How did we get here? Part 1

One of my beliefs about this year is that it might be the year where leftist ideas have a greater penetration of the mainstream than they’ve enjoyed in a decade, if not a lifetime. So, because of things like the primary campaign of Bernie Sanders, Covid, the economic mismanagement of the pandemic, police killings, coups in Latin America, the repercussions of the nationalist movements in the last four years etc, there are a lot more people who are being exposed into leftist thought for the first time. Honestly, even for myself this year has sprung on me the need to do more work to shift the paradigm away from capitalism (which is why this very blog exists). 

 So with that thought in my mind, I had the idea to start an occasional series of posts about the books, ideas, movies, podcasts etc that got me to the headspace that I currently roam around in. I’ve got two recommendations today on the theme of indigenous resistance to capitalism across North America. Don’t get these books from Amazon. Get these books at the library, or borrow them, maybe buy them at a used bookstore, if you’re in San Diego, I recommend Verbatim Books, they have well marked sections on indigenous topics and politics.

First, Dee Brown’s expansive Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a crucial reading for anyone, and I think should be mandated in schools. To understand the crassness and brutality of America’s particularly exportable manner of capitalism, I think it’s critical to understand its first unfolding, the colonization of the land that would become the US. Full disclosure, I’m partly Cherokee, and this book is fucking hard to read, the first time I read it in full, it took me almost a full year, but if you don’t know the history of how 95% of the native population of the Americas was wiped out in the name of colonization and unbridled capitalist expansion, you should read it. 

Secondly, for those who can’t read in Spanish, Our Word is Our Weapon is probably the best translated and English language gathering of the writings of the EZLN movement and particularly, Subcomandante Marcos of that movement. The EZLN is a mostly indigenous movement in southern Mexico, who control part of the state of Chiapas to be run in accordance with socialist, feminist, sustainable and anti-globalization principles. This book outlines their principles, and declaration of breaking away from the Mexican state that doesn’t serve their interests. Personally, my favorite part of this book are the conversations between the narrator and a beetle to outline socialist thought in the style of magical realism. 

If you have books or the like you want us to write about, or have any thoughts on these, go to our contact page, or DM us on instagram, we’d love to keep talking about them.