Noam Chomsky

Read Noam Chomsky's interview with Antasofia in Outlook India.com. Snippett:

Antasofia: It is very hard to live in the U.S. for a left activist. I don't t feel very comfortable in your country. What is the condition of activism in the U.S.?

Noam Chomsky: The situation is really complicated. There are no labor-based groups and there is no labor based political party. People are completely disconnected and this lack of connection is a real problem. Don't forget that the Marxist movements were never very strong in U.S. in all of its history: there were ambiences in which independent Marxists gained influence but this didn't happen in the main part of the country.

Also remember that the U.S. government is an extreme radical and nationalist group with some similarities to European Fascism. It has proclaimed imperial ambitions, relying on its overwhelming predominance in the military dimension, and is unusual in its dedication to the needs of narrow sectors of wealth and private power. People in the United States work really hard, much harder than any other advanced industrial society, and this causes a lot of stress. People are always concerned about their work and they live in fear.

Although there is a lot of crime in the United States, it is approximately the same as comparable societies, but fear of crime is far higher. In many ways, this is the most frightened nation in the world! Moreover, the level of activism depends upon which part of the United States you are thinking of: United States is a very complicated country with many different tendencies.

For example, last week I was in the largest university in the country, which is not exactly the liberal center of the nation: Texas. In Houston and Austin, where I was, there were all kinds of community and campus-based activities. At the University of Texas there were thousands of people involved in protest after Congress authorized the use of force, and the student government passed a strong anti-war resolution.

One finds similar things all over the country, at a level that is quite without precedent. There has never been anything like such protest before a war is officially launched, and war-peace issues are only one element of the broad popular movements that are taking shape, committed to a wide range of issues and concerns.

Note: Outlookindia.com is a bit slow-loading, but well worth the wait.