Counterinsurgency 0 - Prelude

DinDeng

Counterinsurgency. Or: How The Reactionary State & Capital Couped The Common Forest

At the turn of the 20th century, capital utilised the state to enforce a program of counterinsurgency. This program had two targets:

Target 1. Communism.

Target 2. Anything else antithetical to market relations, be it natural farmers, or peasants utilising common forest land.

Both are targets, which are inextricably tied to the forest.

In this series, we intend to investigate and demonstrate how deforestation, modern social sciences, contemporary farming practices and yankee imperialism developed market forces via counterinsurgency in the 20th century, leading to the mass enclosure of a once wild and free landscape, the forest, a space that was once sanctum and a refuge for those fleeing subjugation.

In short, this will be, for the most part, a political ecology reading of counterinsurgency, what we call, the coup of the forest.

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In this episode, we will introduce the series and spend the rest of the time reading a short story from one of Isaan’s greatest writers, Phu Kradat, who graciously permitted us to read from his book.

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All music we used can be found in this playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3E6imAcIOd2AjxZ3wgE1AA?si=3f0ce435ee4f4e77