eichmerikan

DVD – search mininova for the title:

Surfin’ U$a

Here’s what we’ve got so far.

- In the early 1970’s, an international communist movement so mired in mistaking parasitic first world populations for class allies of the world proletariat that even otherwise genuine Maoists in China were committing the same deadly error.

- An international proletariat highly suspicious that in the 1970’s it was already quite late in the material day for communists to be fucking up on this issue on such a grand scale.

- An international proletariat highly suspicious that this grand fuck up can be attributed to a massive ideological lacuna afflicting the ICM throughout the 20th century, that lacuna itself being symptomatic of virulent infection of the ICM by a particular form of bourgeois ideology, the theory of the productive forces.

- A global form of the theory of the productive forces that draws its pernicious and lethal potency from the showcase populations of the first world labor aristocracy.

- And, finally, the lie behind the lie, the root deceit propping up this international form of the enemy lie of the TOPF: the lie that the whole world can have a first world standard of living. The succinct version being, that the whole world can live like amerikkkans.

Simply put, the theory of the productive forces is a lie in prescriptive form peddled to the oppressed and exploited: do this, and you’ll get that. The “this” is the invitation to forget class struggle, to focus instead on building up the forces of production, acquiring technology, etc. – in fact, it’s the invitation to do anything but remember class struggle. The “that” is the proffered reward to the oppressed and exploited for this good behavior. And the international form of the TOPF offers a stunning illusory payoff: hey, you’ll get to live like amerikkkans, because that’s how they got where they are.

Let’s once again go over the broad economics of this to see just how very stunning such an offer is. The first world populations are far and away the richest on the planet. Nearly every single first worlder is part of the world’s richest 15%. The majority of amerikkkans, that paradigm population of parasite “prosperity,” are among the world’s richest 10%. Even those at the economic bottommost of the first world nations live whole levels above the world majority, who by contrast live at subsistence level and less.

So naturally at this point the video says, in referring to these first world parasite populations, that they are “the wealthy few of the planet.” Because that’s beyond refutation.

Continuing on then, the video says, “And, as Maoists, we know that the wealth of the few comes from thievery.” You just don’t get much more elemental in your basic Marxism, your basic proletarian internationalism, than that: the wealth of the few derives from the impoverishment of the many.

Marxists are supposed to know this. So Maoists are supposed to know that the TOPF is, in all its forms, local and international, a lie. The first world populations did not obtain their riches in the manner their TOPF prescribes to the world’s oppressed and exploited majority. First worlders did not acquire their wealth by building up their productive forces and becoming technological whiz kids. There is nothing “innovative” in the genocide by which they stole a continent. There is nothing “new and improved” in enslaving a nation to build your own nation. And the military/political agenda of the few (the first world) dominating and exploiting the many (the Third World), well we know, if we’re Marxists, that that’s old hat, not high tech.

Of course, as with all things of first world origin, the opposite of what is claimed is true. It is only the centuries old continuous theft of wealth from the Third World and all oppressed nations that makes possible all that gleaming blood-drenched first world advanced technology.

Not for one instant in all those centuries did the first world populations forget class struggle. It was by keeping class struggle against the oppressed nations topmost on their political program – keeping the politics of oppression and exploitation in command – that got these parasites the riches of decadence that they possess today. 

So the international theory of the productive forces is a lie because Marxism is correct: exploitation exists. And therefore the entire world cannot live at the economic level of the world’s richest 10%, or the world’s richest 15%. The international TOPF is a lie because, for the entire planet to live like the first world, like amerikkkans, a whole new planet, several times earth’s population, would have to be discovered, conquered, oppressed, exploited and sucked off of just as the first world for centuries has sucked off the Third World. That’s not hard to see. For a rich minority to become a rich minority, they have to oppress and steal from an oppressed majority. And, yes, the same thing goes for the process of remaining a rich minority.

The lie of the international TOPF is just not that theoretically complex, and the raw facts of the worldwide class analysis it entails are not hard to come by. Is anyone arguing that nearly all of the first world is not part of the world’s richest 15%? Is anyone arguing that most amerikkkans are not part of the world’s richest 10%? Is anyone arguing that nearly half the world does not live on less than $2 a day? No, the facts of first world hegemony are all just common, everyday prima facie stuff.

But then we come right back to the international proletariat’s nagging suspicion that the parasitic nature of the first world populations has been prima facie stuff pretty much throughout the entire last century. How long has it been, for instance, that amerikkka has been globally acknowledged as the land of milk and honey? Not just for the rarefied tip top economic strata of amerikkkans, but for all amerikkkans – the land of money, honey. How long has it been, for another instance, that the economic disparity between the first world populations and the Third World has been, shall we say, conspicuous?

And so the international proletariat is to be forgiven for then asking quite bluntly, where in the fuck was the great bulk of the international communist movement for the last century while it was tasked with exposing just such pernicious enemy lies as this international theory of the productive forces?

Further, the international proletariat is to be forgiven for its as yet un-allayed suspicion that the bulk of the ICM was in fact for most of that century asleep at the wheel, drugged out on dreams of the oppressed and exploited “advancing” toward a parasite first world standard of living. Just plain drugged out on the international TOPF.

We explained in Part 3 that the potency of the international TOPF derives from the showcase populations of the first world labor aristocracy. You can think of it this way. Would any proletarian forces buy a bit of this lie if the vast majority of the first world lived on $2 a day? An international TOPF like that, that promised do this (forget class struggle) and you can get this (a subsistence level existence just like the one you have now), would ring up precious few sales among the oppressed. 

But with the actual first world labor aristocracy on parade – millions of Dicks and Janes who look for all the world like garden variety “regular folks” but who enjoy a standard of living stratospherically above the world majority – then you’ve got a huckster’s shill that’ll draw in a crowd. And that, the international proletariat suspicions, is exactly what happened to the ICM. The promise of first world richness for the world majority was too enticing to turn down, to disbelieve, so by the multitudes the ICM stepped right up, forked over a goodly portion of their precious revolutionary responsibilities, and bought themselves a heaping helping of the lie of the TOPF, the bogus amerikkkan dream peddled to the oppressed and exploited.

Now, discerning readers will have noticed that we’ve continued to stress the proletariat’s suspicions about the ICM’s errors on the international TOPF in the 20th century without mentioning that today the ICM is for the most part every bit as fucked up on this question as it has been for the last century. By all means we’ll get to that.

But we cannot fully understand the enemy’s contemporary ideological victories via the TOPF if we do not fully grasp the power and reach of the international TOPF as fueled by the first world labor aristocracy. And that means comprehending the enormity of the ICM’s past defeat by this imperialist ideological weapon, a defeat that extends back over scores of years and has been nearly absolute. And the efforts toward the investigation and study aimed at fully comprehending that defeat have, sadly, begun only recently.

Fortunately, we have some good and capable comrades leading the way in this investigation and study. The international proletariat demands to know what part this massive enemy ideological victory has played on the two main fronts of the proletarian struggle: the struggle for national liberation of the oppressed nations, and the attempts to build socialism in the former socialist nations. In Part 5 we will consider the possible damage done by the international theory of the productive forces in a particular instance of latter area, the murder of socialism in the People’s Republic of China.

In that Part we will make much use of Prairie Fire’s fine article posted at MSH, Some notes on lines within the Chinese Communist Party in the Maoist period. This article is an excellent example of the kind of theoretical and investigative work demanded by the international proletariat to assure the defeat of the imperialist weapon of the international TOPF and to hasten the defeat of the first world itself. So read that work well in the meantime.

For those guessing at the identity of the highlighted cracker at that cracker table of genocidal feasting … no, that was not Lurleen. That was Tammy.

Same amerikkkan sisterhood, different individual cracker.

Put simply, conversancy with the language of the oppressed is measured in terms of capacity to speak the truth and comprehend the truth when truth is spoken. Like everything else, “truth” is a political construct. How much truth gets spoken is determined politically. The greater the significance to the oppressed, the more truth expressed, and, in turn, the greater fluency demonstrated in speaking the language of the oppressed.

Bartolomé de Las Casas was a goddamn liar. In the terms just explained this means that Las Casas lied about things that were of critical significance to the oppressed, like what is the proper response to oppression (Las Casas said it was surrender) and who the oppressed should count as friends (Las Casas said it was the imperialist Spanish monarchy). By definition the liberal imperialists like Las Casas will always be goddamn liars – if they told enough of the truth to no longer deserve the label of goddamn liar, then they would have changed their class stance sufficiently so as to no longer be liberal imperialists. And Las Casas sure maintained his class stance as an oppressor and a goddamn liar.

So how do we make good on our title’s claim that Las Casas was in fact somewhat conversant with the language of the oppressed, since that necessitates speaking truth? Well finessing that little bit of analysis is actually a breeze if we remember that liberals can at times be of some use to the oppressed. Take Comrade John Brown’s war on amerikkkan slavery. To the extent that Comrade Brown received any outside financing it was mainly amerikkkan liberals who contributed to this glorious venture. Sure, they had to be tricked into it, or at least not fully informed. And sure, after Harper’s Ferry most of these liberals ran and hid and denounced Comrade Brown like the liberals they were. But for a time they had been of some use to the oppressed. Or, probably more importantly, take the liberals who were among those making up the Underground Railway, spiriting slaves to a degree of safety in the north. The existence of the Underground Railway made feasible Comrade Brown’s battle plan of guerilla war and building an independent state of Black resistance in the north. In both cases liberals were helpful to the oppressed. Of course Comrade Brown didn’t succeed in fomenting a Black rebellion against white slavery. But he did succeed in dividing the white enemies against themselves to the point where they killed off each other by the hundreds of thousands and gave the Black Nation a little breathing room. Liberals were helpful in the good outcome of that venture.

The oppressed can take from this that at certain times and for brief periods these genuine enemies can be of use, and such opportunities shouldn’t be missed. But don’t hold your breath – that’s the indispensable corollary. Case in point: Las Casas.

You don’t really have to do any analysis to see that, although fundamentally a lying oppressor, this liberal imperialist spoke enough of the truth to be of some possible use to the oppressed. Throughout this article we’ve featured Las Casas’s illustrations of the Spanish genocide of the Americas. In their stark depiction of the carnage, the drawings themselves speak an important truth and thus display some conversancy with the language of the oppressed. The same goes for Las Casas’ writings:

“They saw themselves each day perishing by the cruel and inhuman treatment of the Spaniards, crushed to the earth by the horses, cut in pieces by swords, eaten and torn by dogs, many buried alive and suffering all kinds of exquisite tortures …” (1)

You’d have to say telling this much of the truth about the European genocidal butchery in the Americas sounds every bit like the language of the oppressed. And this would seem to have potential benefit for the oppressed. Of course in Las Casas’ time no benefit to the oppressed was realized. Because Las Casas, being the goddamned liar he was, wrapped this truth in so many foul layers of oppressor ideology that the truth had no discernable impact.

But the Las Casas descriptions and images, sans the Las Casas lies, can indeed helpful. The oppressed can sure use the documentation. Of the real genesis story – the birth of the first world in the bloody carnage of the Third World. For the oppressed that’s handy to keep in mind.

Further, it’s helpful to the oppressed to have a reminder there were few Europeans like Las Casas who even took enough notice of their genocide of a continent to even remark much on it. Reminds the oppressed of what to expect from the oppressor nations when it comes to friends and enemies. That’s a help.

Also, the oppressed can always use another exposure of oppressor nation liberalism. Here we’re finding a use for Las Casas but it’s, like, 400 years later. So don’t hold your breath with the liberals.

And there’s one more way in which Las Casas is conversant enough with the language of the oppressed to be of help. But to explain that we’ll have to admit that to this point we haven’t given Las Casas his full due in terms of his truth-telling abilities. Because he did say, however belatedly and briefly, a bit more of the truth than we’ve reported so far; he spoke the language of the oppressed a little more fluently than we’ve reported so far. We didn’t really hide it. We actually began this article with a quote demonstrating it. We’ve just neglected commenting on it so far. Here’s the quote again:

“I believe that due to these godless, evil and ignoble acts perpetrated in such an unjust, barbarous and tyrannical manner, God will direct his ire and fury upon all Spain, as all Spain has taken its part, large or small, of the bloody wealth usurped at the price of much ruin and many massacres.”

This is actually a shitload of truth. It’s almost an indictment of imperialism. Oh, there’s some slippery ambiguity – there’s some room to think that if the “bloody wealth” had been “usurped” with less “ruin and massacres” everything would’ve been ok. And there’s no real hint that the proper response to oppression is to destroy the oppressors; so we don’t know exactly what ideology Las Casas is offering the oppressed here. But still, it’s not the usual Las Casas celebration of imperialism. Moreover, there’s that “all Spain” part, which presumably includes the monarchy that Las Casas is usually wont to exonerate from the genocide of the Americas. So we have to admit that here Las Casas is not much of a goddamned liar at all.

Now, this doesn’t contradict all our previous discussion of Las Casas nearly so much as it seems. Because Las Casas came to this take on things pretty late in life – the quote above is taken from his will. Rest assured that he lived the great bulk of his life as every bit the goddamned liar we’ve claimed. But he did become more truthful in his very last years. Those very last years were of course after he had lived his entire life watching genocide right under his nose, and then, finally, he stopped lying so much. It’s not the political stance generally associated with Las Casas because it’s not the politics that he preached or acted until he was almost dead.

Our interest, though, isn’t in the persyn but the politics. Especially the part about “… all Spain has taken its part, large or small, of the bloody wealth …”

This is extremely truthful as the needed indictment of the entire Spanish nation for being beneficiaries of the holocaust in the Americas which they supported. That’s very instructive generally for the oppressed today as a class analysis of the first world. It’s a big help.

And more particularly it’s a help to the oppressed in sizing up the reactionary first world so-called “left.”

Look, here we’ve got a guy, a liberal imperialist, who’s an outright jubilant celebrant of imperialism even when millions are being slaughtered right before his eyes and the loot is just pouring into Spain. Genocide historically unparalleled, right before his own eyes. A full long lifetime of watching this horror while still cheering on the Spanish monarchy before, finally, he admits the truth. But he does, essentially, admit it: “all of Spain” has a vested interest as enemy of the indigenous peoples of the Americas – “all of Spain” has an interest in the genocide of national oppression.

And that one pathetically late admission, by a proud and certified agent of imperialism, is light years of political advancement beyond today’s first world so-called “left,” who are constitutionally inadequate to the task of admitting this one simple and manifest fact about their own respective parasite nations. Who are constitutionally inadequate to the task of speaking the language of the oppressed by admitting that the truth that the first world is wholly enemy to the Third World. Whose lies fronting for the first world enemies of the oppressed can easily and fully match Las Casas in his glory days as a goddamn liar fronting for imperialism.

Previously on Shubel Morgan we’ve gone over in detail the profound extent to which the all-amerikkkan white nationalist so-called “left,” the standard bearer for the first world “left” generally, is inadequate to the task of speaking the language of the oppressed. Here we’ll just say that if the Las Casas lesson for the oppressed regarding liberals is to proceed with caution and don’t hold your breath, the Las Casas lesson for the oppressed regarding first world so-called “leftists” is don’t touch ‘em with a 10 foot pole. The oppressed would be better off with a 400 year old priest whose life was dedicated to cheering on the most massive genocide in history.

Sources:

Stannard, David E., American Holocaust, New York, 1992.

1. Stannard, p. 74.

Before proceeding with Las Casas let’s make sure we’re all on the same page as far as context goes.

History had inserted this Spanish priest at the dawning moment and location of what remains the most massive act of genocide known to the species. (1) We’ll provide some estimates of the magnitude of the horror, but if you can remember only one figure to associate with European conquest of the Americas, use this: 95%. That’s the percentage decimation generally agreed upon by bourgeois scholars of this holocaust. After the Europeans were done “bringing light” to the peoples of the Americas, only about 5% of those indigenous inhabitants remained. (2)

In absolute numbers the estimates of the carnage vary. The lower estimates are that there were 75,000,000 to 100,000,000 “pre-Kolumbian” inhabitants of the Americas, with 8,000,000 to 12,000,000 living north of Mexico. Higher estimates are 145,000,000 for the entire hemisphere, with 18,000,000 north of Mexico. Just to be clear, then, the context here is the commencement of the annihilation of between 71,000,000 and 137,000,000 persyns by the European empires. (3)

Of course Las Casas wasn’t around throughout the entirety of this genocide. (4) But the invaders were so rapacious in their endeavors that even in the span of Las Casas’ life much of the slaughter had already been accomplished. For example, in Kolumbus-named “Hispaniola” (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) the indigenous population of 8,000,000 was dispatched within the first 21 years of the conquistadores’ onslaught. Las Casas himself estimated 20,000 massacred in one day’s sadistic spree. (5)

So, in the interest of clear and comprehensive accuracy, this was the horrific context. And Las Casas’ claim to history’s attention is largely predicated on his being one of only a few Europeans to define, report, and declaim these events as the horrors they were. David Stannard calls Las Casas “the most passionate and humane European advocate for the Indians of his own time and for many years to come.” (6) That’s true. And it goes a long way as a class analysis of the nascent first world nations. Las Casas is the best they’ve got to offer up to the oppressed, and, sorry, but Las Casas just wasn’t all that.

We spotlight the very extraordinary character of the context in which Las Casas operated because, well, because you’d think that with these first world swine, you’d think that with a context of this, uh, nature, you’d think a context of this nature would produce at least one, from amongst an entire nation of these oppressors, at least one genuine servant of the oppressed. At least one parasite who, in light of such cataclysmic butchery, decided to change sides entirely and join wholeheartedly with the oppressed. Just one. You’d think that, wouldn’t you? That a context of such consequence would have an impact persuasive enough to wrench loose just one oppressor from a nation of millions. You’d think the genocide of a continent would do that. Just one nation traitor dislodged from the parasitic mass. Just one. You’d think. But no, the best we can get, the cream of this crop of oppressors, is a  Bartolomé de Las Casas, “The Protector of the Indians.”

“… The simple knowledge that something is wrong in his kingdom is quite sufficient to ensure that the king will see that it is corrected, for he will not tolerate any such evil for a moment longer than it takes him to right it.” (7)

This is the “protection” that Las Casas offered against human slaughter on a world historic scale: criminally nonsensical and fruitless appeals to the perpetrators (the Spanish monarchy) as though they were not in fact perpetrators, all with unquestioning loyalty to the ideological basis for the perpetration (blindly assuming that the Americas were of course part of “his (Spain’s) kingdom”). All of Las Casas’ work as “Protector of the Indians” – his voluminous writings detailing this holocaust, his speeches “in defense of the Indians,” his illustrations of “Spanish cruelties” – were produced out of this if-the-good-king-only-knew liberal imperialist sensibility.

“Most powerful sovereigns: all of Christendom should hold great celebrations, and especially God’s Church, for the finding of such a multitude of friendly peoples, which with very little effort will be converted to our Holy Faith, and so many lands filled with so many goods, very necessary to us in whom all Christians will have comfort and profits.” (8)

It’s the Las Casas formula for “benign” imperialism. “Comfort and profits,” of course, for the oppressor nation. And for the indigenous millions of the Americas: immaculate oppression. Conquest that’s not really conquest, exploitation that’s not really exploitation, oppression that’s anything but oppression. All made possible by no sweat “conversions,” since you just know those “Indians” will jump at the chance to prostrate themselves before the Spanish empire and rapturously offer up their “many lands filled with so many goods” to those for whom they are so “very necessary,” i.e., the marauding Spaniards. In a nutshell, it’s liberal “hearts and minds (and souls)” imperialism.

So the very best that this catastrophic context can extract from the oppressor nation is a goddamn liar. It is simply a lie to propose that the oppressed will voluntarily and cheerily welcome their oppressors, or, indeed, that they should. It is simply a lie to propose that conquest and oppression are separable. It is simply a lie to propose distinguishing between the conquistador shock troop arm of Spanish imperialism and that of the centralized monarchy. And it is simply a lie to propose distinguishing between liberal imperialism and imperialism. Stamping Spanish imperialism with the approval of his cheesy “Protector of the Indians” imprimatur was just the perfect liberal touch: Las Casas was doing his bit for Spanish conquest absolutely every bit as much as those “colonists” genocidally hacking away in the “new world” – it was simply a division of imperialist labor.

Daniel Castro presents a detailed accounting of the paucity of actual benefit to the oppressed resulting from the efforts of this clerical agent of imperialism, efforts which “rarely translated into tangible gains.” (9) Las Casas was pretty much materially useless to the oppressed “of his time.” He was less than useless to them ideologically, what with his cheerleading celebration of Spanish conquest while preaching to the oppressed little other than “conversion” to submission and defeat.

We initially promised to show you some things that Las Casas, despite himself, might have to offer to the oppressed today. It may seem that we’re just stringing you along on that, while really using the time for extended Las Casas bashing. That wouldn’t be all that bad, actually. Knocking another of the oppressors’ iconic “gifts” to the oppressed off his false pedestal is always a worthy aim. But Daniel Castro has done that pretty effectively for now, and we’ve got bigger and more contemporary fish to fry. No, we haven’t gone on with Las Casas to such length to further defrock this particular imperialist agent. It’s just that the lessons to be drawn here for the oppressed require that the stage be set completely.

That setting now accomplished, we raise the curtain on lessons from Las Casas in Part Four.

Sources:

Castro, Daniel, Another Face of Empire, Durham, N.C., 2007.

Stannard, David E., American Holocaust, New York, 1992.

1. Stannard, p. x, “The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world.” Stannard’s book is highly recommended as arguably the most comprehensive and vivid exposition of the horrors of European conquest of the Americas.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. See Final Solution for one example of the yankkkee ingenuity employed to continue this genocide up to the present day.

5. Stannard, p. 71.

6. Stannard, p. 210.

7. Castro, p. 10.

8. Ibid., p. 18.

9. Ibid., p. 6. 

Nuff said.

Stay tuned to the hard working RAIM-D for up to date info on Colorado’s anti-kolumbusalooza.

And tune in to our comrades at Monkey Smashes Heaven for the theoretical how-to’s of ending kkkolumbus day in amerikkka, i.e., ending amerikkka itself.