Below is a link to a PowerPoint presentation (Joko Teach-In: Modern Revolutions) and the bullet points that expand on some of the slides. I gave the presentation a member of the JOKO Collective, a grassroots, community based brain trust/think tank/study circle/discussion group.
“In the Yoruba language the word JOKO means “sit”. To “have a JOKO” is to have a “sit down”, or gathering for the purpose of resolving conflict — by uncovering the truth of the matter…JOKO is not a space where all information is created equal. It’s a space where information is scrutinized through universal rules of logic and inquiry, source quality and corroborative data, and sound, replicable methods of analysis…Thus, our agenda statement currently reads: ‘JOKO At The AFIBA is a panel/group discussion series that provides a space for the exercise of critical thinking. For practice in the art of sustained, critical dialogue, we treat selected topics for several sessions and in this way, we construct in-depth understandings of the topics, and their relationship to African People’s bid for empowerment.'” (from “Welcome to JOKO, a Grassroots Braintrust” by Tasha Thomas, posted at http://www.brothersquarterly.wordpress.com, August 5, 2014)
Joko Teach-In Modern Revolutions
A July Joko Two Day Teach-in:
“Modern Revolutions and the African World”
Saturday, July 11, 2015, 4-6 PM “A Survey of Modern Revolutions”
- We must define Revolution and Reform.
- 1649 The Commonwealth of England
- Cromwell and Rump Parliament execute King Charles I and attempt to create an English republic.
- Republicanism becomes the primary form of the modern, bourgeois, liberal state.
- The class controlling the state controls the economy, the colonies, and the trade routes, to all of which Africans were central.
- 1775-1783 The American War of Independence
- The North American settlers wage an anti-royalist war for reform. They assume management of the system, and retain property and social relations. Independence insures that the U.S. can maintain slavery as the foundation of the national wealth.
- 1789-1815 The French Revolution
- Radical break with the Old Regime: Royalty, Aristocracy, and the Church.
- Under pressure from men of color in the French National Assembly, slavery is abolished and then reinstated by Napoleon.
- 1791 -1804 The Haitian Revolution
- History of African resistance
- From Caribbean front of French Revolution to Haitian Revolution.
- Haiti shakes the security of all other slaveholding states and colonies in the Americas.
- Spanish American Wars of Independence
- Africans & Afro-Mestizos central to conflicts
- 1808-1821 Bolivar and Gran Colombia
- 1810-1821 The Mexican War of Independence
- 1862-1898 Cuban Wars of Independence
- 1848 Revolution in Europe
- Primarily middles classes and organized workers seeking reform and/or asserting nationalist claims
- Within a year, royalists and reactionaries reassert control.
- Socialist ideas and principles spread and grow in popularity.
- 1910-1920 The Mexican Revolution
- Land reform was a key issue.
- 1917-1918 The Russian Revolution
- Bolsheviks come to power, execute royal family, and dismantle the Czarist state.
- 1949 The Chinese Revolution
- China goes from a nationalist liberation struggle to communist revolution with a primarily peasant army.
- 1959 The Cuban Revolution
- Under U.S. control since 1898 and the U.S. intervention in the Cuban struggle, Cubans make several attempts to overthrow foreign rule and the local collaborators.
- July 26 Movement finally achieves victory.
- Cuba embodies the propaganda problem of a successful revolutionary example.
- 1945-1992 “Third World” Revolution
- Africa
- Americas
- East and South Asia
- The Pacific
- Western Asia
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