When will the left ever get fucking serious about doing politics? Why is the left stuck in this constant circlejerking of mass movement labour tactics that haven't been viable since the 1970s instead of getting with the times and doing things that are honestly worthwhile?
While the protests are good. They won't last, fatigue will set in and when the vast majority realize Trump hasn't absolutely destroyed their lives, it will go back to how it was under Bush, Republicans riding Roughshod over everyone with the left defeated.
Where is the left getting in and on the MSM? Where is the left getting in Government Departments and maneuvering to positions of influence and power? Hell, the right do a lot of sneaky shit like think tanks that sound like Government departments, the Chamber of Commerce being the most famous, where are the far-leftist think tanks that sound like neutral expert institutions?
Acting radical and having marches is fun, but it doesn't actually really do much to reach people and if you think reaching out to the labor movement is going to work, it's time to get back in a time machine and go back to 1970.
This is why Bernie did more for Socialism than any Socialist in the first word for decades, because he presented Socialism in the mainstream media, in an easy to digest fashion that even dumbfuck ignorant hillbillies could agree with. We need far more people in positions of power like Bernie who can push Socialist rhetoric and bring it out of the fringe back into institutions and media.
I was expecting better from a fellow Stalinist tbh
For all it's faults I can't see how the labor movement has less promise then a faux-socialist and imperialist politician like Sanders. He simply capitalized on something the vast majority of millenials already believed the vague idea that S[weed]ish "socialism" was better then Mad Max style capitalism.
Uncle Joe would've had Sanders shot in the Soviet Union tbh
Jeremiah Thompson
I take that back I should've said majority not the vast majority.
Carter Wood
The old have forgot and the young weren't around to forget. It's going to be a long, slow learning process of trial and error as the left learns what it's about again.
Tyler Kelly
IMO, particularly now with the internet, it's far more important to build up our own tools of communication and our own ways of influening public opinion than it is to smuggle a leftist into a mainstream TV show. If anything, the past few years are showing that the politicians, the media and so on are not as powerful as they used to me.
It's also more important to rebuild proletarian institutions like we had in the days of the Second International than it is to get into the system and change things from there. IMO, thinking you can change it from the inside is as delusional as the Left's obsession with protesting. (but I'm not against doing it and I think that we should attempt to build up the Left in mainstream parties, like Sanders/Corbyn)
As far as organization go, I envision it growing organically from small-group efforts into larger ones. If you look at things like Jacobin and Chapo Trap House it seems that a few people with some initiative can do more for spreading left-wing ideas than any protest, movement or any politician. If we all get together with people we know and start more projects like this, eventually there will be enough of us to come together into some type of Forum and coordinate a message and a program. If this happens, we have the groundwork for a Party.
It seems to me like a better and more realistic idea than either spending our entire time occupying public buildings or trying to make the Democrats become left-wing.
Nathaniel Price
Stop. If you feel incapable of working for a party as a committed member at least donate and share their material.
Jayden Cooper
Are you implying Stalin didn't get rid of his enemies? Come on dude don't be a literal 1/1 mirror of Holla Forumsyp delusion
Bentley Campbell
I agree with this post
Asher Morales
Enemies of the Soviet Union yes, not however every stupid moron having some opinion. Don't be a fucking liberal "stalin was ebil dicktator hurr" faggot.
William Young
What we need are radical organisations that exploit a gap left by capitalism, be it food kitchens, offering community or youthcamps.
With the decline of organised labour and the rise of shitty part time jobs the usefulness of anarcho-syndicalist unions, or unions in general that dont play by the rules has risen massivly. We need these with a community approach to create class consciousness again.
Jaxson Myers
perhaps people dont like you because your an stalinist?
Yes please tell us how the Hoxhaite American Party of Labor is going to lead the revolution please.
You would of been purged in the Soviet Union too regardless if you were an loyal Stalinist too, like many other Stalinists did during the Soviet Union
Ethan Morris
No, he perpetuated the belief that social democracy = socialism.
Nathan Gutierrez
Social-Democracy is not an end in itself. And if it pushes the Overton window leftwards it's a good and time-honoured strategy for socialists:
Gavin Gonzalez
Socdems never stay radical, just look at Europe.
John Peterson
But isn't that what Sanders did? He didn't talk about actual socialism, he acted as if socialism was that 'small coin' and nothing more.
Easton Parker
No wonder the kiddies don't listen to you.
Andrew Jones
And Communists who go too radical too soon never get anywhere, look at literally any country.
Communists should adhere to programs of small gains, become involved, grow as organization and never pull the breaks on a gradual leftwards move. This is literally the only strategy that worked and a strategy that has been there since the beginning. Interpreting left-wing praxis through the lens of a very specific scenario (that of 1917-1921) and thinking it will apply to any situation is ahistorical crap.
Sanders' generation had literally nothing to start from, so he started from the inside and started introducing left-wing ideas there. This comes with built-in rhetorical and practical limitations. But if you think something like european Social-Democracy would be his biggest ambition, you're mistaken:
Except it's literally never worked. Unless by work you mean kick off political careers for opportunists.
Hunter Smith
What are some examples of this strategy being applied and failing?
Hunter Thomas
Why don't you give an example of it succeeding?
Ian Morgan
I'm not the guy you're arguing with. I'm just genuinely curious about this.
Alexander Gutierrez
Literally any European socdem party.
Robert Bell
That's what the Second International did. That's what the SR, who had almost half of the popular support in Russia (Bolsheviks had like a quarter) did. To a degree, this is even what most of the people who would become the Revolutionaries did. So even if you think the Revolutionary path is the only acceptable one, you need to acknowledge that the only succesful examples of revolution working owe their efforts to a preexisting structure of Socialist groups, parties and institutions, most of which were engaged in unionism and parlamentarism, in small gains embedded in a larger project.
And this is the task today. We don't have an International, for the most part we don't have parties and we don't even have the funds, the means and the apparatus to create our own think thanks to reflect on our ´policies. We don't have communication with the masses, we don't have influence over them or popular support. This is what we need to build. So you can take your ushanka and go LARP somewhere else.
David Campbell
We're right in the middle of seeing all the popular New Deal reforms getting shredded in the US. You can't compromise with capital, because as long as capital accumulation occurs they'll just bide their time until they can undo them.
Oliver Moore
OP, those are all things the left has done in Europe for decades now and it doesn't lead anywhere, it's called social democracy and is being co-opted by capitalism everytime it gains significant momentum.
What we desperately need is to engage on the ground level, we need organize locally and help out communities, educate and organize, that kind of thing and decidedly not partake in parlaments, trying to change capitalism from within. Truth of the matter is that the material conditions of the people right now are too comfy for them to look elsewhere, but once the situation worsens for them, we need to be there to help them out, to educate and organize.
It's what far-right groups in Germany have done and had relative success with by the way. There are some villages here that are basically controlled by far-right extremists, because when the government isn't there to help the people you can always go the local NPD. You might not agree with them, but they're going to help you out.
Joshua Garcia
OP here.
Everyone has completely misread what I said, never have I said we should engage in Social Democracy once. What I'm saying is Leftists need to start seizing positions of power already in society to give our views creedence and mainstream acceptability. This means, getting to positions of Government INSTITUTIONS that come with pristige, high level public servants and shit.
Honestly I'm surprised none of the left have tried to get into high level military positions since the military is 100% needed on our side.
We need far-left think tanks with respectable names spouting far-left propaganda. As I said in another thread "Chamber of Economic Policy Development", you can literally just have a few people with degrees, publish a few policy papers and suddenly you are a credible media voice.
Liberals and the mainstream worship insitutions, so the left should have overtaken insitutions.
The right does all of this and wins every single fucking time. The Tea Party did this. Hell, fucking BANNON bragged he was using Leninist Vanguardist tactics to seize power.
Meanwhile, All the modern left cares about is "muh mass movement of protesters, just ignore protestor fatigue which sets in after like a fucking single week in the first world" and Trotskyists infiltrating useless activist organizations and has no care about seizing any positions of power.
Stop putting the cart before the horse. Mass movement will come when our ideas start to get mainstream MEDIA and INSTITUTIONAL acceptance from the inside out, not the other way around. Do you honestly think these people give a single fuck about public opinion when they know they shape it?
Easton Garcia
Also point:
Heritage, CATO, CoC are all 3 koch brothers think tanks that spout shallow, far-right propaganda and because they have fancy names and shit like "Freedom Index" they make up along 60%+ of all think tank appearances in the mainstream media.
The single most cited "Human Rights Organization" on the Syrian conflict is the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is one guy who runs a Kebab shop in England and lives at his mums house, his sources are literally just twitter feeds.
The Economist, shitty right wing rag that is beloved and viewed as centrist, simply because it's name makes it seem like it's an academic leaning media outlet.
Current Affairs, new one, quickly rising in mainstream acceptability.. literally a left wing blog that simply chose the name Current Affairs because they knew the media was that shallow and will simply accept views they normally wouldn't accept because it has a fancy respectable institutional name.
