My primary political work right now is within unions and a ML party. Both organizations have tremendous organizing hurdles, but something that I've found doing this work is that "class solidarity" isn't something that most working people have. They have it insofar as they understand wage labour as oppressive, but it's so normalized that most workers have never thought of the idea of controlling the economy themselves. I've often wondered at the power of this idea, and have been reading what Marx and other communist thinkers envisioned when they spoke about the revolutionary force of the proletariat. Sometimes I think that this isn't the primary contradiction within settler colonial societies, and maybe pivoting to work on Indigenous sovereignty would be more productive. This Landback manifesto captures something important and maybe this is the roadmap people lost on the left are looking for.
I like the thesis, thanks. I don't think you give enough attention to the massive sabotage that would come from the status quo and the up-hill battle of educating the population toward such radical changes to how we be in the World. There's a lot of momentum in the wrong directions.
Also, IMO, your initial "There are two possible answers ... 'settler solidarity'..." bit is just an excuse to deliver your excellent "land back" message. I don't believe those who have trouble condemning Israel's current assault and historical repression of Palestinians do so because they realize Zionism is a colonial project and we're living in a colonial project, therefore we can't throw rocks from our glass house. I concur w/ Yanis Varoufakis when he says people of European descent feel, but deny, a profound guilt for centuries of actual antisemitism, plus having let the Holocaust happen, and therefore buy into the victimhood narrative put out by Israel.
My primary political work right now is within unions and a ML party. Both organizations have tremendous organizing hurdles, but something that I've found doing this work is that "class solidarity" isn't something that most working people have. They have it insofar as they understand wage labour as oppressive, but it's so normalized that most workers have never thought of the idea of controlling the economy themselves. I've often wondered at the power of this idea, and have been reading what Marx and other communist thinkers envisioned when they spoke about the revolutionary force of the proletariat. Sometimes I think that this isn't the primary contradiction within settler colonial societies, and maybe pivoting to work on Indigenous sovereignty would be more productive. This Landback manifesto captures something important and maybe this is the roadmap people lost on the left are looking for.
I like the thesis, thanks. I don't think you give enough attention to the massive sabotage that would come from the status quo and the up-hill battle of educating the population toward such radical changes to how we be in the World. There's a lot of momentum in the wrong directions.
Also, IMO, your initial "There are two possible answers ... 'settler solidarity'..." bit is just an excuse to deliver your excellent "land back" message. I don't believe those who have trouble condemning Israel's current assault and historical repression of Palestinians do so because they realize Zionism is a colonial project and we're living in a colonial project, therefore we can't throw rocks from our glass house. I concur w/ Yanis Varoufakis when he says people of European descent feel, but deny, a profound guilt for centuries of actual antisemitism, plus having let the Holocaust happen, and therefore buy into the victimhood narrative put out by Israel.
Im in
Where can I sign up?
You didn't mention how the US would react to the Land Back party gaining power -- which could make a great next novel, no?
"There is a strong pro-Israel lobby in Canada that is capable of punishing pro-Israel statement or action, especially by elites."
Needs fixing. Have you any thoughts about cross posting with organizations like Canada Files?