Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

There's some strange stuff in the blogosphere. Take "Histomat", which offers "Adventures in Historical Materialism". Perhaps the internet is the only area in which socialism lives, having been routed in most parts of the world and managing (just) to cling to power in places like Cuba, North Korea and Spain. Anyway, on 31 May, Histomat produced a guide to the World Cup, alternatively titled Or, why English socialist football fans should support 'Anyone but England'. This produced a backlash among the (four) comrades and now Histomat has changed its tune and is swimming, just like Mao, with the tide. Hence Time for Marxists to 'get behind' England? This is hilarious:

Firstly, I never said that Marxists should 'actively' go out and oppose England in a 'bloody minded' manner — I explained why as Marxists we understand why ordinary people do support England in the football in their millions and millions and that advancing 'Anyone but England' as a position should be done creatively and sensitively. Nor did I say that it would lead to a change in Blair's policies or 'an advance for socialism' — though I still think the sooner England gets out of the world cup the sooner Blair will go from power.

Secondly, I do think Marxists in England should 'patiently explain' (to quote Lenin) to those around us at times like this that our position is one that does see 'England' as an imagined community that exists to strengthen the grip of the bosses and their ideas over us all and therefore that is why we are not therefore going to rally around the St George's flag.

So who can Histomat support now? Argentina? It's Third World isn't it? Used to be fascist, which was when it won the World Cup, actually. Before that again it was populist. Peron. Remember that song? It's probably socialist again now. So is Italy, and Portugal is slightly pink. France is a worker's paradise, kind of. Short weeks and not much to do, apart from grilling cars. Germany is all about taking from the dwindling middle class and giving to 35-year-old students and 55-year-old pensioners. No shortage of quarter-final choice for Histomat, anyway.