(1921-2001)
Revolutionary Métis Marxist scholar
and professor Howard Adams grew up
in a Métis community in Saskatchewan.
He was a leader in the struggle for
Indigenous rights, self-determination,
and socialism.
In the struggle for liberation, the native people are asked to put their confidence in the good intentions of the colonizers. While it is true that certain decolonialization is taking place, it is false to pretend that it is the result of the changing nature of man and state. The optimism that prevails today for liberation is not based on the fact that capitalism is becoming more humane or that colonialism is becoming more just. It is simply that the advanced liberal corporate state is able to co-opt native nationalism and revolutionary consciousness. Even our own revolutionary rhetoric has become an integral part of advanced capitalism.
We are told that the enemy, colonialism, is the historical oppressor. But we make no mistake that our oppression is in the forms and institutions of colonialism, and it its manifestations, such as racial stereotypes, Indian bureaucracies, welfare, prisons, etc. Only be transforming the objective conditions can we put a final end to colonialism.
Excerpt from "Prison of Grass"(1989)
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