Roundup #6

The impasse of transformational action in the U.S. is today evidenced in the tragicomic spectacle of a “resistance” beholden to the Wall Street donors of a brutally pro-war electoral machine. This week’s Roundup points to the fact that this impasse must be understood as a consequence of the effective neutralization of the most critical elements of U.S. society–those traditionally found within the Black radical community. In addition, these readings open the discussion regarding the timeliness of an “Inter/communalist” politics in the era of the long-term (if not definitive) decomposition of capitalist society. Although varied in its iterations, broadly speaking this politics de-centers the State (and its representational arenas) and instead places emphasis upon on the ground (or territorial) interventions that can create a web of counter-institutional life and material resources necessary for the production and sustenance of a collective subject that in its very practices in the here and now determines its own fate and slowly breaks free from the abstract and impersonal mechanisms of capitalist control. This in turn once again opens the discussion of a future beyond capitalism and a politics beyond the question of the (lesser-evil) administration over its contemporary collapse. Despite the fact that such a perspective remains rather marginal to the political imaginary of today’s U.S. left, this week’s readings, audio and video serve as evidence that this “Inter/communalist” position not only has strong precedent within U.S. society (particularly within Black radical formations), but also that similar visions from Kurdistan to Mexico are at the heart of a rather different “resistance” than the one on offer by MSDNC or FauxNews. — The Workshop for Intercommunal Study

Eric Draitser: A Crisis In Black Politics? A Conversation With Pascal Robert

“Eric Draitser sits down with political commentator Pascal Robert to discuss what he describes as the crisis of Black politics in America. Eric and Pascal examine the legacy of Obama on Black politics, and how that legacy negatively impacts Black America in the Age of Trump. This and so much more in this in depth conversation.”

Huey Newton: Speech at Boston College

“So, what has actually happened, is that the non‐state has already been accomplished, but it is reactionary… We think that it is very important to know that as things are in the world today socialism in the United States will never exist. Why? It will not exist because it cannot exist. It cannot at this time exist anyplace in the world. Socialism would require a socialist state, and if a state does not exist how could socialism exist?”

Murray Bookchin: The Communalist Project

“Having brought history to a point where nearly everything is possible, at least of a material nature—and having left behind a past that was permeated ideologically by mystical and religious elements produced by the human imagination—we are faced with a new challenge, one that has never before confronted humanity. We must consciously create our own world, not according to demonic fantasies, mindless customs, and destructive prejudices, but according to the canons of reason, reflection, and discourse that uniquely belong to our own species.”

Video sobre la propuesta del Congreso Nacional Indígena

“La propuesta no es ir a votar por una candidata…la propuesta es, no es a las elecciones, no es ir a votar a una urna…la propuesta es que les tiremos la fiesta y que ocupemos ese lugar y que aprovechemos ese lugar para denunciar todo lo que esta pasando, que ocupemos ese lugar que esta vetado para nosotros para decir la verdad…Pero no es solamente denunciar, es una oportunidad para llegar a todos esos lugares que no hemos podido llegar…y organizarnos…ese es el objetivo de esto, la meta de esto que cada uno desde su lugar…se organice. “