WHAT IS DECOLONIAL COMMUNISM?

Decolonial Communism is Decolonial theory through a communist lens.

Decolonial communism builds upon the works and critiques of not only european Marxists but Decolonial thinkers and struggles from across the Global South and european Colonies. Through this analysis, Decolonial Communism recognises that colonisation is the primary contradiction preceding capitalism in colonial nations.

Decolonial Communism takes the position that in the same way a capitalist can't address the contradictions of capitalism, a settler can't address the contradictions of settler-colonialism. It instead seeks an Indigenous vanguard to restore Indigenous ownership models over land and Indigenous models of social systems and relationships.

Euro-centric communist thought primarily analyses the relationships the broader working class has to capital, the means of production, and primary resources like land and minerals. Decolonial Communism goes even further than just a class analysis by analysing intersectional angles of oppression and exploitation, the relationships between settlers and Indigenous people, the relationships that Indigenous People/settler have with occupied lands, and how these relationships have been and continue to be impacted by colonisation.

Decolonial Communism seeks to directly address the issues that colonisation has caused through holistically reconciling the relationships to land, resources and community that have been disrupted by colonisation, by embodying Indigenous ways of existence and cultural/social structures, and empowering the autonomy and self-determination of Indigenous peoples.

WHAT DOES LAND BACK MEAN?

At its core it is as fundamental as it appears. Land Back refers to the return of Indigenous lands back to their rightful and true Indigenous owners. But even more than that, it is not just the return of individual ownership over a land but the return of collective governance over a land.

Land Back is not some form of land rights under a western colonial government, nor is it a form of western land tenure like a Torrens title, nor any other form of hold or lease or "ownership" of land within the borders of a colony or under the jurisdiction or influence of a colonial government or force.

It is the return of the complete ownership, dominion, and sovereignty over a land back to its rightful owners, external of colonial jurisdiction. Land Back involves the removal of all forms of colonial claims over land, with the land being taken back into the unchallenged custody of the Indigenous peoples free from any caveats, conditions, or foreign challenge to ownership.

How Land Back is managed would vary from region to region depending on the local customs, politics and material conditions of the local Indigenous people, and how they decide to govern their land. It may or may not involve reparations of local resources and means of production or it might involve continued industrial practices under Indigenous governance. It might seek to deport settlers*, it might seek to assimilate them into local Indigenous customs and cultures, or it might embrace a multicultural outlook and multiethnic population. Ultimately, it would be the decision of the Indigenous governance of the land to enact laws, policies and practices for their region as they see fit.

*This would be a rare occurrence - fears of mass Settler deportation or persecution are not based in factual reality, but the result or reactive propaganda and a case of colonial practices of mass displacement being projected onto Indigenous people.

INDIGENOUS AND SETTLER, WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?

The settler/Indigenous binary refers primarily to someone's relationship to the land.

Indigenous people are the first and original people to occupy a land. Traditionally, Indigenous people have lived in harmony with their local environment and developed distinct language, cultural norms and social systems reflective of their local environment.

By contrast, settlers are people who migrate to and establish new communities in foreign territories, and their descendants who occupy those territories. Settlers bring with them foreign ways of being and often try and force or mould their views into the surrounding environment and onto the local Indigenous people. Throughout history, this has typically be done in a violent fashion, employing genocidal and ecocide tactics to displace and oppress Indigenous people, while using the newly stolen wealth, resources and often slave labour to both establish a financially powerful settler class and colonial state.

It is important to note that while historically settlers across the globe have predominantly come from a european background, settlers can belong to any ethnic or racial background as well as any social or economic class, as the binary of Indigenous/settler is strictly a relationship to land and not a classification of ethnicity or financial class.

WHAT IS A PRIMARY CONTRADICTION?

In communist theory, the term "primary contradiction" refers to the most fundamental conflict within a given social and economic system.

The primary contradiction is the primary key antagonism that influences other contradictions within society, driving the process of historical development and societal change. It is this core conflict that ultimately shapes the development of society, its class structure, and peoples' relationships to each other, community, land, and resources.

It is also the primary contradiction that underpins secondary contradictions within society. Secondary contradictions are the symptoms we see from the primary contradiction, such as bigotry and discrimination, exploitive economic practices, and social inequality.

In non-colonial capitalist societies, such as those in europe, the primary contradiction that underpins the societal and political system is capitalism. It is capitalism that is both directly and indirectly responsible for the exploitation and oppression of the working class of the nations of europe.

However, in a colony the primary contradiction that underpins the current societal conditions, including capitalism itself, is Colonialism. Within the colonial structure, capitalism is a secondary contradiction resulting directly from the primary contradiction of colonialism.

The only way to address the current societal conditions is to address the primary contradiction that underpins everything else in the colonies: Colonialism.

WHAT IS WESTERN CHAUVINISM?

Western chauvinism refers to an ideological attitude that promotes the superiority of western cultures, values, and institutions over those of other regions or civilizations. It involves an ethnocentric belief that western ways of life, including social norms, political systems, and economic practices, are inherently superior to those of other cultures.

This concept can manifest in various ways, such as:

• CULTURAL SUPERIORITY - Belief that western cultural practices and norms are universally superior and should be adopted globally.
• POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC HEGEMONY - Advocacy for western political and economic systems as models that should dominate or be imposed on other regions.
• HISTORICAL REVISIONISM - Downplaying or ignoring the contributions and achievements of non-western cultures while emphasising western achievements as the pinnacle of human progress.

Western chauvinism promotes a narrow, biased view of global diversity and is often used to justify colonialist and imperialist actions under the guise of bringing "progress" to other parts of the world, as well as to condemn non-eurocentric liberation movements as being illegitimate or unworthy of support for not subscribing to western thought.

WHAT ARE SETTLER MOVES TO INNOCENCE?

The term "settler moves to innocence" refers to strategies or behaviours employed by settlers to distance themselves from the historical and ongoing impacts of colonialism and to present themselves as innocent or blameless in relation to these injustices. It involves efforts to avoid confronting the realities of settler colonialism and the associated privileges and benefits they may receive.

Examples of such moves might include:

• DOWNPLAYING HISTORIC INJUSTICES - Minimising or denying the severity of past and ongoing injustices faced by Indigenous peoples.
• EMPHASISING PERSONAL GOOD INTENTIONS - Focusing on individual actions or intentions rather than acknowledging systemic issues and collective responsibility.
• ENGAGING IN SYMBOLIC GESTURES - Participating in superficial acts of reconciliation or cultural appreciation without addressing structural inequalities.
• JUSTIFICATION OF PAST ATROCITIES - Justifying colonialism through technological/societal/etc advancements Indigenous people benefit from, or attempts at displaying colonisation (or colonisation by a particular Nation) as the lesser of two hypothetical evils.
• DENYING, OBFUSCATING OR REDUCING SETTLER STATUS - Rejecting intersectionality and taking a class reductionist approach to analysing historic and material conditions which denies, reduces, or obfuscates the role that working class settlers play in upholding colonial occupations and the benefits working class settlers receive from colonialism.

MANIFEST DESTINY AND TERRA NULLIUS

Manifest Destiny is an american doctrine and belief from the 19th century that proposes it was the destined, divine right, and duty of the united states to expand its territory across North America, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This ideology was rooted in the belief that european settlers were culturally and racially superior and that their expansion was both justified and inevitable.

Terra Nullius, which means "land belonging to no one" in Latin, was an ideological concept used by european colonisers to justify the settlement of australia. Like Manifest Destiny, Terra Nullius relied on the belief that Indigenous people were inferior, that land was vacant and unused, and that european conquest was inevitable and a divine right.

Both of these concepts stem from earlier attempts by european monarchs to legitimise the conquest and colonisation of lands outside europe, such as the Doctrine of Discovery, a serious of declerations by the popes of the 15th century. It was these earlier doctrines that laid the foundations for and cemented the religious propaganda espousing the belief in a "divine right" to conquest and colonise, and by extension the european supremacy that has came with it.

MANIFEST DESTINY AND TERRA NULLIUS CONTINUED

The defining characteristics of these ideologies includes:

• JUSTIFICATION FOR COLONISATION - It was claimed that Indigenous lands were uninhabited or not effectively occupied by its Indigenous peoples, thereby justifying the british claim and settlement of the land.
• EXPANSIONISM - The idea that places like the united states and australia were destined to expand westward and occupy their entire respective continents.
• RACIAL SUPERIORITY - The belief in the racial and cultural superiority of european settlers, often linked to a sense of divine providence or mission.
• DISPLACEMENT OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES - The policy and practice of displacing Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands to make way for european settlers, often justified by the notion of bringing "civilisation" to these areas.
• PATRIOTISM AND NATIONALISM - The galvanising of a settler-class through nationalist and patriotic 'fight or perish' style propaganda that sought to unify settlers from various backgrounds into a concentrated and new nationality with western traditions and societal norms.

WHAT IS PATRIOTIC SOCIALISM?

Patriotic socialism is a political ideology that combines elements of socialism with strong nationalistic sentiments. It typically involves advocating for socialist principles -such as social ownership of the means of production, wealth redistribution, and social equality-while also emphasising national identity, sovereignty, and pride.

While patriotism has been used successfully by socialists in occupations such as Vietnam under french colonial rule, and Ireland under british colonial rule, these movements were explicitly anti-colonial in nature and therefore stand in stark contrast and opposition to the nationalism of settlers.

Today, in colonies like australia, those across Turtle Island, and elsewhere there is a prevalent reactionary movement of settler led Patriotic Socialism. These Patriotic Socialists are patriots of settler-colonial states, and seek to uphold settler-colonial projects and their domination over Indigenous lands and peoples. Patriotic socialists of the settler variety employ various settler moves to innocence and other tactics to lay ongoing claim to Indigenous lands and argue against Decolonial theory and actions.

A prime example of settler-led Patriotic Socialism is Labor Zionism, a political and ideological movement within the broader Zionist movement that combines Zionist goals with socialist principles. It advocates for the existence of israel on occupied Palestinian lands, albeit an israel with socialist ideals and labour-oriented policies for the settler population of Israel at the expense of Palestinians land, resources and lives.

While the specific terms for Settler pro-colonial Patriotic Socialists in other colonies may not yet exist, the tactics and methodologies employed are the same.

WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE?

AUTHORS

• Frantz Fanon
• Aimé Césaire
• Kevin Gilbert
• Vine Deloria Jr.
• Klee Benally
• Howard Adams
• Lwazi Lushaba
• Walter Rodney
• Amilcar Cabral
• Kwame Nkrumah

PODCASTS

• Decolonized Buffalo
• Post-scarcity Podcast
• Ngang-garra-moomin-in nganjinu
• Frontier War Stories
• Yillamin

WEBSITES

www.blackpeoplesunion.org - online digital library of revolutionary theory with links to YouTube channel with classes on politics and history.

www.aaprp-intl.org - digital resources, online seminars and regular articles.

www.jairofunez.substack.com - collection of articles and short-texts on

Decolonial thought and praxis

www.alanalentin.net - collection of Decolonial and CRT works and recources including short and long texts, articles, classes and videos

globalsocialtheory.net - broader resources on global social theories