Abstract
How was this reversal of the global correlation of forces — a reversal that was so radical and rapid as to amount to an inversion — possible? When and where did it come about?
The chapter argues that it was internecine strife generated mainly by fanaticism and ‘left fundamentalism’ that was decisive. The Rightwing global counteroffensive impacted upon and utilized an internally divided, fissiparating series of revolutions which were weakened from within. The chapter traces this line of fracture running through the 1974–80 series of victorious revolutions which had shifted the global balance in favour of socialism, rapidly reversed through violent self-sundering.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
This_chapter reworks and expands a segment contained in a previous work by me: Dayan Jayatilleka, Fidel’s Ethics of Violence, The Moral Dimension of the Political Thought of Fidel Castro, London, Pluto Press, 2007, pp. 27–59.
Regis Debray, Critique of Political Reason, London, New Left Books, 1983, p. 113.
Elisabeth Gerle, ‘From Anti-nuclearism to a New Détente in the 1980s’ in Mary Kaldor et al. (eds), The New Détente, London, Verso, 1989, p. 369.
John Gerassi (ed.), Venceremos! The Speeches and Writings of Ché Guevara, New York, Clarion, 1968, p. 423.
Speech at the Plaza de la Revolucion, Havana, 26 July 1972, in H. Michael Erisman, Cuba’s International Relations, Boulder, Colorado, Westview, 1985.
Mao Tse-tung, ‘On Contradiction’, Five Essays on Philosophy, Peking, Foreign Languages Press, 1977, pp. 26–28.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1989.
Nicos Poulantzas, Crisis of the Dictatorships, London, New Left Books, 1976, p. 137.
For an account of the setting of the Ethiopian revolution, see Addis Hiwat, ‘Ethiopia: From Autocracy to Revolution’, Occasional publication No. 1, Review of African Political Economy, London, 1975; Fred Halliday and Maxine Molyneux, The Ethiopian Revolution, London, Verso, 1982
Basil Davidson et al. (eds), Behind the War in Eritrea, Nottingham, Spokesman Books, 1980.
For the deep background on Kampuchea and the rise of the Khmer Rouge, see Craig Etcheson, The Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea, Boulder, Colorado
Ben Kiernan, How Pol Pot Came to Power, London, Verso, 1985
Michael Vickery, ‘Cambodia’ in Douglas Allen and Ngo Vinh Long (eds), Coming to Terms, Boulder Colorado, Westview, 1991, pp. 89–128.
Malcom Yapp, ‘Colossus or Humbug? The Soviet Union and its Southern Neighbours’ in E.J. Feuchtwanger and Peter Nailor (eds), The Soviet Union and the Third World, New York, St Martin’s Press, 1981, pp. 137–63
Raja Anwar, The Tragedy of Afghanistan, London, Verso, 1988.
The FLNA posed no problem after 1976 as explained in Piero Gleijeses, Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria and the Struggle for Southern Africa 1976–1991, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2013, p. 68, esp. n. 17.
Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela, How Far We Slaves Have Come!, New York, Pathfinder, 1991.
On the Grenadan Revolution, see Fitzroy Ambursley, ‘Grenada, The New Jewel Revolution’ in Fitzroy Ambursley and Robin Cohen (eds), Crisis in the Caribbean, London, Heinemann, 1983, pp. 191–222
Maurice Bishop, Selected Speeches 1979–1981, Havana, Casa de Las Americas, 1981.
Bizhan Jazani, Capitalism and Revolution in Iran, London, Zed Press, 1980
Fred Halliday, Iran: Dictatorship and Development, New York, Penguin, 1979
John D. Stempel, Inside the Iranian Revolution, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1981.
Ervand Abrahamian, Iran: Between Two Revolutions, New Jersey, Princeton, 1982.
Val Moghadam, ‘The Left and Revolution in Iran’ in Hooshang Amirhahmadi and Manoucher Parvin (eds), Post-Revolutionary Iran, Boulder, Colorado, Westview, 1988, p. 35.
Robert Armstrong and Janet Shenk, El Salvador: The Face of Revolution, Boston, South End Press, 1982
James Chase, Endless Wars, New York, Vintage Books, 1984
James Dunkerley, The Long War, London, Junction Books, 1982
Tommie Sue Montgomery, Revolution in El Salvador: Evolution and Origins, Boulder, Colorado, Westview, 1982.
Clifford Krauss, Foreign Affairs, New York, Council on Foreign Relations, Vol. 65, No. 3, 1987, p. 565.
Terry Lynn Karl, ‘El Salvador’s Negotiated Revolution’, Foreign Affairs, New York, Council on Foreign Relations, Vol. 71, No. 2, Spring 1992, p. 19.
Jorge G. Castaneda, Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left after the Cold War, New York, Vintage Books, 1994, pp. 353–57.
James Le Moyne, Foreign Affairs, New York, Council on Foreign Relations, Vol. 68, No. 3, Summer 1989, p. 106.
Sheldon B. Liss, Radical Thought in Central America, Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 1991, p. 81.
Edward Boorstein, Attende’s Chile, New York, International Publishers, 1977
Ian Roxborough et al., Chile: The State and Revolution, London, Macmillan, 1977.
Carmelo Furci, The Chilean Communist Party and the Road to Socialism, London, Zed Press, 1984.
W. Raymond Duncan, ‘Soviet Policy in Latin America’ in Carol R. Saivets (ed.), The Soviet Union in the Third World, Boulder, Colorado, Westview, 1989.
Amilcar Cabral, ‘The Weapon of Theory’ in Revolution in Guinea, London, Stage 1, 1969, p. 89.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Dayan Jayatilleka
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jayatilleka, D. (2014). The Revolution Self-Destructs. In: The Fall of Global Socialism: A Counter-Narrative from the South. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137395474_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137395474_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48417-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-39547-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Intern. Relations & Development CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)