Third-worldism

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Third-worldism is a tendency within left wing political thought to regard the division between developed, classically liberal nations and developing, or "third world" ones as of primary political importance. Third-worldism is extremely difficult to define in a comprehensive and consistent manner and will tend to involve support for nation states or "national liberation" movements against Western nations or their proxies which are perceived as being opposed to the interests of advanced capitalist nations. The thought behind this view is often that capitalism can be characterised principally as imperialism. Hence, third-worldists say, resistance to capitalism must therefore principally be resistance to the predations of advanced capitalist nations upon others. The Bandung Conference and its creation the Non-Aligned Movement represented significant venues for third worldist politics during the twentieth century.

[edit] Criticism

Though third worldism is advanced in the tradition of left-wing or socialist politics, there is an argument over whether it has genuine contiguity with this tradition. Some socialists believe that third-worldism involves a retreat from class politics (wherein it is the division between the workers and capitalists that is most important), and often entails endorsing ideologically suspect groups. For example, even today, some groups (such as Socialist Action in the UK) are still prepared to defend the government of North Korea, despite the manner in which it treats its own citizens. Positive support for Ba'athist and theocratic militias in Iraq during the current occupation (as opposed to independent workers' and social movements) might also be seen in this tradition. Third worldism has sometimes been associated with support for authoritarian socialist states, and Western supporters of Fidel Castro, Stalinism or Maoism. It might therefore seem that advocacy of third-worldism is sometimes caught up with the defence of particular regimes.

During the Cold War, the world was often seen as being divided into the first world (Western parliamentary democracies), the second world (the USSR and its satellites) and the "third world" - other countries, which were typically in less advanced stages of capitalist development or industrialisation. During this time, episodes such as the Vietnam War seemed to cast the most clear political division as (for example) between the Viet Cong guerrillas and the United States Army. Many socialists want to say that this division is illusory and that the important division of interests in the world is between the proletariat and those who attack them - whether in the name of capitalism or nationalism.