Decolonizing Decolonialism

I recently attended a seminar focusing on the decolonizing movements and thoughts of Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire and something that was addressed that I thought was very crucial was, how do we deconstruct and create a movement dedicated to decolonization without becoming the new colonizer?

The speaker brought up examples of People's Republic of China and Cuba where after successfully ousting colonialists from their respective nations, they proceeded with decolonization, in the case of People's Republic of China, with the Cultural Revolution and thus the subsequent and methodical destruction of all things Confucian and in the case of Cuba, the persecution and targetting of Christianity. We also see this in Việt Nam, where after the revolution, Catholics came under heavy fire from the new government for being ardent pro-colonialists during the war. All these events were described as having 'decolonization' intentions, but reality, resulted in material, reactionary suppression of populations.

Decolonization efforts, as Fanon argued, should center around both self-determinism and the creation of a new society. Are we really creating a new society by reverting back to oppressive techniques shown to us and ingrained in us by our colonial masters?

The revolt against colonialism should really strive to have a critical analysis of systemic oppression, namely a system that prevents self-determinism. In the context of culture, I feel that decolonization movements should strive to ask, what is culture? What is the goal of decolonization? Is it to handcuff ourselves to the past?

I think it is important to note that culture is dynamic, not static. Though it is extremely important to preserve culture and self, especially in the context of Western imperialism and colonization (remembering that colonization is the very real extermination and smothering of 'deviant' people by a dominant, white male supremacist capitalist western society), it is important to realize that we must be open to change and not be stuck on being static. For example, while it is important to realize the narrative between Confucianism and colonial Christianity, which sought to 'civilize' savages, often through force and brutality, and the importance of understanding Confucianism and how it plays into the social structures of a lot of East Asian 'cultures' it does no one any good to stay stuck on Confucianism, which is heavily invested in patriarchy.

The important thing about decolonization is to allow people to make their own decisions within their own contexts. This requires that people be treated as human beings with respect and dignity. As with other aspects of the struggle, decolonization is an issue of human rights, not civil or otherwise - decolonization will never fit into a piece of legislation.

Decolonization is and must be radical and requires a comprehensive, radical revolution that continues even after the colonizer is overthrown. As Frantz Fanon theorized, decolonization is a long term project, not a coup.

On The Ineffectual Nature of Rioting

"...colonialism is not a machine capable of thinking, a body endowed with reason. It is a naked violence and only gives in when confronted with greater violence."

"The colonized man liberates himself in and through violence. This praxis enlightens the militant because it shows him the means and the end."

- Frantz Fanon

Fanon argued that violence allowed for true liberation because the colonized, through means of violent resistance, can achieve both the removal of the colonizer and the liberation of the colonized subject. He goes on to argue that the process of decolonization is "the immobility to which the colonized subject is condemned can be challenged only if he decides to put an end to the history of colonization and the history of despoliation in order to bring to life the history of the nation, the history of decolonization." Ultimately, Fanon simply puts that decolonization is the constructive process of a new human being.

In regards to rioting

No doubt, rioting can be an inspiring spectacle, sparking the imagination of the people to what destruction of the current system can look like:
We must understand, however, that rioting can only take resistance so far. The large question that Fanon poses is this, "But how do we get from the atmosphere of violence to setting violence in motion?"

In rioting we see a sort of hibernation therapy - actions that put pressure on the power system and allow the oppressed to let off steam but quickly dissipates and is easily co-opted and pacified by the system. It is no surprise to see countless riots happening all across the globe and yet not one government is overthrown and no real concessions are made - in fact, the G8 and the G20 still met and operated - business as usual. Even the inspiring Greek Anarchist riots last December yielded no fruitful results. What ends up happening at riots is that hundreds of people are arrested and countless others are brutalized by the State -so essentially, instead of the collapse of a system, we see the expansion of the prison industrial complex and an almost unrelenting method of organized violence against the people, by the State.

In rioting, there is no real goal in mind and riots are often reactionary and destructive at best. We must remember that true liberation also involves construction - most importantly, construction of a new human being. This is key. Powerful movements such as the Black Panther Party, did not strictly involve resistance, but also implemented constructive aspects. The Black Panther Party ran extensive Serve The People Programs which ranged from free breakfast programs, free medical clinics, to political education as well as true Black history classes. In fact, armed resistance against police occupation of their communities, while a crucial aspect of the Party, was only a small aspect of the operation of the Party in relation to all the other activities they carried out. Same with the Viet Cong movement.

What differentiates a movement aimed at decolonization and liberation as opposed to a colonizing movement is that decolonizing movements aim to also construct a new human being and to replace the colonizing force - not simply repeat and continue colonizing tendencies of blind brutality and oppression. Therefore, if we want to see a movement aimed truly at the liberation of humanity from the oppression of humans by other humans, we must see a movement that has the means to actually liberate itself (through violence and forceful resistance) while at the same time, through liberation, see the construction of a new era of human beings.

The shortcomings of liberation movements, such as the Viet Cong movement or the Bolshevik movement, was that there was a failure to implement the construction of the new human being. What we see in history is that these 'socialist experiments' failed because there was never a true material implementation of the construction of a new human, rather, it fell short to nothing more than cheap political rhetoric, therefore, we see these otherwise inspiring experiments repeating the same colonizing practices they were originally fighting against.

We must remember that colonization involves the construction of the colonized subject by the colonizer and therefore, to completely decolonize, we must undo our construction in light of colonization and replace it with our own liberated constructed human being.

So in conclusion, rioting is more detrimental than positive to any movement. Rioting subjects otherwise useful comrades to being jailed, or killed by the hands of the bloodthirsty pigs without true cause. What is needed is organized resistance so that when we fall to the hands of the pigs, we do so while in the process of constructing a movement and ultimately, our own liberation at any costs.