Don't worry, I won't make this a rant about what dialect materialism is. If you as a reader are not aware of what dialect materialism is then feel free to google it before continuing to read this post. This will be about what is material fact in the US and the west in general in re-guards to the left.
In western nations (especially imperialist ones) there is a strong tendency among the left to throw logic and reality out of the window at every chance. The left is fractured, sectarian, ignorant of the masses wishes and desires. Most parties or groups in the Western nations believe they are leading the struggle for socialism. The US alone has about 10-15 self-proclaimed vanguard parties leading the revolution for communism!
But in reality the left in the US is completely unknown outside of the left in the US. The organizations in this country would prefer to criticize each other and bicker over everything then they would to unite and struggle for what the people desperately need; socialism.
Most all parties live in a utopian idealist setting where every time a group of people get upset they declare that socialism is winning and we are right around the corner from the revolution. Now lets be clear that no party in existence in the US is prepared for said revolution. Hell, most parties aren't ready to win 5% in a local election (with the exception of the socialist parties USA who just won a seat on a board of education in new jersey, congrats.)
See, in most all successful revolutions the party/organization leading the charge was not a specific ideology ready to split or kick people out for the smallest line difference at it's founding congress.
It is almost as if there was a secret meeting by all the leftist in the first world (with a few exceptions) where it was declared that all the left parties that are mainly unknown and not relevant whatsoever; must make their parties adherents follow and parrot a such sickly specific set of politics that the groups show little to no democratic potential. The "democratic" centralism practiced by most left parties in the US come off as drones who all mimic each other and have no thought process for themselves. So they take an already irrelevant group of organizers and then say to outsiders; 'you must follow our politics set by our leaders and parrot exactly what we say or else we will expel you from our group. Can we have your due's now.'
The left in the first world nations are so self defeating that it is depressing. We will literally split and fight over anything.
Socialist revolutions are won because the socialist of said nation are willing to put aside silly issues and unite with other socialist/communist in the name of... wait for it... SOCIALISM! The left (for privileged reasons of course) in the west would rather argue over shit that happened in a different time, place and under different conditions then they would debate what we communist can do today to win the ultimate victory.
The left is already irrelevant, fractured and unwilling to look at material conditions in order to fight for socialism.
Democracy is almost ignored, the masses can't connect to the parties because the parties set themselves apart from the masses by complaining about issues the masses don't care about. The masses don't know about socialism or anarchism enough to know rather there will be a state or not. Why do the elite/cadre of the left argue over things that only the proletarian masses will decide if a socialist revolution is achieved?
The left in the US, and the UK are psychotically sectarian (in the actual meaning of the word) to the point we have multiple parties with the same ideology that exist separately because they refuse to unite either for opportunistic reasons or worse; individualistic pride in their said group.
So there is the rant part now lets actually list some material truth about the left in the western nations.
We suck at showing the kind of democracy we want to enact after the revolution. It is confusing for the masses to see strict democratic centralism and then hear us speak of workers democracy.
The days of the one party/one ideology state/government are over. No one wants to be ruled by one clique of people. There will have to be greater democracy in any socialist revolution then there has been in the past.
Identity politics (while important to fight for on many issues) is not the end all be all. Just because your group goes to a LGBT rights event does not mean that the whole LGBT community in your area will now support socialism. Same goes for race etc. We need to make clear that under socialist society all people regardless of race, sex, hair color etc.will be equal and we stand for an egalitarian society based on co-operation and understanding.
We have an issue with complaining about the current thing that is upsetting leftist at any given time without putting forward a concrete unified statement as to why we as socialist oppose or support whatever it is that is popular at that time.
We have to get the hippie/pacifist element out of our revolutionary circles. It discredits us as a whole and every time something big happens the media just finds the hippie grouping and interviews them and instantly a whole movement is seen by the nation as a bunch of stoner peace loving hippies that have nothing better to do than to protest.
We are really bad at propaganda and using the media to our advantage. After the local occupy was put down (they literally singled out and beat the shit out of the radicals that were present) by the pigs, the leaders (of the leaderless occupy) were asked by a news station "what is occupy's response to the police actions here last night." and the guy said (no shitting you) "we were not able to reach a consensus on a statement for what happened last night."
Most groups are too single minded and only utilize one or two forums of organizing. Workerist are pretty plenty among the left but that is for a different post I suppose.
There are too many groups and parties ORGs etc.
The masses are scared right now. The job market is not stable, the state is poor and still starting and getting involved in conflicts and cutting welfare services. People are pissed. Where is the left? We are on the sidelines complaining about socialism in one country or if Lin Piao was actually guilty. Or if the Hungarian revolution was reactionary or not? Was Tienanmen revolutionary or counter? We should all quit as socialist and become professional historian debaters because it appears that that is all the left wishes to be. We in the west/first world are in such a privileged position that we have put the main goal (communism/classless stateless society) on the back burner and have forgotten all about it. Why should we fight for socialism today when we could argue about what happened yesterday? Forward to more obscurity comrades! Forward to make sure no one is lying about what we conceived to have happened almost a hundred years ago! Revolution will come! No need to organize, we must argue amongst ourselves first!
*disclaimer for this post; obviously this is a very generalized criticism and not every statement/comment applies to every group. First world privilege is a very real threat to the left in the first world. I am willing to work with most anyone who wants a future run and controlled by the masses for the masses.
Showing posts with label american left. Show all posts
Showing posts with label american left. Show all posts
Monday, July 15, 2013
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Right-Wing Communism; A Privilaged Disorder
The elections are coming up soon, and it is time again for the right wing of the communist movement to brush off their copy of Lenin's "Left-Wing Communism an infantile disorder" and incorrectly quote it to the end of the earth to avoid having to support boycotts or any revolutionary action what so ever... again.
Why do they do this? What is there to gain from this tactic of participating in the system that keeps the people oppressed? It can't be because 'that's where the masses are' barely 40% vote in midterm elections and the last presidential election (the highest election turn out in the nations history) a little over 60% voted and look at the area's with the highest voter turn out. Its not hard to see that mainly the capitalist and upper bourgeoisie along with upper middle class are the voters. (I wonder why socialist do so bad in our elections)
They have this behavior simply because they are in a privileged position in the worlds order. They are not starving, they have clean running water, Probably had access to higher education. Most communist I hear spout this garbage of participating in the elections have had university educations and would be considered more intelligentsia than proletariat. I don't have running water where I live. Only one electric socket works where I live. I'm lucky enough to have a person nice enough to let me use their wireless internet. What I'm getting at is that people who constantly attack the left-wing (people like me) for wanting to boycott elections (the system that allows me to live in these situations) do so because they do not want to struggle. They have no need to struggle. They are fine with how their lives are under capitalism/imperialism.
I'm not saying that I am not happy that these right-wingers want communism eventually. I'm just saying it makes me upset when someone with an android Cellular phone and a 2009 model car tells me that I am a bad communist if I boycott the elections.
While I'm ranting about privilege of the US communist movement I'd like to bring up internationalism and imperialism. Using the elections as a way to 'further the goal of socialism' is a failed tactic that has been tried and true to failure for almost a century. But why are people that are claiming to be socialist/communist still supporting running in elections that only decide what face will be the new poster child for imperialism? The reason we need to boycott is to show international solidarity with our brothers and sister in the third world nations that are struggling in a way us in the US and other imperialist nations could never dream of. These people needs socialism and self determination so they can make an increase in their living standards and stamp out malnutrition and poverty as a whole. As long as the US and other nations can imperialistically dominate the third world and the communist in those nations participate in the system that does this exploiting we can not count ourselves as true internationalist.
Simply repeating slogans such as "free Palestine" "no war on (insert current nation we are planning on invading here)" "out of Afghanistan now" does not make you an internationalist. Action makes you what you are. Boycotting the system that causes most of the world to live in mega slums and slave like conditions, that is showing international solidarity brothers and sisters. Fuck participating in elections as an end goal. Or even a long term goal. People are starving and working for nothing and have nothing in most of the world. Those people need to know that the communist living in the belly of the beast are not counting on the system that is causing their misery to destroy the system that is causing their misery.
Why do they do this? What is there to gain from this tactic of participating in the system that keeps the people oppressed? It can't be because 'that's where the masses are' barely 40% vote in midterm elections and the last presidential election (the highest election turn out in the nations history) a little over 60% voted and look at the area's with the highest voter turn out. Its not hard to see that mainly the capitalist and upper bourgeoisie along with upper middle class are the voters. (I wonder why socialist do so bad in our elections)
They have this behavior simply because they are in a privileged position in the worlds order. They are not starving, they have clean running water, Probably had access to higher education. Most communist I hear spout this garbage of participating in the elections have had university educations and would be considered more intelligentsia than proletariat. I don't have running water where I live. Only one electric socket works where I live. I'm lucky enough to have a person nice enough to let me use their wireless internet. What I'm getting at is that people who constantly attack the left-wing (people like me) for wanting to boycott elections (the system that allows me to live in these situations) do so because they do not want to struggle. They have no need to struggle. They are fine with how their lives are under capitalism/imperialism.
I'm not saying that I am not happy that these right-wingers want communism eventually. I'm just saying it makes me upset when someone with an android Cellular phone and a 2009 model car tells me that I am a bad communist if I boycott the elections.
While I'm ranting about privilege of the US communist movement I'd like to bring up internationalism and imperialism. Using the elections as a way to 'further the goal of socialism' is a failed tactic that has been tried and true to failure for almost a century. But why are people that are claiming to be socialist/communist still supporting running in elections that only decide what face will be the new poster child for imperialism? The reason we need to boycott is to show international solidarity with our brothers and sister in the third world nations that are struggling in a way us in the US and other imperialist nations could never dream of. These people needs socialism and self determination so they can make an increase in their living standards and stamp out malnutrition and poverty as a whole. As long as the US and other nations can imperialistically dominate the third world and the communist in those nations participate in the system that does this exploiting we can not count ourselves as true internationalist.
Simply repeating slogans such as "free Palestine" "no war on (insert current nation we are planning on invading here)" "out of Afghanistan now" does not make you an internationalist. Action makes you what you are. Boycotting the system that causes most of the world to live in mega slums and slave like conditions, that is showing international solidarity brothers and sisters. Fuck participating in elections as an end goal. Or even a long term goal. People are starving and working for nothing and have nothing in most of the world. Those people need to know that the communist living in the belly of the beast are not counting on the system that is causing their misery to destroy the system that is causing their misery.
Friday, June 17, 2011
The Schizophrenic American Left and Their Annoyingly Bleeding Heart Papers.
One of the best ways to advance an issue or to accomplish something that surrounds a certain issue is to stay on topic and keep the issue in the mouths of the people. That is to say that you need focus on a issue to keep it popular and stick to it. Anyone who has a facebook account can tell just how ADHD the left is in the US. One day we are attacking the police for the murder of Oscar Grant and as soon as another hot issue comes out the left opportunistically raises that issue as their own and then abandon it as soon as the next hot issue comes out.
I will use Oscar Grant as a good point in this case. Oscar Grant's photo was on everyone's facebook profile picture one day and every other post had something to do with the murder of Oscar Grant. But as soon as the next hot button issue came up all the left groups flocked away from the Oscar Grant issue and picked up the next issue almost as if Oscar Grant had never been murdered by the police.
Right now as of June 17th there are no issues that are being picked up by all the groups so of course now the groups and individuals are turning on each other. Attacking Syria, Libya, China, Cuba or any other nation that is not imperialist/capitalist if you are a member of the ISO. The left really needs to take up an issue and stick to it. Other wise we should never expect to be able to sway public opinion.
We have a rare chance in history when the news is becoming democratic and everyone has a say but instead we are just chasing around going from issue to issue. This not only does not help us to shape public opinion but it makes all of these groups seem opportunistic trying to get attention however they can. Remember when every left groups webpage was nothing but pages about the Wisconsin issue? The Wisconsin supreme court just made the union busting bill a law(1) (2)but since the issue is no longer popular to carry not very many left groups are picking up the issue. Notice how all the socialist parties were gun-hoe to pack up and go to Madison when there was camera's everywhere and people they could sell their papers to. Now there is no large commotion over the bill actually becoming law. In fact as of me writing this only FRSO-FB had an article on the matter out of what I see as the four most influential socialist org's (FRSO, PSL, Kasama, SP-USA).
This is an issue that should have never left the left's mouth til it was resolved and bargaining rights were insured. This inability to stick to an issue has cost the left dearly through out the years and unless there is some change made then it will continue to do nothing but hurt the American left.
BLEEDING HEART NEWS PAPERS!
What is the reason why everyone that is on the left of a conservative hates FOX news? Because they are grossly biased and only give one side of the story that best benefits their cause.
This applies to most socialist news sources here in the US as well. No one right of a socialist wants to read your paper because it is too bleeding heart and thus annoying. You can't be a respected news source when your argument is always "they are fascist, racist, bigots" etc etc etc. That is not news it is opinion and not to mention it de-sensitizes the words. By the time a fascist does come to power no one besides socialist will see it coming because in the leftist news scene every republican is a fascist or non-socialist is a fascist. Most people in the US do not even know what a fascist is.
No body wants to read a bleeding heart paper except bleeding heart activist. I'm sure people that are not bleeding hearts buy these papers but I doubt even 98% of people who buy these papers are going to go out and get involved the next day because they were moved by the papers contents.
I think this is a reason why Kasama is becoming a communist house hold name. Their articles are very very rarely bleeding heart and they have content, facts and explanation. I can't say the same for many other news sources on the US left. Most groups paper or website mainly sounds like they are yelling bleeding heart crap at you. You cannot make a article attacking the government as fascist for arresting protesters then have another article defending the Hungarian suppression by the USSR (sorry tankies but I won't defend it). Yes this tactic will get you praise from your own parties members and other groups who have the same line. However the rest of the nation will just see you as heavily biased with no content in your news and you are thus discredited.
What's worse is that with a small little line they could change all of this. All that has to be done is write somewhere on your paper/website "this is an opinion paper meant to reflect this organizations ideas and thought on current issues." This would let the outsiders reading the material know that it is meant to be a slant view and not a un-biased news source.
Here is one great example of bleeding heart stuff: "out of Afghanistan now!" Okay let us pick this bleeding hart statement apart. The government is not afraid of this slogan and here is why: when a bleeding heart activist says this, the government replies "or what?" "We get out of Afghanistan now or what are you going to do?"The fact that you are making a demand without a consequence makes you a joke to the people you are pointing the demand at in the first place.
bleeding heart language discredits you on many fronts, starting with credibility and ending with how serious people think you are as revolutionaries. Not everyone is guilty of this but I want to see the left stop with all the bleeding heart language and false posturing and starting using the tools at hand correctly. I write a blog because realistically this is the greatest way for me to express my ideas and thoughts on issues .
In today's world where the internet is allowing for the news to be democratized there is no reason why socialist and communist are not having more influence on public opinion. But as long as this bleeding heart language is being used we can not expect to sway public opinion. Fox news can get away with it because they have millions and millions of dollars to be on cable TV. We do not so we must use facts to sway public opinion .
Dustin Slagle
(1)http://consumerist.com/2011/06/wisconsin-supremes-reinstate-collective-bargaining-law.html
(2)http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/15/us-wisconsin-unions-lawsuit-idUSTRE75E5L520110615
I will use Oscar Grant as a good point in this case. Oscar Grant's photo was on everyone's facebook profile picture one day and every other post had something to do with the murder of Oscar Grant. But as soon as the next hot button issue came up all the left groups flocked away from the Oscar Grant issue and picked up the next issue almost as if Oscar Grant had never been murdered by the police.
Right now as of June 17th there are no issues that are being picked up by all the groups so of course now the groups and individuals are turning on each other. Attacking Syria, Libya, China, Cuba or any other nation that is not imperialist/capitalist if you are a member of the ISO. The left really needs to take up an issue and stick to it. Other wise we should never expect to be able to sway public opinion.
We have a rare chance in history when the news is becoming democratic and everyone has a say but instead we are just chasing around going from issue to issue. This not only does not help us to shape public opinion but it makes all of these groups seem opportunistic trying to get attention however they can. Remember when every left groups webpage was nothing but pages about the Wisconsin issue? The Wisconsin supreme court just made the union busting bill a law(1) (2)but since the issue is no longer popular to carry not very many left groups are picking up the issue. Notice how all the socialist parties were gun-hoe to pack up and go to Madison when there was camera's everywhere and people they could sell their papers to. Now there is no large commotion over the bill actually becoming law. In fact as of me writing this only FRSO-FB had an article on the matter out of what I see as the four most influential socialist org's (FRSO, PSL, Kasama, SP-USA).
This is an issue that should have never left the left's mouth til it was resolved and bargaining rights were insured. This inability to stick to an issue has cost the left dearly through out the years and unless there is some change made then it will continue to do nothing but hurt the American left.
BLEEDING HEART NEWS PAPERS!
What is the reason why everyone that is on the left of a conservative hates FOX news? Because they are grossly biased and only give one side of the story that best benefits their cause.
This applies to most socialist news sources here in the US as well. No one right of a socialist wants to read your paper because it is too bleeding heart and thus annoying. You can't be a respected news source when your argument is always "they are fascist, racist, bigots" etc etc etc. That is not news it is opinion and not to mention it de-sensitizes the words. By the time a fascist does come to power no one besides socialist will see it coming because in the leftist news scene every republican is a fascist or non-socialist is a fascist. Most people in the US do not even know what a fascist is.
No body wants to read a bleeding heart paper except bleeding heart activist. I'm sure people that are not bleeding hearts buy these papers but I doubt even 98% of people who buy these papers are going to go out and get involved the next day because they were moved by the papers contents.
I think this is a reason why Kasama is becoming a communist house hold name. Their articles are very very rarely bleeding heart and they have content, facts and explanation. I can't say the same for many other news sources on the US left. Most groups paper or website mainly sounds like they are yelling bleeding heart crap at you. You cannot make a article attacking the government as fascist for arresting protesters then have another article defending the Hungarian suppression by the USSR (sorry tankies but I won't defend it). Yes this tactic will get you praise from your own parties members and other groups who have the same line. However the rest of the nation will just see you as heavily biased with no content in your news and you are thus discredited.
What's worse is that with a small little line they could change all of this. All that has to be done is write somewhere on your paper/website "this is an opinion paper meant to reflect this organizations ideas and thought on current issues." This would let the outsiders reading the material know that it is meant to be a slant view and not a un-biased news source.
Here is one great example of bleeding heart stuff: "out of Afghanistan now!" Okay let us pick this bleeding hart statement apart. The government is not afraid of this slogan and here is why: when a bleeding heart activist says this, the government replies "or what?" "We get out of Afghanistan now or what are you going to do?"The fact that you are making a demand without a consequence makes you a joke to the people you are pointing the demand at in the first place.
bleeding heart language discredits you on many fronts, starting with credibility and ending with how serious people think you are as revolutionaries. Not everyone is guilty of this but I want to see the left stop with all the bleeding heart language and false posturing and starting using the tools at hand correctly. I write a blog because realistically this is the greatest way for me to express my ideas and thoughts on issues .
In today's world where the internet is allowing for the news to be democratized there is no reason why socialist and communist are not having more influence on public opinion. But as long as this bleeding heart language is being used we can not expect to sway public opinion. Fox news can get away with it because they have millions and millions of dollars to be on cable TV. We do not so we must use facts to sway public opinion .
Dustin Slagle
(1)http://consumerist.com/2011/06/wisconsin-supremes-reinstate-collective-bargaining-law.html
(2)http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/15/us-wisconsin-unions-lawsuit-idUSTRE75E5L520110615
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