“The past is prologue to the future”
History-Myth-Struggle-History

10/26/2011:
Announcement…
Merging: chicanofuturetense WP blog+www.aztlanconnect.com (under construction).

A proposed Politics,History,Culture,Social issues expanded Multi-Media Project to include more Video,Streaming Audio,Music..etc etc..

Note*
I CFT,as originator,creator of the name CHICANOFUTURETENSE.am flattered that someone has seen fit to appropriate my name,(they say imitation is the highest form of flattery).

However,just for the record,I wish to state publicly that I am not responsible for any content,opinion or ideas expressed on or associated with CHICANOFUTURETENSE.COM.

Thank You,CFT (the original one)

2012
As we approach 2012 I see several things happening to Mexicans on the national/international scene,events taking place on different levels,which can be characterized as being mostly “more of the same”,as opposed to “something new”.

More of the same:
Continued ineffective mediocre,sellout misleadership by mainstream national Latino organizations who are controlled and bought off by corporate money as well as manipulated by the Democratic Party establishment.

Something new:
Growing disillusionment,suspicion,distrust,loss of confidence in an oppressive corrupt American political system,reflected in the likes of the neo-liberal Obama administration,the Democratic Party establishment,mainstream Latino politicians and national Latino organizations.I see this as a positive step in the right direction for Mexicans which can hopefully lead them towards gaining greater political wisdom,sophistication and intelligence.

Of Plantations:Chicanos on the Democratic Party plantation,Mexicanos deportados sent to another US (neo-colonial) plantation called Mexico
We have witnessed a nonstop parade of lies,betrayal and outright treachery carried out by the Democratic Party,DNC and the Obama administration.Since the election of “Hope and Change” (remember that?) Obama deportations have reached record proportions (over a million) accompanied by a dangerously escalating policy of criminalizing undocumented workers (recent example:incarceration in the Federal prison system.Latinos have gradually come to make up more than 50% of population mostly centered around supposed violations related to immigration (what absurdity! even arresting and imprisoning some humble Mexican street vendors for just trying to make a buck in order to survive.Obama is telling them..”Hey Mexican! sell a taco or an ice cream..you go to Federal prison”!!!).

First they came for the Undocumented Mexicans,then they came for Mexicans…period!
We also see the net of state repression and punishment being cast wider and further onto the general Latino community as a whole,becoming increasingly inclusive extending even to citizens and documented immigrants.Because of this phenomena the character of state repression is taking on more of the aspect of an antagonistic struggle between the forces of racism and xenophobia expressed concretely in state and government and the Latino community as a collective group.Examples of destructive Obama policies in action include the promulgation of draconian proto-fascist Homeland Security laws,programs and practices such as Secure Communities,mass deportations,workplace raids,racial profiling,neighborhood harassment (for many..terrorism) in the form of state sanctioned neighborhood dragnets/street checkpoints.
The treacherous and hypocritical Obama administration has also shown how ready and eager it is to sell out Mexicans by their almost wholesale capitulation to the forces of racism and xenophobia expressed by conservative right wing voters,state governments,parties and organizations.

Let us also not forget the Obama administrations increasing reliance on “Guantanamo” like incarceration for undocumented Mexicanos.The rendition like system of employment and contracting out of hidden private prisons to private corporations who in many cases have violated basic human and civil rights by keeping prisoners virtually incommunicado ,denying contact with family members and friends.There have also been some reported cases of outright torture techniques meant to punish and break the spirits of undocumented workers.We have heard this story before haven’t we?
.. in a place called “Guantanamo”.

No Jobs=more misery and despair
Latinos are also slipping further into an abyss of joblessness,layoffs,cutbacks,home foreclosures,extreme financial and economic distress.Even for many Latino college grads the prospects of a future opportunity in life are slipping away becoming remote and unattainable due to the economic depression,global economics,exportation of Americas industrial base,outsourcing of tens of millions of jobs overseas.

Latinos risk becoming permanent members of a fixed mega US “underclass” in a rigid new American caste system.Evaporating social mobility,opportunity,employment create the possibility of Latinos being trapped in a foreboding and frightening world of despair,hopelessness surrounded by a vast ever growing population of criminals,mega gangs,drug addicts,alcoholics,the mentally ill.
The geography and landmarks of this dark landscape will be seen as a vista of newly constructed Federal and State prisons,butcher hospitals and clinics,dysfunctional schools,liquor,fast food and convenience stores.

Chicano future in “Fortress America”
America will be come a “Fortress America” controlled by a ruling class and it’s mostly white class allies in the middle class along with a much smaller group of bribed minority enforcers and guardians of the system whose main role will be to police and contain minority revolt,resistance and opposition to the status quo power structure.

From my perspective as a Chicano radical,the American ruling class believes it can with this “Fortress” remain indefinitely in power,maintain a frozen oppressive social hierarchy as long as it has a significant percentage of the population loyal to the interests of the ruling class,willing for a price to play the role of prison guard and oppressor to the rest of the population.

The American ruling class through it’s destructive doctrine of neo-liberalism will employ to a much greater degree an imperial strategy of “divide and conquer” within American society,potential consequences which could very likely result in vicious competition over scarce resources,opportunities,political power.Such wars could be characterized by brutal racial and ethnic warfare not so unlike what we have seen before in the Bosnia,Kosovo,the Balkans,Lebanon,the middle east and Africa.

On the white Left,Progressive Movements
Despite the existence of many well meaning white liberals,leftists,progressives,(and to a profoundly lesser degree tiny clusters of truly dedicated white Communists),Mexicans/Chicanos must take primary responsibility for building and leading their own movements,determining their own destiny,becoming more self-reliant in shaping their own political future.We should welcome political alliances based on mutual respect with honest progressives,radicals and communists.But in the final analysis this responsibility will primarily lie on Mexicans in assuming the role of self-leadership.It must be our duty to lead our own particular struggle.It would be illusory and highly irresponsible to expect others to take the mantle of concern,interest and responsibility for our Gente.
To expect so would be wrong.

In the final analysis
Latinos must become strongly independent,stand on their own two feet,exercise greater control over their own self-determination.

Latinos should not pray for nor expect any “cavalries”,”hope and change” Obamas of the world to charge over the hill to rescue the political “little brown children” in peril.Only those Latinos with “colonized mentalities” being so infantile,defeated,submissive and self hating would want and expect this.

The political “little brown children” must transform themselves into responsible self-reliant adults who have reached a level of consciousness where they have come to realize that they must achieve dignity,self respect by defending themselves through determined,intelligent organization and struggle.

Time for New Nexus
I want to tell it like it is.
I will not mince words here.

We Mexicans are politically lost.We are wandering aimlessly and confused in this wilderness called America.
We have no true leadership-we have prostitutes,buffoons,petty bureaucrats,careerists,profiteers,money driven opportunists who happen to be Latinos.

We have no significant intellectual class or group of advanced thinkers,no philosophers or theoreticians who represent or are fighting for the true interests of the Mexican people in the USA.
Without thinkers a People are lost and almost destined to conquest by others who are more organized and advanced,without thinkers Mexicans will also almost surely be doomed to failure and destruction if they do not internally develop their own intellectual leadership.

Mexicans/Chicanos/ need to get it together if they are to ever progress and advance as a People

To all concerned Mexicans/Chicanos/Latinos who heed,understand my message,I am putting out an urgent “clarion call” for the creation of a coherent ongoing body of Mexican/Chicano/Latino intellectuals,thinkers,activists,especially our young fighters,who are willing to dedicate their efforts towards systematically addressing,analyzing,finding resolutions and answers to the vital questions,issues and matters affecting Liberation,advocating a greater sense of Unity.Such an organization would serve as a political “Nexus” to our future.

It is my sincere belief that unless and until Mexican/Chicano Unity becomes a reality we will continue indefinitely wandering in the wilderness.

from the Revolutionary Communist Party- revcom.us:

Prisoners Debate the Section “Minority and Formerly Oppressed Nationalities”

The following letter was forwarded to Revolution from Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund

Dear PRLF,

I received the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) and was happy to dig in to this much needed document! Being that many throughout America speak of revolution it is amazing that such a constitution hasn’t come out sooner.

I had a chance to read this document as well as go over certain portions with my study group here in my housing section. Although for the most part all agreed on the majority of its points, the Latino prisoners were in disagreement with two points in the Constitution. The Black and Asian prisoners agreed with it pretty much as a whole and I read and re-read, trying to find a way that these two points may have been misinterpreted. However, unfortunately I disagree as well.

The Section in question is Article II Section 3, “minority and formerly oppressed nationalities.” Although subsection A. (2) African-Americans is correct in stating in part … “There shall be the right of African-Americans to self-determination, up to and including the right to secede from the New Socialist Republic in North America,” this guarantee for self determination is crucial in forging a revolutionary society.

The Leninist principle of oppressed nationalities to self determination is certainly an essential aspect for any socialist party and a party that goes without this aspect is a doomed party at its inception, for the basis for revolution is liberty at its core.

The section on African Americans was right on. In contrast, subsection B (2) Mexican-Americans, was a surprise, to hold back on the correct stance given the African Americans to self determination. The section on Mexican-Americans states in part “…there should be established, within parts of this region, a country that is separate from both Mexico and the New Socialist Republic in North America, shall be taken up by the government of the New Socialist Republic in North America…” The freedom guaranteed to the African Americans on voting via the legislature, etc. to secede is withheld in the section for the Mexican Americans.

It seems Mexican Americans, or rather their right to self determination and to secede if the people feel to do so, is left to the government of the New Socialist Republic to decide, rather than the Mexican people themselves as was provided to the African Americans. I have never read RCP’s line on this issue of Africans have the right to vote for secession but Mexicans and Native Americans don’t. This stance saddened me, as there is no way to justify this uneven lopsided treatment of the oppressed in this country. It should be the right of all to self determination, if we are talking historically for purposes of determining the history of oppression.

Mexicans and Native Americans have been on this continent for thousands of years, and have not only been hunted down and endured genocide but ancestral land theft, rape and pillage for over 500 years. If we are deciding this issue numerically, determining the largest groups needing areas geographically, it’s a known fact that in a few decades Latinos will be the largest oppressed group in America, and who knows the number in 100 years.

I think such determinations are incorrect and believe all oppressed nations have the right to self determination. I also believe just because of the historical role of oppression for Mexicans or the numbers, that Mexicans should get no better treatment or rights in the New Socialist Republic. I also believe their treatment/rights should be no worse. We’ve discussed and debated this issue here and the consensus was that Mexicans must not be a major voting bloc in RCP because it’s difficult to see such a vital issue as self determination not being vital enough to correct.

_________________

The issue concerning giving portions of the Southwest back to Mexico or establishing an autonomous region or a separate government is another topic of discussion in my study group. First we must look to the political nature of Mexico. Currently we can all agree that Mexico is not a socialist country. On the contrary, it is a corrupt and parasitic entity with decades of repression and stomping on the rights of all Mexican citizens, along with seeking to “play master” to the indigenous peasants in the countryside. Thus to give back portions of the Southwest would only be giving Mexico more people to exploit.

There should, if the Mexican and Latino nations feel, be a secession of the Southwest that would serve as a base area for other liberation struggles worldwide, but particularly in Latin America where most of what is today’s U.S. Southwest peoples derive. Of course if the Mexican people feel that they would rather join the New Socialist Republic, so be it, but this should be decided by the Mexican people via legislative vote as was offered to the African American people, as should be also provided to the Native Americans.

The Native Americans have been corralled in concentration camp reservations, but in all actuality, the Mexicans, African Americans, RCP and everyone else, is standing on Native land. We should not attempt to determine what they should do; rather, give them the same opportunity to secede if they so wish, as well as the Mexicans. This is a serious issue and certainly a dividing line, as I found by discussion with other Latino prisoners.

How can we ask people to support the revolution or support RCP and possibly face horrors or death only to find after victory that, while other oppressed nationalities are voting and obtaining their own country, that for other oppressed nationalities we must see what the Executive Council says about whether those who fought and perhaps died in struggle can be liberated.

I have tried to find a way to see it differently but any way I look at it I see you can’t allow African Americans the right to secede but not Mexican Americans or Native Americans. I see no reason why RCP could not have gone across the board with Blacks, Mexicans, and Natives having equality in determining their future.

I would like to hear RCP’s response on this issue. It is one many people (prisoners included) spend their waking hours struggling for and devoting their efforts into to obtain such self determination in a future society and taking paths that hopefully lead to a vanguard that ensures such liberation.
****************

CFT’s Commentary in agreement with the Latino prisoners who were in disagreement with two points in the Constitution.

Many of us Mexicanos/Chicanos appreciate The RCP’s clarion call for Revolution in the USA.We are in agreement-it is axiomatic-there can be no liberation without Revolution.

We can also agree that our shared mutual goal is Socialism and Unity,however,it must be clearly understood that the path leading there must be one built upon the principles of self-determination for oppressed people,including the right to secession,if so willed.

Irregardless of your party’s Constitution -it’s definitions and conceptual framework which fails to recognize Mexicano/Chicano self-determination-the right to secede,our response is that in the final analysis,it shall be the decision of Mexicans themselves to chart the ultimate direction of their future through struggle,strengthening self-determination,making their true interests and needs,making their reality,not someone elses dogma,the arbiter of correctness of secession.

Our identity,validation,recognition as a nation shall be realized as a result of our struggle,not derived from “holy writings” engraved on stone tablets.

We shall learn from history how and why former socialist nations such as the USSR and China after having achieved their revolutions went on to eventually become “prison of nations” -eastern Europe,central Asia,Tibet etc..etc..
Bottom line-we shall take heed-there are many valuable lessons to be learned from this history.

Needless to say,becoming second class citizens in a future socialist republic would be just as bad as being second class citizens in a racist reactionary republic-the USA.

Words are cheap.Imperialists,revisionists of all stripes,be they of the US,ex-Soviet Union,China,type have been and are masters of using words out of treacherous intent and hypocritical deceit.Where have we heard sweet sounding words of freedom and justice written in Constitutions before?

Class struggle cannot be nothing more than a utopian fantasy if racism is allowed to persist,is ignored,not addressed,unresolved.
Any future support your NSRNA expects from the Mexicano/Chicano people will be contingent upon a publicly stated policy pronouncing full and equal rights to self-determination -including the right to secession for that people.

Nationalism may not be the most ideal ideological vehicle for oppressed peoples to follow.However,given the long and extensive history of white european american domination,exploitation,repression of the Mexicano people,which continues down to the present day,Nationalism makes sense as a rational and self-defensive option for an oppressed people to pursue-an insurance policy -to be held pending the realization of absolute trust,confidence between peoples,most especially realization of trust in those who are descendants of the former conquering dominant society,power and culture.Any vestige of white european american nationalism must be eliminated from society,from the hearts and minds of communists as well.The deadly hydra of racism should not be allowed to grow another head even if it is red.

After centuries of racist,murderous domination,injustice,building trust must include a program of full equality of rights for Mexicanos/Chicanos.This is a non-negotiable precondition.

To callously dismiss,disregard our demand for self-determination is tantamount to outright contempt towards our liberation as an oppressed people-towards historical justice.

Further,the rights and justice we struggle and die for shall not be sacrificed on the altar of dogma,of European based conditions,formulated during the late 19th,early 20th century stages of Imperialism,nor of any future form of socialist neo-imperialism.

Down through history imperialists and empires have always managed to satisfy their interests by inventing Criteria – pretexts and ideological justifications for hegemony,invasions,robbery of lands and material resources from the native peoples.The many and varied reasons,pretexts conquering powers have given to justify their aggression are numerous and can best be found through the study of history.

One of many such perfidious imperialist tricks is to just simply affirm hegemony and aggression through definition- semantic imperialism-denying the historical existence of a population as a nation,thereby establishing a racist based justification for robbing their lands and natural resources.

Other past racist ideological justifications which have been arbitrarily fabricated by imperialist powers..(all of course in the name of one or another science)- native peoples are inferior,uncivilized,primitive,are at lower levels of economic and social development..(not capitalist enough),culture and intellect-savage.

In short,the basis-the “Criteria” found in most of these standards are to a significant extent based upon latent hegemonic territorial interests,racist ideological constructs.

Historically,we’ve seen such imperialist ideological rationalizations used in Africa,Asia,the Americas-Latin America,Palestine,(even Europe).. etc etc..

In a cynical fashion,imperialists just need state-“They do not qualify as nations therefore they do not deserve full self-determination,independence,freedom and equality”.

It is my view that certain aspects of the RCP Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America objectively rationalize and justify the continued existence of white european american control and domination over both African-americans and Mexicans.

Patronizing and paternalistic racist constitutional policies,no matter if cloaked in Marxist jargon,directed towards people of color,are insulting,outrageous,divisive.

Ultimately,it shall be for the oppressed peoples themselves to proceed forth to define the exact contours and specific forms of their democratically decided upon future government and society.The choice of a people shall be respected.

We Mexicanos/Chicanos shall not march under any banner,even if painted red,which does not fully recognize us,respect our history,which denies us full and equal rights.

The Revolutionary Communist Party’s constitution fails to respect the Mexicano/Chicano people’s right to self-determination.Their cavalier dismissal of our history,identity and struggle could have long term consequences potentially harmful to the cause of socialist revolution.We refuse to be second class citizens in any society,present or future.

Despite self-identification as revolutionary communists,this does not inspire confidence nor credibility in RCP leadership.

In a comradely spirit of fairness we will withold final judgement and give the RCP time to correct their flawed Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.

In adherence to democratic socialist principles,with respect to the rights of voluntary association,individual Mexicanos/Chicanos shall certainly have the right to decide for themselves if they choose to become citizens of any future socialist republic or to be citizens of a new Mexicano/Chicano nation.

Quite frankly,if I were a gambler,I’d be willing to wager a goodly amount that it is more likely we will see a Mexican/Chicano Republic come into existence before  a New Socialist Republic in North America – or for that matter any other new type of republic.That’s my personal opinion.
If this were to occur we would welcome anyone citizenship in our Republica as long as they obey our laws, respect our constitution,language and culture.

In summary,it is my belief that certain specific views,definitions,concepts and policies to be found in the Revolutionary Communist Party’s Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America pertaining to self-determination-the rights of secession for Mexicanos/Chicanos,are to a significant degree,unjust,hegemonic in implication.

-Yes,and even mischievous.

We Mexicanos/Chicanos,will for the time being,take a pass on your
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.

Clowns to the right of me Jokers to the left….

from LatinoPoliticsBlog:
Lessons from the Middle East? The Revolution in Cuba that Won’t Happen

By Matthew Stieglitz

The events in Egypt and Libya recently are enough to warm the hearts of activists and revolutionaries everywhere. They have sent news pundits and diplomats into a frenzy trying to predict how expansive the domino effect will be, with most eyes probably fixed on Iran in hopes for similar change. From a US-Cuba perspective, particularly the anti-Castro lobby, the dream scenario is undoubtedly for recent events to inspire grassroots organizing that results in a transition away from the Castro government. While this has been the hope for over fifty years, it is no more likely to happen now than at any time in the history of the Castro regime. Even with increased protests from Cuban journalists and activists in recent years, Fidel’s “revolution” is not in danger of ending.

The reasons for this are the same reasons we haven’t seen uprisings of any kind since Fidel Castro took over. It starts with how the Cuban government provides just enough goods and services to keep people content, with little incentive to challenge a system that makes it possible for someone to survive without working hard. Then there’s the Cuban-American community, promoting an anti-Castro agenda while sending family remittances and traveling to the island, all of which do nothing but pump money into the Cuban economy. Both are aided by a state-controlled media that never approaches a critical analysis of Cuba’s shortcomings, with dissenting voices being silenced. Throw in limited Internet access, with few Cubans having a computer and the ones that do being subjected to severely restricted Internet, and you get the recipe for groupthink.

But the most important reason a revolution won’t happen is because it’s just too easy for people to leave than stay and fight for change. Make no mistake: it’s entirely possible to leave Cuba. With America’s favorable refugee policy, most Cubans only need the ambition to acquire the funds to pay for their way off the island. Like most things in life, it boils down to who you know and how you can manipulate the situation in your favor. Therefore, when an exit door sits in front of an entire populace, combined with state provision of a minimum standard of care, dependence on the government for everything becomes the norm, with any incentive to fight at best manifesting itself in a desire to leave. Simply, Cubans stay, or Cubans go. There is no middle ground.

Thus, if Cubans want a change, all they have to do is leave, and that’s exactly what they’ve been doing for decades. This in no small way has contributed to what is now a relatively small population in Cuba that is more than accustomed to the Castro way of life. The only problem is when government provision of everything becomes unsustainable, which we’re now starting to see in Cuba, as evidenced by recent policy changes towards a competitive (albeit minimally) marketplace to try and cover costs. The changes are a necessary step to keep Cuban workers content, with many favorably benefiting from the ability to tap into the tourism industry and improve their quality of life. Which is another example of what might be the ultimate legacy of the Castro government: knowing exactly what to do and when to do it to keep the populace at bay. The recent changes in Cuba’s domestic policy highlight a governmental paradigm shift, charting a course towards a free-market system that includes increased competition and individual business opportunity, not exactly the basic tenets of socialism. These amendments will surely help sway the doubters, with the remaining dissenting voices being silenced in the process. Bottom line, there just isn’t room for a revolution to end the revolution. Yet anti-Castro advocates everywhere will cling to the hope a page is taken from the book of the Middle East, which will again leave them dreaming.

Ultimately, we’ll see change in Cuba when the Castro brothers pass away. It’s as simple as that. Inherent in all of this is the undeniable brilliance of Fidel Castro, who managed to stay in power in a region when Latin American political leadership was a revolving door. Regardless of the legality and ethics of his tactics that perpetuated his regime (single-party elections and the lack of free press sure do make it hard to vote for change), he managed to do the unthinkable. While I certainly hope all of my thoughts regarding this are wrong, it just doesn’t seem likely, especially with Cuba no longer being an American priority. The Castro brothers know how to adjust policy to keep their citizenry in check, with enough changes in recent years to calm the masses despite the continued rollback of state aid. Combined with Cuba’s recent release of political prisoners (the majority of whom were the core of the island’s anti-Castro voice) who have since been granted exit visas to seek asylum abroad, the Castro government continues to do just enough to stay alive.

Commentary by Chicanofuturetense:

Latin Americans as well as Latinos here in the US all have their own problems.
Let each solve their own problems without external interference (US,CIA intervention).

The CubanAmerican anti-Castro lobby as well as many right-wing conservative Tea Party loving Cubanos share very little real interests with Mexicanos/ Chicanos in the USA.For the most part I consider right-wing Cubanos arrogant,condenscending,greedy and racist towards Mexicans and other Latino people.
As a matter of fact I am glad Mexico did not tow the US CIA line in totally condemning Cuba Libre.I am proud that Mexico was the refuge from where Fidel and Che planned, coordinated prepared for the Cuban Revolution.

If the loud mouth CubanoAmerican crybabies in the first place wanted so bad to have freedom for “Cuba” why did they flee Cuba like a pack of cowards to the US,where they there unashamedly hid and groveled behind Tio Sam’s behind?Why did they not stay and fight like real warriors for their Patria?
You talk about abject cowardice and hypocrisy.The anti-Castro lobby takes the cake!

As far as the revolutions in north Africa and the middle east?

Cuba is not responsible for US racism,xenophobia,SB1070′s,Minutemen killers,increasingly fascist like laws and immigration policies which terrorize Mexican undocumented workers,a collapsing economy,corrupt government prostitutes selling out to Wall Street and Goldman-Sachs with phony stiumulus,bail out schemes which have has resulted in the transference of trillions of dollars of wealth from working people into the coffers of Wall Street thieves aided and abbeted by Obama and Co.

We here in the USA should to take a page off that same book you refer to,have a little revolution of our own.

Forget about Cuba,we need a revolution here in the USA..

from the Kasama Project:

The universal reach of popular uprisings

by Alain Badiou
The wind of the east carries away the wind of the west

Until when the idle and crepuscular West, the “international community” of those who still believe themselves to be the rulers of the world, will continue to give lesson in good management and good behavior to the rest of the world? Is it not laughable to see some well-paid and well-fed intellectuals, retreating soldiers of the capital-parliamentarism that serves us as a moth-eaten Paradise, offering their services to the awe-inspiring Tunisian and Egyptian people, in order teach these savages the ABC of “democracy?”

What pathetic persistence of colonial arrogance! In the situation of political misery that we’ve been living for the last three decades, is not evident to surmise that it is us who have everything to learn from the popular uprisings of the moment?

Don’t we have the urgency to give a close look to everything, that, over there, made possible, by collective action, the overthrow of oligarchic and corrupt governments, who — or maybe especially — stood in a humiliating position of servitude to the Western world?

Yes, we should be the students of these movements, and not their stupid professors. For they give life, with the genius of their own inventions, to those same political principles that for some time now the dominant powers try to convince us of their obsoleteness. And in particular the principle that Marat never stopped recalling: when it is a matter of liberty, equality, emancipation, we all have to join the popular upheavals.
We are right to revolt

Just as in politics, our States and those that benefit from them (political parties, unions and complaisant intellectuals) prefer management to revolt, they prefer peaceful demands and “orderly transition” to the breach of law. What the Egyptian and Tunisian people remind us is that the only action appropriate to the sentiment of scandalous takeover by State power is the mass upraising. In this case, the only rallying cry capable of linking together the disparate aspirations of those making a crowd is: “you there, go away!”

The exceptional significance of the revolt, namely its critical power, lies in the fact that its rallying cry, which is repeated by millions of beings, gives the measure of what will be, undoubtedly, irreversibly, its first victory: the flight of the designated man. And whatever happens next, this triumph, illegal by nature, of popular action, will be forever victorious.

Now, that a revolt against the power of the State can be absolutely successful is an example of universal reach. This victory points out to the horizon over which any collective action unencumbered by the authority of the Law outlines itself: what Marx called “the deterioration of the State.” The knowledge that someday the people, freely associated and resorting to their creative power, will be able to throw away the funereal coercion of the State. That’s the reason why this Idea arouses boundless enthusiasm in the entire world and will trigger the revolution that ultimately will overthrow the authority in residence.
A spark can set the plain on fire…

It began with the suicide, a self-immolation by fire, of a man who has been downgraded to unemployment, and to whom was forbidden the miserable commerce that allowed him to survive; and because a female police officer slapped him in the face for not understanding what in this world is real.

In a few days this gesture becomes wider and in a few weeks millions of people scream their joy on a distant square and this entails the beginning of the catastrophe for the powerful potentates. What is at the root of this fabulous expansion? Are we dealing with a new sort of epidemics of freedom? No. As Jean-Marie Gleize poetically said: “The dissemination of a revolutionary movement is not carried by contamination. But by resonance. Something that surfaces here resounds with the shock wave emitted by something that happened over there.”

Let’s name this resonance “event.” The event is the sudden creation, not of a new reality, but of a myriad of new possibilities. None of them is the repetition of what is already known. This is the reason why it’s obscurantist to say “this movement claims democracy” (implying the one that we enjoy in the West), or that “this movement pursues social improvement” (implying the average prosperity for the petit bourgeois de chez nous). Starting with almost nothing, resonating everywhere, the popular uprising creates unknown possibilities for the entire world.

The word “democracy” is hardly uttered in Egypt. There is talk about “a new Egypt,” about the “true Egyptian people,” about a constituent assembly, about complete changes in everyday life, of unheard-of and previously unknown possibilities. There is new plain that will come after that that no longer exists, the one that was set on fire by the spark of the uprising. This plain to be stands between the declaration of an alteration in the balance of forces and the holding of new tasks. Between the shout of a young Tunisian: “We, children of workers and of peasants, are stronger than the criminals;” and what said a young Egyptian: “As from today, January 25, I take in my own hands the matters of my country.”
The people, only the people, are the creators of universal history

It’s amazing that in our West, the governments and the media consider the insurgents in a Cairo square are “the Egyptian people.” How can that be? Aren’t the people for them, the only reasonable and legal people, the one usually reduced to the majority of a poll, or the majority of an election? How did it happen that suddenly, hundreds of rebels are representative of a population of eighty million?

It’s a lesson that should not be forgotten, and that we will not forget. After a certain threshold of determination, of stubbornness and of courage, the people, in fact, can concentrate their existence in a square, an avenue, some factories or a university… The whole world world will be witness of the courage, and especially the wondrous creations that go with it. These creations prove that there, there is a People. As an Egyptian rebel strongly put it: “before I watched television, now television is watching me.”

In the stride of an event, the People is made of those who know how to solve the problems brought about by the event. Thus, in the takeover of a square: food, sleeping arrangements, watchmen, banners, prayers, defensive actions, so that in the place where it all happens, the place that is the symbol, is kept for the safeguarded for the people, at any price. Problems that, at the level of the hundreds of thousands of risen people mobilized from everywhere, seemed insoluble, all the more that in this place the State has virtually disappeared.

To solve insoluble problems without the assistance of the State becomes the destiny of an event. And this is what makes a People, suddenly, and for an indeterminate time, to exist where they have decided to assemble themselves.
Without a communist movement, there is no communism

The popular uprising we speak about is obviously without a Party, without an hegemonic organization, without a recognized leader. In time, we can assess whether this characteristic is a strength or a weakness. In any case, this is what makes us, in a very pure form, undoubtedly the purest since the Paris Commune, to call it a communism of movement.

“Communism” here means: a common creation of a collective destiny. This “common” has two specific traits. First, it is generic, representing, in a place, humanity as a whole.There we find all sort of people who make up a People, every word is heard, every suggestion examined, any difficulty treated for what it is.

Next, it overcomes all the substantial contradictions that the State claims to be its exclusive province since it alone is able to manage without ever surpassing them: between intellectuals and manual workers, between men and women, between poor and rich, between Muslims and Copts, between peasants and Cairo residents. Thousands of new possibilities, concerning these contradictions, arise at any given moment, to which the State — any State— remains completely blind.

One witnesses young female doctors from the provinces taking care of the injured, sleeping in the middle of a circle of fierce young men, and they are calmer than they have ever been, knowing that no one will dare to touch a single hair from their heads. One witnesses, just as well, an group of engineers entreating young suburbanites to hold the place and protect the movement with their energy in battle.

One witnesses a row of Christians doing the watch, standing, guarding over bent Muslims in prayer. One witnesses merchants of every kind nourishing the unemployed and the poor. One witnesses anonymous bystanders chatting with each other. One can read thousands of signs where individual lives mix without hiatus in the big cauldron of History.

All these situations, these inventions, constitute the communism of movement. For two centuries the only political problem has been how to set up in the long run the inventions of the communism of movement? The only reactionary assertion affirms that “This is impossible, verily harmful. Let’s trust the in the powers of the State.” Glory to the Tunisian and Egyptian people because they conjure the true and only political duty: the organized faithfulness to the communism of movement takes on the State.
We don’t want war, but are not scared of it

Everywhere was mentioned the peaceful calm of the gigantic demonstrations, and this calm was associated with the ideal of elective democracy that was attached to the movement. Let’s point out nevertheless that insurgents were killed, hundreds of them, and that there are still being killed every day. In more than one instance, those killed were fighters and martyrs of the event, they died for the protection of the movement. The political and symbolic places of the uprising had to be defended by means of ferocious fighting against the militiamen and the police forces of the threatened regimes. And who did pay with their lives but the youth from the poorest communities? The “middle class” — of which our preposterous Michèle Alliot-Marie said that on them, and only on them, depended the democratic outcome of the events — should remember that, at the crucial moment, the persistence of the uprising was guaranteed only by the unrestricted engagement of popular contingents. Defensive violence is inevitable. It still continues, in difficult conditions, in Tunisia after the young provincial activists were sent back to their misery.

Can anyone seriously think that these innumerable initiatives and these cruel sacrifices have as their main objective to prompt people “to choose” between Souleiman and El Baradei, as it happens in France where we pitifully surrender our will in choosing between Sarkozy and Strauss-Kahn? Is this the only lesson of this majestic episode?

No, a thousand times no! The Tunisian and the Egyptian people are telling us: raise up, build up a public space for the communism of movement, protect it by all means while inventing the sequential course of action; such is the real of the politics of popular emancipation.

Certainly, the Arabic States are not the only countries that are against the people and, notwithstanding elections, are illegitimate. Whatever will happen, the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings have a universal meaning. They prescribe new possibilities and thus their value is international.

chicanofuturet said:

An enthusiastic,no,charming (re)interpretation of events shaking north Africa and the middle east.
Rich as French pastry,Badiou’s article is a veritable boulangerie of Marxist truisms(one can never eat too much),ornamental as a French cathedral replete with grimacing Marxist gargoyles watching over us.(We need more of these over here in the USA!)

I mean,it is nice reading pleasant -all that Capraesque,JW Watchtower cover- lions lying down with the sheep in paradise stuff(the Christians,the merchants,the young women sleeping peacefully surrounded by men,the suburbanite professionals etc etc..)..It does make you feel good.

Nice pep talk-enthusiastic.Of course we need them all the time.

However,being neither well fed nor a well paid intellectual,after reading the article I find myself hungrily asking-
“where’s the pate de fois gras?”.

Miles Ahead response #1

Maybe Kasama should repost “Cheap Shots.” I think it would cheapen the richness of what Badiou is saying by getting all tripped off on ChicanoFuture’s, might I say “arrogant” and stab at erudition.

It is also not a matter of defending Badiou the person as an active, hard-working revolutionary thinker. It’s what the hell he’s saying, and I question if ChicanoF. is even listening? Or thinking outside the box.

BTW, ChicanoF.—an aside. It was moi who raised the spectrum of being a “visionary” in the post about “The Job of Revolutionaries is to Make Revolution”—and clearly (that is, clear to anyone who is not stuck in their own quagmire of preconceived dogma) BADIOU is a visionary, and one we should cherish.

As you might agree, there aren’t a lot of visionaries running around these days—at least not ones that we’re all aware of.

Miles Ahead response #2

Mike…you left off the next sentence, to me more the heart of this particular, which is “It’s what the hell he’s saying.” But I very much agree with your point about the pitfalls of identity politics.

But to me there’s a lot more going on here than just identity politics…and maybe that is what you are trying to get at.

I have tried to wade through all the posts and comments on Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, etc. and have to say that I have found some of the commentary very disheartening. And then Badiou comes along (and before that some posts by you in particular.)

What I think ChicanoF.’s crass comments reveal – and am not trying to single out this person as an individual, someone I don’t know, is besides the spectre of identity politics, there is some underlying contempt, if not blatant contempt (not Jean Luc Goddard-style), with attitudes of condescending savior, paternalism etc. toward the very “masses” (who are engaged in life and death revolts and struggles) they purport to want to “save” and/or liberate. (How many times have we seen this movie? Too many damn times!)

Unlike Badiou, who is taking a forthright stand with those rising up, as well as uncovering an actual revolutionary process, and like I said, is providing a basic orientation, some folks remain naysayers—and anything short of what they consider revolutionary politics (stamped with their own brand, which they want to imbue), ends up negating not only actual revolts by the people, but negates both the complexities (and particulars) of making revolution; maybe even worse, the ability to take things to new heights.

But I also think that Badiou is pointedly (and poignantly) speaking about differences (and demands) of those in revolt, and countering assumptions made from those naysayers, who find themselves living under very different circumstances, and who continue to look at things through their own narrow lens.

As International Women’s Day approaches, when ChicanoF. rags on Badiou for saying: “One witnesses young female doctors from the provinces taking care of the injured, sleeping in the middle of a circle of fierce young men, and they are calmer than they have ever been, knowing that no one will dare to touch a single hair from their heads.”

C.F.’s great comeback is utterly Insensitive to me reactionary:

C.F.: “I mean,it is nice reading pleasant -all that Capraesque,JW Watchtower cover- lions lying down with the sheep in paradise stuff(the Christians,the merchants,the young women sleeping peacefully surrounded by men,the suburbanite professionals etc etc..)..It does make you feel good.”

Does it need to be said, that the women, who have been just as vocal and militant, and laid down their lives as the men in all the uprisings, would have been stoned, executed, raped or incarcerated for not wearing a chador or burkah before. That they are feeling a new sense of empowerment, and both men and women are starting to break with some profoundly deep-seeded traditions, is just a matter of making one “feel good.” And what the hell Frank Capra has to do with all this, I’ll never know.

I just don’t understand how some people even look at revolution or what it actually means?

But am grateful to Badiou for further clarifying a lot. Like he noted:

“Yes, we should be the students of these movements, and not their stupid professors. For they give life, with the genius of their own inventions, to those same political principles that for some time now the dominant powers try to convince us of their obsoleteness.”

As I am glued to the news, the image of Gorky’s “The Lower Depths,” and the famous painting depicting the masses below the floorboards, pushing against the ruling elite above, keeps flashing across my (non-TV) screen.

chicanofuturet said:

PatrickSMcNally-
“repackaging old wine in new bottle”.
After reading Badiou’s piece I came away with the same conclusion.Badiou here is heavy on form light on substance.

zerohour -
“What’s interesting for me here is that Badiou is not making a political argument.”
I agree.It’s a lot easier (and safer) to rehash worn platitudes garnered from the “Collected Works of VI Lenin”
-make political generalizations that one could drive a semi through.
I differ from others who see Badiou’s piece here in a different “profoundly illuminating” light. But I am sincere when I say no breakthroughs or original ideas here from the supposedly greatest western european communist intellectual.Some pithy nifty statements and that’s about it.

I respect Badiou,his years of struggle,his dedication to what he thinks communism means.He should most definitely be given credit where credit is due.It does nothing to take away from his overall stature or integrity to critique him,no one should be beyond reproach or criticism as hero cult worshippers seem to believe.I truly believe that if Mssr Badiou were to read my little post he would have loved it and had a few laughs.This is true greatness,from a great mind-not the crude base “too apparent” sycophancy of worshippers who genuflect and pray to their messiah of the month.Sorry for being such an upstart apostate-a heretic..

Miles Ahead

Shame on you Miles!
not only do you capitulate to machismo,but you also manage to slip into racism which I a person of color truly resent.
You go on and on ranting about the pitfalls of “identity politics”.. my translation -how dare a person of color critique Badiou a prominent white western european intellectual.Such criticism in the eyes of reactionary whites is equivalent to “crass”..”reactionary”..

I’m sure that denial in the form of ideological contortion is to be expected.I really don’t expect any apology.

The Left more than any other sector of society are absolute masters at this game,and believe me this has and still does drive people of color absolutely crazy.Amongst a great many progressive and advanced people of color there is a great bitterness,frustration and resentment because of this seemingly eternal evil which like a weed always manages to break up through the cement into the light of day.
If white communists cannot overcome arrogance-racism then people of color fatalistically assume that there is no hope..

And yet we continue to be in a quandary and wonder why there is little if next to a non-existent communist movement here in the US??
Identity politics?..give me a break…

Miles,I think you have some serious issues with racism that you really need to deal with.And not knowing you personally,I would be willing to wager that you’ve heard this criticism before.Your racist attitude will subvert and destroy the possibilites of any racially inclusive communist movement.this is real.No BS ..this is the future we’re discussing here..

I tell you this respectfully,in the spirit of comradely criticism.From what I’ve read about you,you are a long time veteran of the Left.
I can respect and admire that…but that still doesn’t give you a right to be racist.
Frankly,I am disgusted and offended by your ugly racism…your post reeks to high heaven with it.
unfortunately,such racism has been the historical MO of the white left with respect to people of color.

Furthermore,it seems some people have a propensity for hero cult worship which they always seem to cling to.Like political groupies or junkies some people on the Left float for years on end from one hero adoration cult to another..from Bob Avakian to Alain Badiou..I guess old habits are hard to break.

Miles here takes me to task for critiquing certain portions of Badious essay.-

Miles Ahead
“As International Women’s Day approaches, when ChicanoF. rags on Badiou for saying: “One witnesses young female doctors from the provinces taking care of the injured, sleeping in the middle of a circle of fierce young men, and they are calmer than they have ever been, knowing that no one will dare to touch a single hair from their heads.”

I find it interesting that Badiou manages with his own stylistic brand of french machismo to create a sexist chauvinist division of labor,assigning “female doctors” the role of passive supporting,nourishers,care givers,menders….encircled and protected by “fierce young men”.

Now isn’t that sweet.Weak women who can’t defend themselves,who can’t fight,who need to be protected and encircled by “fierce young men”.Where have I heard that before?

Some radical women I have known in the past would have told me to fuck off and get the hell away with that kind of bullshit.
They can protect themselves.
Women can fight just as good as “fierce young men” can.But I guess certain people get a pass on that one.

I was waiting for Badiou to go on with more about these “female doctors” surrounded by the “fierce young men”.
…more of his french machismo assinging traditional gender roles to the females not only having them doing the supportive duties of dirty,gory work -patching and cleaning up blood and guts,but of having them clean up behind the men,washing their dirty laundry,cooking,sewing..doing all those “Female” things for the “fierce young men” their macho protectors.

How do say machismo in French?

Thanks to the folks over at Kasama Project for the great poster and their in-depth coverage of this world shaking event-
the Egyptian Revolution!

Corruption and Class Struggle:
What It’s Like to Live in Arizona Right Now

By Joel Olson

kasamaproject.org

With the passage of the notorious anti-immigrant bill SB 1070 last spring, the outlawing of ethnic studies as of January 1, the gutting of the school and university systems, the collapsed housing market, the high unemployment rates, and now the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, you might be wondering what it’s like to live in Arizona right about now.

It ain’t easy.

But it helps to put Giffords’s shooting in historical perspective, which is defined by two things in Arizona: corruption and class struggle. And ironically, this perspective gives me hope about the radically democratic future of my home state.

Arizona’s economy was founded on the “Five C’s:” copper, cotton, cattle, citrus, and climate (tourism). These C’s were controlled by big mining and agricultural interests and real estate developers. Corruption was commonplace as they manipulated the political system for their benefit.

A group of these capitalists, called the Phoenix 40, controlled state politics until the 1970s, when the political establishment opened up some. But even after their rule, the state capitol has always been a place to lie, bribe, and scam your way to what you want. If the names Don Bowles, Evan Mecham, AZ scam, Fife Symington, or the Keating 5 (which included Senator John McCain) mean anything to you, then you know that corruption is as plentiful as the parking here. And I haven’t even mentioned Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio or State Senator Russell Pearce, the tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum of racist nativism.*

SB 1070 and Giffords’s shooting, in other words, are but the latest of a storied history of corrupt cowboy capitalism.

Such tomfoolery is part of the class struggle in the Grand Canyon State. Three classes matter in Arizona: elites, the white middle class, and the working class. The elites come mainly from the agriculture/mining, tourism, and construction/real estate sectors (with an emerging tech sector). They are the masters of the corruption I described. But in a system of majority rule, elites need a junior partner to dominate. This is where the white middle class steps in.

The white middle class is the engine of suburban development here. The new housing developments, strip malls, and big box stores that pop up almost daily (until the recession, at least) are built for and fueled by this class. Many in this class run small businesses related to the main sectors of the economy, such as ranching, construction, landscaping, and pool maintenance. Many are retirees who used to manage businesses in other states. This small business atmosphere contributes to the libertarian, Barry Goldwater-style political culture of the state.

For years, this relationship has been mutually beneficial. While legal segregation never took deep root in this state (most of Arizona’s explosive growth took place after Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954), unofficial practices have kept many neighborhoods and schools comfortably white for decades, and the best jobs have been traditionally denied to Chicanos and Natives. (With a Black population of just three percent, the racially “out” groups in this state have historically been Chicanos, Mexicans, and indigenous peoples.) Politicians have successfully tied these practices to the laissez-faire economic policies of the elites, giving whites the sense that their success is due strictly to their own work ethic rather than being facilitated by white privilege. As a result, many white middle and working class Arizonans identify with the success—and conservative politics—of the elites.

This collusion has created an anything-goes capitalism mixed with a suburban consciousness. Call my state the Wild West or suburban hell—they’re both accurate to a large degree.

But the partnership has been fraying in the last two decades. Pressures to diversify corporations, universities, and governments have led elites to support various multicultural initiatives, which middle class whites resent. (Arizona voters in November voted to outlaw affirmative action by a wide margin.) The state’s Latino population has outpaced white growth, and the state is now nearly one-third Latino. Areas that were once comfortably white now have Spanish-language business signs. More and more schoolchildren have brown faces—even in the “good” schools. Cars roll down formerly white streets bumping music whose percussion comes from a tuba.

Further, middle class whites increasingly see elites in collusion with the Brown working classes rather than them. They have reasons for believing this. Agriculture, construction, and tourism all depend on a highly exploitable, low-paid working class, which makes migrant labor desirable. Undocumented labor makes up 27% of all construction workers, 60% of agricultural workers, 25% of restaurants workers, and 51% of all landscaping workers in Arizona. This sets small business interests—who usually can’t take advantage of such labor—into a tizzy. It sets off many other middle and working class whites as well, who feel that “they” are stealing “our” jobs. This is the political power behind SB 1070—a law that Arizona’s elites largely oppose.

The frayed alliance between these two classes has created the political mess this state is in today. It is the story behind SB 1070, HB2281 (the anti-ethnic studies law), the elimination of affirmative action, the attack on the public education system, the attack on public workers for enjoying “Cadillac” pension plans, and Giffords’s shooting. The alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, is not only of the white middle/working class, his addled mind is a gross exaggeration of its contradictions and confusions. Of course Loughner is probably crazy, but his mental health—and even his ideology—are not the point. What matters is that the conflict over this frayed class alliance—and all the political vitriol it has generated by Tea Partiers and others—pointed his illness toward Gabrielle Giffords.

In the face of this mess, it is the working class—largely Brown, largely poor, largely poorly educated, largely ignored—that represents the best hope to build a new Arizona within the corrupted shell of the old. Exploited by the elite, despised by many whites, and largely shut out of the political system, this class has had to make its own way through the state’s crazy political landscape.

With a weak Democratic Party, a labor movement crippled by “right to work” laws, a small civil rights contingent, few political nonprofits, and almost no organized left, Arizona’s working class is turning to grassroots democracy, operating outside the “official” political channels and fearlessly making political demands that challenge the pillars of laissez-faire capitalism itself. This path they are carving is quite possibly a model for working class struggles throughout the nation.

Take the grassroots fight against SB 1070, for example. The Tierra y Libertad Organization in Tucson has been a leader in opposing SB 1070. But it is also creating a new model of democracy. Declining to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, they raise funds through the community, which they use support their struggle for the self-determination of its base communities. In Phoenix, Puente has organized the major immigrant rights demonstrations in Arizona, but they are also organizing neighborhood meetings throughout the Valley of the Sun. In Phoenix and Flagstaff, the Repeal Coalition (I’m a member of this group) demands that all persons in a global economy be free to live, love, and work wherever they please, and they demand that ordinary people have a full say in those affairs that affect their daily lives. The undocumented workers, moms, and college students who make up the group don’t seem to worry that these demands are deeply radical and disrupt the very functioning of Arizona politics as it currently operates. These groups work with others, such as Border Action Network, No More Deaths, and Arizona Interfaith, that are organized in a traditional nonprofit format but nevertheless encourage face-to-face democracy and are courageously fighting 1070 and myriad other evils.

These working-class struggles suggest a new Arizona. They suggest a world in which working people decide the fate of the community, not the rich. They suggest a world in which democracy rather than white privilege decides how to allocate resources. They suggest a world in which borders are tools of the bosses rather than walls that “defend sovereignty” or “prevent terrorism.”

This class will not win for a while. The elites and the white middle classes are yet too powerful. This coming year, Arizona politicians will gut the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, defund public education until it barely operates, and do many more stupid things. But as elites and the white middle class continue to bicker, the Arizona working class continues to learn lessons, develop leadership, practice grassroots democracy, and make demands that seem “unreasonable” today but might tomorrow become as obvious as the multiplication table.

Corruption, elite domination, and white favoritism are the most important factors in understanding Arizona’s strange political history, including this latest episode. But class struggle against it is key to understanding why the nation’s strangest state may soon be in the vanguard of struggles for real freedom. Those involved in such struggles stand like saguaros in this beautiful state, even as the snakes and scorpions scurry about us.

CFT’S COMMENTARY-
Despite the vague language employed by the author,all in all I think the article is very good.

JO writes-
“Corruption, elite domination, and white favoritism are the most important factors in understanding Arizona’s strange political history, including this latest episode. But class struggle against it is key to understanding why the nation’s strangest state may soon be in the vanguard of struggles for real freedom. Those involved in such struggles stand like saguaros in this beautiful state, even as the snakes and scorpions scurry about us.”

Corruption,elite domination and white favoritism of course are inherent aspects of US Capitalism-it’s ruling class-in every state.These are very general descriptions open to wide interpretations.”Strange”is to be found everywhere in the US.Arizona has no monoploy over strangeness.As a California native I heartily can testify to that..

“Corruption,elite domination”.Even the Right wing,the Tea Party people use similar language when criticizing “big government” and “special interests”.
I’d like to add-in my opinion “White favoritism” is a euphmemistic substitution for the word “racism”.

To say that these factors- Corruption,elite domination and white favoritism..
“..are the most important factors in understanding Arizona’s strange political history, including this latest episode.” is a significant understatement-inexact and imprecise.

The most important factors in understanding Arizona’s history are rooted in it’s history of the theft of Native lands-genocide of it’s native peoples and stolen Mexican territory.

Racism in it’s doctrinal forms of “Manifest Destiny” and the “Monroe Doctrine” justified the wholesale slaughter of Native peoples and the robbery of their land.It also provided the justification for robbing Mexico of it’s northern territories.

This robbery and genocide opened wide the flood gates for white settler colonization and domination of the southwest resulting in eventual vicious and brutal oppression,exploitation and repression of Red and Brown people who were there long before the white european american invaders came on the scene.
Tragically,this situation continues to this very day.

“But class struggle against it is key to understanding why the nation’s strangest state may soon be in the vanguard of struggles for real freedom.”

I respectfully and (regretfully) disagree with the JO’s analysis here..
In the case of Arizona,class struggle is NOT the key to understanding why Arizona may soon be in the vanguard of struggles for real freedom.

In my analysis,if there is to be any significant change in Arizona,it will not be patterned on the Marxist model of class struggle,rather it will be a variant of Mexican Chicano Nationalism,the struggle for self-determination in alliance with Native Americans.

An objective and sad reality-the white left and communist forces in Arizona are relatively insignificant,uninfluential,small,weak and isolated.(There are also some historical problems of racism and paternalism involved in the evolution of this situation.)

It is more likely their future role will be as allies in solidarity with the larger movement for Brown and Red self-determination (possible demands for some type of Mexican Chicano autonomy as well as demands of comprehensive Native sovereignty over their lands with the right to expel,prosecute,sue and imprison white corporate bandits,exploiters and polluters).

I predict the future “vanguard” in Arizona and the southwest will be Mexican Chicano Native American Nationalists whose main demands will be centered around self-determination and autonomy.Not class struggle or communism.

Only after the demands of this first historical phase are realized will the next stage be set for class struggle,civil war waged within these political bodies for socialism-a socialist republic.
This is when Marx will rise like a mighty Phoenix from the ashes to live once again..

2011 a glimpse into the Mexican and Chicano future in the USA.

A reluctant prediction-2011 will be a year of furthering decline and descent of the Mexican Chicano people into the abyss towards a bottom which will be called “The permanent underclass“.

This descent to different degrees,is not just restricted to the issue of immigration and mass deportations.It also includes all the other important parameters of progress and advancement for Latinos which indicate their overall standard of living-vital elements such as jobs,home foreclosures,debt,education,business failures,health,crime,opportunity,social justice etc etc..
All of which paint a grim picture-a steady decline and deteriorating situation aggravated even more so by the great economic depression the United States is experiencing (which will more than likely become a permanent feature shaping this nation to qualitatively higher conditions of greater austerity,racism and xenophobia).

The “slow-burn” of racial division characterized by intolerance,hostility,racism and xenophobia will continue to corrode the fiber of American democracy,civility,society and politics.It will further expedite the building of a “Tortilla Curtain” already under construction.We can expect more Tea Party-minuteman-sb1070 xenophobes and other racist organizations to expand and grow.
We can expect more overt hostility and hate coming from an emboldened and strengthened GOP,as well as even more subtle (and not so subtle) exploitation,manipulation, deceit and hypocrisy coming from the Democratic party/DNC/Obama administration in the form of Homeland Security,Secure Community,continuing intensified ICE deportations.
Not a good situation for Latinos in 2011 and beyond.

2011 will reveal an accelerating downward spiral of social relations in american society having the potential to deteriorate into a divisive and dangerous general contention over diminishing resources,political power and jobs.Tendencies which could very well lead towards polarization and a hardening of positions between competing racial and ethnic blocs.

In 2011 for Mexicans Chicanos questions of self-determination and nationalism could possibly become more relevant -come to the forefront leading to larger political questions, a potential option of moving towards consideration of Nationalism or perhaps the continued Accommodation (status quo-the US white european American power paradyne.)

Up to this time the vast majority of Mexicans Chicanos have by necessity of survival gone along with Accommodation-a tacit submission and deference to the dominant white US power structure which is based on the economic system Capitalism supported by the pillars of savage competition, racism,exploitation and maximum profits before people.

Making value judgments about Latinos accepting this scenario is highly subjective and full of pitfalls.There are historical objective and subjective reasons why this is so.My intention is not to judge but rather to point these things out.

I truly believe that as long as Mexicans Chicanos exist in a country based on Capitalism they will never achieve full equality of social,economic,racial and political justice.As long as the capitalist system exists we will remain second class citizens.

Wolve’s In Sheep’s Clothing
Absurdly,there are many foolish Mexicans Chicanos who trumpet the idea,have the ridiculous notion that they could actually out compete white european America in the dog-eat-dog game of Capitalism.
These self-styled Latino leaders..“you can get rich too” pimps are to be seen and heard everywhere on the media and on the internet incessantly peddling their free-market fantasies in order to “feather their nests” and make a buck off the chumps while they’re doing that.Midget capitalists,these Mexican Chicano wannabe Rockefellers and Warren Buffets need a wake-up call to reality.To illustrate this fact-in the Fortune 500 over 98% of all CEO’s are whites- almost exclusively white males.A tiny miniscule fraction of less than 1% are Mexicans Chicanos.

But yet these fools continue to go around spreading and contaminating other Mexicans Chicanos with their nonsense.In the face of reality they are truly laughable and pathetic.I can only conclude that many of these people are just bucking to snap a few morsels of economic privilege thrown at them from the royal banquet table of white corporate America.

I think many of these “crummy capitalists” would gladly sell their souls to the devil himself in exchange for a few crumbs of power,prestige and money.Of course they will exploit,use and manipulate their gente use them as a bargaining chip and tool to get what they want.

Unfortunately,such people exert tremendous power and influence over the majority of Mexicans Chicanos.They’re just one set of elitists who mislead Mexicans Chicanos for selfish purposes.

Another group of such elitist “pimps” are to be found in Latino political leadership whether they be elected officials or large national non-profit foundation organizations.

These misleaders,as long as they have their little niche of power,privilege and prestige will always preach the philosophy of “going along just to get along” because failing to do so or even opposing their corporate sugar daddies would result in the checks being stopped and they being thrown out of their executive suites joining the swelling ranks of unemployed Latinos.

Make no mistake about it unintentionally or intentionally they keep Latinos as second class citizens-exploited,on some type of “plantation”..be they GOP or Democratic Party.At this time these Latino defenders of the status quo have captured the Latino mind.Sadly,Latinos are already on the “plantation”.

The Latino “loyalists lieutenants” of corporate america have a role as policemen,enforcers and guardians of the existing system of exploitation and injustice.They will most definitely carry out the orders of their bosses and attempt to isolate and destroy other Latinos ,whether they be progressive,left or socialists with alternative points of view from reaching the masses of Latinos.

It will be a vicious war fought over the “hearts and minds” of the Latino people.These Latinos are the “payed help” of corporate america..they are to be found everywhere-democrats,republicans ,liberals,conservatives,foundation organizations,elected officials,media,cultural and artistic people.Many of whom in their own self interest and as defenders of the status quo will sell-out their people to their paymasters-the white corporate elite power structure .

Tragedy.
Millions of Mexicans Chicanos today are in a tragic situation.Unfortunately,most are gullible,ignorant and backwards lacking an intellectual framework from which they could analyze their situation.Most have been indoctrinated and brainwashed with the “Horatio Alger” myth that they too can become wealthy and prosperous.
This selfish philosophy of “as long as I get mine” greed has an incredible stranglehold over most Mexicans/Chicanos and has become their orientation.Even amongst the youth-college university students this philosophy has to a great extent been internalized and adopted.

In much of the world of the Mexican/Chicano youth today is to be found a vast wasteland of petty materialism,self-destructive ego-centric selfishness alongside a powerfully influential sub-culture based on violence,criminality and nihilist racial self-suicide.

Intellectualism,philosophy and ideas are for the most part non-existent in this Chicano Mexican desert.Rarely will there be any meaningful intellectual political discussion or thinking coming from Mexican Chicano college university youth.Not even in existing political-social Latino college groups will there be any substantial political discussion or organization for change.

Most of these college groups over the decades have degenerated into petty social gatherings,partying groups or as social stepping-stones for aspiring Latino wannabe yuppies into desired careers in mainstream corporate or governmental america.For all intents and purposes there are almost no creative or exciting ideas for self-determination coming from the Latino youth.Tragically,in this group we find a forbidding “dead zone” of petty materialism,bland conformity and intellectual mediocrity.

As to the minority of Chicano Mexican youth and high school college university students who are concerned activists involved in the movimiento,we should cherish and encourage them,praise them for their bravery as warriors for La Raza.We of the older generation should help teach and nurture the youth,give them valuable lessons and guidance drawn from our past experiences.Today’s young warriors for La Raza are the bright and shining light of our future.

La Raza needs more young warriors!..not more sell-out wannabe yuppies.

Further complicating and adding to this already complex,difficult and highly negative situation Latinos find themselves in a highly racist society where racism permeates all sectors and segments of american society,from working class whites all the way up to the educated and intellectual white european elites.Even from the white left despite words of and selected acts of solidarity towards Latinos the fact of racist,patronizing,arrogant condescending attitudes directed towards Latinos still continue to manifest themselves in many negative,harmful forms and aspects.Even so despite this,we can still appreciate solidarity coming from the white progressive left.The door of friendship is always open to our allies.

However, in the final analysis what it will come down to in the end is that Latinos are going to have to take the helm of responsibility and leadership into their own hands for their own people.Latinos must have self-respect and dignity,to stand on their own two feet and take their own rightful place under the sun along with other peoples.Nobody can do it but ourselves.

Denial.
Latinos are almost in a state of total denial and illusion.”See no evil,hear no evil,speak no evil”..”I don’t want to hear it” characterizes the current Latino mindset.
A human being who cannot mentally conceive ideas,concepts of freedom,self-determination or liberation is a person that is in chains of a different type.The inability to even conceive abstract ideas and concepts or intellectualize them condemns this person to mental and cultural slavery.

Such people will quite often say ..huh? “Freedom”?…”self-determination”?..”liberation”?…”the movement”? …what do those things mean???”
Don’t get me wrong here I am not in any way “blaming the victim” so to speak.Rather,I’m just describing things the way they are in the real world.

In contrast,petty materialism and self-indulgent egoism are things they can readily and quickly understand and relate to without effort.
The problem with this brand of wishful thinking it’s scenario is that objective reality indicates otherwise-that in fact Latinos are sinking deeper in a sea of poverty,misery and injustice as each new year passes.Unemployment (increasingly higher even amongst college graduates),home foreclosures,bankruptcy,business failure..etc etc..

The doors of economic and social opportunity are increasingly being slammed shut in the faces of citizen and documented
Latinos.The screws of repression and oppression are being tightened on undocumented Latinos thanks to Secure Communities,Homeland Security,ICE and the Obama administration.

Preconditions.
Advancement for Latino self-determination and liberation are also to a great extent contingent on the lesser considered values of intellectuality,morality,and will.A people will remain mental slaves in chains of ignorance and corrupt values.Not having a morality based on freedom,of self-determination,justice and equality for their people are a people condemned to slavery.A people who do not have the will to free themselves,who prefer to accommodate themselves to a subservient position in a dominant white european power hierarchy are people who have chosen slavery.
Yes,a subject Latino people would continue to exist,survive,eat,perhaps own a home,furniture (via mortgage and credit card debt slavery),they will have also have some basic material things-
a car,some toys from Walmart etc etc…..

A big question here is-could Latinos knowingly and peacefully live under a rigid and ossified US system of racial and class domination?
Could they be pacified indefinitely living such a spiritually empty existence?

Latinos need our Latino intellectuals.
In my opinion what is needed more than ever is more dynamic Latino intellectual involvement to help spark the fires of Latino liberation.

Without effective,vibrant Latino intellectual leadership Latinos run the dangerous risk of becoming a lost people wandering in the wilderness-vulnerable,perpetual victims to other more highly organized,more powerful hegemonic tribes.

A Latino resolution for 2011.
Latinos call on all concerned Latino professors and intellectuals to greater participation-to become more actively involved in the Latino struggle.

THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS.
The Great Depression of the XXI Century

by Michel Chossudovsky

Synopsis:

In-depth investigations of the inner workings of the plutocracy in crisis.
In all major regions of the world, the economic recession is deep-seated, resulting in mass unemployment, the collapse of state social programs and the impoverishment of millions of people. The meltdown of financial markets was the result of institutionalized fraud and financial manipulation. The economic crisis is accompanied by a worldwide process of militarization, a war without borders led by the U.S. and its NATO allies. This interview takes the listener through the corridors of the Federal Reserve, into the plush corporate boardrooms on Wall Street where far-reaching financial transactions are routinely undertaken….digs beneath the gilded surface to reveal a complex web of deceit and media distortion which serves to conceal the workings of the global economic system and its devastating impacts on people`s lives.

Synopsis:
The liberal class plays a vital role in a democracy. It gives moral legitimacy to the state. It makes limited forms of dissent and incremental change possible. The liberal class posits itself as the conscience of the nation. It permits us, through its appeal to public virtues and the public good, to define ourselves as a good and noble people. Most importantly, on behalf of the power elite the liberal class serves as bulwarks against radical movements by offering a safety valve for popular frustrations and discontentment by discrediting those who talk of profound structural change. Once this class loses its social and political role then the delicate fabric of a democracy breaks down and the liberal class, along with the values it espouses, becomes an object of ridicule and hatred. The door that has been opened to proto-fascists has been opened by a bankrupt liberalism

The Death of the Liberal Class examines the failure of the liberal class to confront the rise of the corporate state and the consequences of a liberalism that has become profoundly bankrupted. Hedges argues there are five pillars of the liberal establishment – the press, liberal religious institutions, labor unions, universities and the Democratic Party— and that each of these institutions, more concerned with status and privilege than justice and progress, sold out the constituents they represented. In doing so, the liberal class has become irrelevant to society at large and ultimately the corporate power elite they once served.