From the original article, which condemns the toppling of one of Lincoln’s many monuments:

“Ripped from this historical context, the tragic events that took place in Minnesota 158 years ago are manipulated to portray Lincoln as a racist no different from those who called for the extermination of the Native populations.”

Discussion on World Socialist Web Site  16 comments

Lincoln, the Dakota 38 and the racialist falsification of history

Random PosterRandom Poster 2 years ago

This history has special relevance this week as an Islamophobic official now has the top position in the Defense Department.

https://news.yahoo.com/pent…

Trump’s appointment refers to Islam as “most oppressive violent religion I know of.” The WSWS version of history would excuse such appointments. Instead, these statements should disqualify him from serving in such a high position within the government. Why do you eliminate the actual language of the counter-revolution?View in discussion

Random Poster 2 years ago

The exact text of Lincoln’s execution order:

“Ordered that of the Indians and Half-breeds sentenced to be hanged by the military commission…”

( http://law2.umkc.edu/facult…
)

This racist language of “half-breeds”, hidden, protected and defended by the WSWS, threatens the entire revolutionary project. An honest historical account would not hide these phrases from the readership.

From the LA Times, quoted from an 1866 letter during Red Cloud’s War:

“… The advice William Tecumseh Sherman gave to President Ulysses S. Grant: ‘First clear off the buffalo, then clear off the Indian. We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux even to their total extermination–men, women and children.’”

https://www.latimes.com/arc…

The Native American tribes had to accept defeat due to the near-extinction of the buffalo caused by an extermination campaign organized by the US Army. This followed previous extermination campaigns using small pox. A similar campaign against the U.S. would see all the cows, pigs, and chickens massacred to near extinction as a part of an extermination campaign. This would lead to the death of millions if not tens of millions of people.View in discussion

Random Poster 2 years ago

Petty bourgeois moralizing may account for some, but not all of the opposition to Lincoln. Assuming the Republicans really had a revolutionary party, they should not have bowed down at all to the backwardness of the Minnesota settlers. They should have countered the Confederacy’s recognition of a Sioux state with recognition of various other states and a federation of independent Native American states. Rather than smashing the rebellion, they could have armed it and prepared it for statehood.

This does not mean we elevate ourselves by judging historical figures by different standards. We must rather propose that a revolution will not take root and systematic counter-revolutionary violence will put in place a system of privileges that form the foundation for the restoration of the old order. A revolutionary party must support national independence first, above federalism, and federalism second as option given to the people through referendum. To the greatest extent possible, the revolution must support local autonomy while offering unity on a voluntary basis. This can only occur if an uncompromising revolutionary party gets into power and declares its purpose openly from the very beginning of any possible civil war. The trouble with the WSWS perspective shows through when Lincoln’s own generals’ letters call for genocide rather than liberation of the slaves.

As before, the toppling of monuments represents the toppling of the government. The toppling of the monuments happened concurrently with some of the largest voter participation rates in 2018 in 2020. A revolutionary movement wants to replace the government and uproot the entire economic and social order on which it is based. In this sense, a revolutionary movement must consider the opening of the border with Mexico in relation to a return of territory to the Native Americans as well as states with quotas that reserve 90% of elected offices for African Americans descended from slaves. Only a full struggle for the liberation of oppressed nations and oppressed classes will unite the American working class with its real allies throughout the world. Only these new states, based on a united socialist economy can form the foundation for a new revolutionary society.