#jakarta method

[enter-the-darkness]

For the record, if you think AAPI folk being upset about appropriation is a fucking PSYOP you are honestly just a fragile little white bitch whose never actually been affected by a US PsyOp and it shows.

Sincerely,

An Indonesian whose Dad Was Chased Out of Indonesia due to American PsyOps

[milfstalin]

By 1965, the PKI had three million party members – adding a million members in the year. It had emerged as a serious political force in Indonesia, despite the anti-communist military’s attempts to squelch its growth. Membership in its mass organizations went up to 18 million. A strange incident – the killing of three generals in Jakarta – set off a massive campaign, helped along by the CIA and Australian intelligence, to excise the communists from Indonesia. Mass murder was the order of the day. The worst killings were in East Java and in Bali. Colonel Sarwo Edhie’s forces, for instance, trained militia squads to kill communists. ‘We gave them two or three days’ training,’ Sarwo Edhie told journalist John Hughes, ‘then sent them out to kill the communists.’ In East Java, one eyewitness recounted, the prisoners were forced to dig a grave, then ‘one by one, they were beaten with bamboo clubs, their throats slit, and they were pushed into the mass grave’. By the end of the massacre, a million Indonesian men and women of the left were sent to these graves. Many millions more were isolated, without work and friends. Aidit was arrested by Colonel Yasir Hadibroto, brought to Boyolali (in Central Java) and executed. He was 42. There was no way for the world communist movement to protect their Indonesian comrades. The USSR’s reaction was tepid. The Chinese called it a ‘heinous and diabolical’ crime. But neither the USSR nor China could do anything. The United Nations stayed silent. The PKI had decided to take a path that was without the guns. Its cadre could not defend themselves. They were not able to fight the military and the anti-communist gangs. It was a bloodbath.

Red Star Over the Third World Vijay Prashad, November 2017

The fourth way that anticommunist extermination programs shaped the world is that they deformed the world socialist movement. Many of the global left-wing groups that did survive the twentieth century decided that they had to employ violence and jealously guard power or face annihilation. When they saw the mass murders taking place in these countries, it changed them. Maybe US citizens weren’t paying close attention to what happened in Guatemala, or Indonesia. But other leftists around the world definitely were watching. When the world’s largest Communist Party without an army or dictatorial control of a country was massacred, one by one, with no consequences for the murderers, many people around the world drew lessons from this, with serious consequences. This was another very difficult question I had to ask my interview subjects, especially the leftists from Southeast Asia and Latin America. When we would get to discussing the old debates between peaceful and armed revolution; between hardline Marxism and democratic socialism, I would ask: “Who was right?” In Guatemala, was it Árbenz or Che who had the right approach? Or in Indonesia, when Mao warned Aidit that the PKI should arm themselves, and they did not? In Chile, was it the young revolutionaries in the MIR who were right in those college debates, or the more disciplined, moderate Chilean Communist Party? Most of the people I spoke with who were politically involved back then believed fervently in a nonviolent approach, in gradual, peaceful, democratic change. They often had no love for the systems set up by people like Mao. But they knew that their side had lost the debate, because so many of their friends were dead. They often admitted, without hesitation or pleasure, that the hardliners had been right. Aidit’s unarmed party didn’t survive. Allende’s democratic socialism was not allowed, regardless of the détente between the Soviets and Washington. Looking at it this way, the major losers of the twentieth century were those who believed too sincerely in the existence a liberal international order, those who trusted too much in democracy, or too much in what the United States said it supported, rather than what it really supported—what the rich countries said, rather than what they did. That group was annihilated.

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade & The Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World Vincent Bevins, 2020

[justthekai]

The books I've read 2024 edition,, total of 18 books, 7,292 pages and 2,003,250 words!!

[kiwikoopa]

I read The Origin of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood because of the BoyBoy Book Club post and it was really good! I highly recommend it! It is a very easy read and I feel like I learned a lot.

[alanshemper]

From The Jakarta Method:

[thoughtportal]

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World is a 2020 political history book by American journalist and author Vincent Bevins. It concerns U.S. government support for and complicity in anti-communist mass killings around the world and their aggregate consequences from the Cold War until the present era. The title is a reference to Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, during which an estimated one million people were killed in an effort to destroy the political left and movements for government reform in the country.

The book goes on to describe subsequent replications of the strategy of mass murder, against government reform and economic reform movements in Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere.[1][2] The killings in Indonesia by the American-backed Indonesian forces were so successful in culling the left and economic reform movements that the term "Jakarta" was later used to refer to the genocidal aspects of similar later plans implemented by other authoritarian capitalist regimes with the assistance of the United States.[3][4]

[thereadingmoon]

naw, not world war z having a palestinian say “all i thought about israelis my entire life was wrong” and the head of CIA say “the two biggest assumptions about the CIA is that we monitor the world for any threat against america and we have the power to do it”

mr brooks, the third world would like to have a fucking word

[wildchives4]

Reading Eileen. So far do like it better than MYoR&R

[aurazoo]

okay time to read and come up with group discussion questions all day

[surpriserose]

I think the phrase "video games dont cause violence" is a lot more specific of an argument than people care to realize because the term obviously isnt about like. Stardew valley and the "wholesome games" explosion. Because those didnt exist at the time the phrase was like. Created. Around shit like doom being blamed for the columbine shooting. The "violence" in video games dont cause violence has a specific image.

And arguing that video games dont cause violence had some use in attacking dominant narratives about columbine and later mass shootings. But it never went far enough because people only cared about video games and making fun of conservatives and not the real issue!!! That those dudes were white supremacist neonazis!!!! That racism is a massive motivator for mass shootings when theyre not caused by misogyny!!!!! That people were yes geniunely shocked and looking for any reasoning but also oh my god people capitalized on that shit and buried the racism unintentionally or otherwise

But it doesnt make sense to be repeating the same talking point when the context is entirely different. Video games are mainstream now your mom is a gamer. No one gives a shit if a kid plays gta. And thats fine! Video games dont cause mass shootings, racism and/or misogyny do. And those real causes matter because no shit the white supremacist american government isnt doing shit about them!!! But video games were a good target to look like they were taking action. But thats not the context video games exist in today. Fuck the united states has is reactionary domestically they dont need to do attack video games for mass shootings!! They can just blame trans people and especially trans women like they want to and fuel even more mass shootings reinforcing oppression and inequality and they dont do shit about them because random white supremacist terror helps a white supremacist country!!!! Dehumanization leads to violence, racism leads to violence and it flourishes under white supremacy!!

Like fuck "Violent video games" won so much so that the american military funds military propaganda like call of duty!!!! Video games never really mattered as soon as they were useful for imperialist military propaganda they were fine just like fucking. Idk trans people in the military. But the issue was never addressed and especially not by the video games dont cause violence guys.

Theres just no reason to use talking points from like 20 years ago. Especially when yeah video games are recognized for what they are. A medium just like movies and books. Which are also used for military propaganda. Like thats why people are asking new questions about how do video games contribute to imperialist violence and racism that fuels violence and not shit from 20 years ago thats from an entirely different conversation.

[justthekai]

finished reading my first book of '24 it was 'The Jakarta method' by Vincent bevins - I really enjoyed reading it, the insights i gained into world and American politics were amazing and I feel that it's such an important history to know and how it shapes our current world. it impacted my thoughts on globalisation/Americanisation and socialism massively and I won't ever have the same western perspective that I was taught. truly a worthwhile read for everyone. -10/10

[xiranjayzhao]

This is why I'm side-eyeing people from the US who are only NOW acting like their world is being shattered lmao the racism and superiority came out real quick

(I am NOT talking about you if you already lost faith in US institutions way before. I was also not asking anyone to leave or do anything impossible. Literally just asked them to look more into the US' imperialist history)

Resources:

- Blowback (podcast, season 1 is about the Iraq War, season 2 is about US aggression against Cuba, season 3 is about the Korean War, season 4 is about Afghanistan, and season 5 is about Cambodia)

- The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins

- The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

- Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky

- Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II by William Blum

[persimmonlions]

In the initial years after World War II, the “Jakarta Axiom” signified a US tolerance for neutral Third World nations — a policy of nonaggression. That changed after a US-backed coup in Indonesia targeted communists, killing anywhere from 500,000 to three million people.

[queercodedangel]

Sourced from "The Jakarta Method" by Vincent Bevins

[txttletale]

i realize that my last post might be a bit overwhelming and doesn't give a starting point, so here's a truncated version of the highlights in a vaguely recommended reading order:

friedrich engels, principles of commmunism

karl marx, wage labour & capital

friedrich engels, socialism: utopian & scientific

rosa luxemburg, reform or revolution?

vincent bevins, the jakarta method

v.i. lenin, the state & revolution

v.i. lenin, what is to be done?

walter rodney, the russian revolution: a view from the third world

michael parenti, blackshirts and reds

v.i lenin, imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism

eduardo galeano, the open veins of latin america

walter rodney, how europe underdeveloped africa

frantz fanon, the wretched of the earth

kwame nkrumah, neocolonialism: the last stage of imperialism

zak cope, the wealth of (some) nations

karl marx, the german ideology

edward herman and noam chomsky, manufacturing consent

elaine scarry, the body in pain

michel foucault, discipline and punish

ed. stuart hall, representation: cultural representations and signifying pratices

christian fuchs, theorizing digital labour