Really, the evidence of industrial-scale forced assimilation of Uhygur Muslims is so overwhelming that I hardly see the point of continuing to ask for "evidence." Really, people should listen to the voices of Uhygur people themselves, including those whose relatives are trapped in these gulags and can't the hell get out of there. Whether or not you want to call it "genocide" is another matter, but those who do are defining it as cultural genocide, not the physical variety; for me I'm not much interested in getting caught up in the semantics.
But now we find out that Han workers are also being exploited, mistreated, having wages withheld etc in Xinjiang. Right, which does nothing to disprove the forced cultural assimilation of the Uhygur, but does raise interesting issues for those who still think China might be some kind of "workers' state" in some metaphysical sense. Roger is very concerned about the fact that, according to David Brophy's excellent piece, Uhygur activists "often" refuse to identify with Palestine and in some cases even want to to identify with "the Israelis getting their own state" like they desire etc. Obviously, such a justification is meaningless because they could just as well identify with the Palestinians desiring "to get their own state". Marxists do not identify with national oppression, and the right of oppressed peoples to self-determination is such a basic staple of Leninist thought that it's hard to imagine anyone not knowing this. However, leaving aside what "often" means - I read it as many Uhygur activists, wrongly, identify with Israel, and many others do not, he did not say "all" or "most" - Marxists need to get their bizarre rose-coloured glasses when it comes to any states (imperial or otherwise) that are not part of the US-led alliance, and just see things for what they are. The Uhygur are oppressed by the Han-chauvinist Dengist regime. The Palestinians are oppressed by the Zionist regime. For many Uhygurs, the main thing in the world is their own oppression, because that is what they feel on their backs; for many Palestinians, the same for them. Therefore, since the US is the main guarantor of the Zionist state (though let's not forget the excellent relations that both China and, even more so, Putin's Russia, have with Israel), many Palestinians, and some of their non-revolutionary leadership, may prefer to identify with any enemy of the US, such as China, and therefore not support rhe Uhygur struggle. In *exactly the same way*, many Uhygur and some of their non-revolutionary leadership may prefer to identify with an enemy of their Chinese oppressors, such as the US (and by extension, US appendages such as Israel). *Both* are understandable; *both* are wrong. But for Marxists, there is no hierarchy of the oppressed whereby some are more valid, more justified, more righteous than others. If a mistaken view on Palestinian oppression should damn the Uhygurs, then a mistaken view of Uhygur oppression should damn the Palestinians. Wrong in both cases. But when a Marxist living in the West decides that some struggle is the standard by which all others must be measured against - a common view in relation to Palestine (no doubt caused by the extreme bias in all western governments and media regarding the Zionist state's blatant racsm, illegality and war crimes) - then you need to question yourself about why you are supporting that particular struggle in the first place, if your reason for doing so is *not* opposition to all oppression. I say that as someone who was involved in Palestine solidarity since the early 1980s. Whenever we had to boot someone for tendencies towards soft anti-Semitism it was always some whitey; it was always the Arabs and Palestinians that made sure they were ejected. Don't get me wrong - I'm not accusing anyone of that, but placing Israel and Palestine at the centre of the political universe does push in that direction and we need to watch ourselves. On Sun, Apr 11, 2021 at 3:12 PM Roger Kulp <[email protected]> wrote: > I thought you might like to see this. It's in Chinese, but Google > translates it automatically. The article details mistreatment, and > withholding of wages of construction workers, in Xinjiang, only the workers > are Han Chinese, not Uyghur. > > https://tinyurl.com/ecsr3fma > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7896): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7896 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81730562/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
