#Marxist history

[empirearchives]

“He [Napoleon] remained deeply attached to the refusal of the Ancien Régime, to the refusal of national degradation in the face of the Bourbons and aristocratic Europe. It is from this refusal that he will draw the strength to think and set up this powerful resistance movement which will be the return from the island of Elba in March 1815. This is why the forces of the Holy Alliance reject him, ostracizing him from humanity as an ‘anarchist’. He was in his time ‘the revolutionary emperor’ because his conquest was transformative for the social order.”

— Antoine Casanova, Vive la Révolution: 1789-1989: Réflexions autour du bicentenaire

[workersolidarity]

THE CIA'S SECRET GENOCIDE

One of the best documentaries RareEarth ever did, and still one of the best documentaries on YouTube, The CIAs Secret Genocide provides an in-depth dive into the history of Guatamala and its takeover by United Fruit Company and suffering under brutal US Imperialism.

"Anyone caught espousing anti-imperialism was called a terrorist and killed for actions against the State. Which wasn't really wrong, because the State existed for Imperialism. That was the system."

"he [General Ubico] was everything the CIA wanted and more. It's just that he wouldn't stop calling himself Hitler."

"So with the US media turning its Sauranic eye towards the oppressions of this openly Fascist ally, the CIA decided his time was up. But it wasn't like they wanted actual change. This was their goal. Hell, this was their guy. Fascism was fine for them, as long as it doesn't call itself that in public to the media."

"In 1954, Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, with the full backing of the United States Government, deliberately killed democracy in Guatemala. And just like that, a new Hitler in Power."

"The CIA's best plan for keeping the country in line was violence, and the more it slipped away, the more violence they inflicted to keep it in line."

"So for all their years of terror and enslavement, the company had no real response to a complete social collapse. All they knew how to do was what they'd always done. And so in response to this unprecedented threat to their power, the puppet government took off whatever velvet they pretended to still have left on those gloves and sent Death Squads roaming through the Mayan villages, breaking in doors and killing anyone they deemed a threat."

"It didn't matter if the people they killed were Communist or just happened to own some land that a local rich guy wanted to steal, their obituary always said 'terrorist'."

"The Civil War that followed would be the longest in the history of the Americas. It would last for the next 36 years, only truly ending in 1996. Although, calling it a Civil War implies that the country was divided, fighting itself, and for the most part that simply wasn't true. This was the violence of Imperialism brought by a puppet government against its own people."

(coughs) Ukraine!

Excuse me.

"In debt, and unable to keep control over the lands they'd stolen, United Fruit fell on its sword. Their name was so tarnished in the public eye that they had little choice but to be broken up and redistributed under new brands. But beyond that, little really changed except who got to be the 'us'."

"Today, United Fruit exists under the name Chiquita. They still sell bananas, and they still grow them in Guatamala."

"Since 1996, Guatamala has returned to a fledgeling form of democracy, it's just with the quiet understanding that things can only go so far before they're going to get toppled. Because things here never got returned to the peasants. This country is still a banana republic. And the United States is still an Empire."

[kitty-pelosi]

percolating an essay on the positionality of American millennials and their seeming inability to grow up in the context of their status as children in the golden age of the American middle class.

like, existing in a time where liberalism provided a near-utopian experience for white middle class folks to seeing it almost completely collapse in 2006-08 to existing off of fumes and oxygen until now as a material explanation for why they cling to childhood media and their weird youth conventions in very juvenile ways.

and being unable to cope with being the core adult cohort at this time while being outnumbered by a youth culture which is very critical of them in similar ways to which they were criticized by their elders while growing up.

not that this concept of generations is genuinely meaningful but white middle class American children born 1985-1995 were ideologically primed for a future that never came into being and it’s like they’ve frozen in a state of waiting for that future to come still, rather than actually adapting to the reality of their dynamic positions.

and I look at the children they’ve raised and I can’t help but wonder if that’s why the iPad kid comes into being - because their parents have done nothing but distract themselves from reality their whole lives.

[geopolicraticus]

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Christopher Hill and Marxist History      

Tuesday 06 February 2024 is the 112th anniversary of the birth of Christopher Hill (06 February 1912 – 23 February 2003), who was born in York on this date in 1912.

Hill, one of the most prominent British Marxist historians of his generation, dedicated his career as an historian to the early modern period in England, drawn to the period for its radical and revolutionary possibilities, writing books such as Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution, The Century of Revolution, 1603-1714, Some Intellectual Consequences of the English Revolution, and The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution.

Quora:              https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:           https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:              https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:      http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Podcast:           https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/Christopher-Hill-and-Marxist-History-e2fe5t0

[troythecatfish]

The chart does not capture the astonishing fact that these accomplishments were achieved under brutal sanctions imposed by the world’s superpower. Viva la revolución.

They also have ad-free TV ✌️📺 (you don’t need commercials with Socialism).

[technicolor-times]

Harpo , Groucho, Chico, and Zeppo making an appearance as Arthur, Julius, Leonard and Herbert ❣️

[holidaysincambodia]

Soviet Teapot, 1970s

[atthecenterofeverything]

the pale without organs

disco elysium // félix guattari and gilles deleuze, anti-oedipus: capitalism and schizophrenia (1972) // sam shields (@dogffish), "hope, holes in the world & disco elysium"

[txttletale]

all of your posts are usually so good. i show them to my 'progressive'(non-communist) friends pretty often to show them a developed Marxist worldview.

do you have any tips on how to further your development as a Marxist? id love to have the same capacity to analyze like you do

ultimately i can only give three good pieces of advice which is 1. read a lot and 2. do a lot of political activism in 'real life' so that you can understand how what you've read intersects with reality. and 3. when marx said 'ruthless criticism of all that exists' he wasn't kidding. & that isn't criticism as in, like, saying mean things obvsies, but like -- never accept anything because it is 'normal', never accept any transhistorical explanation about abstract factors like 'human nature' or 'the way things are'. investigate the historical and economic roots of everything you come up against. respond to 'common sense' with 'common among whom?' apply real critical consideration to just-so explanations and obvious truths because sometimes (often!) you will discover they are not so obvious.

[safije]

Kurban Tulum (قۇربان تۇلۇم) (1883-1975) an Uyghur peasant who worked as a seasonal labourer for Uyghur landlords. During the land reforms of 1952, Kurban received land and various other properties. He is said to have visited Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang, by riding a donkey, to show his appreciation for the People's Liberation Army.

The government of the People's Republic of China promotes him as a symbol of unity between the Uyghurs and Han Chinese. A song named "Where Are You Going, Uncle Kurban?" (库尔班大叔您去哪儿?) and a film titled Uncle Kurban Visits Beijing (库尔班大叔上北京) were produced in 2002. Monuments of Kurban's handshake with Mao stand in the town centres of Keriya and Hotan (Tuanjie Square).

[iasirene]

Missing Fred Hampton extra 🙏🏼🙏🏼 now that was a man who could truly unite the people

[workersolidarity]

History of The Hungarian People's Republic Part I

After WWI, Fascist Capitalist dictators were installed in Eastern European countries with the support of the Western Powers, including the United States.

In Hungary, as in Germany, Fascist forces mustered up enormous resources to disseminate anti-Communist and anti-Jewish propaganda to lay blame for Hungary's troubles on these populations.

This is just a small part of the incredible detail the Finish Bolshevik goes into while analyzing the history of the Hungarian People's Republic.

There's so much more and if you prefer to read rather than watch videos, here's the like to Part I:

[warrantyissue]

You Need to Read.

When people tell you to read, they aren't being pretentious. We are trying to help you. It wasn't until I started reading actual books that I realized how little you can inform yourself on Wikipedia and YouTube alone.

If you read books about race, you will understand racism better. If you read books about feminism, you will understand feminism better. If you want to deeply understand anything you will want to find a book about it. It will save you time to read books because you will understand faster. It will help you deeply understand issues so as to not be skewed by false analysis.

This does not mean that all books are good. Some are poorly written, some misrepresent evidence. Take time to find a good book from a scholar you respect. If it's an older text, find a podcast or guide breaking it down into easier language. There are thousands of good books out there, find one at your level to engage with. There's so much information that hasn't been made into an infographic.

[naxalite1967]

You have to love how Jews are simultaneously both the lowest form of life and yet also the masterminds who manage to orchestrate and manipulate everything…

But that's like, Fascism 101, "The enemy is at the same time too strong and too weak," it's a cliche at this point.

[ptrcbtmn]

"Capitalism was..."

[troythecatfish]