Young Master Smeet
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The link doesn’t seem to go anywhere, can you give us the author/title in plain text?
While I’m here, I’m flicking in and out of: “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States / Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz” which gives some interesting and much needed refocussing on the events of the growth of America.
That’s an interesting take, clearly the Somerset case had spooked the American slave holders: and that, coupled with British prevention of expansion into further native American lands (as well as the other nominal causes of taxation and mercantilism and paying for the French wars). Certainly, the British tried to weaponise the enslaved by freeing them and recruiting them into their army during the wars of independence.
But, again, this just shows the extent to which the institution of slavery shaped events in world history and structured the conditions in which capitalism was developing (and that capitalism is compatible with slavery).
I’d dispute that the British Empire is gone, as mentioned re: arms exports, and the disproportionate military spend, the UK does exert informal dominance still in some parts of the world, it just doesn’t trumpet them.
Part of why I flagged this article, is that it struck me how arms exports formed a core part of the spread of colonial dominance, and, in fact, to this day, the UK is reckoned by it’s own state machinery, to be the second largest arms exporter in the world
That reminds me: it seems Fran Perrin, the daughter of David Sainsbury, ennobled by Tony Blair, has given the Labour Party£1million (His Lordship has already given £2 million) it looks like bankruptcy is staved off thanks to the disinterested largess of this millionaire family.
Hub, pivot and formative are not causative, they are positional and instrumental. What was ‘set in motion’ was innovations in activity, not capitalism itself: it would be obtuse to say that mass enslavement had no effect on the society that practiced it.
The final sentence of the quote: “Slavery…was formative in the timing and nature of Britain’s industrial transition.” is the precise summation of what they are proposing, not that slavery caused capitalism but that it structured and shaped it in the British case.
Take for example Bristol, slavery spurred allied trades, such as metallurgy (someone had to make the chains) rope and other trades needed to support it.
We know from the Legacies of British slavery database that the compensation paid out to emancipate the enslaved people in British territories very much did fund a lot of mid-19th century projects and firms exist to this day which were capitalised through that route.
Berg and Hudson don’t say slavery caused capitalism, but that it shaped the character of the British development of capitalism: and certainly, colonialism too (especially in the way it related to land clearance in Britain). The point is the so-called primitive accumulation of capital was closely entwined with colonialism and enslavement: and it shaped the for particularly of financial services, as well as some parts of the geographical growth of industry in Britain (in part explaining the industrial west, and cities like Liverpool Bristol and Lancaster).
Belgium did have a small part in the slave trade but capitalism was born early in Flanders, and it’d be interesting to see how slavery and colonialism helped Britain compete and overtake that early lead (also, I wonder how much Flemish capital was linked to Dutch, which had a more extensive part in slavery).
The important part is that contrary to the myth of thrift and industry, capitalism was born out of violence and bloodshed, which created and structured racism to this day.
“The slave and plantation trades were the hub around which many other dynamic and innovatory sectors of the economy pivoted. Slavery, directly and indirectly, set in motion innovations in manufacturing, agriculture, wholesaling, retailing, shipping, banking, international trade, finance and investment, insurance, as well as in the organization and intensification of work, record keeping and the application of scientific and useful knowledge. Slavery certainly was formative in the timing and nature of Britain’s industrial transition.”
Slavery, capitalism and the industrial revolution / Berg & HudsonThe BBC continue to cover ukrainian draft evasion, this is a new version of substantially the same story they’ve told before, but with added stats: 20K have escaped, 20K have been caught, and maybe more that aren’t picked up in these stats. (As an aside, Engels was keen on universal conscription – the end section of the pamphlet is an interesting read). Others have noted the demographic cliff in Ukraine where under 35 the population plummets: also, looking at the heat map of population, Russia has taken out some of the more populous districts already.
I don’t know if the BBC is teeing up for a narrative to blame Ukraine for its defeat because they weren’t willing to fight…
300 leaflets were handed out in about an hour (I’m afraid that was all my feet could stand) on Park lane: the march was loud, friendly and well organised, best placard read ‘This is a Love March’, although Palestine flags abounded, I didn’t see anything overtly anti-Jewish or that could be seen as such. I ran across the CWO and did a leaflet swap, theirs was a little wordy, but made some good points about other similar conflicts.
I popped over to Whitehall afterwards, and couldn’t see any sign of trouble, except some old gadgee shouting at the door staff of the Whitehall theatre saying ‘It’s our! Ours!’
Israel seems to be drawing up its war aims:
“Speaking to U.S. television’s Fox News on Thursday, Netanyahu said: “We don’t seek to conquer Gaza, we don’t seek to occupy Gaza, and we don’t seek to govern Gaza.”
“Netanyahu said a civilian government would need to take shape in Gaza but that Israel would make sure an attack like Oct. 7 does not happen again.
“So, we have to have a credible force that, if necessary, will enter Gaza and kill the killers. Because that’s what will prevent the re-emergence of a Hamas-like entity,” Netanyahu said.”
So, a Bantustan, totally subordinate but not the ‘responsibility’ of Israel (except, of course, that any Gaza entity created after this war will be wholly a creation of the Israeli state).
Note the options excluded: international peace keepers, a treaty with a fully fledged Palestinian state, a Marshal plan to rebuilt and drain the swamp of Palestinian radicalism.
Good idea, done. Tough on the proliferation of threads, tough on the causes of the proliferation of threads.
This is a fascinating story Israel is running short of labour because of its previous reliance on Palestinian workers, and so is looking to India:
““Right now we are negotiating with India. We are waiting for [the] decision of the Israeli government to approve that. And, we hope to engage 50,000 to 100,000 workers from India to be able to run the whole sector and bring it back to normal,” he told the publication on November 1.
“Earlier this year the two countries had inked an agreement that allowed 42,000 Indians to work in the Jewish state. in the fields of construction and nursing. As per the press statement from the Israeli foreign ministry, 34,000 workers will be engaged in the construction field and another 8,000 for nursing needs.”
Forums › General discussion › Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitic
#248284
#248286Binned, Off-topic (rule 1)
