Hi, I'm new in this board, and I would like to ask you several questions.
1. What's your opinion about the Eastern Bloc countries?
I used to be banned from American anarchist spaces for being a "tankie" when I said that in imes of Polish People's Republic situation was better than today, and that personally I would prefer to live in PPR than to today's modern USA. Do you think that positive view about former so called "communist" countries (which were in fact socialdemocracies with tanks, not communist at any level) is sign of being a tankie and, therefore, exclusionary from libertarian socialist movement?
2. What's you opinion about accelerationism in general?
By accelerationism I mean view that through increasing the class struggle we're pushing capital to make pressure to change point of technology development toowards more socialist and communist solutions - to decrease labor time and improve working conditions, instead of producing selling but practically useless shit?
1. It was ok. Our only mistake was not taking over the rest of Europe. 2. It's a really reactonary position
Jaxson Myers
Why?
Also: isn't it that leninist approach is in fact voluntarist, and fail of leninis was caused because focusing on political revolution through military win, instead on social revolution through class struggle?
Parker Bailey
Proxy social democracy at the barrel of a gun.
Accelerationist theory is incredibly vulgar, but touches on a very important thing: that capital's contradictions can only be solved with reformist and reactionary band-aids for so long before the kettle starts to sing. Marx emphasizes that the working class much at once organize itself along class lines while welcoming self-destructive policies vis a vis capital through its ruling class: marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1888/free-trade/.
Dylan Edwards
that's not what accelerationism means. accelerationism is when conditions become worse for workers.
Jordan Morales
many newcomers recently. good good.
Lincoln Brooks
I heard that this you called accelerationism is "vulgar accelerationism" and true accelerationism is based on intensification of class struggle to force capital to create technology that will automate the work at the expense of reducing exploitation. As someone had written:
"Accelerationism is not a stance that prizes crisis as the automatic condition for revolution, rather accelerationism focuses on the tendencies of capitalist accumulation. It has to do with the composition of capital being divided between means of production/raw materials/constant capital and labour/variable capital. As productivity increases, more and more capital is invested into constant capital and less into labour. The thing is that surplus value, "profit", is derived only from labour. As labour is pushed out of the production process, then surplus value decreases.
But such tendencies are only tendencies, activated by class antagonisms. If workers demand shorter hours or better pay, firms have an incentive to make production more productive to undercut labor needs.
Accelerationism basically calls for class antagonism to bring about the acceleration of productive forces and the self-devaluation of value centered production (capitalism)"
Evan Wright
thank you, comrade!
I see we have simillar views
Kevin Carter
Welcome to the board!
Vanguardist state capitalism, and not very efficient.
Do we really need to push this any more than what is already happening? With Trump in office global capitalism will kill itself off just fine. Focus on creation institutions that can grow into bastion of the revolution, like happened in Northern Syria.
Ian Martinez
interesting social experiment
delusion there's no way capitalist society can consciously accelerate it always about reaction and not action
Tyler Evans
welcome. shit pic
Wyatt Smith
The vast majority of posters here have no idea what accelerationism even is. (It's awesome though.) E.G.: >>1266355
Accelerationist theory doesn't work well because it depends on dialectical materialism, but only in its most basic, rudimentary terms. I think it's naive to understand the dialectical process in such crude terms (ie things will get worse but then they'll get better!). However, when situations are worse (more fascist/capitalist) than others, I find it is a better time to convert centrists and liberals into commies, so I do see the truth in it
Jack Collins
It varies;
The GDR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were very good The USSR, Poland and Hungary not so much Albania and Bulgaria were pretty shit Ceausescu's Romania was irredeemable utter shit
I can see why people are tempted by it but I think it's very dangerous.
Post more lefty cats.
Nathan Brooks
cats and catgirls are cute
Jason Sullivan
...
Brody James
...
Chase Wright
In terms of acceleration in particular, I'd say that it's honestly kind of elitist. It might sound good from a standpoint of theory or muh privilege, but for the actual working people whose lives it destroys it isn't good. For example, we can say that in the USA the destruction of state healthcare is objectively going to make a lot of people really angry and probably increase consciousness around class issues. Is that a good thing? Absolutely. However, we also need to remember that the loss of this safety net will in all likelyhood lead to people's deaths and mass social immiseration. Attempting to generate crisis is ethically unjustifiable, and as often as not just leads to worse shit. "our turn next" is not a good strategy and just empowers reactionists.
Welcome aboard, btw!
Jack James
Oh, please. They didn't achieve communism but to call them socdem is ridiculous.
Brayden Carter
nice get
Grayson Lopez
Gotta go fast!
Nicholas Green
check'd
Owen Diaz
As far as state capitalism goes they were all right. That doesn't save them from not being socialist though.
But you are objectively correct about the material circumstances being better under the Eastern Bloc than currently.
You have cancer that's killing you, so you stab yourself in the kidney to be taken to the ER and treated for both, if you don't bleed out first on the way.
Austin Johnson
Various intensities of state capitalism but were still pretty cool. Not socialism but forming stable, industrialised social democracies was making the best out of a bad situation to salvage the gains of the 20th century revolutions and ww2. Props for bringing about the greatest properity that the region has known in all human history. They were also A E S T H E T I C
Accelerationism is a shit and we shouldn't do it. But its also important to draw a distinction between accelerationism (actively forcing capitalism to destroy it) and just celebrating capitalism's natural tendency to destroy itself as it happens before our eyes (which is what most of us do here when we meme about accelerationism).
