Bromma

Notes on Trump (Bromma Dec. 2016 – Revised Jan. 2017)

1. The normality of white supremacy

Since Trump’s election, I keep hearing that we shouldn’t “normalize” him or his agenda. I believe that’s looking through the wrong end of the telescope. There’s nothing as “normal” in the U.S. as white supremacy. Sometimes it’s disguised by tokenism and obscured by “multiculturalism.” But in this country, white supremacy has always shown its true naked face at times of stress and transition.

Because white supremacy isn’t just a bunch of bad ideas inherited from ignorant elders. It’s a deeply-rooted institution through which the U.S. rules over many oppressed peoples. It’s the glue that ...........READ MORE

Cops are Gangsters

Intro: There are millions of oppressed people inside the borders of the u.s., but I’m not one of them. I come from a privileged background. I’m not the main victim of the police. Nor am I a leader in the growing struggle against police violence. Recognizing how far I am from the front lines, I hesitated to write about cops at all.

In the end I decided that it’s important for all radicals, whether oppressed or privileged, to struggle for clarity about cops’ place in society.

There are many kinds of police, ranging from elite national political police like the ...........READ MORE

Notes on the Worker Elite

In the month since the publication of Bromma’s The Worker Elite: Notes on the “Labour Artistocracy”, the book has been met with a lot of interest, including several reviews which raise a number of questions related to the text that folks may be interested in. So here’s a roundup of what i am aware of so far:

The Worker Elite: Notes on the “Labor Aristocracy”

Revolutionaries often say that the working class holds the key to overthrowing capitalism. But “working class” is a very broad category—so broad that it can be used to justify a whole range of political agendas.

The Worker Elite: Notes on the “Labor Aristocracy” breaks it all down, criticizing opportunists who minimize the role of privilege within the working class, while also challenging simplistic Third Worldist analyses.

In this provocative study, Bromma highlights the stratification of the working class under modern capitalism, using examples from specific industries and historical events to illustrate the development and key characteristics of the worker elite. ...........READ MORE

New World, Hard Choices: global empire and the new opposition

by Bromma (March 2003)

[This paper contains shorthand summaries of several ideas relevant to the current world situation. Based substantially on published and unpublished writings by other people and on informal discussions, its aim is to promote debate.]

The political/military hurricane swirling around Iraq, coupled with the 9/11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan, confirms that old left-wing paradigms of capitalist rule and colonialism have been smashed beyond repair. As we brace for what looks to be a challenging and violent future, it’s crucial that we do our best to perceive the outlines of capitalism’s new form as well as ...........READ MORE

An Exchange on “New World, Hard Choices”

NOTE: issue #6 of 8th Route Readers Club had Bromma’s paper “New World, Hard Choices”. Following is an exchange around his paper. To read the original paper by Bromma, click here.

An Exchange on
“New World, Hard Choices” 4/8/03:

I liked your paper. My main concern is the concern that I regularly have with you. I believe that you do not articulate a point of view that aims at developing a strategy for movement building. Your position is a good one–though I felt that it was in some ways condescending toward opponents–but it feels divorced from some of the ...........READ MORE

Exodus and Reconstruction: Working-Class Women at the Heart of Globalization

Introduction

Hundreds of millions of working-class women are flooding out of the countrysides of the world into the cities. In an epic upheaval, pervaded with human suffering, these women are being channeled into the manufacturing and service industries of a radically transformed global economy. This wholesale relocation and reorganization of capitalism’s core work force is at the very heart of globalization.

The exodus of impoverished working-class women is rooted in two historic processes: the destruction of small-scale farming and the rise of a new global system of production and distribution—a system greedy for flexible, exploitable labor. These virtually unstoppable forces ...........READ MORE

Notes on XXIst Century Socialism

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, recently announced the arrival of XXIst Century Socialism. This declaration, although greeted with great enthusiasm, left a residue of confusion. Since Chavez didn’t discuss XXIst Century Socialism during his recent Presidential campaign, and since there are virtually no public theoretical documents defining this new Socialist era, its precise features are not always clear.

Fortunately, Chavez has appointed a committee, well stocked with international supporters, to come up with appropriate explanatory documents. In the meantime, we can best understand the contours of XXIst Century Socialism by examining it as it actually functions in the real world. ...........READ MORE

False Front: The Left and the “Anti-Imperialist” Right

As popular resistance to globalization and Western imperialism strengthens around the globe, something disastrous is happening: Leadership of the opposition is swinging steadily from the Left to the radical Right.

Right-wing forces around the world are gearing up to fight against capitalism’s new world order. Every day on the streets of Baghdad, of Mosul, of Tikrit, of Fallujah, of Samarra, of Basra, there is living, dying proof that rightists are in the vanguard of the fight against the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq. It is the same in Afghanistan. Indeed, as Western capital struggles to penetrate and control the so-called Islamic ...........READ MORE

Racist “Anti-Imperialism”? Class, Colonialism and the Zapatistas

I started off wanting to like “A Commune In Chiapas?” (This major essay about the Zapatistas, written for the English “liberation communist” journal, Aufheben, is distributed as a pamphlet by Arm the Spirit/Solidarity, Canadian anti-imperialist publishers who represent u.s. political prisoners such as David Gilbert, Albert Nuh Washington and Jalil Muntaquin.) I appreciated its willingness to criticize radicals who “project their hopes onto this ‘exotic’ struggle.” I was ready to agree with its skepticism about the rhetoric of Subcommandante Marcos, about romantic views of indigenous life, about social democracy masquerading as “civil society.” I was glad to see that the ...........READ MORE