C’s Reviews > Global Marxism: Decolonisation and revolutionary politics > Status Update

“The violence in Palestine has convinced millions of people around the world…” that language is crazy passive. I’m gonna deduct a star for that alone

“Above all, in the Zapatista social imaginary he is a quasi-mythological persona who incarnates the past, present and future of the Maya world.”

“Although Marxism has played an important role in shaping their struggle, the Zapatistas have preferred to develop a new language and not use more conventional terminology because they believe ‘the old words had become so worn out that they had become harmful for those that used them’”

"He said the workers of the world must unite, and the Mayans just stared at him. They said they weren't workers and, besides, land wasn't property but the heart of their community. Having failed as a Marxist missionary, Marcos immersed himself in Mayan culture."

---Naomi Klein on Marcos

That was definitely my favorite chapter, maybe because the other leaders/thinkers I had already read before, so it felt like a diluted version of their work? But also because this is one of the few chapters to really introduce what felt like a unique theory with liberation theology

"....soothes their suffering and pain. Such religion fails to motivate people to change their situation and instead pushes them into their faith and creates static subjects who surrender to their situation."

"Unlike what is commonly believed, Marx did not blame the misery of the masses on religion but argued that religion becomes the 'opium of the people' because of the material conditions in which people find themselves." Thank you omg it always annoys me when people misinterpret that quote

"Moreover, Shariati believed [Iranian leftists] had applied an uncritical perspective on Marxism in Iran, ignoring the fact that Iran had gone through a totally different historical trajectory from Europe" another good point

<<<(----Shariati)

"As a universal and scientific principle, Marx makes economics the infrastructure of man; but we [hold] precisely the opposite [view]. That is why we are the enemy of capitalism and hate the bourgeoisie. Our greatest hope in socialism is that in it man, his faith, ideas, and ethical values are not superstructural, are not the manufactured and produced goods of economic infrastructure." exactly!!!!