“Eating the Apple of the World” - Social Investigation and Class Analysis with Dani Manibat

Jul 13, 2024

Dani Manibat, an organizer in the National Democratic Movement in the Philippines, talks about the importance of social investigation and class analysis from a Marxist perspective. They delve into understanding societal classes, critique of science, representation of black and LGBT individuals in media, class rejectionism, and revolutionary perspectives on gay marriage in the Philippines.

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INSIGHT

Social Investigation Explained

Social investigation and class analysis involve understanding the flux in society and analyzing the twists in social forces.
It requires gathering data, synthesizing it collectively, and making actionable conclusions relevant to activism and organizing.

INSIGHT

Praxeological Entanglement of Class

Class is best understood as entangled human activities, not fixed categories.
Class relations emerge from interactions shaped by ownership and participation over time.

ANECDOTE

Winning Trust Amid Contradictions

In Philippine election campaigns, some support both reactionary regimes and progressive lines due to shared local struggles.
Persistent engagement with clear political goals helped resolve cognitive dissonance and deepen activism.

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In this episode we welcome Dani Manibat to the podcast.

Dani Manibat is an organizer in the National Democratic Movement in the Philippines and this article was written for the journal Material. Recently we hosted another conversation with J. Moufawad-Paul on Settler Ideology on our YouTube channel.

A little bit about Material from their website:

“Material’s editorial framework is guided by a Maoist perspective, and so, this journal is a platform for contending schools of thought with non-antagonistic contradictions—for revolutionary communist thought: the kind of thinking that agrees capitalism cannot be reformed, that actual revolutionary work is required, and that collaboration with any kind of liberal or conservative thinking is exactly that, collaboration.”

Dani’s essay, “The Marxist Framework and Attitude on Social Investigation and Class Analysis” is available for free online and I’ve linked it in the show notes. I have also included a link to Foreign Languages Press, which is a great press for Marxist work, particularly from the Maoist perspective, but also including many classics of Marxism and Marxism-Leninism in their webshop.

From the article description: “This essay is an ongoing product of discussions and conferences among Filipino Marxist and national democratic youth organizers as we attempt to deepen our understanding of Social Investigation and Class Analysis (SICA) work. It is in this light that not only is there a necessity to underline the importance of SICA work for the Filipino youth, but also to give some pointers on what to look for, what to watch out for, as well as have theoretical discussions on social classes.”

I’ll add that this conversation and the essay work well together, you can get more of the theory behind SICA and how one might think about the process perhaps from the essay itself, where as here we have a wider ranging conversation on practice and some examples of how these things might look in the day to day.

There is a portion of the conversation where Dani references a graphic, I will note that section when we get there. I have uploaded the video from that section of the interview so people can see the graphic that Dani is describing as he is talking about that. And I will link that in the show notes.

To support our work please become a patreon of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links:

the video of Dani explaining class alignments

“The Marxist Framework and Attitude on Social Investigation and Class Analysis”

Foreign Languages Press

FLP's webshop.

Material's webpage