April 24, 6 p.m. EST / April 25, 9 a.m. AEDT
A public webinar hosted by Socialist Resurgence (national) and Socialist Resurgence CT
Register here:
Since the founding of the modern Chinese state, the inhabitants of Xinjiang have occupied a proverbial “borderland.” Not quite citizens and not quite outsiders, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other ethnic groups in the region represent an unsolved “problem” to the Chinese government. As capitalist social relations and internal class divisions deepened, beginning in the 1990s, the businesses of Chinese and international imperialism have increasing drives to exploit the region and its people.
Xinjiang is home not only to large oil reserves but also has become the center of polysilicon production, a key component in solar-power production. Around 35% of the world’s polysilicon comes from Xinjiang. The simultaneous existence of material resources and the need for cheap labor create a double knot of displacement and precarization led by the Chinese state and supported by multi-national corporations. These economic forces have led to political repression and surveillance of Muslims in Xinjiang, most notoriously in the form of wide reaching “re-education” camps.
At the same time, representatives of the U.S. and European ruling classes are crying crocodile tears about Chinese human rights violations. As the deportation regimes on both sides of the Atlantic expand, politicians like Marco Rubio have the audacity to call for sanctions against China to “protect” the people living in Xinjiang. History shows that European and U.S imperialism will actually be deadly foes of democracy and dignity for this population.
Join Socialist Resurgence Connecticut and other activists for a panel discussion on the recent history of Uyghur repression and what it means for the international movements against war and imperialism and for solidarity with the oppressed everywhere.
Speakers include:
David Brophy: Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese History and author of “Uyghur Nation: Reform and Revolution on the Russia-China Frontier”
Serwi Huseyin: Uyghur Activist and survivor of re-education camps
Osman Keshawarz: Member of Socialist Resurgence; PhD Candidate of Economics at University of Massachusetts, Amherst
More speakers to be announced!