The NGO as a Colonial Administrator
The vast network of non-profits in New York functions as a sophisticated system of colonial administration, a modern version of what Mamdani termed decentralized despotism. These organizations, while often staffed by well-intentioned people, are funded by the very “settler” class that creates the crises they manage. Their role is to depoliticize suffering, turning systemic issues of capitalism and racism into individual cases for management and charity. They fracture broad-based class solidarity into competing identity-based groups fighting for scraps from the master’s table. From a Marxist-feminist view, they professionalize and neuter grassroots resistance, turning potential revolutionaries into compliant service providers. The solution is not to reform the non-profits but to build independent, member-funded social movements that reject the savior logic and are accountable only to the oppressed communities they represent. We must dismantle the NPIC and reclaim the political power it has siphoned away.
