Re: Re: the mita

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Perelman wrote:
>Let's keep this under control.  Jim gave a very nice description of Marx's
>analysis of the mode of production.  Lou asked him to relate those
>abstract topics to Latin America, which Marx and most of us do not know
>all that well.
>
>Marx was not familiar with the internet either.

Michael, the Internet was an invention of the late 20th century. It had not
been invented when Marx was writing. However, colonial society had existed
for more than 300 years when Marx was writing. He reflected his milieu by
neglecting this social reality. Peter Linebaugh honed in on the problem
with this May Day article:

May 1, 2001 A May Day Meditation

by Peter Linebaugh

Comrades and Friends, May Day Greetings!

Here is 'the day.' The day we long to become a "journee'," those days of
the French Revolution when a throne would topple, the powerful would
tumble, slavery be abolished, or the commons restored.

Meanwhile, we search for a demo for the day, or we gather daffodils and
some "may" for our loved ones and the kitchen table. We greet strangers
with a smile and "Happy May Day!" We think of comrades around the world, in
Africa, India, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico, Hong Kong. With our comrades we
remember recent victories, and we mutter against, and curse our rulers. We
take a few minutes to freshen up our knowledge of what happened there in
Chicago in 1886 and 1887 before striding out into the fight of the day.

So during this moment of studying the day, I'm going to take a text from
Frederick Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, and I'll ask you to
take it down from the top shelf of the spare room where you stuck it when
Reagan came to power, or to go down into the basement and dig it out of a
mildewed carton whence you might have disdainfully put it during the
Clinton years. No where does Engels mention the slave trade. No where does
Engels mention the witch burnings. No where does Engels mention the
genocide of the indigenous peoples. He writes, "A durable reign of the
bourgeoisie has been possible only in countries like America, where
feudalism was unknown, and society at the very beginning started from a
bourgeois basis."

Dearie me. Dear, dear, dear!

He has forgotten everything, it seems. He has swallowed hook, line, and
sinker the whole schemata of: Savagery leads to Barbarism leads to
Feudalism leads to Capitalism which, in turn, with a bit of luck, &c., &c.,
will be transformed, down the line, in the future, when the times are ripe,
&c. &c. into socialism and communism. He has overlooked the struggle of the
Indians, or the indigenous people, of the red, white, and black Indians.
The fact is that commonism preceded capitalism on the north American
continent, not feudalism. The genocide was so complete, the racism so
effective, that there is not even a trace or relic of memory of the prior
societies.

Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/