To be a Communist or to be somebody who believes in the future is a curious thing. So you have to live with people around you, you have to be with the people. Vijay Prashad More Quotes by Vijay Prashad More Quotes From Vijay Prashad Mr. Obama needs to make a phone call to Ankara and have a serious conversation about why the current government in Turkey isn't going to seal its border, why it doesn't take a stronger position against the Islamic State. Vijay Prashad islamic phones government Turkey is using the Islamic State in the same way as Pakistan used the Taliban in Afghanistan. You know, that's perhaps Turkey's strategy. Vijay Prashad turkeys pakistan islamic The United States is facing serious pushback from Turkey, which is not comfortable with the view that the Islamic State is a terrorist organization. Vijay Prashad turkeys islamic views The Islamic State is able to raise finances through taxation, through theft of banks, and certainly through oil sales from the Omar oilfields in eastern Syria. So right now the question of funding isn't of the essence. Vijay Prashad islamic oil essence Mr. Assad is not going to be able to feel like there is a moderate opposition that actually threatens him. Currently, the Assad government looks out at the landscape, sees the rise of ISIS, sees that much of the rebel force has become largely Islamist, and then turns to the West and says, well, you know, they look toward the West and say, well, look, what you have is a terrorist group that's fighting against us. So in this context, I think, to talk about moderate opposition being created to put pressure on Damascus is rather illusionary. Vijay Prashad government fighting thinking You cannot have politics without building mass-movements. Vijay Prashad mass building movement There's a different use for different strategies. Vijay Prashad strategy different use To build a mass movement, nonviolence is indispensable. Vijay Prashad indispensable mass movement We come from the future, essentially, because we have all these ideas about gender equality, sexual freedom, and these are not shared by the working class, the peasantry among whom we work. Vijay Prashad gender-equality class ideas You see all kinds of anarchic forms of rebellion, but the moment of preparation is when the Communists and other kinds of political forces play a roll. Vijay Prashad political preparation play Interestingly, if you write preparation out of history, leadership and preparation, the building of confidence among people who are exploited, you've actually methodologically written out the Communists because, when an uprising takes place, you don't necessarily see red flags everywhere. Vijay Prashad red-flags uprising writing There are several studies done of peasant uprisings where the first chapter might be 'conditions in that area' and so the conditions are bad, and then the second chapter is a kind of conjectural event, somebody's shot and then there's an uprising. But there's no consideration, no chapter on preparation. Vijay Prashad uprising events preparation I understand politically that uprisings take place as a combination of spontaneity and preparation, not that preparation is more important than spontaneity. Vijay Prashad uprising preparation important I consider this a kind of neoliberalism of the Left, this rise and promotion of spontaneity above preparation. Vijay Prashad neoliberalism preparation kind In times when the tempo for struggle is not very high, you prepare populations by conducting acts of courage-building, confidence-building, respect for each other. That's what the preparation is about and it requires leadership. Vijay Prashad population preparation struggle Over the last two or so decades, there's been an increase in thinking among the Left, liberals, intellectuals in the direction of so-called spontaneity. In other words that uprisings happen spontaneously, people are frustrated, angry, then they spontaneously rise up. And what they don't require is preparation, or what we used to call leadership. Vijay Prashad uprising two thinking People who become important activists, they also struggle with the process of discovery. Vijay Prashad struggle discovery people You see often it's not ideas, it's inertia, it's bureaucratism, it's all the other things that sometimes come in the way of a good idea. Vijay Prashad sometimes way ideas Interestingly, what the bourgeois women's groups in India wanted to do in the nationalist period is to have the peasant women essentially follow them... They would be the leaders and the peasant women would be the masses. Vijay Prashad groups india leader When you are threatened, when your life is threatened, you have to fight back. Vijay Prashad threatened fighting life-is
