Support For the Uighurs

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Updated August 23:

Since it seems like virtually no one outside Muslims supports the Uighur battle for independence, I will support it. I realize that this is a tough time for China and that imperialism, particularly US imperialism, would love to use a new Uighur state to plant bases in it and surround China, but still I believe that something can be worked out.

A major stumbling block for the self-determination of nations, long a Left hallmark for which we Leftists can all be proud, is the cynical abuse of this right by hypocritical imperialist and Realpolitik-dealing large states.

Imperialist states, as I argued in a previous post, have no consistent values at all. They will support secessionism to further imperial goals or weaken enemies and oppose it everywhere else. An imperialist nation has the morals of a hardened criminal -> no legitimate morals at all.

If you follow this article, it seems like the vast majority Uighurs support the armed groups, which is how they are able to function at all in the locked-down police state of China. China has seeded East Turkestan with settler-colonists, as it has despicably done in Tibet. It treats the Uighurs like shit.

Almost no one seems to support Uighur secessionism. I'm sure that Muslims do, but Muslims do not have a very consistent basis for supporting secessionism. Most Muslims I have run into only support secessionism when it involves Muslims separating from non-Muslim states.

In all other cases, I guess they don't support it! In particular, most oppose the liberation struggle of the Kurds, who have as good a case for a state of their own as anyone does.

In the comments section of the South Ossetia post, Dragon Horse, a very smart commenter, made the case for the territorial integrity of borders.

He made several arguments: First, why should we be creating brand new mono-ethnic states? Second, that what I was arguing for was radical devolution. Third, that when the OAS was formed, the member states agreed on the territorial integrity of even colonial borders that made little sense in order to avoid endless secessionist wars. Hence, that in Africa, the principle of territorial integrity had a good record.

Fourth, that I was arguing for a world full of 100's to 1000's of Luxemborgs or Leichtensteins. Fifth, that in an integrating globalized world, the last thing we needed was to move in the opposite direction.

My response is as follows:

The truth is that most nations on Earth simply do not wish to break away from the states of which they are a part of.

Legitimate secessionist movements are actual nations embedded with states that have a valid case for secession. I may evaluate that case in a later post.

In Latin America, I can think of no legitimate secessionist movement.

There are not many secessionist movements even in Africa, which you mention as the horrorshow of secessionist theory. The rebels in Darfur and South Sudan can leave Sudan for all I care. Sudan has forfeited its right to exist as a state. They can break it up into pieces for all I care. Somalia has no right to exist either. When a state is so failed that it cannot even govern its own citizens, it's time to say goodbye.

In the Arab World, we have only the Kurds and that is all. Who have a most powerful case for independence.

I do not think that independence movements are trying to make monoethnic states, but even if they were, it would be more logical than multicultural states, which do not seem to work very well in praxis.

Your logic, in opposing all secessionist movements, leads to endless bloody wars for the bullshit cause of "territorial integrity of states".

Tell me, why did Georgia, instantly birthed as a state in 1991, suddenly have any territorial integrity at all? Let us note that this territorial integrity became immediately sacrosanct the very hour that Georgia became a new state! Brand new states with no history behind them at least have to ask their citizens if they want to be part of this baby state. Those who wish to leave are certainly entitled to do so.

The world is not going to break up into hundreds or thousands of Luxemborgs because tiny states are not viable in the modern era either economically or militarily. There are advantages to being part of a large state in terms of both economics and military.

Even a world of small states could function well. Europe has an increasingly integrated military and economy in the OECD and NATO despite being made up of numerous mostly not very large states. Self-determination and regional integration are not contradictions.

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