"The first thing that was comforting was the politics. It was such a relief. You know, in the States you feel overwhelmed by the negative messages you get & you just feel weird, like you're the only one seeing all this pain & inequality..
[In the U.S.] People are saying, 'Forget about that, just try to get rich, dog eat dog, get your own, buy, spend, consume.' So living here was an affirmation of myself, it was like 'Okay, there are lots of people who get outraged at injustice.'
The African culture I discovered later. At first I was learning the politics, about socialism - what it feels like to live in a country where everything is owned by the people, where health care and medicine are free. Then I started to learn about the Afro-Cuban religions, ...
the Santeria, Palo Monte, the Abakua. I wanted to understand the ceremonies and the philosophy. I really came to grips with how much we - Black people in the U.S. - were robbed of. Whether it's the tambours, the drums, or the dances. Here, they still know rituals preserved from..
slavery times. It was like finding another piece of myself. I had to find an African name. I'm still looking for pieces of that Africa I was torn from. I've found it here in all aspects of the culture..
There is a tendency to reduce the Africanness of Cuba to the Santeria. But it's in the literature, the language, the politics."
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Labor unions in the US were gutted of their radical, anti-capitalist roots and largely eliminated from the private sector during three distinct periods: the first Red Scare (New Deal era), the second Red Scare (Cold War and Mccarthyism), and the early stages of the neoliberal
era under Reagan. This ongoing process led the remaining unions to become highly corporatist/bureaucratic and often fully vested in capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism. In terms of culture, union leadership systematically turned rank-and-files away from the roots of class
struggle and toward a more chauvinist and collaborationist orientation with US capitalists, and things like internationalism and working-class consciousness were completely snuffed out in the process. This is why so many unions and union members in the US fail to see the
This is a very crude diagram, but it is helpful in understanding where we are, especially in regard to how the two ruling parties slide in unison as a response to capitalism's evolution. This is purely from a structural/economic viewpoint (the left being public control of the
means of production and the right being private control of the means of production). With the US being the global epicenter of capitalism/imperialism, there has been no actual ideological left party within the ruling system. And, as capital has become more centralized out of
necessity, both parties have naturally shifted further to the right to facilitate this centralization. The emergence of monopoly/finance capital required the cementing of corporate governance around the 1970s. There is much to expand from this, but we want to highlight
Republicans have spent the past 40 years expanding the Southern Strategy into parts of the Midwest and rural coastline, still relying heavily on racist, bigoted & xenophobic sensationalism to appeal to voters. Unfortunately, this is still a successful strategy in 2024 Amerikkka.
Meanwhile, Democrats have assumed the role of warhawks from the 80s/90s neocons, using everything from outdated cold war propaganda to their own brand of xenophobia to push for more wars. The fact that Obama and Hillary both praised Reagan during their campaigns, and Kamala..
pulled a similar move with John McCain tonight, suggests this is a conscious and strategic move to express loyalty to the military industrial complex. It's no coincidence that Dick Cheney recently endorsed Kamala.
Both parties remain committed to capitalism/imperialism,
Capitalists have their debts and taxes canceled every single day in the US without any consequences due to an elaborate system of debt/tax dodging they created through corporate governance, buying politicians, and lobbying. This has amounted to several trillions of
dollars being forgiven over the past few decades. But it's never exposed by media, never talked about by politicians, and never chastised by the American public because (1) capitalists are united by their material interests, (2) capitalists control all avenues of power and
information, and (3) capitalist culture has become so deeply embedded that it's sacrilege to hold rich people accountable for anything, let alone expect them to pay back their debt. Instead, after having their own debts forgiven time and time again, these same capitalists (and
The Musk-Milei connection is a perfect representation of where capitalism is headed. As rates of profit continue plummeting & the costs of labor/living become increasingly imbalanced, billionaire capitalists will now seek to replace their neoliberal cohorts & models of governance
with fascist-adjacent leaders & states to secure their wealth against the coming mass unrest. The libertarian model is neoliberalism on steroids because it does not attempt to operate under false pretenses of liberal democracy. So, while neoliberalism unleashed capital like never
before, opening the door to full corporate governance (aka structural fascism via finance capital), libertarianism ("anarcho-capitalism") will cement the full transition to overt fascism by arming capitalists with unprecedented weaponry to unload on the working-class masses
Sons and daughters of the privileged class are leading the charge against genocide - a cause that ultimately represents working-class interests. So, in a sense, they are serving as class traitors, whether they consciously understand the class implications or not. This is a GOOD
thing, and we appreciate their moral courage!
Meanwhile, much of the US working class is more concerned about traffic disruptions. This is due to both:
(1) material reality: of which the former are afforded the opportunity to think about the greater interests of humanity and
act on injustices, while those of us in the latter are stuck in a survival grind of neverending work to keep our heads above water.
(2) class consciousness: which has largely been obstructed by ruling-class propaganda, turning many of us within the working class into