>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>It seems to me that reparations of any substance are impossible
>>under capitalism.
>
>So, short of revolution, reparations are meaningless?
Not totally meaningless, but under capitalism reparations will be (even in the event of a "successful" campaign) insultingly paltry & much of the paltry sum will be siphoned off by lawyers & (government & NGO) bureaucrats. Besides, reparations should be made for not just African-Americans but Africans in Africa & the African diaspora as well. On my theoretical grounds, non-black workers (including white working-class men in America) are also entitled to reparations, though to a lesser degree than blacks -- if they make a claim for them, that is.
>Then why bother to talk about reparations at all, if it's subsidiary
>to the anticapitalist struggle?
Substantial goals of any social movement on the Left -- feminism, anti-racism, disability-rights, environmentalism, etc. -- cannot be achieved under capitalism, for they conflict with the goal of accumulation for the sake of accumulation.
>>I imagine that you are against the campaign, since you are a fan of
>>Adolph Reed. If you are against it, what's your alternative?
>
>I support vigorous affirmative action (does that make me a
>liberal?), and a host of nonracial schemes that would
>disproportionally benefit black Americans, like repair of the urban
>infrastructure, minimum incomes, guaranteed employment, free
>education, K-postdoc.
All of them -- all nearly revolutionary demands -- will help.
>Oh, and expropriating the expropriators, when we figure out how to do that.
A revolutionary movement to abolish capitalism & establish socialism can only emerge out of the foundation of militant movements for reforms. One can't conjure up revolution out of nothing. So, building up militant movements for reforms is the first task at this point.
Yoshie