Not to make light of her situation but in regards to things like hunger strikes or non-resistance, I often think of the Kwame Ture quote, “In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.” Replace US with any western entity
It’s not naive, it’s a personality trait. All the great anti-colonial leaders had it, from Castro to Mandela. That’s why so many of them were political prisoners.
The more persecuted they are, the more convinced they are of their righteousness and their own ideology. If you’re not willing to go to the end of your own conviction, then you will sell out eventually. That’s where most of us mortals are at. These people are built different.
Its not in line with dialectical materialism to turn revolutionaries into “great men” who are simply “built different”. Its a form of self-defeat actually.
Also yes persecution creates a counter-hegemony culture in general.
The point isnt to move the conscience of the machine, it is to move the people who embody the parts of the machine, to change the machine. That includes regular people who sympathize but haven’t been moved to action. If there are 1000 people who were politically inactive, that are moved to start organizing, participating and resisting, and it influences orders more on their development, then it matters.
Being imprisoned changes the meaning of nonviolence. Being imprisoned in GB further changes the way that individuals can engage in decolonizing struggles in Palestine. Idk what violent action you expect prisoners to take that will be more effective than this. Hunger strikes are terrifying to power.
Prison hunger strike has garnered international attention. Greta just got arrested for supporting them which made the news internationally. The message that they would be rather suffer and die than live in a world this ontologically evil is pretty fucking powerful. Courage and conviction are contagious.
The US is evil, but it is made up of people, and if people can change then the US can change. Its a tall order but new people are activating all the time. The people who were new back in 2020 are our leaders now, the people who are joining the struggle today will be the leaders of tomorrow. Even if defensive decolonizing struggle is necessary, there is no real basis for it, and no tangible path to victory. The basis is people. Urging action that has no real basis, or categorically defining social relations (such as the USA,) is idealist.
Not to make light of her situation but in regards to things like hunger strikes or non-resistance, I often think of the Kwame Ture quote, “In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.” Replace US with any western entity
A lot of activists and leftists have their heart in the right place but are a little naive about the forces they’re dealing with.
It’s not naive, it’s a personality trait. All the great anti-colonial leaders had it, from Castro to Mandela. That’s why so many of them were political prisoners.
The more persecuted they are, the more convinced they are of their righteousness and their own ideology. If you’re not willing to go to the end of your own conviction, then you will sell out eventually. That’s where most of us mortals are at. These people are built different.
Its not in line with dialectical materialism to turn revolutionaries into “great men” who are simply “built different”. Its a form of self-defeat actually.
Also yes persecution creates a counter-hegemony culture in general.
It is dialectical to observe that repression creates resistance, though.
They’re not great men that are built different, they are products of their historical material conditions.
A great amount of blood must be shed to rid the west of our deep moral rot
The point isnt to move the conscience of the machine, it is to move the people who embody the parts of the machine, to change the machine. That includes regular people who sympathize but haven’t been moved to action. If there are 1000 people who were politically inactive, that are moved to start organizing, participating and resisting, and it influences orders more on their development, then it matters.
Being imprisoned changes the meaning of nonviolence. Being imprisoned in GB further changes the way that individuals can engage in decolonizing struggles in Palestine. Idk what violent action you expect prisoners to take that will be more effective than this. Hunger strikes are terrifying to power.
Prison hunger strike has garnered international attention. Greta just got arrested for supporting them which made the news internationally. The message that they would be rather suffer and die than live in a world this ontologically evil is pretty fucking powerful. Courage and conviction are contagious.
The US is evil, but it is made up of people, and if people can change then the US can change. Its a tall order but new people are activating all the time. The people who were new back in 2020 are our leaders now, the people who are joining the struggle today will be the leaders of tomorrow. Even if defensive decolonizing struggle is necessary, there is no real basis for it, and no tangible path to victory. The basis is people. Urging action that has no real basis, or categorically defining social relations (such as the USA,) is idealist.
The people who have the power to change the problem are not necessarily the targets of a given action.
What can men do against such reckless hate?