/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12320903]

What is to be done? The entire left is ridden with opportunists and opportunists. Bernie may be the best candidate for president but democratic socialism will ultimately be crushed by reactionary forces. Warren seems like the current democratic frontrunner and she isn't even socialist. Being completely disillusioned with parliamentary politics, what is a communist/socialist to do in America?

[Anonymous No.12320957]

KYS

[Anonymous No.12320958]

>>12320903
>Cringe.
/thread

[Anonymous No.12320961]

>>12320903
Pre-emptively purge themselves for being a reactionary.

[Anonymous No.12320982]

>>12320903
Fascists need to be annihilated. There's no other way

[Anonymous No.12320988]

>>12320903
Not /lit/
>what is a communist/socialist to do in America?
Leave

[Anonymous No.12321011]

>>12320982
Based tranny

[Anonymous No.12321016]

>>12320903
You can try LARPing building a party on democratic centralist lines or look into the history of actual domestic socialists like Norman Thomas and pick up where they left off

[Anonymous No.12321021]

Entryism and promote violent international revolution. Arm the working class and spread communist propaganda. We need the support of the masses it can't be done by the effort of intellectuals alone. But to be honest the material conditions just aren't right. Maybe we need to accelerate decay.

[Anonymous No.12321054]

>>12320988
Uhhh, that's literally what the book is about. What is to be done. It's about what are revolutionaries supposed to do when opportunists centrists begin to suppress revolutionary activity. Lenin's critique of moderate left-centrism is still relevant today. Of course opportunists are our allies against the right, but only to a degree, and eventually these forces must be overthrown.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/

Lenin's criticism of the bourgeois notion of freedom of speech is still relevant today. What is freedom of speech but the freedom of one class to oppress another, what is free speech but the freedoms that are given only to the oppressor?

“We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighbouring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh! And when we begin to shame them, they retort: What backward people you are! Are you not ashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh, yes, gentlemen! You are free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh. In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don't clutch at us and don't besmirch the grand word freedom, for we too are "free" to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!”

[Anonymous No.12321089]

Have you guys ever seen the video where Glen Beck talks about The Coming Insurrection? Fucking hilarious.

As a Leninist and a Marxist I find Tiqquns anarchist theory and autonomist theory, being an extension of Deleuzes radical Autonomist-Marxist theory, to be one of the most solid calls to action and guideline for every individual, and I find it very real how impassioned Anarchists are in their struggle against Capitalism.

Perhaps we should look towards Bookchin and other radically extreme left wing theorists during this time? The conditions of 21st century America are extremely different than the conditions of early 20th century Russia and I see here direct action as being one of the most suitable struggles for every individual alienated by Capital.

[Anonymous No.12321118]

>>12321054
Lenins notion of party politics literally has no relevance whatsoever to advanced industrial/post-industrial societies and can be practically demonstrated just by noticing it was only ever capable of seizing control of backwards semi-agrarian states. The entire history of the COMINTERN is of reckless opportunism.
Marx himself was essiently a social democrat and for most of his life he stuck to that position... but like Lenin he was a middle class intellectual so if you read his entire body of political polemics it's filled with opportunism and inconsistencies throughout.

[Anonymous No.12321133]

>>12321089
>>12321118
“The past has given us much too many bad answers for us not to see that the mistakes were in the questions themselves. There is no need to choose between the fetishism of spontaneity and the organization control; between the "come one, come all" of activist networks and the discipline of hierarchy; between acting desperately now and waiting desperately for later; between bracketing that which is to be lived and experimented in the name of paradise that seems more and more like a hell the longer it is put off and flogging the dead horse of how planting carrots is enough to leave this nightmare.”
The Coming Insurrection

I wouldn't go so far as to say Lenin was an opportunist, his radical politics created a cascading avalanche of change that spread from nation to nation, but you're correct in the sense that maybe his central fault was that he was no radical enough. Mao would agree with this statement, but again, was Mao radical enough?

[Anonymous No.12321160]

>>12321133
Read this critical account of the 20th century movement written by an ex-Maoist
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1a/tom-clark/index.htm

[Anonymous No.12321198]

1. Rebrand entirely. Even the word "socialism" carries too much dirt to ever appeal to any significant cross-section of the voting American public. Call it "Unitism," or something else aesthetic, and give it a distinctly American flavor. Disavow all radicals previously associated with the movement. Disavow all university intellectuals at any point associated with the American Communist Party.

2. Divorce yourself from some of your traditional allies. Certain labor unions are, in terms of political interest, cancerous. Certain think tanks and identity groups are, ideologically speaking, cancerous. Private interest groups that have a reputation for being sociological manipulative - read: Cloward-Piven type strategists - are cancerous.

3. Encourage charismatic Eugene McCarthy types to run for office. Make the American Left a movement that is firmly populist, and which stands for popular interests - not a detached collection of intellectuals and ideologues that derides the common people as selfish and stupid. Try to appeal to American youths, to idealistic young women (/very/ important), and to the next generations of blue and white collar workers.

4. Emphasize socialist policy as the best way to preserve homogeneity of the populace (in terms of "values" - and, by implication, ethnicity), to secure national borders and protectorates, and to preserve the environment / combat anthropogenic climate change. Push for referenda related to campaign finance reform, and for a reduction of corporate influence on policy setting. Call out toxic corporatism in a way that strikes a chord with the average American. Capitalism is so superimposed on political discourse in this country - to the point where most believe that America and state capitalism are inextricable from one another - that it can be difficult to speak of issues like these directly. That's a condition you'll just have to wait out.

5. Stop fetishizing the Bolshevism of the early 20th century. It is dead and buried. Do not discuss people like Eugene Debs as anything other than relics of the past. Read Fukuyama to apprehend the gradual phase toward democratic socialism which has taken its place.

If you do all of the following, American socialists might just stop being the worst scum to ever walk this earth. Maybe.

[Anonymous No.12321203]

>>12320903
>>12320957

FPBP. Just give up and die, or else reach the fundamental understanding that your worldview is wrong. No one can drag you to this; it's something that you must undertake for yourself.

[Anonymous No.12321229]

>>12321198
Castro's central revolutionary movement was built through this very method. Instead of calling himself a communist, he would rally the peasants and workers under communist ideology but without telling them it was Communist, and it was highly successful.

Trade unions have been replaced by a full on labor aristocracy.

Secure borders? National socialists are not my ally. Bash the fash fool.

[Anonymous No.12321265]

>>12320903
there is no left in america. what we call left advocates capitalism with a human face. if someone like mao came along now nobody would have any idea what to do with him

[Anonymous No.12321272]

>>12320903
>What are socialists/communists meant to do in modern america?
You mean you aren't preemptively sending each other off to the gulags?

[Anonymous No.12321286]

>>12321265
The new left movement started in the 70's is stronger than ever.
>>12321272
The only people going to the gulags are the ones sending people to prisons.

[Anonymous No.12321292]

>>12321198
Based traditional fascist

[Anonymous No.12321299]

>>12321229
>Bash the fash

No arguments here. From what I've seen, though, this society is:

>1. deeply racist
>2. ideologically xenophobic
>3. firmly nationalistic

Young people are exerting tremendous social pressure to send us the other way. Nonetheless, the American mind isn't going to be opened in a single generation.

Disclaimer: I'll be the first to admit that I have a sophomoric understanding of poli sci, and of phenomena like demographic shift. Men more educated and pragmatic than myself will have to answer these questions in a way that's palatable to the American mind.

[Anonymous No.12321303]

>>12321198
I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter

[Anonymous No.12321304]

It’s time for left inclined people to reconcile with liberty minded people of all stripes. The left/right dichotomy is over anyways. Technology has changed everything and just because you can no longer practice traditional communism is reason enough to understand modernity is calling us to something entirely new. All ideals of communal living and organization are over. Decentralize power.

Think about it, all these things were produced before the era of nuclear weaponry and that’s old tech now. Capitalism, communism, fascism. It’s all ending. Most people latch on to these dated ideas that simply don’t fit into the modern world anymore than religion does.

We need a new paradigm. Forget progressing Marxist theory or growing the alt-right. Fight the enemy of both which is authority and power lining the pockets of global elites. They want us separated and squabbling over it all.

Don’t forget we never had them more scared than when we did occupy, now they thrive on segregating us. If it’s obvious enough to you that what’s happening isn’t working maybe consider this point of view.

[Anonymous No.12321315]

>>12321299
So? America is just one country. What happens when the rest of the world comes knocking at the door of our crumbling empire? Do you want to be known as the white nationalist or an internationalist?

[Anonymous No.12321320]

>>12321304
I dunno if that's right. Interesting idea. We live in a post scarcity society. It's about ability to need. This is the fundamental paradigm of the left.

[Anonymous No.12321354]

>>12321320
If you take anything away from my post it’s that the new dichotomy are liberty minded people pitted against authority minded people. I’ve always been more inclined to be a leftist for this reason but I feel when leftists do tend to be authority driven they take it way too far. The creative spirit by definition has a fundamental lack of self awareness.

The technology that propelled the Second World War was enough to almost end civilization. And that was child’s play to what the world is playing with now. The next time will happen and it will be the last time it happens. I view marxists and the alt-right as having much more in common than the aristocratic corporatists. I’m disturbed by leftists more towards the center welcoming corporate media control and validation through pop culture.

The childish social milieu is something that is entirely secondary to our real problems.

[Anonymous No.12321367]

>>12321304
This is precisely why anti-fascism is so decisive. Fascism can only be put down through violent struggle. Black bloc for example.

[Anonymous No.12321371]

>>12321315
Your criticism is entirely valid. My only point - and maybe I'm horribly misguided - is that the element in this country to whom the reactionaries are appealing is not something that can (or should) be papered over. It must be gradually phased out, and allowed to collapse under its own ridiculousness.

One fine morning, we'll wake up and find that the harmful social element - everything that jeapordizes civil discourse and appeals to the worst in human nature - has lost its teeth, and that we're ready for something new.

[Anonymous No.12321385]

Pious, the lot of you.

[Anonymous No.12321388]

>>12321371
These people are not representative of the majority. The majority of people are poor and working class. Trump didn't win because he got the most votes, he won because the votes of rural white property owners are more valid than the votes of inner city black people and those living in ghettos. We cannot compromise not for one second in the struggle against Fascism as we are on the upswing, the wave is at it's crest, and the ocean is only to grow more violent.

[Anonymous No.12321390]

>>12321367
Not him but why do you think this? I’m curious. Because fascists have lost elections for much longer than they’ve won any ground during its short time as an ideology. They’re really pretty non threatening with the exception of their street goons which is another story. Because goons come in many flavors in this century. It seems to me fascism has been defeated intellectually and in many other forms quite easily time and time again.

[Anonymous No.12321410]

>>12321390
Trump is a fascist. Our government is fascist. We are in fascist imperialist wars of conquest. Innocent people are murdered everyday by fascists because of their race or class. Mass incarceration is overwhelmingly fascist. Where they are not being openly fascist, parading their ideas in the streets, they are being fascist in government and in policy and in action. Where there is Fascism it must be put down, as all these struggles unify into one monolithic entity of the right.

[Anonymous No.12321412]

>>12321388
Not an American, but if you’re referring to the electoral college aren’t the states with rural working class white people also the ones with large black populations, and aren’t many states and cities with city-dwelling black populations shared by affluent cosmopolitans?