by Danny Haiphong
The author recommends that a healthy dose of criticism and self-criticism might clarify Ta-Nehisi Coates’ argument with Bernie Sanders over reparations. “It would be appropriate to ask Coates why he chose to single out Sanders as a socialist even though Sanders has positioned himself as a Democratic Party politician since his entrance into the race.” As presently constructed, Ta-Nehisi’s position leads straight into the Empire's electoral graveyard.”
On the Utility of Self-Criticism and Criticism in the Future of Struggle: The Case of Ta-Nehisi Coates
by Danny Haiphong
“The practice of criticism is meant to encourage unity around the common goals of the movement.”
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's most prominent revolutionary thinker and the nation's first independent president, gave much consideration to the practice of criticism and self-criticism. The practice of self-criticism and criticism was essential to the victory of the Vietnamese people from the scourge of four imperialist powers that began with French colonization and ended with US invasion. Vietnam’s victorious struggle for independence provides many lessons for today. Victory required discipline, organization, and sacrifice. Ho Chi Minh implemented self-criticism and criticism during every stage of the struggle in order to reduce the number and impact of errors made along the revolutionary path.
National liberation forces in Vietnam were led by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), which Ho Chi Minh founded in 1930. The CPV's first goal was to organize all sections of the country to liberate the land from colonialism. The second was to institute socialism and ensure the country's resources did not consolidate into the hands of a neo-colonial, capitalist class. Ho Chi Minh found inspiration in the work of Vladimir Lenin and the socialist revolution in Russia. Uncle Ho popularized Lenin's concept of criticism and self-criticism as one of the primary means to develop the organized resistance of the Vietnamese masses and emulate the progressive developments in the Soviet Union (Russia). Self-criticism and criticism was part of the glue that held together national liberation forces through the difficulties war. The heroic struggle resulted in state power for the oppressed and the end of colonial domination in Vietnam.
“Uncle Ho popularized Lenin's concept of criticism and self-criticism as one of the primary means to develop the organized resistance of the Vietnamese masses.”
Self-criticism and criticism have been critical tools for human liberation struggles against global capitalism in every region of the world. But what are these tools exactly, and how do they apply to the current struggle against the US imperial state? Self-criticism is defined as the practice of individual exposure to one's shortcomings in order to move that individual and thus the entire organization to a higher level of political development. Self-criticism is not the same as self-injury or low self-esteem. It is a targeted, self-directed critique of one's ideas, actions, and behaviors that may negatively impact the collective struggle for liberation.
Criticism, on the other hand, is the evaluation of another person, political organization and/or movement's political trajectory in relation to its objectives. Criticism of personal conduct assists the criticized in deciding what course of action is best to rectify errors made in the fight for a new world. And criticism of an organization or movement helps each individual actor in it understand how the collective should adjust or not to rapidly changing conditions. Regardless of where the criticism is directed, the goal is to struggle with the nature of the problem and achieve clarity on the proper means to correct it. The practice of criticism is meant to encourage unity around the common goals of the movement. This can only be done under conditions of honest, open, and public debate and conversation.
“The goal is to struggle with the nature of the problem and achieve clarity on the proper means to correct it.”
Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party of Vietnam utilized criticism and self-criticism to build revolutionary socialism. Revolutionary socialism, a system where society’s productive forces are in the control of workers and oppressed people for the benefit of all, has been brutally suppressed in the US by capitalist crisis and war. White supremacist state repression has coincided with the monopolization of the corporate media to produce unfavorable ideological conditions for revolutionary socialism inside of the US. Workers have largely been disorganized from unions and revolutionary leaders imprisoned, assassinated, and tortured. So while capitalism and racism are on the decline around the world, they have found fertile ground to fester and grow in the mainland of Empire.
What has emerged from these conditions is a dangerous trend that threatens to destroy the possibility of a renewed ideological militancy in the age of Black Lives Matter. The trend has been most apparent in a series of articles from Atlantic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates has built his fame off of the issue of reparations for Black America. Recently, he made headlines once again with his critique of Bernie Sanders' lack of support for reparations. Coates hammers down on Sanders, calling him an "avowed socialist" whose lack of faith in reparations ensures white supremacy will endure for many generations to come. In the second piece, Coates defends his position by claiming that giving equal weight to Hilary Clinton's record and opposition to reparations takes Sanders off of the hook.
“It is incorrect to imply that Sanders' sparingly-used title of socialist somehow makes him different from any other Democrat on the issue of reparations.”
Coates' critique of Sanders provides the perfect opportunity to use self-criticism and criticism to strengthen the politics of the movement against racism and capitalism in the US. First, it would be appropriate to ask Coates why he chose to single out Sanders as a socialist even though Sanders has positioned himself as a Democratic Party politician since his entrance into the race. Sanders does not pretend to uphold socialist principles of international solidarity and working class power. He supports Israeli expansion, Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen, and deviates from the other candidates only in his rhetoric to spend more federal dollars on the public sector. Based on record, it is incorrect to imply that Sanders' sparingly-used title of socialist somehow makes him different from any other Democrat on the issue of reparations. Sanders rejects reparations as part and parcel of his allegiance to the Democratic Party and indeed the entire US capitalist state.
Furthermore, Coates should be further questioned on what prompts him to marginalize free education, healthcare, and higher wages as limited in scope and yet advocate for reparations as the remedy for white supremacy. Coates has yet to define reparations beyond the terms of H.R. 40. This bill calls for a special commission to study the question of reparations. But Coates should understand, being a self-proclaimed student of history, that the same capitalist, imperialist system responsible for the oppression of Black people remains firmly intact today. This makes any effort for a concrete and defined reparations policy under the current social order impossible without social revolution and transformation. However, Coates chooses to avoid substantive analysis all together and gives coded Democratic Party support instead. In his trifecta of articles on Democratic Party candidates, he urges readers to vote for the "less than ideal candidate" in order to avoid "something much worse."
“Coates chooses to avoid substantive analysis all together and gives coded Democratic Party support instead.”
Sound familiar? One can only conclude after analyzing and criticizing Coates' ideas that he is firmly attached to the Democratic Party graveyard, albeit with "skepticism intact." Criticism and self-criticism are thus essential to moving political discourse and organization away from the Empire's electoral graveyard and toward the direction of social revolution. Not one of us can escape the influence of the myriad of reactionary ideas that are daily shoved down the collective throats of this generation's movement actors. However, self-criticism and criticism are proven to be effective tools in the development of a mass political consciousness capable of taking the struggle against the conditions of Empire to a victorious climax. It is about time we begin to develop them within the movement’s ranks.
Danny Haiphong is an Asian activist and political analyst in the Boston area. He can be reached atwakeupriseup1990@gmail.com. His work can also be found athttp://gianalytics.org/en/authors/danny-haiphong and has been published in CounterPunch, Center for Global Research, and TruthOut.
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