Week 3: Nelson Peery, “The Negro National Colonial Question”
* Give 1-2 sentence summary of author’s basic argument
See passages p 80-81
A) Existence of a black nation (black belt plus adjacent economic/physical territory)
B) role of black comprador and national bourgeoisie
C) role of black prole (as vanguard and in unity w/colonial masses and white prole)
D) role of black landless peasantry and rural prole (peasant questin is basis of national question says Stalin)
E) call for national liberation and land redistribution
* Debate the author’s position. What is their evidence? Is there other evidence we can add that proves/disproves the author?
(How do you have a prole/peasantry w/out a bourgeoisie? See p 70)
(Why was there never a mass mvmt among black folks to separate and form a new nation?)
(If race is a “determinate point” and “form of appearance” of alienated labor, how does this relate to/contrast to Peery’s definition of nation?)
* Define basic terms that the author uses
Nation
Bourgeoisie
Comprador bourgeoisie (vs national bourgeoisie vs international bourgeoisie)
Imperialism
Proletariat
Self-determination
State vs race vs nation (p 60)
Other historical references: Algeria; Marx, Lenin, Engels, Stalin, Mao;
a) comprador vs national: from Mao, primary task in colonial countries was to oppose imperialism. This meant identify the divisions among the comprador bourgeoisie, attack the section deemed most threatening to peasantry/prole, and win over the national bourgeoisie to this fight.
Nothing but a Human 