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Nigeria and mass murder? by Alan Spector 04 February 2002 02:02 UTC |
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Marxists and others who are critical of capitalism are often faced with
mainstream social scientists who like to separate out "political" oppression
from "economic" oppression. That allows them to politically attack governments
with whom they disagree if their political forms do not follow the forms
approved by capitalist "democracies", while at the same time, dismissing those
victims of capitalist oppression if those victims are not actually killed by
bullets. It's an argument we face again and again. Just the other night, I
saw a bit of a "debate" between Christopher Hitchens of The Nation magazine and
the editor of The New Republic, where it was said that history has shown
that the socialist experiments utterly failed to economically improve the lives
of the people. Well, one can certainly criticize many aspects of the USSR and
China from 1917 until the present, but the economic improvement in the lives of
people, especially up to about 1965 or so, was very profound, especially
taking into account the unbelievable losses both countries took
during World War II. But it is as if the killings of 500-1000 associated
with Tienamein Square in 1989 somehow is more important that the great increase
in life expectancy in China, as compared to allegedly "democratic" India, where
250 million people are living with incomes of less than 400 dollars per
year.
My point: A thousand people died horrible deaths in
Nigeria this week. Some burned to death, some trampled, some drowned.
Many, many children. Why? Because of capitalism. Because a military munitions
dump is placed in an area where many people live and work. Because nobody can
protest against those sorts of things. Because those sorts of things are
"acceptable" to the Nigerian government and its sponsors, including the U.S.
government, which has become friendlier since the more outrageous, corrupt
gangsters in Nigeria faded into the background. But those thousand were killed
by capitalism just as surely as those three thousand in NYC were killed by
terrorism on September 11, 2001..
It is racism, the racism of "benign neglect" that is what underlies
the silence on this issue. Sure, some people are bothered by it. Maybe some will
mention it in their classes. But it is exactly thse kinds of incidents that cry
out for explanation, for us to discuss with students, friends, and neighbors. It
is easy to express outrage at the bombings in New York. It is more important to
discuss the less obvious--that is our responsibility, to expose the connections
that reflect the underlying processes, and to discuss the racism that underlies
the comparative silence to the deaths of these thousand black Africans, compared
to the outrage over the deaths of three thousand on September 11. Of course it
was important to discuss September 11 in all its implications. But what is the
overall context of imperialism, racism, capitalism? How do we weigh the massive
oppression that people, especially in parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America
(and increasingly, Eastern Europe) experience everyday?
As we discussed in one of my classes, in order to change the world it is
important to first determine why "good people" believe erroneous things, or
weigh things inaccurately, or de-emphasize certain crimes. But in order to
determine why "good people" believe erroneous things, it is especially important
for us to look inside ourselves and try to understand why we believe erroneous
things, or weigh things inaccurately, or de-emphasize certain crimes.
Alan Spector
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