Marxists have always had to deal with imperialism, settler colonialism, racism, and all the other problems that capitalism creates and intensifies. Lenin of all people was certainly not blind to these problems and nonetheless managed to organize workers of all ethnicities, many of whom had suffered pogroms, oppression, and extermination in a massive imperial state. Debs' party was able to do the same, as did communists all over the world within a generation or two after Marx. What mass party did people build after reading and understanding "lessons" from Sakai's "Marxism"? Is Sakai's lesson that organizing in the imperial core is hard? That's not news to any Marxist from the first international onwards.
Most people who read Sakai will tell you that they left thinking that organizing a multi-racial movement for socialism is an impossible task and that revolution is impossible in the first world. Quotes in Sakai's book are intentionally distorted (ex. quotes from William Foster) to make leaders of the early Socialist Party of America seem racist. Again, a completely defeatist CIA position and its insane that organizers in the US buy this stuff. All orthodox Marxists understood that capitalism is much, much harder on some racial groups than others, that some suffer disproportionately, that leaving anyone out of the working class movement (intentionally or not) meant that the same people would be used to strikebreak, or as shock troops in the counter-revolution. All orthodox Marxists understood that some workers receive some benefits that others are denied. None of this is new. All orthodox Marxists understood that not organizing workers in the African or Arab or Indian colonies meant the same workers could be organized by Capital and sent around their own countries or Europe to put down revolutions. Marx understood this as far back as 1848. What is Sakai telling people that is new other than that the largest group of workers in the imperial core (so-called "whites") are uniquely treacherous because they've been bought off. If they're treacherous because they're part of the labor aristocracy then pack your bags and throw in the towel and don't bother organizing because that isn't changing anytime soon even if China continues growing. The labor aristocracy is a group you can heavily recruit from for a working class movement, its not a group you can ever just write off as hopelessly counter-revolutionary. America is the global hegemon, without a revolution in America, America will continue to export counter revolution all over the world.
"Lenin didn’t denounce these First World proletarians who were massacring each other by the millions as hopelessly counter-revolutionary, because they’d been manipulated by their “own” national bourgeoisie to commit atrocities against each other, which the so-called revolutionary leadership of the second Communist International supported. Instead he – recognizing that it was a leadership problem – founded the Third Communist International (Comintern) to create, coordinate and organize revolutionary ML Parties in the imperialist countries to root their masses in Marxism and “turn the World War into Civil Wars”, where the proletarians would instead of killing each other for the bourgeoisie turn their guns on their “own” national bourgeoisie and engage in civil wars to overthrow them."
-Rashid Johnson from the Intercommunal Black Panther Party writing on why Sakai is anti-Marxist
I very specifically said
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Marxists have always had to deal with imperialism, settler colonialism, racism, and all the other problems that capitalism creates and intensifies. Lenin of all people was certainly not blind to these problems and nonetheless managed to organize workers of all ethnicities, many of whom had suffered pogroms, oppression, and extermination in a massive imperial state. Debs' party was able to do the same, as did communists all over the world within a generation or two after Marx. What mass party did people build after reading and understanding "lessons" from Sakai's "Marxism"? Is Sakai's lesson that organizing in the imperial core is hard? That's not news to any Marxist from the first international onwards.
Most people who read Sakai will tell you that they left thinking that organizing a multi-racial movement for socialism is an impossible task and that revolution is impossible in the first world. Quotes in Sakai's book are intentionally distorted (ex. quotes from William Foster) to make leaders of the early Socialist Party of America seem racist. Again, a completely defeatist CIA position and its insane that organizers in the US buy this stuff. All orthodox Marxists understood that capitalism is much, much harder on some racial groups than others, that some suffer disproportionately, that leaving anyone out of the working class movement (intentionally or not) meant that the same people would be used to strikebreak, or as shock troops in the counter-revolution. All orthodox Marxists understood that some workers receive some benefits that others are denied. None of this is new. All orthodox Marxists understood that not organizing workers in the African or Arab or Indian colonies meant the same workers could be organized by Capital and sent around their own countries or Europe to put down revolutions. Marx understood this as far back as 1848. What is Sakai telling people that is new other than that the largest group of workers in the imperial core (so-called "whites") are uniquely treacherous because they've been bought off. If they're treacherous because they're part of the labor aristocracy then pack your bags and throw in the towel and don't bother organizing because that isn't changing anytime soon even if China continues growing. The labor aristocracy is a group you can heavily recruit from for a working class movement, its not a group you can ever just write off as hopelessly counter-revolutionary. America is the global hegemon, without a revolution in America, America will continue to export counter revolution all over the world.
"Lenin didn’t denounce these First World proletarians who were massacring each other by the millions as hopelessly counter-revolutionary, because they’d been manipulated by their “own” national bourgeoisie to commit atrocities against each other, which the so-called revolutionary leadership of the second Communist International supported. Instead he – recognizing that it was a leadership problem – founded the Third Communist International (Comintern) to create, coordinate and organize revolutionary ML Parties in the imperialist countries to root their masses in Marxism and “turn the World War into Civil Wars”, where the proletarians would instead of killing each other for the bourgeoisie turn their guns on their “own” national bourgeoisie and engage in civil wars to overthrow them." -Rashid Johnson from the Intercommunal Black Panther Party writing on why Sakai is anti-Marxist
No he didnt lmao. If you are listing the factors that played a part fucking Settlers and Sakai isnt even in the first 100 you should be thinking of