Review of ‘Overturning the Culture of Violence’ (1)
by Serve The People and End Imperialism
(internationalistjacobinclub.wordpress.com)
Overall, this video in two parts from the African People’s Socialist Party based in the U$ is excellent. We have several major points of unity with APSP. In particular, we strongly defend APSP’s insistence that the white working class is historically and up until today both a beneficiary and a vicious protagonist of Amerika’s system of white supremacy.
There are, however, three objectionable points made by the video.
Firstly, it is not true that all African people are one people everywhere on the planet. People of African descent living within U$ borders (Blacks) are of a different nationality (a Black nation) than people living in, say, Mali, or even African, Haitian or Afro-Cuban migrants who come to live in the U$.
Secondly, Blacks are certainly an oppressed internal semi-colony (and not, as the video corectly states, merely victims of white racist ideology). However, Blacks are no longer exploited; they are exploiters living off the imperialist pillage of the Third World. The oppression they face is brutal and real, as are the extra profits (as distinct from surplus value) that U$ capitalism makes from their semi-colonial oppression. Yet most Blacks are defenders of the United $tates’ society, economy and polity and are “white in outlook”, that is, they are exponents of much of the same chauvinistic oppressor ideology that jU$tifies Amerikan parasitism. The APSP is certainly fighting an uphill battle trying to make revolutionary capital out of the national oppression of Blacks.
Thirdly, reparations are not an appropriate means of compensating Black people living in the U$ for the crimes of the system of slavery. In general, no amount of money could redress some of the crimes of the imperialist nations, such as the outright extermination of some First Nations by the Amerikkkan settlers. Money won’t bring those nations back from the grave. Furthermore, the imperialist nations couldn’t possibly pay reparations for all that they have stolen over the past few centuries. And even if they could, the transfer of wealth would create an imbalance that would itself be antithetical to socialism. There have quite recently been greedy calls from Blacks for the united $nakes to make “reparations” for slavery in the form of a million-dollar check to each Black person. That is nothing more than a very Amerikkkan something-for-nothingism. If a small oppressed nation suddenly received reparations in the amount of millions of dollars per person, it would become part of a sort of “national aristocracy”. From a strictly material point of view, the Black nation will be a debtor, not a creditor, when the time comes to right the inequalities among the various nations under the JDPEN. To repeat: Black people living in the U$ have already been paid handsomely, particularly in the last half century, from the imperialist plunder of African, Asian and Latin American labor and resources. Instead of calling for reparations (which nonetheless may have a certain agitational propaganda value) we should see to it that nations get what they need: land, food, infrastructure, schools, health care, linguistic and cultural rights, industry, mechanization, etc. We can’t turn Kathmandu into Paris overnight, but we can arrange to improve things greatly. We should see to it that Blacks living in Amerika receive the national territory that they are historically entitled to.
Notes
1. To watch videos go to: http://jacobinternationalism.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/review-of-overturning-the-culture-of-violence/
It’s important to recognize that the principal contradiction is not between oppressor and oppressed nations. The principal contradiction is between exploiter and exploited countries. Many of the oppressed nations of the First World are thoroughly bourgeoisfied. Bourgeoisification has trumped national aspirations for most oppressed nations within the First World such as the Black Nation. Most of the oppressed nations of the First World align with the First World as a whole against the Third World. Some oppressed nations of the First World may be middle forces, but many are not. Many are bought in to imperialism.
Even if a certain amount of economic exploitation does exist among the internal oppressed nations, there is just not a critical mass (both in population and amount of extracted profits) of super-exploited to make any difference on their own.
Nevertheless, the JDPEN should go easier on those in Amerikan koncentration kamps, than those happy (nominally white) parasite faces in the suburbs and their ill gotten stolen wealth (aka “The Amerikkkan Dream). Those oppressed internally by imperialism may not be exploited, and thus significantly revolutionary, but they are probably the most susceptible to remoulding the First World outlook under JDPEN right off the bat.
May the Global People’s War resolutely SMASH the U$ prison state, and all vestiges of imperialist oppression. Long live the victory of People’s War!
It is also important to recognize that the captive nations of North America are not a completely homogenous set. Just looking at different indigenous tribes in North America, there is significant variation in living conditions. Or, look at another example, migration trends and historic land claims makes the situation of the Mexican and/or Chicano peoples very different from that of Black people. These kinds of variations need to be addressed by any scientific investigation.
The issue of middle forces between the First (the global city) and Third Worlds (global countryside) needs to be worked on. More investigation needs to be done.