On one hand... the idea that the Argentinians aren't themselves a settler-colonial country a la the USA is pretty rich, so I'm not sympathetic to the claims that they are fighting colonialism by wanting the Falkland Islands. When the British settled it, it was unihabited so it's not like they took the land from native inhabitants - the British people there now are the original inhabitants. And most importantly, the people who live there now very clearly want to remain part of the UK and not be a part of Argentina, and all things being equal I would side with what the inhabitants themselves what.

OTOH... seriously, fuck the English / TERF Island. Their rape of the world via colonialism is maybe one of the greatest evils ever perpetuated by humans (definitely so if you count all of the USA's colonial atrocities in with the UK's by extension). They don't deserve to have any land outside of the British Isles. But they still have all these pockets around the world like the Falklands and Gibraltar where they put their own people that now makes it hard to change things. But the thing is, this website has like 5X the population of the Falklands. The Brits could easily relocate that small of a number of people and richly compensate them for it. And the Falklands are right at Argentina's doorstep and presents a massive security vulnerability. I'm sure if the Spanish set up shop on the Isle of Man, the Brits would be doing everything they could to get them out just for the military security alone.

So as a leftist, I don't know where I stand on this issue. Would be curious to know what you all think. @RNAi, big apologies if I'm wrong but afaik you are Argentinian? Would love to hear your perspective.

  • zeal0telite [he/him,they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    They don’t deserve to have any land outside of the British Isles.

    This doesn't make any sense sorry. Why does it stop at the British Isles itself? You've just drawn an arbitrary line that you have decided is a "good" amount of land to have. If you're going down the Imperialism route then Argentina is literally a colony, with almost the entire population being of European descent or mixed heritage. Why do they deserve Argentina? Never mind the Falklands.

    The Brits could easily relocate that small of a number of people and richly compensate them for it.

    Forcibly relocating people from their homes but in a leftist way. 👍

    And the Falklands are right at Argentina’s doorstep and presents a massive security vulnerability.

    Okay... and? This could literally be said of any border anywhere. The shortest distance between France and the UK is about 34km, which is about 1/15th of the distance from the Falklands to the Argentine mainland. This line of rhetoric is precisely why Cuba was so heavily attacked during the Cold War and to a lesser extent today.

    The attack on the Falklands themselves was called on by the military junta appointed Leopoldo Galtieri, a man obviously so into anti-imperialism that he went to Ronald Reagan to ask for assistance with the Falklands. Argentina itself was noted for its strong Socialist support at this time as well, of course 🙄 . I get that British Imperialism has basically ruined huge portions of the world but I have no idea why some many leftists decide to die on this particular hill. This wasn't some anti-Imperialist campaign or a working-class uprising, it was a dumbass attack based on the foolproof casus belli of "these islands are closer to us so they're ours" that backfired miserably and got the President ousted for incompetence, and hundreds of people killed. Hell, the UK literally increased its military presence on the islands because of these attacks.

    They've held a referendum and the citizens who live there (except 3 people) are fine with being British subjects and, other than saying "they're ours actually" a couple times throughout history, the Argentinians don't really have a solid claim on the islands. Even Spain laid claim to the Falklands for longer than Argentina did, historically.

    It was a war between an imperialist ex-superpower and a right-wing tin-pot dictator, do yourself a favour and don't go picking a side from this stupid mess. Or maybe have a thought for the people who actually lived there who one day were plunged into a war because of the actions of the ruling class.