eichmerikan

Ward Churchill takes Amerikan Little Eichmannism to court, March 9 through March 27. We’re staunch supporters of Mr. Churchill’s right to call Little Eichmanns by their proper and deserved names. We urge all who uphold bourgeois Amerikan “free speech” and those First World nation traitors who uphold the world’s oppressed majority to do whatever they can to provide support to the organizing efforts around this trial. Below please find some nifty fliers to download and distribute as part of this campaign.

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Here is an anecdote provided by a reader.

In the early 1970’s the reader was a member of one of the new communist movement formations. This formation held firmly to the line that most amerikans were “workers,” were exploited, and were thus absolutely fine revolutionary material. So the reader and her comrades in this formation held down factory jobs amongst this white “working class” and brought all their revolutionary fervor to bear on disabusing these “workers” of the “false consciousness” that kept them ideologically chained to the wage slavery of capitalism. She wasn’t having much luck. Nor were her comrades. Truth be told, they were having no luck at all.

The reader’s organization upheld socialist China. A delegation from the organization went to China to express their solidarity and to learn what they could that would be helpful to them in making revolution at home. This was an exciting development for the reader, especially as she had a close comrade who had been chosen as a delegate for this mission.

When the delegation returned from China, the reader contacted her comrade immediately. She asked what main thing the returning comrade had learned from the Chinese.

The comrade replied without hesitation, “That the American (sic) people are a great people.”

The reader recalls the immense satisfaction this answer gave her. Surely, she thought at the time, the Chinese, who have accomplished a revolution and are now accomplishing a Cultural Revolution, must know a thing or two about class analysis. The Chinese communists must, she thought, know something that had not yet become readily apparent to her in her couple of years of working diligently among the white “masses.” So her comrade’s reply reinfused her with revolutionary dedication and she marched back to work beating her head into further ideological concussion on the brick wall of the parasitic amerikkkan labor aristocracy for another year or so.

We can present this anecdote unabashedly because we’re using it for illustrative purposes only. Unlike many today who call themselves “communists” or even “Maoists,” but who are immune to the very fundamentals of science, we don’t use anecdotal “evidence” to “prove” anything. Nothing of what we say here hinges on whether this anecdote can be proven to be a “true story” or not. It merely illustrates quickly the outlines of the points we’ll take up.

On the other hand, to serve even as a reasonable illustrative device, an anecdote must have some recognizable semblance of truth – it has to be the kind of thing that could have happened, given what we know. And our anecdotal example here obviously has that attribute. That “the American (sic) people are a great people” was in fact the overwhelmingly predominant line of the Chinese communists at the time. If there were any all round Maoists-Third Worldists in China at that time, their line was certainly not public. That Maoism-Third Worldism was not the predominant Chinese line is not surprising. There were no Leninists in Marx’s time, no Maoists in Lenin’s time. Had Maoists-Third Worldists predominated in China, the delegate would have learned that the amerikkkan people are a parasitic people, as are all the first world peoples. And if Maoism-Third Worldism had predominated amongst first world communists, they would have known about these parasite nations already. But that’s not the way things were. So our anecdote does serve to show the kind of political interchange that might well have actually occurred between the Chinese communists of the time and our reader’s comrade. 

And it shows how fucked up much of the international communist movement has been in the labor aristocracy area of the theory of the productive forces. And that’s what we want to talk more about here, next.

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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.