lawas

lawas OP , 18 hours ago

On a related note, Coalition Politics: Turning the Century by Bernice Johnson Reagan is a rather entertaining and thought provoking piece based on a presentation at the 1981 West Coast Women’s Music Festival about coalition building. She talks about coalition building and the importance of protecting yourself and your own values while coalescing with others. Short, sweet and very relevant for the left in a time when a mass movement is sorely needed.

https://web.colby.edu/ed332/files/2010/08/Coalition-Politics.pdf

lawas , 1 day ago

@gentrifiedrose @hannu_ikonen Yeah there isn’t really a unified left in the U.S. at the moment, which is why I think that the immediate task of the American left is to form a mass organization outside of the Democratic Party.

I don’t think the left will be a real force in the U.S. again until we stop chaining ourselves to the least-bad bourgeois party.

lawas , 1 day ago

@CStamp @gentrifiedrose @hannu_ikonen I don’t really think that’s a big issue. More a distraction really.

We need a mass left (not liberal) movement, not a candidate that can win a bourgeois election. American institutions exist to protect the rule of capital, and frankly we’re not going to change that operating exclusively within the bounds of the bourgeois electoral system.

We’re not going to vote our way out of this mess, so overemphasizing elections is actually detrimental.

lawas , 1 day ago

@michaelgemar @gentrifiedrose @hannu_ikonen The majority of elections are won by the person who spends the most money. We’re not going to win by playing their game, they can always outspend the rest of us. It was designed that way.

The U.S. political structure as it stands has to be destroyed. It exists to preserve the dictatorship of the rich. Insisting we play by the rules they write is dooming us to failure, hence the need to organize outside the establishment.

lawas , 1 day ago

@Pagan_Animist @gentrifiedrose @hannu_ikonen I’m not always opposed to voting in bourgeois elections if it means material gains for workers, but it needs to be stressed that defeating Trump this year is not the same as defeating fascism, which grows out of capitalism in crisis.

The mechanisms that allow people like him to get power will remain in place under Biden because they represent the same capitalist system. Dems don’t serve our interests either.

lawas , 1 hour ago

@EdSanders @gentrifiedrose @hannu_ikonen Is there really a better argument for taking it over?

You just said yourself that our current parties have an interest in maintaining our current system and we all know money fuels politics, so what makes you think taking control of the existing apparatus is possible?

We need to end capitalism and that’s not going to happen using a party built to support capital’s rule.

lawas , 1 hour ago

What you’re describing is what Marxists call reformism. It’s been tried before, taking the “peaceful” and “practical” path to socialism, and it resulted in the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy and Austria when moderate ruling parties suppressed an active workers movement and allied with the capitalists against the communists.

This has also led to the demolition of the CPUSA and the weakening of labor unions. Now more than ever we need a party that actually represents workers.

lawas OP , 2 days ago

He talks like a radical but has proved to be pretty hostile to actual radicals. In effect, he’s just prolonging the status quo. Like other prominent liberals, he actually acts as an another defense for the rule of capital by endlessly belittling and misrepresenting real left movements. #communism #socialism

lawas OP , 2 days ago

His views on the socialism and communism range from unhelpful to actively harmful. For someone who’s made a career out of being critical of the U.S. state, he’s sure spent a lot of time talking shit about the leftists who are actually trying to challenge that power.

He’s just another liberal. His fairly accurate criticisms of the U.S. state fall flat when he wags his finger at revolutionaries and insists we can co-op our way to anarchism or something.

lawas OP , 1 day ago

A few articles critical of Chomsky with a lot of great references to all the dumb shit he’s said over the years.

https://libcom.org/article/when-chomsky-worked-weapons-systems-pentagon-chris-knight

https://www.marxist.com/noam-chomsky-marxism-authoritarianism1151004.htm

https://dashthered.medium.com/the-anti-chomsk%C3%BFng-66dcd8224729

lawas OP , 1 day ago

@corq @Radical_EgoCom Huh?

The problem is that Chomsky very obviously is NOT knowledgeable on Marxism or communism in general. His “critiques” are not based on anything meaningful. If you listen to him talk about the USSR, for example, you’ll see he employs very little “nuance” in the way he talks about socialist countries.

His dishonest critiques directed at numerous revolutionary movements only serve to preserve the current ruling order. So yeah, that’s bad.

lawas OP , 1 day ago

@dobody @corq @Radical_EgoCom Sorry but you have no idea what you’re talking about. Chomsky is literally wrong when he talks about communism and other leftist movements. His critiques are not meaningful. By spreading misinformation about revolutionary movements, he actually impedes social progress.

Sorry that I actually care about making the world a better place I guess ¯_(ツ)_/¯

lawas OP , 19 hours ago

@dobody @corq @Radical_EgoCom I posted about Chomsky spreading misinformation. Like actual factual errors.

Your response to that was something like “Silly leftist treating politics like religion!”

You completely missed the point just to take shots at me and imply my point was emotional and unreasonable.

If you want a constructive response, offer a constructive critique or ask a question. I’m always happy to explain my reasoning when asked.

You get what you give.

lawas , 4 days ago

@Radical_EgoCom Shame to see how far CPUSA has fallen. I mean how does a communist party renounce Marxism-Leninism and the idea of revolution?

Revisionism and reformism must be combatted at every turn. It always leads to failure.

lawas , 5 days ago

@Savvyhomestead @appassionato @palestine Because Biden is literally sending Israel weapons being used to murder people indiscriminately. If he wanted to do something about it, he could, but he’s choosing not to.

lawas , 7 days ago

@Radical_EgoCom “A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” -Mao Tse Tung

lawas , 9 days ago

@wallamidyl @PacificNic Right? Nazi settler colonialism was literally based on the way Americans settled and exterminated the native population in the states. The USA showed the way, they just had to follow.

A violent, racist state from the very beginning.

lawas , 9 days ago

@wallamidyl @PacificNic You’re totally right, and that’s what makes it so hard for me to engage with liberals. They don’t see the state as it really is, a weapon for class domination. Liberal democracy is nothing more than democracy in name.

Fascism is capitalism in decay/crisis. It’s the system gathering forces to protect itself. People want to treat the symptoms without addressing the cause and that’s the case with so many social issues Dems claim to support.

lawas , 9 days ago

@violetmadder @wallamidyl @PacificNic

“From an indigenous perspective, basically the Nazis won and we're all speaking German right now.”

Wow, that really puts it in perspective. Totally stealing this quote in the future, that was very well put!!

lawas , 9 days ago

@dacig Chiquita (United Fruit Company) continues its long and storied history of committing atrocities in Latin America in pursuit of profit. The 1954 Guatemala coup they supported is probably still the standard model for crushing a democracy. Shameful.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if, in several decades, some CIA document gets declassified revealing intelligence operations in Mexico.

lawas , 9 days ago

@Radical_EgoCom @theceoofanarchism I think you nailed it there.

The Marxist conception of the state is that it’s a tool of class domination. The organization of the armed proletariat exercising a monopoly on violence would be acting as a “state”, but even Marx and Engels said the dictatorship of the proletariat wouldn’t be a state in the proper sense of the word.

And crucially, they stress the bourgeois state must be destroyed. We can’t simply take hold of the state as is.

lawas , 9 days ago

@M_el_viejo @Radical_EgoCom @theceoofanarchism I’m sure there are other ways to organize, but Marxism-Leninism has proven to be one of the only ideologies to actually overthrow the rule of capital for any significant amount of time.

If we want to win, we need to raise the class-consciousness of the proletariat. There’s no victory without mass support and education. They’re not ready now, but they can be if a real vanguard party leads the way.

lawas , 9 days ago

@Radical_EgoCom @M_el_viejo @theceoofanarchism Any reading you’d recommend on Luxemburg’s tendency? I’ve read Reform or Revolution, a brilliant work, but haven’t really done a deep dive on her stance.

lawas , 9 days ago

@Radical_EgoCom @M_el_viejo @theceoofanarchism I’ll add it to the list! More theory is always good. Thanks comrade!

And just as an aside, I’m really thankful for the Marxists Internet Archive, it’s such an incredible resource.

lawas , 9 days ago

@lzg Lots of people appealing to the “Rule of law” and vaguely gesturing at American ideals of “Freedom and democracy” like their touted bourgeois democracy isn’t what got us here in the first place.

Like news flash, the people enabling the fascists are the same ones who pay the lawmakers and by extension make the rules. Insisting we act only within the bounds of this system is equivalent to advocating surrender.

lawas , 9 days ago

@lerxst @Lilmikesf Yeah it’s hard to reverse the absolute destruction of democracy that the U.S. has orchestrated in Central and South America over the years.

I mean the CIA robbed entire nations of their futures and regularly handed over power to dictators. It’s a really horrifying, shameful, and all too common feature of U.S. imperialism.

I hope it sticks too. But not enough people are concerned about the terrorism the U.S. gov carries out on the reg for big capital.

lawas , 13 days ago

@ChallengeApathy @arstechnica I get that it’s not your thing but have you considered that some people actually derive a benefit from some of these things?

And people don’t all do drugs because they’re depressed. There’s a lot more to it than that.

lawas , 12 days ago

@ChallengeApathy @arstechnica The idea that these things all “fry your brain” is a false one. When used responsibly a lot of things don’t actually cause harm and do the opposite.

MDMA assisted psychotherapy, for example, is often an effective treatment for PTSD. Psilocybin has been effective for treating cluster headaches and depression. These things have proven to have a positive impact in real conditions.

Just because it’s not your path doesn’t mean it’s the wrong one.

lawas , 14 days ago

@vivianshadows People also conveniently forget that the U.S. shielded Nazi scientists/doctors from justice post WWII and employed them to fight the USSR (among other things). They got new names and lived out the rest of their Nazi lives happily. Just normal antifa stuff!

I also love when libs post literal propaganda from this time period unironically. Simping for the U.S. military in any capacity is just gross.

lawas , 15 days ago

@LeftistLawyer @BjarneK If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading R. Palme Dutt’s Fascism and Social Revolution. It’s an older book (1934 I think) but I find it extremely illuminating when it comes to understanding our current state of decline.

He essentially puts forth the view that fascism is capitalism in decay/crisis and explains the rise of fascism quite succinctly in Germany, Austria and Italy.

lawas , 24 days ago

@AnarchoNinaWrites I honestly think the only reason they care about fascism here is because it risks subjecting white people in the U.S. to the state violence the U.S. has always exerted on brown folks in its imperial pursuits. It’s kind of telling that they still can’t put it all together.

Or maybe they can, but realize on some level that their status could impacted by the U.S. being anti-colonial. Either way, there’s no excuses to not know better at this point.

lawas , 1 month ago

@cascadepine Wow wow! Don’t usually see the Olympics from that angle, thanks for sharing

lawas , 1 month ago

@currentbias I also don’t know if most people realize the U.S. is still attempting to support anti-government actions in Cuba via USAID and likely other agencies.

Decades of relentless attacks on the democracy of a nation right in America’s backyard. But hey, Biden did say nothing will fundamentally change, so I guess continuing this economic warfare is par for the course.

lawas , 1 month ago

@corbden I like the idea of anarchy and think most anarchists have an admirable goal. From a Marxist perspective, however, I’d consider anarchism a form of utopian socialism.

Both anarchy and communism have the goal of a classless, stateless society but the abolition of the state is part of an end stage in Marxist thought, not something that can happen at the beginning.

I guess I just think communism has a more developed and realistic plan to reach that end stage.

lawas , 1 month ago

@wallamidyl And people just refer to it all as “foreign policy” and pay no mind to the unending misery the west exports to the global south to make our way of life possible

lawas , 1 month ago

@wallamidyl Right? It’s pretty sad how ubiquitous racist/nationalist ideology is in the “civilized” world even among the progressive liberal types.

Capitalism has stripped so many people of their humanity. We need less national pride and more international solidarity. Cause you’re right, we are all part of the same struggle

lawas , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

@waitworry @portcitystudios @RadicalGraffiti Lol right? There hasn’t been a draft recently, they made a choice.

The U.S. can only carry out its atrocities across the world because people willingly sign up en masse to be its hired guns.

lawas , 1 month ago

@sidereal Yeah it’s pretty obnoxious being Biden-splained constantly. You can’t say anything about the guy without someone explaining in the most condescending way possible why you’re completely wrong and/or a Russian agent.

The left has been begging for meaningful reforms for the working class for years. If the Dems are so worried about the fate of our democracy then why aren’t they doing this stuff and winning?

The Dems are enemies of the working class and it shows.

lawas , 1 month ago

@dbattistella @sidereal I do agree that their purpose is to lose…but I’d like to note the U.S. government has always been a government of the bourgeois. While the messaging might have shifted at some point, Dems have always been insufficient. Just another arm of the ruling class.

Bourgeois democracy is not democracy. We need to smash this system completely before capitalism kills us, and the Democrats aren’t going to help us do that.

lawas , 1 month ago

@janisf @Radical_EgoCom Again, a mass of the working people have to want a systemic change. I’m not interested in forcing people to do anything, I’m interested in raising class consciousness so workers decide to seize the means of production and as a result the full value of their labor.

The reason these people even have to scrimp and save for retirement and work into old age is because of capitalism. Toppling this system built on unequal distribution fixes that problem.

lawas , 1 month ago

@janisf @Radical_EgoCom I’d encourage you to read about some Marxist thought. I didn’t recommend those books to be snarky, I did it because it doesn’t seem like you’re that familiar with communist thought so it’s difficult for me to give good answers in such a short form. Those texts are accessible starting points for understanding the Marxist critique of capitalism and the alternative world we envision. It’s a comprehensive philosophy, not just an economic system.

lawas , 1 month ago

@Radical_EgoCom @janisf @TessRants This. I think the point I was trying to make that was overlooked is that we actually have to convince people to change the system. Educating the working class to prepare them for proletarian rule is a key part of Marxist thought.

We need to convince working people to abandon the system and overthrow the class that work against their self-interest. I wish people would read theory, this has all been covered by thinkers much smarter than us.

lawas , 1 month ago

@janisf @Radical_EgoCom

lawas , 1 month ago

@Radical_EgoCom Okay I’m done with this thread, not worth pouring anymore time explaining concepts basic to the communist worldview to people who keep acknowledging how horrible capitalism is but still want to keep it because some people will be able to retire one day?

I just don’t get it. Bending over backwards to justify and perpetuate this mess we’re in.

I’m just gonna keep learning, educating, agitating and organizing until we can smash capitalism and the bourgeois state completely.

lawas , 1 month ago

@janisf @Radical_EgoCom Personally I don’t think we’re going to vote our way out of this one. I’m not saying not to vote for material gains, but we need a totally new system to fix this. See Lenin’s State and Revolution.

I appreciate you listening, I’ve just reached the end of my mental capacity on this topic for now. I really hope you check out some of the stuff I recommended (all free online.) I know it’s a tough sell in short form here, but these ideas really make sense. ✌🏽