wrong mega, sorry
it is pretty remarkable that every single left-wing action of the last two centuries comes mere days before the liberals were absolutely, definitely, 100% about to hold the opposing authority accountable and deliver consequences of some kind, but we just keep ruining it
All in all, by the time the US could even build industrial capacity from scratch and get the work force trained up, years have passed and a conflict is already over (because no one seems to be suggesting that this capacity be built in advance of a conflict. Whenever I read about replacing used missiles and the like, it's always about how many years it will take given current capacity instead of looking to expand production capacity).
and then the end of the conflict means less demand for those weapons, which will mean that capitalists will be unwilling to create factories in the first place as it's less profitable than, like, cryptofarms or whatever the fuck
you basically need to have guaranteed forever wars or your average bourgeois motherfucker will punch numbers into his calculator and see the small/zero/negative profit over the next 1-5 years and not do anything. And it's hard to have guaranteed forever wars when facing capable opponents which can keep up with your weapon usage.
The reason why states during WW1 and WW2 changed to government-controlled industry wasn't because it sounded like a bit of a laugh; it's because market-controlled industry was tried and tested and it turns out that it fucking sucks at delivering weapons and ammunition and even basic necessities like food during major conflicts. All the theories of "well, ya see, if there's a ton of demand for weapons then logically the supply will increase..." turned out to not actually be the case in reality, as mind-boggling as that might sound to the best and brightest on r/neoliberal and wherever else those turgid little parasites congregate
It's not so much about "omg, it's becoming increasingly obvious to the world that the ICC and UN etc are just imperialist Western institutions! now the world can Hold Them Accountable and have a Public Debate about their roles!" as much as it is another straw on the camel's increasingly aching back. You're correct that delegitimization without on-the-ground action against imperialism is an incredibly slow way to change things, but when combined, and when further events occur which put additional pressure on the system which then causes further events to occur and so on, things can snowball quickly.
Like, if you told somebody in 2007 or whatever that the Donbass, a region most people probably haven't heard of in eastern Ukraine, a country most Westerners could not have placed on a map, would be the nexus of the dismantling of American Empire and the European economy due to a (relative to the world population) tiny group of separatists, then nobody would have believed you. Small things can have massive impacts later on, and it's only when looking retroactively can you be like "Oh, it was OBVIOUS that this event would go on and have this massive effect!" I'm sure there's tons of people who have talked about how great historical events had origins in little things which grew because of momentum (e.g. Ukrainian nationalism/Naziism in the troubles of a post-Soviet Ukraine), or a lack of institutional strength to prevent them from escalating (e.g. NATO's post-Cold War weakness), or because the right people were there at the right time (e.g. Putin being in power rather than some total Western comprador).
I'm personally trying to approach ongoing events through that lens, of "how would a historian looking back on these times interpret events and how things progressed," and in that model, abstract things like an institution gradually decaying tend to be real catalysts of change years down the line once people realize that the institution has indeed lost its power. Obviously I generally fail because I don't have a phone line directly to Sinwar when he creates his plans to upend the whole Middle East on one October night/morning, but I think it's still a worthwhile exercise.
kind of a win-win situation.
- The ICC tries to do something about Israel and it works; Netanyahu faces consequences for the first time in his pathetic shitty life (will literally never happen)
- The ICC tries to do something about Israel and it doesn't work because the US sanctions it; another Western institution further delegitimized
- The ICC does nothing; status quo in place, nothing gets better or worse
It was pretty nice of my Chinese handlers to grant me citizenship of China, Russia, Iran, the DPRK, Venezuela, Cuba, and anywhere else I post in support of
Yeah, I mentioned Discourse on Colonialism in the COTW comment and how it predates Foucault. Sucks because the NATOpedia article (and thus how most people will know about it) is called "Foucault's boomerang", with the alternate name being the "imperial boomerang". I'll rename the megathread and put in a little thing about it in the preamble.
These books focus on labour and other left-wing movements:
spoiler
- History of the Labour Movement in the United States by Philip S. Foner (1955).
- Strike! by Jeremy Brecher (1972).
- Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression by Robin D. G. Kelley (1990).
- Black Liberation/Red Scare by Gerald Horne (1994).
- The Suppression of Dissent: How the State and Mass Media Squelch USAmerican Social Movements by Jules Boykoff (2006).
- Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: The Rise of Community Organizing in America by Amy Sonnie and James Tracy (2011).
- Heavy Radicals - The FBI's Secret War on America's Maoists by Aaron J. Leonard (2015).
- Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism by L. A. Kauffman (2017).
- The Folk Singers and the Bureau: The FBI, the Folk Artists and the Suppression of the Communist Party by Aaron J. Leonard (2020).
- The St. Louis Commune of 1877: Communism in the Heartland by Mark Kruger (2021).
- A People's Green New Deal by Max Ajl (2021).
This is our (very long!) reading list on the United States:
These books are general histories of the US which do not fit neatly into any of the below sections.
spoiler
- A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn (1980).
- Two Faces of American Freedom by Aziz Rana (2010).
- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg (2016).
- How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr (2019).
These books focus on the military, state oppression, and surveillance:
spoiler
- Policing A Class Society: The Experience Of American Cities, 1865-1915 by Sidney L. Harring (1983).
- The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States by Ward Churchill (1990).
- Cages of Steel: The Politics of Imprisonment in the United States by Ward Churchill and J. J. Vanderwall (1992).
- Land of Idols: Political Mythology in America by MIchael Parenti (1994).
- Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis by Christian Parenti (1999).
- Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century by Stan Goff (2004).
- Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America by Kristian Williams (2004).
- The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail by Jason de Leon (2015).
- Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet by Yasha Levine (2018).
- Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen Belew (2018).
- End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin (2019).
- Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture by Oswaldo Zavala (2022).
- Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcolm Harris (2023).
- Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century by Benjamin Fong (2023).
These books focus on the environment:
spoiler
- The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan (2017).
These books focus on the 18th century:
spoiler
- An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles Beard (1913).
- American Road to Capitalism, The: Studies in Class-Structure, Economic Development and Political Conflict, 1620 - 1877 by Charles Post (2011).
- The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America by Gerald Horne (2014).
These books focus on the 19th century:
spoiler
- Slavery and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Old South by James Oakes (1990).
- A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom by David Williams (2006).
- Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of America by Richard White (2011).
- The American West and the Nazi East: A Comparative and Interpretive Perspective by Carroll Kakel (2011).
- Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law by James Whitman (2017).
- They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie Jones-Rogers (2019).
These books focus on the 20th century:
spoiler
- The Movement Toward a New America: The Beginnings of a Long Revolution by Mitchell Goodman (1970).
- The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR by Jules Archer (1973).
- The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations by Christopher Lasch (1979).
- Lyndon Larouche and the New American Fascism by Dennis King (1989).
- Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology by Howard Zinn (1990).
- Twice the Work of Free Labor: The Political Economy of Convict Labor in the New South by Alex Lichtenstein (1995).
- Keeping Up with the Dow Joneses: Stocks, Jails, Welfare by Vijay Prashad (2003).
- Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America by Russ Baker (2008).
- The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War by Stephen Kinzer (2013).
These books focus on the 21st century:
spoiler
- Hinterland: Americas New Landscape of Class and Conflict by Phil A. Neel (2018).
These books focus on black history and politics:
spoiler
-
Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement by Jim Vanderwall and Ward Churchill (1988).
-
Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays (2021).
-
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (1845).
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Black Reconstruction in America: 1860-1880 by W. E. B. Du Bois (1935).
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Negroes with Guns by Robert F. Williams (1962).
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Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (1965).
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Black Power: the Politics of Liberation in America by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton (1967).
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Blood In My Eye by George Jackson (1972).
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Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution by Dan Georgakas (1975).
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Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist by Harry Haywood (1978).
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Assata: An Autobiography (1987).
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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (2010).
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This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles Cobb Jr (2014).
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Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi (2016).
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White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson (2016).
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The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran (2017).
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An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created by Santi Elijah Holley (2023).
-
Collected Works of the Black Liberation Army: Volume 1 (2023).
These books focus on the Black Panthers:
spoiler
- The Black Panthers Speak by Philip S. Foner (1970).
- Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton (1973).
- War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America by Huey P. Newton (1982).
- The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders: U.S. Intelligence's Murderous Targeting of Tupac, MLK, Malcolm, Panthers, Hendrix, Marley, Rappers and Linked Ethnic Leftists by John L. Potash (2008).
- Liberated Territory: Untold Local Perspectives on the Black Panther Party by Yohuru Williams and Jama Lazerow (2008).
- To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton by Toni Morrison (2009).
- Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom (2012)
These books focus on indigenous history and politics:
spoiler
- Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria Jr. (1969).
- The Trail of Broken Treaties by Hank Adams (1972). A position paper during the 1972 march on Washington DC.
- Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence by Vine Deloria Jr. (1974).
- Blood of the Land: The Government and Corporate War Against the American Indian Movement by Rex Weyler (1982).
- The Shawnee Prophet by R. David Edmunds (1983).
- Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus the United States : 1775 to the Present by Edward Lazarus (1991).
- Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men by Leonard Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes (1995).
- Ghost Dancing the Law: The Wounded Knee Trials by John William Sayer (1997).
- Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches by Mark Diedrich (1998).
- We Were Not The Savages: A Mikmaq Perspective on the Collision Between European and Native American Civilizations by Daniel N. Paul (2000).
- Voices of Wounded Knee by William S. E. Coleman (2001).
- Uneven Ground: American Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law by David E. Wilkins and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (2001).
- The Indian Reorganization Act: Congresses and Bills by Vine Deloria (2002).
- Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement by Dennis Banks (2004).
- Remember This!: Dakota Decolonization and the Eli Taylor Narratives by Waziyatawin Angela Wilson (2005).
- Wasase: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom by Taiaiake Alfred (2005).
- Like a Loaded Weapon: The Rehnquist Court, Indian Rights, and the Legal History of Racism in America by Robert A. Williams (2005).
- This Stretch of the River by the Oak Lake Writers Society (2006).
- Framing Red Power: The American Indian Movement, the Trail of Broken Treaties, and the Politics of Media by Jason A. Heppler (2009).
- An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dubar-Ortiz (2014).
- Alien Capital: Asian Racialization and the Logic of Settler Colonial Capitalism by Iyko Day (2016).
- The Thunder Before the Storm: The Autobiography of Clyde Bellecourt (2016).
- The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndez (2016).
- As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (2017).
- Kayanerenkó:wa: The Great Law of Peace by Kayanesenh Paul Williams (2018).
- Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance by Nick Estes (2019).
- Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, The Indian America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer (2019).
- “Help Indians Help Themselves”: The Later Writings of Gertrude Simmons-Bonnin by P. Jane Hafen (2020).
- Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth by The Red Nation (2021).
- Red Nation Rising: From Border Town Violence to Native Liberation by Nick Estes, Melanie Yazzie, Jennifer Nez Denetdale, and David Correia (2021).
- We Are the Land: A History of Native California by Damon B. Akins and William J. Bauer Jr. (2021).
- It's All about the Land: Collected Talks and Interviews on Indigenous Resurgence by Taiaiake Alfred (2023).
The Country of the Week is the United States!
Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to America.
If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:
questions
- What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
- What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
- Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
- Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
- What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
- Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
- How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
- Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What's the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
- If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?
For people who want some books that deal with the concept Foucault's Boomerang, one of the OG texts is Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire, written in 1950, obviously written before it became associated with Foucault. For a deeper dive on the relationship between Nazi Germany and America, here's a few books:
- Conjuring Hitler: How Britain and America Made the Third Reich by Guido Giacomo Preparata (2005).
- The American West and the Nazi East: A Comparative and Interpretive Perspective by Carroll Kakel (2011).
- The Holocaust as Colonial Genocide: Hitler's 'Indian Wars' in the 'Wild East' by Carroll Kakel (2013).
- Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law by James Whitman (2017).
For those who want more information on Israel's role in global surveillance, here's a few books:
- Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory, and Power by Elia Zureik, David Lyon, and Yasmeen Abu-Laban (2010).
- Security Theology, Surveillance, and the Politics of Fear by Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (2015).
- War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification by Jeff Halper (2015).
Look, if you follow all the procedures, dot your i's and cross your t's, then a genocide or two is pretty much fine. But could you imagine the horror of a genocide by somebody like Orange Man, who wouldn't even sign the paperwork?