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.
All these leftist tendencies, I just wanna grill for God’s sake!
But in all seriousness, a socialist revolution in the imperial core will require a synthesis of ML/Maoist and anarchist tendencies. No one ideology will bring us to the revolution, it simply does not fit the material conditions and is unscientific. IMO, the movement will require spontaneity and mass coordination that is more suited to anarchism so as to disorient the state and build popular support, but will also require parts of the party/vanguard structure from ML/MLM to direct that energy into building dual power that delegitimizes the state and solidifies socialist power in the long term. As to HOW that is accomplished is up to us to figure out. The establishment must win every time, but we must only win once. And the contradictions of capitalism draw closer and closer together. The struggle carries on, comrade. We must work with leftists (but not fucking liberals) of all stripes to synthesize the revolution that will take down the beast from the inside. May the workers give us the strength.
TL,DR: Leftist Unity🥺👉👈😘
I mostly agree with everything you said except that part. Any dominant structure (whether it is stateless or not, it really doesn't matter), only lasts as long as it is "winning". Saying we only need to win once kinds of imply that this victory couldn't be co-opted or re appropriated by revisionists and opportunists. There is no such thing as "one final victory".
Fair point. In theory, so long as the revolutionaries and their ideological descendants work to better the material conditions of the working class, then socialism will only need to win “the big fight” once. Of course, any governmental system can be thrown into peril via natural disaster (hello climate change!), failing economies, or by any other declination of the material conditions that allows other ideologies to rise. Hopefully, by the nature of socialism’s prioritizing of the working class, then the administrators of it (or perhaps lack thereof) will imbue that prioritization in decision making to ensure that the masses are cared for. That will be up to the post revolutionary society to figure out, how to “defend” the revolution, from reactionaries, corruption, and overly complicated bureaucracy that prevents meaningful working class improvement. Let us hope that whoever does bring about the revolution recognizes your valid point in addition to the revolutionary situation
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I've always wondered how a possible revolutionary movement in the US would be integrated with Native American struggles. Are most tribes "revolutionary" in any way? I would assume a revolutionary communist group thats based in a reservation would be much harder to infiltrate, spy on, and dismantle by the us gov no?
I couldn’t say whether most tribes were revolutionary or not. There is certainly revolutionary potential. However, there is a not insignificant part of Indigineous people that do not consider Marxism a path to freedom. I forgot the name of the guy, perhaps someone can help me out, but basically he was a Lakota who made a speech in the 80’s about how Marxism would not free the Lakota at all. Essentially, he said it was in the vein of other “European” ideologies, exploiting the earth for the sake of “progress” instead of “profit.” While I didn’t agree with all his points, there is certainly a point in how sustainability and spiritual communalism is valued among Indigenous people, and how any society that comes post capitalism must come to value those things not only to gain support from the Indigineous, but for the betterment of all the working class.
This is why I still tend to consider myself an anarchist. I think it comes down to a matter of priority. I'm cynical as fuck and of the mind that we need a clean slate, which leads me to prioritize the destruction of the state, especially since living in the imperial core I feel that is the most important thing for international socialist movements. Anything that can be done to dismantle the existing federal government is a net good, even if actual revolution in this country would result in a lot of suffering, it would also reduce so much more harm than it would cause and that harm would be inflicted on those benefiting from our hegemony.
Disclaimer I don't want any of those bad things to happen, I just feel this is what we have come to.
Has there ever been a similar sort of revolution in a global empire before that led to its destruction? Or has it always been like cause of wars?
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I don't think any direct parallel can really be drawn to the current state of world politics. If the US falls (which I believe to be necessary to the advancement of international leftist movements) it's going to be due to internal strife. Given the current political landscape in the US any effective leftist response to this is going to have to be decentralized as well as insurrectionary.
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