Word: marxist
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...BOOK is not merely episodic, however. One theme unites the whole: how much or how little did Marxist doctrine influence radical thought and action in the United States? Not very much, according to Lader. In 1948, the Communist party, with bases in organized labor and allies in the American Labor Party and a few other organizations, represented the Left. But from 1960 on, Lader says, the lines were not as clearly drawn as either Marxists or conservatives would have them. From that point on. Marxists are quick to point out. American radicalism no longer qualified as "leftism," and instead...
Lader disagrees. The American Left, he says, originates from diverse ideologies rather than being dominated by the Soviet brand of Marxist Leninism. The Radical movement has been essentially pragmatic, nurtured by American needs and not by a closed system imposed from abroad. Though the Left since 1960 may appear disturbingly complex and even incoherent, it developed its own character by emphasizing immediate results and direct action, usually individual action. But what Marxists may label mere civil liberties or reformist movements, Lader cities as significant in that they "sowed the seeds of rebellion" that often led to far more radical organizing...
...when a band of 200 to 300 well-armed raiders in November seized the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, the holiest of all Islamic shrines, which is under the protection of King Khalid. The raiders appeared to have mixed religious and political motives: they seemingly were armed and trained in Marxist South Yemen, but were fundamentalists opposed to all modernism, led by a zealot who had proclaimed the revolution in Iran to be a "new dawn" for Islam. It took the Saudi army more than a week to root them out from the catacomb-like basements of the mosque...
...Soviet choice to replace him was a Marxist intellectual little known in the West (see box). Karmal thus became the third Afghan leader to seize control of the government in the 20 months since the Communists first came to power in April 1978. As the new strongman, following the April coup, Taraki at first denied there had been a Communist takeover. But in the months that followed, internal struggles dangerously narrowed the government's base. As he attempted to keep the revolution on course, Taraki turned increasingly to Russian advisers to fill a shortage of trained manpower. The number...
...well-born son of a general, Karmal has been a Marxist ever since his days as a student at Kabul University; his graduation was delayed by a stint in prison for left-wing agitation. His Parcham Party always leaned more dependably toward Moscow than Taraki's more broadly based faction, which sometimes espoused a Maoist-flavored brand of Marxism. Says former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Neumann: "Karmal is the original Communist, a dyed-in-the-wool article...