Re: AUT: strategy/ies

[Montyneill@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 12/29/99 10:03:21 AM Eastern Standard Time,
fabian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

<< I think it is wrong to look at the US in isolation - it just doesn't make
 sense. One question that springs to mind is this: would the English
 bourgeoisie ever have generated sufficient power to overcome the resistance
 to the factory system if they had not accumulated vaste wealth through the
 triangular trade? i.e. could capitalism have developed (then? at all?)
 without racism?
  >>

I do not think capitalism could have succeeded in reaching dominance without
exploitation of Americas and the African slave trade. The point I think about
Bacon's rebellion (even if some legal precedents existed, as you point out)
is that it revealed the necessity to clearly and effectively differentiate,
to create black and white in new ways, in order to maintain the plantocracy
and the slave system, that is, to create racism. In this sense I think that
capitalism required racism to develop. It requires the creation of
antagonisitc relations within the working class to survive, and so fostering
racism is normal for the system. I agree should not look only at US, I was
simply giving examples from the US as I am far less knowledgeable about
development and uses of racism in other nations -- tho certainly aware of its
existence.

Still leaves the questions of why the working class acceded (which is a far
broader question than just acceding to racial differentiation) and more
importantly what can be done? To say <Surely the problem is the failure of
the working class as a whole, rather than as an aggregate of ethnically,
racially or nationally defined segments
to deal with racism that w ehave to deal with.> is true in an abstract way,
but once racism becomes a structural relation within the working class, it
means power relations within the class between sectors along racial lines are
real and important and must be addressed. Black workers may dislike white
workers, but most of the time the whites got more relative power -- so that
is where the major aspect of the problem is and the solution must be.

Monty Neill


     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---