When I read comments like yours, its like you don’t even believe in the power of Marxism, like its some ideas that get defeated by power. But Marxism has the truth on our side, and the right can only win through dirty tricks.
The online-left has quite a few armchair MLs who clearly have no on the ground political praxis whatsoever. If you present yourself as a leader in any part of your social bubble right now, it is actually quite easy to get people on your side, sometimes they just do it on their own, just like you brought up in your post.
The US left has so much momentum right now, but instead of using a Marxist based analysis to discuss what the move should be to effectively direct that momentum, some seem to want the left to lose until they decide to do it “the right way”. This is overly dogmatic, a lot of materialist analysis has to do with “working with what you got”! We know that the imperial core is naturally a limiting environment when it comes to revolutionary potential.
How are you communicating with the working class around you? They arent going to read theory, so it is on people like us to walk them through it. I would imagine that you are starting that conversation with Mamdani before you get to Lenin, but maybe that’s just me.
Def good points. I try to remind myself that sectarianism is actually a structural consequence of divisions of labor under capitalism rather than this or that member of the class having bad ideas. Confusion and idealism are forced upon us by a ruling class that wants to dominate not just our time and labor, but our minds and our spirit. As a class they are structurally incapable of sharing power. Some people I think have had heinous experiences, and I’ve def seen those people being told that they are “too radical” or whatever by leaders of other orgs outside of DSA. I’ve been able to recruit those people on many occasions to more radical political work! But I’m sure to the people who I also call ultraleft, mostly because of their refusal to work within a workers movement not because of any position, buy I’m sure I just seem like one of those people too.
But because sectarianism is structural, then there is ultraleft opportunism, which I’m especially worried that a lot of people fall for while they’re just trying to be on the right side.
The online-left has quite a few armchair MLs who clearly have no on the ground political praxis whatsoever. If you present yourself as a leader in any part of your social bubble right now, it is actually quite easy to get people on your side, sometimes they just do it on their own, just like you brought up in your post.
The US left has so much momentum right now, but instead of using a Marxist based analysis to discuss what the move should be to effectively direct that momentum, some seem to want the left to lose until they decide to do it “the right way”. This is overly dogmatic, a lot of materialist analysis has to do with “working with what you got”! We know that the imperial core is naturally a limiting environment when it comes to revolutionary potential.
How are you communicating with the working class around you? They arent going to read theory, so it is on people like us to walk them through it. I would imagine that you are starting that conversation with Mamdani before you get to Lenin, but maybe that’s just me.
Def good points. I try to remind myself that sectarianism is actually a structural consequence of divisions of labor under capitalism rather than this or that member of the class having bad ideas. Confusion and idealism are forced upon us by a ruling class that wants to dominate not just our time and labor, but our minds and our spirit. As a class they are structurally incapable of sharing power. Some people I think have had heinous experiences, and I’ve def seen those people being told that they are “too radical” or whatever by leaders of other orgs outside of DSA. I’ve been able to recruit those people on many occasions to more radical political work! But I’m sure to the people who I also call ultraleft, mostly because of their refusal to work within a workers movement not because of any position, buy I’m sure I just seem like one of those people too.
But because sectarianism is structural, then there is ultraleft opportunism, which I’m especially worried that a lot of people fall for while they’re just trying to be on the right side.