Graphic that accompanied Lee Carter’s article on capitalism in the Native Movement newspaper
by Sister Lee Carter (Cree)
From the Native Movement newsletter (Vancouver, BC, 1970)
Feudalism evolved into colonialism. Colonial expansion did not come about because of the need for markets for surplus production. On the contrary, surplus production came about as a result of colonial expansion. The riches of the colonies were stolen and sold to the landed gentry of Europe. Human slaves came to be considered as a natural resource of the colonies to be sold to the leisure class as commodities.
Colonialism gave rise to the working class. The remnants of feudalism still existed when colonialism began. Raw materials stolen from the colonies were manufactured in the mother country by individual families. At that time there was no sizable working class. As more raw materials were bled from the colonies, more efficient means of manufacturing goods were needed to utilize these raw materials — hence, the invention of machinery, the setting up of factories, and the birth of the working class.
Note: From the onset, colonized people were unnecessary except as slaves. Goods stolen from the colonies were not only manufactured in the mother country, but the finished products were kept in the mother country. Wherever possible the colonialist hired white Europeans rather than colonized people.
Racism was necessary in order to acquire colonies, to rape them of their raw materials, and further, to maintain them. As the working class grew in number it became necessary to bribe them in order to maintain the colonies. Workers provided the state machinery (civil servants, police, army, etc.) to maintain colonies. The trade union movement and the wage struggle was nothing more than workers fighting for a bigger chunk of the wealth stolen from the colonies.
Racism was established as an ideology before Marx’s time. The fact that Marx did not consider the colonial people as the “real revolutionary force”, and the fact that he failed to recognize that the working class was a bribed class, displays apathy. His apathetic attitude toward the colonies displays a certain kind of racism that has allowed for the development of countries that colonize, and the consequent under-development of countries that are colonized.
Marx laid down a working class ideology that is true for all people. Marx said that man’s relationship to the means of production (way of getting the necessities of life) is what determines his thinking. As man becomes more and more alienated from his labour, he becomes more and more revolutionary and he develops a social consciousness. However, he failed to recognize exactly what alienation was. The people of the colonies have, for the past 400 years, been denied the right to produce (the right to work). The denial of the right to produce is total alienation. This is the type of alienation that leads to revolution.
Colonized people the world over are dealing with colonialism. We as Indian people are the last to decolonize. As we begin to liberate ourselves from the colonialist machinery, capitalism will level itself on the heads of the working class. When the colonies have made revolution, the imperialists, no longer being able to exploit the rest of the world, will be in no position to bribe the working class.
The owners of the world will not say to the workers, “Well, you workers, since you have been so good about stealing from the people of the world, we’ll give you a break. We’ll keep on paying you the same wages you’ve always been paid and keep on giving you the same high standard of living you have always been used to.” If the workers believe that, then the workers are fools. When the colonies have freed themselves, then we will see Marx’s truism become a reality. “As the capitalist becomes richer, the worker becomes poorer.” Today, capitalism is just beginning to raise its ugly head in North America.
Just as colonialism could only provide work for a privileged few, technology has made it so that capitalism, the final stage of exploitation, will not be able to provide workers with work.
THE SYSTEM IS DYING. THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD ARE WINNING.
– Sister Lee Carter, Cree
Off the “Left”
An uncredited article from the Native Movement newsletter (Vancouver, BC, 1970)
We understand that the prize of the Canadian “left”, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), paid a visit to the Musqueam Reserve. They were passing out literature and the people of Musqueam told them to leave. Regardless of what our opinions are concerning Mao Tse Tung, whose teachings they purportedly follow, we do not support any white leftist groups invading Native communities. As far as we are concerned they are foreigners when they come into our communities and are not welcome, except by invitation.
White America does not respect the right of our people to pick and choose our friends. This applies especially to the white left who feel that because they, in theory, oppose racism and support Native self-determination, can go tromping over our land, in our houses and in our back yards any time they please. Their tacit agreement with the fact that North America is racist, in no way is an open invitation to our communities.
We fully support the people of Musqueam in cutting their “invasion” off short. If the members of the CPC were serious about the literature they were passing out, they would know better and it would not be necessary for the people of Musqueam to ask them to leave. Mao Tse Tung’s writings teach communists to be humble and modest servants of the people, not arrogant interlopers on foreign soil, who show no respect for the people whatsoever.
Also
Native Alliance for Red Power – Eight Point Program (1969)
Palestinians and Native People are Brothers – Native Study Group (1976)
Land Back: The matrilineal descent of modern Indigenous land reclamation