after reading an article about DeVos’ Dept. of Educ hinting at rolling back the gainful-employment rule & how it would be more costly to tax payers i thought about something. its interesting how few folks have noticed that the de-regulation of things lend themselves to privatization which ultimately funds itself by siphoning public money (tax dollars) as well as through wage theft. i say this to say, we are where we are because ways were made. actions were taken.
the state mediates the relations between the market & the commons (the populace, the people). the capitalist market lobbies to influence/sway state mediation (policies, procedures) of market & social interactions. [these are stated as interactions & do not imply that other variables cannot impact it or imply solely one direction interactions]
expanding markets in an age of late finance capital means EXPANDING privatization which means OPENING what before was a public resource to the free market (the state will open up the negotiation of the cost of the resource & whether or not its willing to provide it to you aka they went to the store with YOUR money & bought their favorite snacks & then had the nerve to come back to YOUR house & eat it in front of you like its OKAY).
all while they refuse to provide resources to the public that is overworked & underpaid (wage exploitation) in service of the capitalist economy EVEN though, its your tax dollars they bought bombs, guns (for the police, military, etc.), bullets, nice white suburban schools, golf club memberships, & lifelong salaries. their riches are produced through a collective, dynamic, & illusive subjugation.
pay close attention to the meanings of the political actions being taken:
– economic deregulation
– increased policing + imperialist intervention
– further public infrastructure + social services de-funded (which also can open a market expansion opportunity via private market intervention – that the state can be as flexible & lax as the market needs it to be)
its easy to spend time discussing how 45 rose to power as if 44 other men did not come before him & pave the way. he has not only played on the fears of white settlers, but he has also played on the very fears of marginalized people just without the elegance of Black cool that his predecessor possesses. agent orange has the grace of a bull in a china shop but his political actions do have consequences & outcomes that we can see down the line & work to prevent instead of panicking. after 8 years of being drunk off of the smooth jazz Negro imperialism, the station has been changed to rhythm-less curdling screams. its overwhelming, its distracting, its forceful. social denial is ultimately social control & there are many styles of denial.
there is also a lesson here as many people discuss the parallels between 44 and 45, its that we have failed to learn the lesson that NOBODY should have the right to deny the self-determination of others. its not that these things shouldn’t just happen to oppressed people, they shouldn’t have to happen to anybody. we shouldn’t build procedures & protocols around behavior driven by the principles of private property (which are CENTRAL to make the control of the means of production as well as settler colonialism) and profit.
“We are not going to eliminate imperialism by shouting insults at it.” – Amilcar Cabral
shouting insults at agent orange & making him into a monster and the ‘opposite’ of Obama is a course of action that is not politically or socially effective for the common interests of collective freedom. it doesn’t change the fact that every horrible thing he is is also a quality of everyday Americans because its what hegemony fuels profit. our problems require a grander imagination and a willingness to step beyond the conventional thinking of reform as simply an end. as Kwame Nkrumah notes in Consciencism, reform is but a means (tool, mode, way) of self-preservation. it doesn’t have to be this way. that means we have to change how we do things, which means also changing how we approach things. we have to look at what tools we have at our disposal & re-assess what effective political, economic, & social actions the conditions and striving for collective freedom demands of us. that requires changes in language, thought, & practice which ultimately changes relationships between people as well as people, institutions, & resources. we gotta start somewhere. start simple and small, we know worlds have been made and transformed through meals and storytelling. after all, what we seek is to change the principles upon which the rules about acceptable behavior are established. we are seeking to change the everyday, we must plan for and toward self-determination on the scale of what you can be found doing on a regular Tuesday for the people and against empire & tyranny. how will your actions combat colonial modes of thoughts and practice on a regular Thursday evening? in the everyday is where me MAKE time to MAKE a way. the way has to be MADE and calls for us to do the work of planning to show up for one another & figuring out how to make that probable & not just possible. and increasing the likelihood of something requires planned coordination, effective execution, it means showing up. but we cannot effectively do any of that if we don’t have an accurate and useful understanding of the conditions as well as the tools at hand. it also requires creativity & imagination. imagination is a way of looking closely & seeing paths. what pathways lead to needs being met? how do we need to treat one another in order for us to get there?
“…the word “lie” has a meaning by opposition to the truth established by men themselves, but Mankind can not fool itself completely since it is precisely Mankind which creates the criteria of true & false.” – Simone de Beauvoir in The Ethics of Ambiguity
another way is possible but it is made probable only when we recognize individually & collectively its is WE who create the criteria of true & false. so if colonialism can be made then so can its abolition. beyond the de-mobilizing limitations of conventional modes of thought are communal possibilities and ways that can be found at a local barbershop, in a local library, at somebody’s kitchen table, on somebody’s stoop, & where ever else we put in the effort to make that possible. if there is a need in your community then find a way to meet it & its more effective if you coordinate with others (organize), so get together (mobilize), share ideas, plan, & then execute. after execution reflect on what can be done better & what community members are concerned about adjust ideas & application towards effective political action.
“Let us form groups of two or five hundred & let each group deal with a colonist.” – Frantz Omar Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth
& also let us form groups of two or five hundred & let each group meet a need. BOTH are needed. BOTH ultimately mean the same thing: organize (take coordinated collective planned action) against colonialism.
FURTHER READING
The Combahee River Collective Statement
“Woke” Ain’t Enough: Towards Collective Consciousness Building by Candace Y. Simpson
what is critical thinking:
• https://twitter.com/Hood_Biologist/status/872471074683863044
thought exercises on connecting thought to effective political action:
• https://twitter.com/Hood_Biologist/status/872792961846845440
• https://twitter.com/Hood_Biologist/status/872801476833419267
Decolonize ALL The Things 