#we will liberate cuba

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

the mediterranean sea of the future

[hazeltongzhi]

Hi Hazel, I really like your takes and would like to know if you have an opinion on why have many socialist leaders tended to be homophobic? not that capitalists have ever been any better of course, I'm just asking because... I tend to expect better from communism and have often become very disappointed when I read what Castro or Mao for example had to say about gay people. Of course, when this is weaponized by liberals who conveniently forget to mention, say, Reagan's vision of gay men, it's pretty clearly just anti communist propaganda. But I'm still curious what made them specifically think gay men were unfit to be revolutionaries???? what was that all about (I'm working my way through reading communist theory but so far I haven't read any convincing arguments tbh!)

A large part of it is from the superstructure of their time and environment. Doesn't mean they were correct or good when they say or held homophobic/transphobic positions but its the explanation. A tangential but related example is Engels's writing in "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State", which, although contains some very important ideas on how the family unit was invented and supports the capitalist mode of production, has some frankly very racist statements in it. As communists, we have to critically analyze the past; the people, the ideas, and practice to identify and understand theory and practice that is both correct and works and discard that which is incorrect and doesn't work.

Luckily, bigoted beliefs are social conditions that can be unlearned. Indeed, as history marched forward, communists became more radical and accepting of LGBT people and historically, communist countries have been more lenient towards or actively supportive (like the GDR) of LGBT people than their western counterparts especially considering the worldviews at the time. Your very example of Fidel Castro, who lived to the ripe old age of 90 and passed away in 2016, not only renounced his previous positions on LGBT people but actively sought to undo the damage he had done, both apologizing and paying reparations to those harmed by his policies. Cuba today is one of, if not the leading country in LGBT rights in the world next to Vietnam.

[txttletale]

You've helped expose me to a lot of theory that I hadn't read before, and I'm realizing i need to read more theory for real, like. Actually. That being said; The more I start to lean into communist thoughts and not just anti capitalist, I find myself becoming warped and joyless. How does it not take a tole on you? The constant reminder of the endless suffering of the oppressed? How do I enjoy art when I am forced to see all of it as a coerced product, suffering for my entertainment? The constant guilt of life is something I dont think I can stomach at all times. Am i supposed too? (BTW; I mean this more so as an ask of how you do it, not to argue that because suffering is hard to look at we should actually just go back to the status quo and ignore it. I'm just like. Not sure how to deal with it, I guess.)

i don't really feel guilty about anything so i don't know how much i can help. i guess i just think that using communism as like a lense to judge your own individual morality as many people like to do is bound to make you miserable to no real avail. that's not the purpose of communist theory, the point of communist theory is to analyze society and history and guide mass-scale poltical action, not tell you if you're evil for watching the new star wars or whatevsies.

i guess i also personally find that reading socialist history and the more practical, grounded-in-praxis types of theory is liberatory and fills me with optimisim--reading about, e.g., social systems in cuba or people's democracy in the early soviet union is helpful in dispelling the 'oh, everything's going to be horrible forever, socialism is just a utopian pipe dream' insinct that i think liberal hegemony instills in most people, by showing how people took actual sensible pragmatic steps to introduce things like workplace democracy, universal healthcare, women's equality, mass literacy, etc. post-revolution. it helps you understand that communism is not a magic wizard who will come and save us all but yknow something that is doable and achievable by human beings.

[wutheringheightsfilm]

How do we support Cubans and their resistance to western imperialism

I'm so glad you asked anon! A great way to start is to by actually listening to Cubans and their own stories and news. There are some really good organizations and accounts on Instagram (and many of them have their own publications outside of Instagram, so if you don't have the app, you can still follow what's going on)

Here are the ones I recommend:

@ bellyofthebeastcuba < news outlet that focuses on cuba

@ nationalnetworkoncuba < this is a coalition of many different orgs that are actively working to get the US gov to lift the blockade, etc; they post a lot of actionable things you can do to get involved physically, as well as opportunities for stuff like webinars! here is their website.

@ ratbcuba < this is a british org dedicated to solidarity with cuba

@ caribbeansolidaritynetwork < not strictly cuba oriented, but a network committed to the liberation of all of the caribbean! they also have events like study circles (and you can access their readings online if you can't go in person)

@ ghpartners < this is a nonprofit actively working to get donations in order to send medical supplies to cuba, right now they are working on delivering pacemakers to the island! here is their website.

Other than that, I really, really encourage you to start learning as much as you can on Cuban history and the history of their resistance, as well as their history of working alongside other resistance movements. Cuba worked in solidarity with the Black Panthers, with numerous African countries fighting for their own liberation, with Vietnam, and even more. National Network on Cuba has a really good political education page where you can start that includes a book list and articles list, as well as youtube videos of documentaries. This is a Google drive from NNOC that introduces the concept and history of Guantanamo Bay. There's going to be an Afro-Cuban reading list released on the NNOC site soon, so definitely check back for it.

This is a timeline of the Embargo to help you get introduced to that. This is an article about Afro-Cuban resistance fighters during the revolution. This is an article that discusses the atrocities committed by the Batista regime.

Before you read any of Fidel Castro's work (particularly his famous speech, History Will Absolve Me), read this page first on the history of the attack on the Moncada Fort on July 26, 1953, a year after Batista’s US backed coup d’état. It gives the historical context necessary to read Castro's History Will Absolve Me speech.

This is a PDF of some of Che Guevara's speeches in a collection called Che Guevara Talks to Young People. While the Introduction insists this is not "Che Guevara for beginners" I still think it's a good jumping off point. Here is an interview with Assata Shakur talking about her experiences in Cuba.

I hope this list helps, and of course, it's not exhaustive. I just hope I gave a good enough foundation for anyone who wants to start learning!

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 16 July 1947, Black revolutionary Assata Shakur was born in Queens, New York City. After graduating from college she briefly joined the Black Panther Party, followed by the urban guerrilla group the Black Liberation Army which was engaging in armed struggle against the government, robbing banks and killing drug dealers and police officers. In 1973 Shakur was wounded in a shootout with police, arrested and later jailed for the alleged killing of a police officer. She escaped from prison in 1979 with the help of three BLA members and was granted asylum in Cuba, where she lives to this day. US government officials continue to press for her extradition, and early in 2021 the Republican administration labelled Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, citing their harbouring of Shakur. Assata Shakur was also the step-aunt and godmother to murdered hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur. She has long been an advocate of direct action as a tool for social change, arguing: "Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them." We have made available numerous books by other former members of the Panthers and the BLA here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/black-panthers https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=662736802566205&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[damnesdelamer]

Leslie Feinberg

I collected some of the works of one of our greatest comrades and warriors:

Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come

Stone Butch Blues

Transgender Warriors: Making History From Joan Of Arc To Dennis Rodman

Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink Or Blue

Rainbow Solidarity In Defense Of Cuba

Remember, our first duty is to be educated, so arm yourselves with the best information. We have always existed, and we always will. And in each generation, we must remember those who came before us, and become the warriors that ze fought to equip. Stay strong, stay proud, and solidarity forever.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

World War Z is one of my favorite novels, but every time I reread it I am reminded of how painfully American it is. Very "third-way centrist," very "Democratic Liberal during the Bush years," very "I believe in America, we're the best country on Earth, let us show you the light." it is vehemently anticommunist, and plays the "both sides" card by having a character whose family suffered under Pinochet claim that imperialism and white hegemony are ghosts from a bygone era that developing nations need to get over; "far-left is just as bad as far-right, why can't we all just get along?"

A lot of the stories are interesting, and I want to do an in depth analysis of the timeline of the Great Panic someday, but this is a book that suggests Colin Fucking Powell would have been a great bastion of democracy and freedom, so I can't take any of the politics seriously anymore.

Iran becoming a nuclear nation and going to war with Pakistan

A Chinese civil war splits the PLA and dissolves the PRC, but not a single word is spoken about the multiple separatist movements in the United States after they were abandoned by the federal government for YEARS in zombieland (only that they were "given the option to be readmitted peacefully" when the feds came marching back)

Floridians turning Cuba into a "capitalist utopia" and Fidel Castro taking credit for the subsequent Cuban Evolution

Nelson Mandela personally signing off on an Apartheid-era plan to abandon half the country as human bait

The whole situation between Israel and Palestine (that is a can of worms I am neither qualified nor willing to dissect here)

Hollywood military propaganda gives people the will to live

The British royal family "shielding the soul" of the UK under the burden of their godlike mandate?!? (gag me with a fucking spoon...)

This book would be VERY different if it were written today. Published in 2006, it was obsessed with the Cold War but barely glossed over the War on Terror with one reference to "Gulf War 2" (Iraq) and a handful of references to a low-intensity "brushfire war" (Afghanistan) that ended in American victory by 2008, although a Pyrrhic one. I do not remember nor can I even imagine a time when ANYTHING within this book could be considered plausible outside the deepest fears and/or wettest dreams of the most diehard 'Mericans.

The more I get into it, the worst is sounds. I think I like the idea of the book more than the book itself now.

The prologue ends with a hint at an eventual sequel. The narrator says that a lot of people consider it too early to write a history book about a war that only just ended (and in fact is still being fought in some northern countries), and that it will take a few generations for people to fully process what happened. "Perhaps decades from now, someone will take up the task of recording the recollections of the much older, much wiser survivors." That is a book I would like to read; a retelling of WWZ with far less hero worship and characters who don't all sound like a 30-something American SNL writer.

[shipposttt]

Ship of the Day: Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr

Character Names: Charles Xavier x Erik Lehnsherr 

Ship name: Cherik 

Original Content: X-Men (also present in the comics but for the purpose of this post, focused on the movies)

Ship Info:

Before getting too far into it, what you must know is that Cherik is not mainly shipped as a fully happy together ship, these two have gone through a divorce and are only just coming back together after a whole bunch of stuff. Either that or fans are being delusional and  ignoring the canon “Beach Divorce” (will be explained later, don’t worry).

The X-Men franchise is an institution in the comics world, a product of some of the best minds at Marvel in the 60s. Homo Sapien Superior are the next stage of human development, dubbed mutants, these people are born with superhuman powers, from telekinesis to intangibility, super speed to power absorption. Standing as metaphors and representations for oppression, the othering of the non-majority, racism, genocide, government control and the fight for equality, the X-Men have stood the test of time and come out of it as a present-forward moving media.

And at the centre of this media is two figures, Charles Xavier, powerful telepath and creator and head of the X-Men and Erik Lensherr, metallokinetic and leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (if going by comics). Two leaders on what would traditionally be thought of as opposing sides, but in the case of the X-Men sphere, they instead play as two sides of the same coin against the true enemy.

The Government.

(Yeah, the writers weren’t playing about with subtlety, were they?)

(And people complain that modern comics are too liberal. This shit has always been here, complainers have just been blind to it. Somehow. I really don’t know how. It is a very much integral part of understanding the world the X-Men live in.)

Charles and Erik meet when they are both in their 20s, Charles recently graduated from Oxford with his doctorate in Genetics and Erik continuing his path of Nazi hunting while searching for the man that killed his mother when they were taken to Auschwitz when Erik was a child. They meet, stuff happens and almost the entirety of X-Men: First Class is just a getting to know you, whirlwind romance summer with a couple of breaks between the flirting and longing stares to further the plot which includes working with the CIA, building a team and, at the culmination of the film, being at the centre of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ah yes, because we needed more of a reminder that we’re in the mid 60s, it’s not like the USSR being a big deal, or the middle-aged Nazi officers or the young looking Holocaust survivors didn’t do a good job of illustrating this point. 

Thus we reach the height of the movie, the missiles are on their way to Cuba and are currently being held in the air by Erik. Erik views the shooting of these missiles as a betrayal as they have been working with those who just sent the missiles for the duration of the movie and wants retaliation so spins the rockets around and sends them back in the direction of the US and Soviet fleets. Charles is also feeling pretty betrayed but does not believe that the men on the ships should die for it. And in a moment of what is probably one of the stupidest moments of Charles Francis Xavier’s life, he tells a child survivor of the Holocaust that the soldiers who have just fired upon them with the intention to kill them are “simply following orders”.

Yikes, Charles.

They have a grapple across the floor, Erik loses concentration, he wins the fight, regains control of the missiles, continues them on their course for the ships before getting interrupted by one of the X-Men team shooting his metal helmet to break his concentration. He deflects the bullets, cause, ya know, metallokinetic. It just so happens that he deflects one of these bullets into Charles’ back. More specifically his spine. Instantly paralysing him. 

There’s a whole moment of Erik cradling Charles' body and apologising. A bunch of other things happen that ends with Erik leaving Charles on that beach with no way to go home and only a couple allies. 

Thus, the beach divorce. 

It is here that Charles and Erik’s stories can go two ways, because the X-Men movies have fully canon time travel that they used to end the old early 2000’s timeline and restart, allowing them to make more money. In both of these, Erik is arrested for the murder of JFK, in the original timeline he stays there until the mid-2000s and is often visited by Charles. On these visits they play chess and have civil conversations. As elder men, they greatly respect one another and in fact, Erik even comes to Charles’ defence against one of his own brotherhood members when they disparage Charles. Both see that the other is working towards the same goal, they simply have differing opinions on how mutants should get to the equality they are fighting for. Charles believes it can be fostered through education, defanging misinformation and working alongside the human governments. Erik believes that it is too systemic and instead mutants must take their place in the world and not fear or be afraid of humans. By the end of their timeline, they are back to being by each other's sides, any differences are put to the side due to the nature of their existence dwindling. Instead they work together and stay by each other, giving each other comfort in the others continued existence. 

In the alternate timeline, Erik is broken out of prison in the mid 70s by the combined effort of a time travelling Wolverine, Charles, Charles and Erik’s past teammate and Charles’ caretaker Hank and a very young Quicksilver, who is not yet aware that Erik is his father. Though to be fair, no one on that mission knows that. In these films, Erik attempts to build a life, getting a quickly fridge-ed wife and daughter and goes on to build the mutant nation safe haven island Genosha. Charles goes on to found his school for mutants, as he did in the original timeline. This timeline ends with Erik and Charles meeting at a cafe in Paris (romantic, huh) and sitting down to play some chess (yes, chess is almost definitely a flirting metaphor, the amount they do it).  

Type of ship: Queer Read

Despite the fact that all 4 actors who have portrayed Erik and Charles in these movies have shipped them, at the end of the day there was never an intentional move done by any of the creatives to intentionally mislead fans to the idea that a romantic relationship may develop between the two. 

Both characters have had female partners throughout the duration of the movies and yet, neither of them last. Erik’s wife dies simply to further the plot within 10 minutes of introducing her on screen and Charles has a kind of girlfriend who he ends up wiping the memory of and leaving alone. By the end of the timeline, they don’t have any partners and are instead with each other. 

Erik and Charles are so compelling as characters, both separately and in combination and one of the reasons for that is how they act as foils for one another. Differing values, same mission, the utmost respect for each other. They are lovers ripped from each other by tragedy, both in terms of the divorce and in terms of being on opposite sides. But they are not just on opposite sides, instead they lead them and that is one of the most tragic parts of their existence. They love each other, but not more than the fight they lead, the ideas they believe. 

At the end, in 1983, when they both finish their missions, passing them on to the next generation, they come together in the romance capital of the world and play chess together. They come back together after so long apart and simply begin to exist in each other's presence in a way they haven’t done since the 60s.

Admin🦉

[cayomuchacha]

sadly it seems a vocal plurality of americans will simply always prioritize their material security over the lives of others.

you know, until harris actually makes concrete acceptable progressions wrt Palestine, until that happens KAMALA HARRIS CAN CHOKE, because, well ONE SHOULDN’T THINK that a military expansionist apartheid regime and genocidal rogue state such as israel deserves ANY right to “self defense” in a clear obfuscation of israel’s violative, menacing, authoritarian, expansionist and so clearly the antithesis of a self defensive position in the region.

I really, really don’t think any well meaning Democrat should so calmly accept such unacceptably condoning rhetoric of a pariah state committing genocide. We must demand from and hold accountable our leaders to the ideals from which we draw our collective power as a democracy.

:3 no respect for treaties with genocidal states! in breaking decency and humanity they thereby break the treaties! Which necessarily invoke propriety and good faith relations. please dont act like you liberals actually believe in treaty law now when you keep so quiet over broken treaties with Cuba, Hawai`i, Native Sovereign Nations, and beyond.

fuck you uncaring americans who only wish to elect a democrat so you can tune out from political engagement. many of us aren’t granted that luxury

[roga-el-rojo]

Assata: An Autobiograhy - Assata Shakur

Hello friends!

I’m incredibly excited for this week’s recommendation as we start Black August, a month dedicated to highlighting the history of revolutionary Black political prisoners and their comrades in and outside the US. I’ll be highlighting a crucial radical Black woman’s experience today: “Assata: An Autobiography” by Assata Olugbala Shakur.

While Assata needs no introduction, here’s a quick biography before delving into the text. Assata Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron on July 16, 1947, is a New Afrikan revolutionary and former member of the Black Liberation Army and Black Panther Party. She grew up between New York and North Carolina, experiencing the worst of Jim Crow, and was radicalized by the Vietnam War in college. After joining the BLA for a while, she was present in a shootout on a New Jersey Turnpike that left a state trooper dead in 1973. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, but she escaped in 1979 and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum and lives in to this day.

There are too many aspects of Assata's storied history to highlight here, all of which deserve serious reflection. I'll start by noting her incredible bravery and fortitude throughout her harrowing encounters with white supremacy, patriarchal violence, and settler capitalism in and out of prison. As her name shows, she is one who thankfully struggles for the people.

Her position as a socialist revolutionary is important to highlight. She was a part of a militant black freedom struggle rooted in communist thought which sought to upend global imperialism and colonialism to free all peoples, especially black women as some of the most exploited Third World Women (seeing New Afrika as a colony). She also criticized white chauvinist elements of the Left which sadly still exist.

I also want to mention her solidarity with Lolita Lebrón, an incredibly important Puerto Rican nationalist, in prison when no one else would. She knew that decolonization for Puerto Rico was a part of a global struggle for liberation.

I highly recommend everyone read this book to gain first-hand insight into a Black revolutionary's struggle for freedom!

[determinate-negation]

What is the difference between a Marxist leninist

Communist and a socialist

Do you have some beginner books on this. Or articles, their shortcomings, pros and cons, reasons for development.

One thing I do hear often is that "there's no good example of a communist/socialist nation" and they don't understand the economy. And I'd like to learn for myself.

answering this late so i hope you see it

socialism is the stage of society and form of economic relations that is necessary to create communism, weve never had communism before, but there have been a lot of successful although also flawed efforts at building socialism and creating the basis for a socialist society that we should study and learn from. im very much against this idea that 'theres no good examples of socialist countries.' while there are few if any examples of societies with an entirely socialist economy and social relations free from capital, these countries, and socialist revolutions and movements in general, have achieved great things and will continue to develop.

theres not really a difference between communist and socialist, except that a lot of times people who only call themselves socialists and never communists are actually just liberals who want healthcare. but any communist would likely describe themselves as a socialist too.

marxism-leninism is specifically the ideology that became historically significant in the soviet union following lenins death, and was the official ideology of the soviet union, as well as some other socialist movements and countries. its been very influential on socialist movements and revolutions of the 20th century, although was largely adapted to different contexts like in cuba and vietnam. cuba especially in more recent years has reorganized a lot of their political model and their constitution. (also a lot of changes in vietnam and iits relation to capitalist markets i just dont know much about their government today) there are a lot of marxist leninist parties to this day, although no really relevant ones in the united states. i personally dont feel that its a type of political organization and ideology that is the most useful in the contemporary united states, i think people here should probably look more towards maoism and adapt it to the current context

im not really sure of any book that explains exactly these things as ideologies, but i recommend reading history of these socialist movements to see the concrete context these ideologies come from. i cant rn but ill look for some books or smth to recommend to add to this post

[letters-to-rosie]

okay,,,,, hypothetically,,,,,, if one wanted to get into black power lit where would recommend they start 👀

the way I screamed lmao

first off, I wanna give a disclaimer: I am not the most well-read person in the world on Black Power. I read this sort of stuff as a hobby, and it's not the subject of my own academic work, even though I do write about race a LOT. I just like Black Power lol.

with that said, let's go through some hits!

Huey P. Newton

Newton, along with Bobby Seale, was co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. he was murdered in 1989 and has a bit of a contentious legacy. however, while I recognize that many of Newton's personal issues got in the way of him being the most effective leader he could be, that shouldn't stop us from reading him! we never require perfection of, say, Lenin to consider him important, lol

Newton's Revolutionary Suicide is a powerful but very difficult book. I actually have yet to finish it because of the way he describes his time in solitary confinement. the conditions are literally sickening. but I want to get back to it someday. I also know there's a relatively recent reader on him that might be helpful, but I have yet to find a pdf copy of it :(

Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael

now for one of Newton's archnemeses! lol. Ture was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which hosted other famous figures such as John Lewis. he worked closely with MLK during the Civil Rights movement and was on the ground in many very difficult struggles. he would later become affiliated with the Black Panthers while Newton was in jail, and one of his most famous speeches is from the Free Huey movement. but they wound up not liking each other, mostly because Ture was firmer about not allying with other progressive movements. this caused tension with other Panthers such as Newton and Fred Hampton, who felt like allying themselves with international and local organizations was important, even if those orgs included non-black people. Ture eventually fled the US and lived most of the rest of his life in Guinea. I have a copy of a book of his speeches in the collection and highly recommend it. even when I disagree with Ture, I find him so engaging. he always makes me think. AND! if you're up for it, I'd recommend checking out some of his speeches. he was a very compelling speaker, and a bunch of his talks are uploaded on the youtube channel AfroMarxist

Angela Davis

Davis is perhaps one of the most recognizable names out of the Black Power era, probably because she's still alive, lol. Davis grew up in Alabama, and her church was famously bombed by white supremacists in 1963, killing 4 young girls. Davis would become famous a decade later when she represented herself at trial when accused of having weapons others used to kill cops. her imprisonment sparked an international movement. later on, she'd go on to become a professor, and she's still active as a public intellectual today. of her work, I've read part of Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, but I also have Women, Race, and Class and Are Prisons Obsolete? for your perusal! Davis is a leading figure in prison abolition thought, which is very very cool

Assata Shakur

Assata Shakur is known for many things, including: being the first woman on the FBI's most wanted list; being Tupac's godmother; and, most famously, being put in prison after a string of crimes she maybe did but maybe not, being freed by comrades, fleeing to Cuba, and hanging out there until the present (Newton also fled to Cuba at one point; that was a time). her autobiography is really great, though she doesn't tell you how she got out of prison. the writing is really engaging, and I think she does a great job of showing just how fucked up the surveillance of these groups was. she left the Panthers to join the Black Liberation Army, which was a very loose collective of smaller groups, but I'll let her tell the story lol

George Jackson

Jackson is the author of my current read, Blood in My Eye. he was also a member of the Panthers (there's a theme here), but he started his own group, the Black Guerilla Family, while in prison. one of the members ironically killed Newton! what a story lol. but Jackson spent the last years of his life in prison. he maintained a very militant outlook with clear principles. I really like the way he writes and his analysis, even though I'm slowly working my way through the book. he also has a famous collection of letters, Soledad Brother, which I hope to get into someday

Frantz Fanon

Fanon isn't part of the Black Power movement proper, but his writing is so influential to it it doesn't make much sense not to mention him. his main two works are Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth (which is in the collection). Fanon was from Martinique, moved to France, and eventually became part of the Algerian anti-colonial struggle against France. he died in his 30s!!! (Jackson died at 29, and Newton in his 40s; there's a theme here). but anyway, Fanon's brief life has powerful resonances to this day. in Wretched of the Earth he uses his background as a psychiatrist to give a really interesting analysis of the effects of violence on the colonized. Paulo Freire's famous Pedagogy of the Oppressed was actually written in response. and so were a lot of other things lol

Audre Lorde

Lorde was a big figure in the Black Arts Movement, which is associated with Black Power. her writing, along with Davis's, brings much-needed feminist (and queer! both are lesbians) analysis to the table. I've included two of her books, a poetry collection, and a collection of essays and speeches. I loveeeeeee Audre Lorde, and I highly recommend her work

Amiri Baraka

Baraka was the person who coined the term "Black Arts Movement." he wrote on a number of black art forms, but I have only so far engaged with his poetry. I have a collection here I haven't finished (full transparency, haven't finished the Lorde collection either; I kinda like to just go in there and grab a poem or two from time to time) called Transbluency. I would say that compared to Lorde, Baraka's poetry shows signs of its age more. it can get slightly toxic lol. but I find a lot of that resonates with me in it, and Baraka was so prolific that you can see how he shifts over time. someday I will find a digital copy of Un Poco Low Coup, I swear!

also gotta read Elaine Brown, Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton, but I have yet to. hopefully I have plenty of time to!

um okay this is a lot of reading!!! good luck!!! lemme know if you have questions!!

click here for pdf copies of most of the mentioned books!

[allthecanadianpolitics]

[...] The infamous bow-tied right-wing pundit raised eyebrows during Fox Nation's "Tucker Carlson Today" on Thursday, openly calling for a U.S. military invasion to overthrow Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, an administration Carlson accuses of being "authoritarian." [...]

Carlson tells his guest that he is "completely in favour of a Bay of Pigs operation to liberate that country," referencing a failed 1961 U.S.-backed invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro by Cuban exiles.

"Why should we stand back and let our biggest trading partner, the country with which we share the longest border — and actually, I should just say, I love Canada, I've always loved Canada, it's a great country for its natural beauty — why should we let it become Cuba? Why don't we liberate it."

Wait, what the f***? I know I shouldn't be surprised by something Tucker Carlson says at this point, but still, WTF.

Well Tucker Carson wants to invade Canada to rescue us from Trudeau (no thanks), remember this...his followers believe everything he says and they have elected people just like them. [...]

War Plan Red was devised in the event of war with the British Empire, and the long-declassified plans offer a remarkably detailed breakdown of how an invasion of the Great White North may have played out.

The war would have kicked off with a joint strike by the U.S. army and naval forces on Halifax, cutting off Canada from the naval power of the British Empire.

Canadian power plants, specifically the infrastructure at Niagara Falls, would have been the next target, crippling the most populous area of the country and paving the way for an all-out invasion by ground forces on three fronts, capturing Montreal and Quebec City, railheads in Winnipeg, and nickel mines in Ontario. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

[catgirlforeskin]

"How will things work under anarchy?" mfs when they are asked about how will things work under DOTP

Joke about forcing everyone to work

"Same as under capitalism, but now the rulers don't actually own property and therefore will not be interested in abusing power"

Some other options?

Yeah I think the whole “oh yeah, we’ll what about x under your system” whiteboard bad faith gotcha routine that usually comes from liberals but sometimes various left-wing groups going “pfft, your system doesn’t have real solutions like mine does” back and forth is generally silly and counterproductive.

But my beef is about class and “ends justify the means” arguments. Because the general framework of “we empower the working class and suppress the capitalist class until we’ve done away with class altogether” doesn’t really work when you create a new class of state functionaries who fill in for the capitalists of old.

Either it’s Engels style “but we NEED factory managers at the end of the day” or “we’re going to have a ruling class temporarily and then it’ll wither once we’re ready for communism” and one I just fundamentally disagree with and the other doesn’t take into account the class contradictions it creates.

I do think it’s reasonable to have times where you go “okay we need to have austerity or switch to war production or whatever bad thing to get through an ongoing siege or crisis” but that should always be a decision made democratically and not by a distinct class, because then you hit the inevitable position of “well we need to indefinitely extend the emergency powers I’ve been granted because there’s always an emergency.” Among marxist states we can look to Cuba as a good example of the former, and the Soviet Union of the latter, which liberalized itself to death.

I think generally in our current historical moment I’ll support just about any power in dethroning American capitalist imperial hegemony and think it’d be unambiguously better for China to hold that position (Xi pls come build me high speed rail I will personally pilot the Chengdu J-20 air superiority fighter jets to ensure your victory) but I also think we can aim higher, and really, as climate cataclysm worsens in the coming years we’re going to need to

[poisonousquinzel]

As we've entered into the 2024 election year, I Beg you all that feel disappointment and rage at the disgraceful excuses for politicians we have in the US rn to look into the campaign of the two women shown in this video.

Claudia de la Cruz and Karina Garcia are running for President and VP in 2024. Here's their campaign video, as I can only include 1 vid per post. And here is their website.

I implore everyone who has the ability to vote in the November US election to read up on them.

Claudia De la Cruz (Presidential Candidate) is a mother, popular educator, community organizer and theologian. Being at the nexus of many different projects, organizations and social movements, Claudia connects different groups of people to link and merge struggles together in the overarching fight for justice. Born in the South Bronx to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic, she was nourished by the Black and Caribbean working class communities of the Bronx and Washington Heights in the 1980s and 90s. At an early age, she was already questioning the conditions of poverty, violence, and oppression in her neighborhood, and what she saw and experienced served as her first entry point to understanding working class consciousness. When she was 13, Claudia began her political organizing work at her home church—Iglesia Episcopal Santa Maria (later the Iglesia San Romero de Las Américas–UCC), grounding her work on principles of liberation theology. She actively participated in campaigns to free political prisoners; to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques, Puerto Rico; to end the U.S. blockade against Cuba; for the freedom of Palestine; against police terror—to name a few. In high school, she became a peer educator, conducting workshops on reproductive health and safe sex at community hubs and progressive churches, particularly for youth in the Bronx. It was through this work and her experiences as a working class Black Caribbean young woman that she understood there was only one solution to our collective problems: to fight for a better future, a socialist future

-

Karina Garcia (VP Candidate) is a Chicana organizer and popular educator who has been fighting for a better world since she was 17 years old as a high school student in California. From El Barrio in New York City to the border areas of Texas, she has helped lead campaigns against landlord abuses, wage theft, and police brutality, as well as fights for reproductive justice, immigrants rights and student financial aid reform. She is a founder of the Justice Center en El Barrio in New York City and is a member of the Central Committee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Karina’s father migrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was just 16 years old, and the will of working-class immigrants like him to survive and thrive inspired her to take on life with determination. This served her well when Karina received a full scholarship to study at Columbia University. She moved across the country by herself, knowing that she had to seize upon every opportunity to give back—a single year of tuition was the equivalent of her family's entire household income. As soon as she arrived, she joined every conceivable progressive organization on campus. She led struggles to expand financial aid for low-income students, for immigrant and worker rights, and to speak out against the Iraq war. In 2006, her activism received national attention when she led a campaign to confront and shut down the anti-immigrant fascist militia, the Minuteman Project. When Karina took a semester off to do a speaking tour in California, she met with high school and college students to keep building the movement for immigrant rights. That same year, she joined the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Graduating with a degree in Economics, Karina went on to become a New York City high school math teacher. After school, she advised a student group that protested against budget cuts, the Iraq war, police brutality and anti-immigrant laws. In 2012, she moved into a national organizing position for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice where she worked for nearly a decade training immigrant women and working-class Latina activists in New York, Texas, Virginia and Florida.

[Taken from the About The Candidates section on their website.]

Understand that despite the mainstream medias desperate attempts to make us believe that our choices are really just Biden and Trump that that is not true.

We have other options.

We have better options.

[ghelgheli]

Stuff I Read In April 2024

bold indicates favourites

Books

Transgender Marxism, ed. Jules Joanne Gleeson & Elle O'Rourke

The Monster Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson

Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin

Neocolonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism, Kwame Nkrumah

Decolonizing Trans/Gender, b. binaohan

Yuri/GL

Even the Introverted Gals Wanna Get Out There! / Inkya Gal demo Ikigariatai!, Kashiwagi Tsukiko

Hello, Melancholic!, Oosawa Yayoi

My Girlfriend's Not Here Today, Iwami Kiyoko

Yamada and Kase-san, Takashima Hiromi

Chocolate and Kase-san, Takashima Hiromi

Kase-san Series, Takashima Hiromi

Love My Life, Yamaji Ebine

My Cute Little Kitten, Morinaga Milk

Short Fiction

The Monkey's Finger, Isaac Asimov

Everest, Isaac Asimov

The Pause, Isaac Asimov

And Come From Miles Around, Connie Willis

Oh Fanged Night!, Hijab Imtiaz Ali [link]

Palestine

Are we indeed all Palestinians?, Mohammed El-Kurd [link]

Point. Click. Occupy. Sophia Goodfriend [link]

‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza, Yuval Abraham [link]

"Man-made hell on Earth", Jeremy Scahill & Yasser Khan [link]

A Mirror of Our Immediate Future, Erica Jung & Calvin Wu [link]

Queer &c.

Is “Gender Ideology” Western Colonialism? ,Jenny Evang [link]

Why are AMAB trans people denied the closet?, Julia Serano [link]

Beyond the Coloniality of Gender: María Lugones, Sylvia Wynter, Decolonial Feminism, and Trans and Intersex Liberation, Alex Adamson [link]

The Problem of Recognition in Transitional States, or Sympathy for the Monster, Nia Frome [link]

Against the Couple Form, Clémence X. Clementine [link] [and coda]

The Abuser's Guide to Transmisogyny, Wyatt Fractal Starlight [link]

The Logic of Gender, Endnotes [link] [and interview]

Rethinking Homonationalism, Jasbir K. Puar [link]

The Child, Jules Gill-Peterson [link]

Maternal (In)coherence: When Feminism Meets Fascism, Joy James [link]

Other

The Campus Does Not Exist, Samuel P. Caitlin [link]

What is an Author?, Michel Foucault [link]

Cuba Libre (1960), Amiri Baraka [link]

From the Nakba to Nasser, The Dig w/ Abdel Razzaq Takriti [link]

A 1962 Defense of the Berlin Wall [link]

The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud, Steven Gonzalez Monserrate [link]