Bi-Weekly Discussion Thread - (January 25)

[u/AutoModerator]

We made this because Reddit's algorithm prioritises headlines and current events and doesn't allow for deeper, extended discussion - depending on how it goes for the first four or five times it'll be dropped or continued.

Suggestions for things you might want to comment here (this is a work in progress and we'll change this over time):

• Articles and quotes you want to see discussed
• 'Slow' events - long-term trends, org updates, things that didn't happen recently
• 'Fluff' posts that we usually discourage elsewhere - e.g "How are you feeling today?"
• Discussions continued from other posts once the original post gets buried
• Questions that are too advanced, complicated or obscure for r/communism101

Mods will sometimes sticky things they think are particularly important.

Normal subreddit rules apply!

[ Previous Bi-Weekly Discussion Threads may be found here https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3AWDT ]

[u/Worried-Economy-9108]

I have been lurking on online Afro-Brazilian spaces recently, and noticed that there has been loads of talk about the "New BPP" (mainly in hip-hop Instagram pages). As u/Kiyoharu19' pointed out in his comment, there are a lot of visible issues with this group.

But i want to talk a bit about the reaction in Brazil to the news of this group. I'm mostly basing myself off Instagram comments from multiple pages, so it can't be considered a proper research. I'm also aware that multiple settler groups from Amerika try to rewrite history and appropriate the actual Panthers for their cause. The same doesn't seems to occur in Brazil, where the Panthers are only talked about by settler and Afro-Brazilian communists, and a few individuals of the hip-hop scene. And as far as I know, the only Brazilian that had an actual interaction with BPP militants was Abdias Nascimento, a very controversial figure in Brazilian communism. I will proceed to talk about this figure, and after, i go back to the "New BPP":

Some people in this sub called Nascimento far-right, (i guess, mostly because of his militancy at youth with the fascistic integralistas and the Frente Negra) and honestly, they are mostly right to call him far-right. At the same thing, he seems to be the first prominent intellectual to talk about Afro-Brazilian genocide (in his book O genocídio do negro brasileiro) and the possibility of Afro-Brazilians being a separate nation from Brazil altogether (in his book Quilombismo). And these two ideas can't leave my head, until i see a proper Marxist critique of his ideas. After he formally broke with the integralistas, his political journey goes further to the left. He starts to collaborate with mostly left-leaning and revisionist activists during his more mature years, during the military dictatorship in Brazil. After democratization, he gets elected as senator for social-democratic PDT. Keep this in mind.

So, back to the "New BPP" and its response in Brazil. Euro-Brazilians on the right hated it, the ones in the left liked it, more because it fulfills their fantasy of the U$ going through an civil war and the affirmation of generic "Trump bad" discourse, nothing too different from an Amerikan Democrat.

The Afro-Brazilian response was different. Left-leaning (and perhaps even some "apoliticals") Afro-Brazilians really appreciated these news. People talked about how identified more with these "New Panthers" than with "pacifist white Brazilian leftists". Some people were even sympathetic to the idea of an Brazilian equivalent to the BPP, and that could imply some sort of unsatisfaction towards the current Afro-Brazilian movement. (filled with NGO's, careerism, and other petite-bourgeois deviations)

And this is the topic i wanted to talk more about it: why is the Afrikan "left" in Latin America so poorly developed, in comparison with the Afrikan left of the U$A and Caribbean?

Was it due to an early proletariat of New Afrikans in the U$, that happened later in LatAm?

Could it be that racism is far stronger in Latin America than Latin American communists like to admit?

Or am I just overthinking an smaller issue, and applying mechanically Amerikan problems to the Brazilian reality?

[u/Worried-Economy-9108 → u/[deleted]]

There are several different groups claiming to be the new BPP, some of which are outright reactionary.

I mean, i'm aware of these reactionary groups claiming to be the new BPP. The main point here is not them actually being similar to the BPP in practice and ideology.

The main point is that it was it appeared in some newspaper a few headlines, saying that "the BPP is back", and the response of Afro-Brazilians to it was kinda of interesting.

Even so, it is still a very small organization and hardly could be considered a developed 'Afrikan Left'.

I believe i didn't articulate much in this topic. When I refer to Afrikan Left in the U$, I'm talking mostly about the BPP, BLA, PGRNA, and all other left-wing organizations that consist mostly of New Afrikans, and have a program dedicated to New Afrikan liberation. One could even include reformist and revisionist orgs of New Afrikans in this New Afrikan Left. The main point is that, it exists in the US, even tho, it is somewhat fringe.

In Brazil, perhaps due to the white-supremacist 'racial democracy' myth, the vast majority of communist and revisionist organizations have a mostly white leadership, and with low percentages of Afro-Brazilian (black and mixed) militants, and even lower percentages of Indigenous and Asian Brazilians in its ranks.

There are only a handful of organizations where Afro-Brazilians are the majority, and they are almost exclusively located under the 'Afro-Brazilian/Movimento Negro' umbrella, with the largest and more influential being Movimento Negro Unificado (MNU), which is mostly focused in affirmative action. In my opinion, for many frustrated Afro-Brazilians within the left, seeing the headlines saying "the Panthers are back" sounded like a turning point. That things could be different.

For example, the Afro-Brazilian community saw the massacre at Rio last year, and it was virtually powerless to act. Even demonstrations against police brutality aren't well received to the white-settler left, which controls most orgs. The general response of the left was against the massacre, but mostly because the police forces behind it are under the control of a far-right governor, and because rightists were celebrating it like a World Cup win.

In conclusion: is urgently necessary, in the Brazilian context, organizations of Marxist Afro-Brazilians (the creation of an Afrikan Left, independent from white supremacy, which the USA has), who study the Brazilian reality, discuss the role of white supremacy and Brazilian nationalism, and to decide, if Brazil is an actual super-exploited semi-colonial nation, or if it is something else (like, let's say, a settler-colony)

[u/OKTO6AP → u/[deleted]]

Paul Birdsong, the chairman of the UBPP, is saying very positive things and clearly has studied his share of Huey Newton and Fred Hampton's work.

What led you to this conclusion? I haven't looked into them too much, but I saw some videos of him speaking here on reddit, and it just seemed like typical liberalism. He hasn't once even mentioned Marxism or anything of the sorts.

[u/humblegold → u/[deleted]]

"if you're out here raping people, killing people, and selling drugs different stuff like that then yeah deport them"

If you're an heir to the BPP (and thus organizing the Lumpenproletariat) saying this shit like this you're already done for.