as unnecessary and misleading. The Indies balance of payments data are used critically for the first time. Adding missing items and further analysing an odd but very big private item much larger estimates of the colonial surplus are produced. A comparison with the colonial surplus of British India is made. In all, the new colonial surplus for the Netherlands East Indies is estimated at almost 24 billion guilders, approximately US$10 billion or some US$156 billion in today's terms. Those figures are considered large indeed.     

Progress,power, and violent accumulation in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's recent travails have challenged the concept of progress as it is popularly conceived, as they have forced social scientists to revisit many of the verities of nationalist history and the initial euphoria of Zimbabwean ‘liberation’. Critics of ‘fast-track’ land reform and patriotism, however, have been as simplistic as the regime's academic praise singers, and often simply turn celebratory scholarship upside down. Historically rooted and specifically applied concepts of primitive accumulation can assist the understanding of the development of Zimbabwe's coercive networks of accumulation and their more recent manifestations, but they do not solve the problems of how to lessen violence and deepen democracy in the short term.     

My visit to the living Buddha

There has been a catastrophic decline in the numbers of India's vultures, on which the Parsis once depended for the disposal of their dead. Parsi numbers are falling too. Their community represents only 0.0005 per cent of the population of the Indian subcontinent, yet they have made such a mark in so many walks of life. Could Zoroastrian culture explain their disproportionate success? Parsi shipbuilders built frigates of Malabar teak for the British Navy and the EIC, Parsis provided the brains behind India's nuclear programme, the backbone of India's manufacturing industry and such international musical icons as Zubin Mehta and Freddie Mercury, as well as the first Asian MPs at Westminster and the first Indian cricket team to tour England,. Parsi merchant-princes made fortunes in the opium trade yet rivalled Andrew Carnegie in their philanthropy.     

Integrating non-Jewish immigrants and the formation of Israel's ethnic–civic nationhood: from Ben Gurion to the present

The aim of this article is to outline the development of Israel's citizenship and immigration policy from its inception to the present, emphasizing the invaluable role of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion. We argue that through a series of decisions pertaining to civic registration, immigration and naturalization of non-Jews, Ben Gurion set the fundamental principles of modern Jewish nationhood: on the one hand, he rejected the option of establishing a civic-Israeli nation, advocating Jewish-ethnic nationhood instead; on the other hand, this was an inclusive Jewish nationhood which incorporated cultural–territorial elements that were based on a secular interpretation of biblical sources. Despite inserting religious elements into Israel's immigration laws over the years, we claim that Ben Gurion's fundamental principles have for the most part remained in effect until today, constituting the key to understanding the nature of Jewish-Israeli nationhood in our times.