I was recently in a conversation with a self-described MagaCommunist who held the position that the primary contradiction in the USA was that the financial owning class owned all of the means of production and that the contradictions of settler colonialism were secondary and could only be resolved through a workers’ state.

I realized that I hold the position that settler colonialism is the primary contradiction in the USA, but I also found that I struggled to articulate it effectively. I’m looking for your own thoughts or writings that I can study to learn more on this topic.

  • deathtoreddit@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    1 month ago

    If you ask me, just like how a capitalist class is most effective in politics in the shell of a liberal “democratic republic” I think pure bourgeois origin capitalism, less, if not mostly lacking from feudalism remnants, is most effective in settler-colonialism

    • freagle@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
      5·
      1 month ago

      I’m struggling to understand your thought.

      a capitalist class is most effective in politics in the shell of a liberal “democratic republic”

      Got it.

      pure bourgeois origin capitalism, less, if not mostly lacking from feudalism remnants, is most effective in settler-colonialism

      I can’t figure out how to parse this. Can you rephrase it?

      • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
        4·
        1 month ago

        I think it’s a reference to the history of the US. It did not properly go through feudalism. There was a period of primitive accumulation (genocide, slavery), followed by a brief revolutionary civil war. Kind of feudal, I suppose. But it was kind of capitalist from the beginning. At least in terms of forming the US state(s) and in terms of capitalism emerging at about the same time as the Europeans landing on Turtle Island. There wasn’t ever really a European US without capitalism.

        The US bourgeoisie, e.g. didn’t have to fight it’s own feudal relations as they weren’t well established. Possibly because there was too much land to keep feudal working class labour on the land and working to a corvee system. In France, if the peasant hated the landlord, tough; the next bit of land also has a lord. In the US, the farmer just went further west and did a bit of their own settlor colonialism.

        • freagle@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
          3·
          1 month ago

          This does make sense as a thought. But I am not sure how it helps me understand that settler colonialism is the primary contradiction in the USA.

        • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          2·
          1 month ago

          settler-colonialism abroad is the logical solution to socialism indoor, genocide the indigenous population of X land in order to settle it with the increasingly uncontrollable proletariat of their country, this way you reduce the local unrest and create a strong ally elsewhere. american settlers were english proletariat looking to get their part of the cake.