My fault for going on twitter BUT WHAT THE FUCK DOES “BEING A STALINIST” MEAN IN FUCKING 2022? This is basically shit stirring against an imaginary boogeyman

  • Rod_Blagojevic [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    This reminds me of when I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in years to see a screening of an anarchist movie about the Spanish Civil War (of course). At the end the general mood in the room was "fuck those commies, now and forever." My takeaway was that alot of communists with experience from the Russian Civil War were trying their hardest to save the situation in Spain. I don't know or care about the details, so I won't die on this hill.

    Anyway, more importantly, I didn't understand why a bunch of stinky people crammed into this room even related to anarchists in the Spanish Civil War.

    I'm gonna vent in a way that might be a little sectarian. I've worked with a lot of anarchists that are much better and more committed organizers than I've ever been, but there's also a very large contingent that seems to reject the value of experience and cultivated skill. This applies to things like appreciating peoples' actual experiences trying to build socialism, or efforts to do actual union organizing in the US, to really mundane matters like accepting that there's a proper way to build a safe wall in your squat. Some of these people are not cool.

    • CptKrkIsClmbngThMntn [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I think that's where a lot of the failures of hardcore anarchist ideology lie. And trying to pretend like you have any connection to the Spanish Civil War, the black army, or even worse, groups like the Zapatistas, is incredibly cringe.

      That being said, to even it out a little, the anarchists in my area tend to be a) the only ones bothering with mutual aid, which I think is important, and b) the only ones that show up to stuff like Indigenous solidarity rallies (I tend to see the Trots most often at anti-war or foreign policy-related actions).

      A couple years ago the Maoists and anarchists teamed up to kick the Trots out of the May Day rally, if that doesn't prove how silly this all is.

        • Alaskaball [comrade/them]M
          ·
          3 years ago

          Waiting for the day with Gonzaloites and Trotskyites team up to kick out the anarchists out of the May Day rally

          Red Guards and Gonzaloites team up to kick out the Trotskyites the following year

      • Rod_Blagojevic [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Where I've lived for the past several years the only action is with the anarchists, so I support them absolutely, and to stay in their good graces I avoided the socialists (who weren't doing much anyway).

        :rat-salute:

        They didn't change the world, but they annoyed the shit out of the right people and fed a lot of people that needed help.

        • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          They didn’t change the world, but they annoyed the shit out of the right people and fed a lot of people that needed help.

          This accurately describes the extent of most praxis in the Imperial Core if you want to stay alive. Slow down the machine, help everyone you can, raise hell.

      • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I mean, most communists :10000-com:% also do this with Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, etc. It's a pretty understandable response to have a sense of camaraderie with past movements and revolutionaries.

        That being said, to even it out a little, the anarchists in my area tend to be a) the only ones bothering with mutual aid, which I think is important, and b) the only ones that show up to stuff like Indigenous solidarity rallies (I tend to see the Trots most often at anti-war or foreign policy-related actions).

        Hell yes, I've noticed that too. Anarchists also tend to almost always be intersectional. Pretty hard to be a class reductionist if you're Anarchist, because you already see The State as another axis of oppression.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I also know these anarchists. Building shotgun shacks in parks for the homeless is cool and good cause the city isn't doing anything and it beats a tent but that's where it ends because trying to actually get the government to do its job and house the homeless is collabo with a state and we need to prove The People (in this case a dude with a beard and his friends and like 20 or so who will show up when it's convenient for them) can Do It Themselves with Mutualism or whatever. Turns out they totally can't.

      • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        trying to actually get the government to do its job and house the homeless is collabo with a state

        That's where a marxist can help. That said, we should all be aware by now the American State is against any attempts at reform. There's a reason the Black Panthers decided to build their own clinics and food banks.

    • Alaskaball [comrade/them]M
      ·
      3 years ago

      It's not sectarianism to make constructive critiques for the betterment of the movement.