Democratiya

What's more boring than a magazine consisting of nothing more than book reviews? An article reviewing said magazine.

Nonetheless... here it is.

Democratiya is, as I said, a collection of book reviews, and from a far left viewpoint. But unlike most of its ilk, it dares to truly dissent from the usual fashionable nonsense.

From one article by Harry Hatchett :

Turn to the Politics section of a large bookshop in London and you will have no trouble finding 'exposes' of the post-September 11 world, and the Iraq war in particular. Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Michael Moore and Tariq Ali dominate the shelves, each offering a variation on the same theme. And for the past three years the op-ed pages of western newspapers, particularly those of liberal bent, have been home to thousands of columns opposing the war. If one relied only on the traditional media for intellectual stimulation then a very simple political division emerges between a left opposed to the armed removal of the Saddam Hussein regime and a right who supported George W Bush's invasion and occupation policy. No-one could be blamed for presuming that for someone to identify themselves as a liberal or a socialist was to identify themselves as anti-war.

True enough, as many on the right have pointed out. The Left is led by objectively pro-Fascist Moonbats these days.

...A Matter of Principle brings together 23 voices of critical support for the liberation of Iraq from both sides of the Atlantic. The editor, Thomas Cushman, Professor of Sociology at Wellesley and Editor of The Journal of Human Rights, has provided evidence to the broader intellectual community that despite the dominance of the liberal media by anti-war opinion, there have always been (at least) two sides to the argument. For those on the left who have wondered, perhaps in private desperation, if there was anyone on their side, the book is proof that an anti-tyranny and pro-democracy left still exists.

But Cushman's collection is not a manifesto of this pro-war left and nor is it a 'reader' designed to arm young supporters with crib notes for student union argument. In truth, the pro-liberation left is not a movement, or a party, and it is debatable whether it can even be referred to as a collective. A Matter of Principle is rather a detailed snapshot of the state of the evolving discussion within multiplex pro-liberation left.

For "evolving discussion" read "resistance". These are the voices that have dared to spark a Civil War within the Left, a war for the Left's soul and conscience. These people actually believe the usual guff about "Freedom", and "Democracy", and "Human Rights" that all sides of the political debate espouse, but few actually do anything to advance.

Should they become ascendant, then even Right Wing Death B*tches like me may start to consider that some of the other Leftist claptrap that they're saying might actually contain a germ of truth. Because they will have shown their credentials, and their courage, in speaking truth to Power: the Power that rules the Leftist Roost today. We'll have to examine our own beliefs with a critical eye, and make sure that we too have actually done something useful, and not just spouted platitudinous phrases along with the majority.