White is the new Orange posted by bat020

posted by bat020

One of the more curious weapons in the arsenal of contemporary imperialism is the so called "democratic revolution" - a simulacrum of revolution, funded and backed by the US, that removes a regime that is no longer conducive to its interests: witness Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon and (to a lesser extent) Kyrgyzstan.

These simulacra pose a problem for revolutionaries. By definition they resemble real revolutions, and moreover there can be a genuinuely revolutionary dynamic within them, albeit one overdetermined by the interests of capital. Simply dismissing them as "CIA operations" won't do - but gushing liberal babble about People Power won't do either.

These problems aside (which incidentally are brilliantly dealt with in a recent article by Chris Harman), there are certain features that can help us sort the wheat from the chaff. One is that genuine revolutions are unpredictable and unexpected - they necessarily involve an Augenblick, a passing moment that gets seized by revolutionary forces.

The pseudo-revolutions promoted by the US State Department are, in contrast, entirely predictable. For instance - we know in advance that there will be a "democratic revolution" in Belarus shortly. The neocons are already talking it up.

The amusing thing about the forthcoming events in Belarus is the branding. The State Department has a habit of labelling these "revolutions" with colours (Velvet, Rose, Orange). And with the colour they have chosen for Belarus is... White. Ponder the historical resonances of that, if you will.

PS more musings on politico-chromatics over at Infinite Thought, including the delightful news that Viktor Yushchenko's son has copyrighted the Orange Revolution.