u/parwa - originally from r/GenZhou
I know this is more of a Dengist sub than a Maoist one, but I was hoping I could find some insight here as it's a book I've seen praised across many leftist tendencies. I read through some sections of it recently (mostly skipped over the historical stuff because I knew about most of it already) and while I went in with an open mind I'm really torn on it. I'm mostly just unsure of what the conclusion is. If revolution must be led by the colonized, where does that leave everyone else that wants a revolution? Are descendants of settlers supposed to just sit back and wait? Besides, just in terms of pure numbers isn't that nearly impossible? From my understanding you need mass support to pull off a successful revolution, not just a fraction of the population. I don't want to just write it off as an op as I've seen many others do, because it has some good points, yet I can't help but think it might be. It seems like both a great way to get people of color to distrust white leftists and refuse to organize with them, and to get white leftists to refrain from organizing in fear of speaking over the colonized. I also feel like it kinda fails to take manufactured consent into account. What are your thoughts on it?
[deleted] - originally from r/GenZhou[removed]
u/parentis_shotgun - originally from r/GenZhouAt no point does sakai use a human nature argument, this is the same shit pulled on people like malcolm x for saying white devils.
Sakai : there are super exploited internal colonies in the US. Here's a history of the settler colonial conquest of the US by european capitalists and their settler garrison recruits.
White leftists: That's quasi materialist!!!
[deleted] - originally from r/GenZhou[removed]
u/ScienceSleep99 - originally from r/GenZhouCan you give an example? I mean his analysis is pretty strong and bears resemblance to Zak Cope's Divided World, Divided Class. Expecting white workers in a settler colonial society like the United States to take up the cause of the global south and the internal colonies is like asking Israelis to link arms with Palestinians to dissolve the state of Israel.
The book is vital to waking Americans up to the notion that it isn't just a mere matter of propaganda rained from above, but that there are real material forces at work here that prevent total worker solidarity. What I find more undialectical is how the left in the West keeps coming up with way to excuse white workers with the idea that they're just misinformed.
Then the white western leftist berates workers of color who want to take a step back and reassess what we are doing and come up with better strategies. They tell us that we need to go into fascist strongholds as though we are Christian missionary martyrs to spread the good word.
The criticisms against Settlers are always shallow.