My Evolution from Marxist-Leninism to Indigenism/Communalism
How I, an Indigenous man, was inspired by a line from MLK’s speech, Beyond Vietnam: “We, as a nation, must undergo a radical revolution of values.”
In my years as an Indigenous Activist (Muscogee and Chicano), I learned some things. I no longer say that White people are the cause of all the suffering and oppression of my people. I learned that it was the system, specifically the Capitalist system, that was the real enemy, not just of my people, but even of people of the Global Majority (previously known as People of Color). Likewise, I learned that the Capitalist system evolved out of Colonialism/White Supremacy. Then I learned that it had evolved into Imperialism (known now as Globalism), which colonized and robbed not just Third World nations and peoples, but the Earth itself, through Extractive Industrialism.
In the 70s, after following the struggles of Black people through the Black Panther Party, I read and was inspired by the Chinese revolution through the Little Red Book (writings of Chairman Mao Tse Tung) and the Vietnamese concept of People’s War. I absorbed the liberation ideas of the Women, Gay, Chicano and eventually the Environmental…