Hello, and welcome to "Historica Wiki"! Please be warned, this website is not entirely factual; this wiki contains pieces of history from real-world history, the Total War video games (the original purpose for this wiki - formerly called "Total War: Alternate Reality Wiki" - which I later decided to expand upon), historical video games such as Assassin's Creed, Crusader Kings II, Victoria 2 Aug 19, · The smokes have cleared this morning. The air outside is in the green zone, AQI I’ve opened the windows to let in some fresh air. Poet, writer, teacher, and political activist Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones in in Newark, New Jersey. He attended Rutgers University and Howard University, spent three years in the U.S. Air Force, and returned to New York City to attend Columbia University and the New School for Social Research. Baraka was well known for his strident social criticism, often
The Qualities of a Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli - blogger.com
All too quickly differences, sometimes negligible, baraka essay, are elevated into splits. He and I have known each other for years and, despite differences, baraka essay, have had a comradely relationship. In the context of his recent essay, however, baraka essay, I respectfully believe that his framework is muddled, incorrect and stuck in a perverse version of a pre world.
The fundamentals of our differences come down to, baraka essay, how does one understand the question of the internationalism of the oppressed? In order to answer this, there are two basic principles we start with: 1 a concrete analysis of concrete conditions, baraka essay, and 2 the law baraka essay nature of contradictions. We will attempt to apply both in our reply, baraka essay. Until the collapse of the USSR, the world was enmeshed in several baraka essay contradictions including, between the USA sphere of influence and the Soviet sphere; the struggles for independence and national liberation, largely in the global South; struggles within the respective spheres of the two superpowers; and struggles of workers and other oppressed strata for emancipation across the planet.
During this period, the so-called Cold War, where the USSR, China and several other countries were frequently identified with the cause of socialism and where, baraka essay, in many cases, workers and oppressed classes had succeeded in overthrowing formal capitalism and foreign domination, much of the Left fell into the fateful habit of deciding upon what stand to take on international matters not based on a substantive analysis but based largely on which countries fell on which sides of particular issues.
And, baraka essay, to a great extent this seemed to work. After all, the USSR, for instance, tended to support national liberation struggles—though not consistently—and the USA generally opposed national liberation struggles and did whatever it could to subvert efforts in the global South towards national sovereignty and to subvert other progressive struggles, baraka essay.
It was the main purveyor of global violence, as so eloquently phrased by Martin Luther King. Western Europe, Japan, Canada, baraka essay, New Zealand and Australia, though periodically at odds with the USA, generally fell in line when the USA snapped the whip.
The fact that the general outlines of an analysis appeared to work deluded too many of us into believing that it could replace baraka essay actual analysis of conditions.
And this is where our failures began. Baraka is absolutely correct in emphasizing that there baraka essay a baraka essay and ignominious history of baraka essay chauvinism by much of the organized Left in the global North, to which I would add a history of social chauvinism by numerous otherwise progressive movements—beyond the Left—in the global North.
The infection of imperial consciousness became clear even in the international Communist movement by the s when many revolutionaries in the global South felt betrayed by the approach of communist parties in the global North and by the USSR when too many of those latter parties abandoned the struggle against colonialism in the name of building anti-fascist fronts against the Germans, Italians and, later, the Japanese. This sense of betrayal led to splits in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America and, in some cases, the creation of new revolutionary formations with often complicated politics.
National liberation movements had won major victories and there were efforts underway to reshape the global scene. The counterattack from the global North, however, was vicious and baraka essay largely in the form of the assertion of neoliberalism and the imposition of new forms of dependence—rooted significantly in finance and debt—on the countries and peoples of the global South.
Time and space do not permit an exhaustive analysis of that period. Suffice it to say that the direction taken by China after the death of Mao, along with the ultimate collapse of the Soviet bloc, opened a new and unexpected world, baraka essay.
For these first decades of the 21 st century we have baraka essay living under that hegemony, though in the recent past it has begun to crack, due to internal and external pressures and with ultimate results that are unpredictable at this juncture. Many such regimes were able to survive through playing one superpower off again another, though this did not always succeed. This took multiple forms including the adoption of parliamentary systems, massive privatization and deregulation, and other programs to align with the needs and desires of global capitalism.
While this was underway, the parties and individuals leading the national populist regimes were immediately plunged into a legitimacy crisis. These regimes had relied on their left-wing, baraka essay rhetoric, as well as domestic economic programs e. This clashed with the facts on the ground. The legitimacy crisis was not simply a public relations challenge. Struggle was breaking out within these states against the regimes, baraka essay.
Sometimes led by forces to the left of the regime; other times by forces to the right of the regime and sometimes boththese struggles were asserting that the regimes were abandoning their base; abandoning the people.
Much of the Left in the global North immediately found itself in a major dilemma. What should be the stand of the global Left when masses of people are demanding change in these former national populist, allegedly anti-imperialist states? Would it not in that case be simpler for the government To dissolve the people And elect another? In looking at any situation it is incumbent upon the Left to identify the various contradictions that are putting the phenomenon in motion.
As such, we must shy away from assuming that there is anything approaching a clash of monoliths and, rather, baraka essay, understand the dynamism that exists within and between social formation. Baraka appears to have missed this point or simply disagrees. Thus, his starting—and baraka essay appears to be that it is the job of leftists in the global North to oppose our own oppressors and it is our job to support, in the global South, all those who speak out against, or may even be at odds with, baraka essay, our oppressor.
This view immediately runs one into a cul de sac. If this is the approach, what does this mean regarding what has been called proletarian internationalism or what I reference as the internationalism of the globally oppressed? While it is never the responsibility of a Left in one country to instruct the Left in another what to do, it is our job to identify ways and means to build solidarity with and between forces that are rooted within and advance the interests of the oppressed in the struggles against baraka essay, authoritarianism, etc, baraka essay.
This necessitates an examination of the nature of a particular state as well as the social forces on the ground. The case of Syria is instructive. Baraka would have us believe that the Assad regime is anti-imperialist and stands against the objectives of the USA, baraka essay. Further, that baraka essay USA is the main problem in Syria. Yet his arguments are only assertions and are not backed up with any genuine data, baraka essay. In what sense, is the Assad state democratic and representing a broad swath of the population?
How does that characterization of the Assad regime fit with its intervention in Lebanon in to crush the Palestinian movement and the local Left on behalf of Washington? How does it fit with the war against Palestinian camps waged in Lebanon in the s up until the expulsion of Yasser Arafat from Northern Lebanon? How does it baraka essay with the participation of the Assad regime in the US-led war against Iraq in ?
How does it fit with the incarceration and torture of thousands of communist activists? In what sense is the Russian bombing of hospitals in liberated territory an act of progressive solidarity? There is no reply other than to challenge the authenticity of those of us on the Left who argue for an anti-imperialist AND anti-dictatorial politics of emancipation. In any social movement, there are multiple and contradictory forces, each struggling to lead, each in complicated relationships with one another.
Revolutions or insurrections that commence in the absence of a leading organization, e. What is the tendency of such movements? Are such movements advancing a set of progressive politics or do they constitute a counter-revolution? If there is to be a debate, then the debate should be on matters such as these with an attempt to identify the true facts and correct stance rather than a debate based on assertions regarding what one would prefer to believe, baraka essay.
The question of solidarity of the globally oppressed must begin with a focus on the oppressed themselves. Baraka focuses on the struggle between governments, baraka essay. I start from a different standpoint: the question of the people. It is flowing from the question of the people that one can situate the larger context. In looking at Syria, for instance, what were the nature of the demands of the mass movement?
Why was it that the response of the Assad regime was bloody repression? What does that response represent? The immediate question, baraka essay, however, is whether there is a legitimate struggle within Myanmar against repression and corruption not to mention, against Islamophobia! If there is, how does that struggle fit into the contention between the USA and China?
And, of course, in what ways can we, in the global Northern Left, be of support to the forces on the ground fighting against the coup people? Rather than throwing around ridiculous insults, we would suggest that brother Baraka engage in a discussion about the concretes of international solidarity of the oppressed. First, we begin with an appreciation of what is unfolding on the ground.
The assumption that the USA is behind everything is not only USA-centric, but it also starts to feel more like the conspiracy theories that entrance the political Right. What are the contradictions that are being played out? Who or what is the principal enemy of the people in that social formation at that moment? Second, what or who are the progressive forces and by what yardstick does one assess them? Particularly if there is no organized left or no hegemonic party, in what sense would one conclude that an opposition is progressive or not?
What is the nature of the regime? What are the demands of the masses? These are the sorts of questions that must be answered in the concrete rather than in the context of abstract rhetoric. Third, in what way can the global Northern Left be of assistance and not interference? Are there policies that need to be pushed with our respective governments? Are there mass activities, e. This is highlighted because many in the US Left have abandoned the demands for any action by the USA government on the basis that there is nothing that the USA government can or should do or worse, that we, on the Left, should demand nothing of the USA government other than baraka essay cease and desist.
The baraka essay here is that during the Spanish Civil Warbaraka essay US Left was actively in favor of the USA, Britain and France providing direct, military assistance to the Spanish government against the fascists. It is important to remember that even with the danger of fascism, a threat to humankind, baraka essay, baraka essay demand for US assistance to the Spanish government came while the USA was still perpetrating crimes against the people of Latin America.
A demand for a change in USA policy vis a vis Spain was not inconsistent with opposing the USA role in Latin America, baraka essay. By way of an example from history, it was during the US Civil War baraka essay British dockworkers refused to unload cotton from the Confederacy that was slated to land in Britain. Even though this had an impact on their living, they practiced solidarity.
Since that time we have seen examples of dockworkers around the world practicing solidarity both in the context of trade unionism but also in the context of the fight for social justice. Baraka essay is incumbent upon the global Northern Left to expand our parameters when it comes to conceptualizing concrete internationalism of the globally oppressed, looking at the actions of sectors, such as dockworkers movements, as one of many examples of that which can be undertaken.
When looking at the international arena asking such questions can only lead to a productive answer if one realizes that the planet, baraka essay, while composed of countries, baraka essay, is more than baraka essay else made up of peoples and social movements in struggle.
September 17, 21st Century Internationalism of the Oppressed: A Comradely Response to Ajamu Baraka by Bill Fletcher, Jr. The nature of the moment Until the collapse of the USSR, the world was enmeshed in several overlapping contradictions including, between the USA sphere of influence and the Soviet sphere; the struggles for independence and national liberation, largely in the global South; struggles within the respective spheres of the two superpowers; and struggles of workers and other oppressed strata for emancipation across the planet.
New from CounterPunch. Amory B. Paul Street Baby Talk Fascists: Reflections on a Summer Encounter. Roger Harris Forbes Reveals Why the US Government Is Trying to Extradite Venezuelan Diplomat Alex Saab. Gary Leupp France and the Fraying of NATO. Daniel Warner OO7: License to Kill? Bruce E. Levine Psychiatry Films and Politics: Filmmakers Take Issue with my CounterPunch Review of Their Doc, baraka essay.
I'm An Incel. Ask Me Anything.
, time: 8:44U.S. is Waging Domestic War and Preparing for More | Black Agenda Report
Sep 17, · In the context of his recent essay, however, I respectfully believe that his framework is muddled, incorrect and stuck in a perverse version of a pre world. We will leave aside Baraka’s Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, – January 9, ), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University Sep 08, · Ajamu Baraka is the national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace and was the candidate for vice president on the Green Party ticket. Baraka serves on the Executive Committee of the U.S. Peace Council and leadership body of the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC). ESSAY: The War Aims of World War I and World War II and Their
No comments:
Post a Comment