#imperialism

[kamreadsandrecs]

Colonial Civility and Rage on the American Frontier - JSTOR Daily

A 1763 massacre by colonial settlers exposed the irreconcilable contradictions of conquest by people concerned with civility.

[kammartinez]

Building A Better Democracy? - JSTOR Daily

Metaphors of construction have been popular in American history from the start. How come?

[bovidae-s]

As a latinoamerican, I feel it's important to say to people who are working on unlearning the USA propaganda that the government, the military and the police of the United States have always been this brutal, their disregard for human rights and, human lives isn't new at all. The corporate greed that comes from "first world countries" is nothing new; both Canada, the United States and economic powers in Europe (France, UK, Germany) have been exploiting the resources of third world countries for decades if not centuries, both here in America, Asia and Africa. They've always been this violent, the only difference is that now you know the people affected by name and not by race

[standwithdaanes]

The Italian Southern question and Democratic Confederalism

Reader’s submission: A Reflection on the Southern Question and Democratic Confederalism.It is not an exhaustive analysis, but a first step i

The southern question represents the largest single contradiction of the Italian nation-state. The roots of this contradiction lie in the statist practice and mentality, based on centralisation and the cancellation of differences, in the form of the Italian nation state, but also of power structures of Southern Italy. The resolution of the Italian southern question necessitates its own specific political organization: every political solution dictated by the State has revealed itself to be fruitless and counterproductive, seeing as they have all been in substantial disagreement with our peoples’ most intimate aspirations. Even official Italian socialism has revealed itself to be rather corporativist and northern-oriented, aiming at the organisation of factory workers from the north, but being unable to offer an alternative to the capitalist system to Southern Italy, tied to rural life and based on the values of the land. To find a solution to the southern question, it is necessary to understand the history of the South, particularly the history of its communal life, of the self-organisation of society, and to be conscious, at the same time, of the attacks it has endured. [...] In the context of our history, the resolution of the Southern Question is, for me, possible only through the creation of a series of conditions. Firstly, the elimination of the need for our people to migrate – a need that began with the war for Italian unification in 1860 and has never truly ceased. Secondly, the well-being and prosperity of society rather than the growing militarisation of the territories. And finally, full cultural awareness and the ability to live our lives in accordance with the ways and values that unite and distinguish us without being mocked, stigmatised, or repressed by a state authority that has made linguistic repression, the manipulation of our pre-unification history, and the suppression of expressions of popular folklore that are not immediately assimilable or marketable its hallmark. The aim of a political organisation dedicated to resolving the Southern Question must be to put an end to the cultural genocide perpetrated by the Italian state since 1860. In my view, all these conditions can be achieved within a 21st-century socialist framework. The idea of democratic confederalism formulated by Comrade Abdullah Öcalan, who hails from the Middle East and is not Eurocentric, can provide us with the most useful ‘toolkit’ for political action in our South. The South is in some respects a ‘West that is still un-Westernised’, where capitalism and liberalism have been slow to take hold, thereby having less of an impact on the culture of communal unity, community-based and rich in values, which has the strength to oppose the hyper-individualistic way of life proposed by capitalist modernity. Just as elements of an oppressive feudal economy and mentality have survived to this day in Southern Italy, so too do those aspects of tradition that are emancipatory in character and oriented towards freedom. To this day, these emancipatory traditions strongly resist the attacks of capitalism. [...] For those who still advocate failed models of ‘real socialism’, based on statism and bureaucracy, I always have the utmost respect; they are part of our history. However, continuing to persist in these errors does nothing but hand the masses over to reactionary forces and chauvinistic nationalism. Let us begin to rethink our utopia, free from all forms of dogmatism.

[kamreadsandrecs]

Patriotism and Consumerism in the Civil War - JSTOR Daily

For a burgeoning consumer society, store-bought flags and bonnets offered proof that commercialism could go hand in hand with heartfelt emot

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

[iamgalicia]

Every single time the UN gathers to vote on whether the US should lift the embargo on Cuba or not I have to sit there and watch USAmerican representatives and their allies say one of two things:

1- We deserve to starve and die of preventable illnesses because our government is bad, in ways that their own governments are a million times worse

2- There is no embargo to begin with, even though every single measure and sanction taken by the United States, (explicitly to suffocate the Cuban population to cause an uprising and destabilize the country) has been announced proudly and publicly and its international ramifications have millions of witnesses globally

Different reps for the same country will say either or both of these things, though they contradict each other. And every year majority of nations vote in favour of lifting the sanctions but that doesn't matter, the whole thing is symbolic. The UN is a scam and a farce and the US is a genocidal state that goes impune no matter what

Oh btw this is all in our best interest, they just want to free us from our oppressive regime. Don't look into what they're doing to their own people and others, don't worry about that