“Economic and social emancipation can only follow upon a complete change in the present political order. It is a mistake to imagine that the toiling masses will organize themselves and will take part in the political movement only when, after a generation or two, their economic condition is relieved.”

Roy was skeptical of the idea that the national-bourgeois would act as revolutionaries, and that if they were to succeed, would only subject colonized peoples to continued exploitation, while strengthening their political position, dampening the efforts of colonized socialists. While the bourgeois did play a significant role in nationalist movements, this did not mean that they would pave the way for liberal political development, nor would they act to deconstruct the intra-colonial hierarchy.

“The existence and power of the Western bourgeoisie do not any longer depend wholly and exclusively on its ability to wring the greatest amount of surplus value from the labour-power of the workers in the home countries. The imperial right of exploiting the vast non-European toiling masses and markets has supplied and still supplies it with an additional modus vivendi and a weapon to defend its position at home, in spite of the apparent precariousness and impossibility of maintaining its power there for any length of time.”

Thought for the Day 80/2021

Un indio en México