Imperialism is not a side-gig, not an over-reach committed by greedy individuals, it is a structural feature of the capitalist world economy.
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Beginning in the late 16th century, the regions of what today we call the global South were forcibly integrated into the Europe-centered capitalist world economy as providers of cheapened labour, resources and goods.
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This was an extraordinarily violent process, involving colonization, dispossession, mass enslavement, and genocide.
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How could anyone possibly justify these horrors? Race. Discourses of white supremacy and racial hierarchy were fabricated by the European ruling classes to dehumanize the majority world, hiving them off from the realm of rights, ...
aug 26, 2025, 8:14 pm • 35 7 • view
to provide the ideological scaffolding necessary to justify apocalyptic levels of exploitation and bloodshed in the periphery.
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And of course these very same discourses were deployed within the core itself, to justify paying lower wages to racialised people, and to deny them equal access to resources.
aug 26, 2025, 8:14 pm • 26 4 • view
They used racial ideology to construct a global division of labour, a massively inequitable global division of wages, and a global hierarchy of rights. Racial ideology was promoted so aggressively that it developed its own momentum of hatred and violence.
aug 26, 2025, 8:14 pm • 27 5 • view
Racism, like imperialism itself, is not a side-show to capitalism but a structurally necessary feature of it. It is not a standalone problem that can be addressed with a few liberal reforms here and there. It has always been central to capitalism and it remains that way today.
aug 26, 2025, 8:14 pm • 47 12 • view
Overcoming capitalism - in other words, transitioning to a democratic socialist economy - is ultimately necessary to end structural racism and imperialist violence.
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The struggle against racism must be anti-capitalist, and the struggle against capitalism must be anti-racist.
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These arguments have been established by a long tradition of scholarship -- WEB du Bois, CLR James, Cedric Robinson, Angela Davis, Walter Rodney, Claudia Jones, Utsa Patnaik, Ali Kadri, Immanuel Wallerstein, Samir Amin and more -- and they remain as relevant today as ever.
aug 26, 2025, 8:14 pm • 63 12 • view
Struggle against racism is inherently anti-capitalist but you can struggle against capitalism without opposing racism
aug 26, 2025, 10:41 pm • 0 0 • view
aug 26, 2025, 9:15 pm • 0 0 • view
Study 20th century history and come back with a better suggestion.
aug 26, 2025, 8:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Citocracy. You cant knock it if we have never tried it. bsky.app/profile/robi...
aug 26, 2025, 9:16 pm • 0 0 • view
Racism is the foundation of this country💔, from its inception.💔🤬💔
aug 31, 2025, 3:24 pm • 0 0 • view
Wow, great thread Jason, thanks for sharing! I’d be interested to know your recommended reading on this subject.
aug 26, 2025, 8:31 pm • 0 0 • view
You can start by listening to Jason on this episode of EQUALS on how colonialism never ended: www.equals.ink/p/billionair...
aug 28, 2025, 9:24 am • 2 0 • view
His 'Less is More' book is pretty good.
aug 28, 2025, 9:37 am • 1 0 • view
It’s at the top of my book shopping list 😁
aug 28, 2025, 11:43 am • 1 0 • view