Because I feel like I'm in one.

I believed in the necessity of a vanguard party for a long time, but...material conditions. If there were a well-defined leader—even of something like the protests in PDX—they would have already been imprisoned on trumped up charges or Fred Hampton'd. Likely the former at this time. Historical evidence suggests this is the case, as do present conditions. Based on how brutally we're seeing the police treat anonymous members of the antifascist resistance, it's getting really hard to imagine how it could be possible to have anything remotely resembling a leader, or even a party with a membership list and regular meetings.

I understand the implications the lack of a central organizing structure has on our ability to effectively resist the state, but because of how everything has played out so far it seems like this might...actually be working in our favor. At least, considering what's unfolded up to the present moment I have a hard time picturing it going better if we had defined leadership that the state was able to target right out of the gate.

There's also the fact that (at least I'm ready to concede this at this point) that the US in its entirety isn't going to undergo a socialist revolution backed by the masses, and that the most likely scenario heading in that direction is a balkanization with the emergence of something better as one of its fragments (most likely west coast/PNW). Such a something better would be more likely to (successfully) take the from of an autonomous region similar to Chiapas or Rojava, versus a traditional socialist state amidst a sea of late/post-war capitalism.

Finally, another thought regarding material conditions...who are the people out there at this very moment resisting the state? It's anarchists. No one, myself included, is effectively organizing any type of meaningful ML resistance to meet this moment, but there are folks out in the street fighting cops every single night. They are the ones doing the work, and all we can say about it is "hmm, sure looks like we are approaching revolutionary conditions". But...it's other folks doing the work, and we're sitting around hoping to cash in on it later.

I'm getting ready to jump ship.

  • hexabearagon [any]
    4·
    4 years ago

    Well what has been accomplished by anyone on the left in this country lately? You're saying the protests create discourse like that's...a bad thing? And I didn't say that party structure was "unnecessary and bad", I specifically said I understand the implications of not having one and agree that it would be better, but that I don't see any way to effectively do that in our current conditions. I feel like you only read the first sentence of my post.

    • blobjim [he/him]
      2·
      4 years ago

      I don't think there's been any country where suddenly some communist party forms to valiantly carry out the revolution and "inspire the masses". I guess I don't get what you're saying. Protesting in the street is not revolution, nor is it "anarchist" to protest in the street, anyone can do that. Burning stuff isn't some special anarchist thing but people who are attracted to anarchism are also attracted to burning stuff. Which is fine and cool, but not a theory of change so I don't know why it would make you think that Marxism-Leninism is wrong and "anarchism" is the way forward. The BLM protests are obviously the best thing to happen to the country in quite a while, but that doesn't mean that more of them will lead to change, it just radicalizes some people.