Saigon, Vietnam. Credit to laphanblog (Instagram).

DECOLONIAL ACTION READING

I recently compiled these to add to a comrade’s post about Land Back, but actually I think they deserve their own post as well.

Amílcar Cabral - Return To The Source

Frantz Fanon - The Wretched Of The Earth

Hô Chí Minh - archive via Marxists.org

Thomas King - The Inconvenient Indian

Abdullah Öcalan - Women’s Revolution & Democratic Confederalism

Edward Said - The Question Of Palestine

Thomas Sankara - archive via Marxists.org

Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang - Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor

Other key names in postcolonial theory and its practical application include:

Sara Ahmed

Homi K. Bhabha

Aimé Césaire

Albert Memmi

Jean-Paul Sartre

Léopold Séder Senghor

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

All of these will help you interpret and confront the realities of colonisation, and ideally help us understand and extend solidarity to comrades around the globe. Decolonise your mind, and don't stop there!

"United by the same ideal" Vietnam 1960s

Restaurant of Shade, Ho Chi Minh City - NISHIZAWAARCHITECTS

Happy birthday, Ho Chi Minh! (May 19, 1890)

Longtime leader in the struggle for Vietnamese freedom and unity, Ho Chi Minh, born Nguyen Sinh Cung, was born in Nghe An province in what was then part of French Indochina. He gained a revolutionary consciousness in his teenage years, which he would carry all his life. He spent some years abroad acquiring a political education, and soon came to embrace socialism. He became a founding member of the Communist Party of France and, in 1930, also helped to found the Communist Party of Vietnam. After spending some time in the Soviet Union and China, Ho returned to Vietnam in 1941 and took leadership of the Viet Minh, which fought against the Japanese and then later the French colonial government. After World War II, Ho declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and would lead it until his death, fighting against France and the United States for Vietnam's independence while instituting a socialist transition in the territory controlled by the Communist Party, instituting policies such as land reform. He remains a beloved figure in Vietnam, and has been popularly known as "Uncle Ho."

"The capitalists often boast that their constitutions guarantee the rights of the individual, democratic liberties and the interests of all citizens. But in reality, only the bourgeoisie enjoy the rights recorded in these constitutions. The working people do not really enjoy democratic freedoms; they are exploited all their life and have to bear heavy burdens in the service of the exploiting class."

Vietnam (2) (3) (4) by AAcerbo

HO CHI MINH, VIETNAM.

An elderly man sits at the edge of a mangrove riverbank. Dressed in white, as if to match the color of his hair and long beard, he stands out against the vivid colors around him.

He is reading a newspaper, his bare feet outstretched and books and sandals piled next to him. The water catches his reflection, and catches him in the act of reflection. But this is no luncheon in the park. This is a scene in a painting about war and resistance.

René Mederos’s portrait of Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh calls us to that moment when the politician sat by a riverbank, theorizing and analyzing a world he wanted to change.

Hi Chi Minh, speech in New Delhi

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. Credit to jonathan_phan (Instagram).

Ideas for future episodes of “Epic Rap Battles of History”:

1) Emily Dickinson vs. Maya Angelou (theme: two of the greatest female poets)

2) Ho Chi Minh vs. Charles de Gaulle (theme: two leaders of independence movements)

3) Akira Kurosawa vs. Hayao Miyazaki (theme: two Japanese directors who changed cinema)

4) Audie Murphy vs. Steve Rogers aka Captain America (theme: real-life American WWII hero against a fictional one)

5) Hattori Hanzo vs. Naruto Uzumaki (theme: real-life ninja against a fictional one)

6) Audrey Hepburn vs. Katharine Hepburn (theme: battle of the world-famous actresses who share the same surname)

7) Fictional Lawyer Battle Royale (Atticus Finch vs. Perry Mason vs. Saul Goodman vs. Matt Murdock/Daredevil vs. Phoenix Wright)

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Forces of the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam liberated Saigon, soon renamed Ho Chi Minh City, from the last remnants of the U.S. puppet regime there on Apr. 30, 1975, now celebrated annually as Reunification Day.

Days 5, 6, and 7: An epic whirlwind of adventure. Left me speechless and my heart brimming with gratitude! Until we meet again, my dear Vietnam. 🌟🇻🇳