Exploitation Within The Projects

[The Vegan Marxist]

As someone who came out of the projects - meaning gang violence, race wars, class war, drug dealings, crooked cops (a lot of the time kkk enthusiasts), etc. - the struggle has been a way of life for me. Although I don't condone to gang violence, what many do not realize - due to not experiencing the projects themselves - is that there are certain elements of people, in which represent a gang mentality, but are not against other gangs, but rather are oppositionists to the ghetto-capitalist lifestyle they have to suffer through their entire lives. We realize that it's not a coincidence that gun stores & liquor stores are on the same block. We realize that the crack being brought in isn't merely brought in by simple gang members. We understand the exploitation & understand that, like the militant working class, like the militant peasantry, we represent the same ideals in which puts us in a position of having to be able to be on the same spot as many others against Capitalism.

My question is, does this go against Communist thought or Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thought preferably?

Update: Understand that, those who rob banks, sell drugs, prostitute, rob gas stations, etc. are not the criminals of the ghetto lifestyle, but are rather victims of the ghetto-system that's put us in a position to where we have no other choice but to take whatever action is necessary to survive.

[flobdob]

Not at all. The Panthers worked exactly in communities like yours sounds in the 60s and 70s, and did a badass job with it.

[redwog]

I am not sure what others here are like in this regards, but I don't moralise about crime at all, particularly when the whole system is premised on this logic! I don't think that crime in marginal communities is in need of any moral defense.

I think that orthodox communist thought would place communities as you describe in the category of the lumpen. Essentially although poor and suffering oppression, they are not capable of bringing revolution because of their relationship (or lack thereof) to the means of production. Surplus value is not being extracted from them so they have no material basis upon which to replace capitalism with communism.

I know that this is a simplistic interpretation but I think has been the basis for certain tendencies analysis of the ghetto.

Maoists have tended to a different understanding, and they view lots of "non-working class" sections of society as capable of communist revolution. Typically, this derives from the application of Leninism in a largely agriculture 3rd world context.

For groups like the panthers, Maoism is a particular influence because it helps to rationalise the preceeding ideology of black nationalism with a form of socialism that promotes the "lumpen" as revolutionary agents. (this is also assisted by the support for an NLF victory in Vietnam during the time - coupled with a whole host of Maoist inspired anti-colonial struggles in the third world featuring "coloured" people throwing off the shackles of western imperialism). Now I think Maoism saw the peasantry's transition into the working class was the next step towards communism, based on some developmental and epoch driven approach to understanding Marxism. [Feudalism-Capitalism-Socialism-Communism] This developmental approach was largely lost by the late 60's national liberation movements.

It is between the two points outlined above that I think you will find the major Marxist tendencies falling.

I don't neccessarily agree with either and prefer some of the work done by autonomists that attempts to broaden the notion of the working class to include those engaged in the reproduction of labour-power and the notion of a social factory.

For me the political problem of the ghetto rests in the fact that gangs, and more importantly the highly organised crime apparatus that sits above it, is essentially modeled on the state, in terms of being a concentration of power used as a form of control. This is no coincidence when we witness the historic intertwining of the state (judicial and police systems) and crime. This grips politics in the ghetto and limits progress beyond it. The gangs have a material interest in the maintenance of the system. (I include the cops as a gang in this sense)

There is an absence of revolutionary leadership in the ghetto able to connnect people in an organised fashion. From reverends to nationalist all the way to the panthers and even the crips and bloods during the LA riots, every attempt at revolutionary organising has been devastatingly crushed by the state. This has been achieved through both a decomposition of the black working class by shifting production off-shore or south of the border, or breaking up ghettos, bringing in crack etc; and, a brutal repression of leaders.

In 1992 the Crips and Bloods where able to call a successful truce, which aided their capacity to provide leadership. This truce was not able to be sustained in the face of police provocation in the following months. The issue of the power of gangs and the dealing of drugs has always been a matter of difficulty for revolutionaries in the ghetto. Ranging from puritanical intolerance by the NOI to a more moderated position by the panthers, including accepting that in transition to "socialism" while drug dealing was a reality, members should not participate, come to meeting high, and drugs shouldn't be peddled to children.

Interestingly Tupac (Shakur not Amaru!)takes this further in his thug life code when he points out rules for violent gang engagements to avoid 'collateral damage'.

Why I think that the Crips and Bloods were able to move beyond their material investment in capitalism during the LA riots was because a new possibility was opened up from below by the huge demonstration of social power. (This is also what prompted gangs to join the Panthers I think)

I am sure, like everything there are a whole range of subtleties that may be worth discussing further. This is my interpretation of the politics of the ghetto from what I have read and understood, and could be convinced otherwise, particularly seeing I live on the otherside of the world!

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