Anyway, the basic point is that socialist revolution is neither easy (as the Trotskyists and ultraleftists would have it) nor impossible (as the liberals and conservatives would have it), but hard. It will require dedication and sacrifice and it won’t be won in a day. Tankies are those people who think the millions of communists who fought and died for socialism in the twentieth century weren’t evil, dupes, or wasting their time, but people to whom we owe a great deal and who can still teach us a lot.
Or, to put it another way: socialism has powerful enemies. Those enemies don’t care how you feel about Marx or Makhno or Deleuze or communism in the abstract, they care about your feelings towards FARC, the Naxals, Cuba, North Korea, etc. They care about your position with respect to states and contenders-for-statehood, and how likely you are to try and emulate them. They are not worried about the molecular and the rhizomatic because they know that those things can be brought back into line by the application of force. It’s their monopoly on force that they are primarily concerned to protect. When you desert real socialism in favor of ideal socialism, the kind that never took up arms against anybody, you’re doing them a favor.
Gonna be pointing primarily at point number 7 and 8 in relating to this comment and post.
PCUSA 8 Points of Unity
I. Marxism-Leninism
We apply the science of Marxism-Leninism as the means to achieve supremacy of the working class and the oppressed.
II. Vanguard-Cadre Party
We maintain that the role of the party, as laid out by the Bolshevik experience, is that of a vanguard workers party, which opposes and organizes against the bourgeois state and its surrogate parties. Such a party acts as the general staff of the working class, educating, organizing and leading the proletariat in its struggle for liberation, and to that end the party must develop and train strong cadres to lead the struggle.
III. Dictatorship of the Proletariat
As Marx and Lenin wrote, we agree that organizing a class conscious working class is the only way to achieve liberation from the bourgeoisie-and that due to the inevitability of the class struggle and the nature of the state as the tool of oppression of one class by another, only the overthrow of the bourgeois state by the proletariat and the active destruction of the bourgeoisie by the dictatorship of the proletariat (Soviet power) will liquidate capitalism and consolidate the power of working-class interests to transform the social and economic relations of the United States into a socialist-communist state.
IV. Democratic Centralism
The principle of organization of the Party of Communists USA which provides both for the vesting of the necessary authority in the leading organs, and the highest democratic practice. Democracy and centralization comprise a dialectical unity; they are complementary; each enriches and strengthens the other, thereby guaranteeing the Party’s maximum efficiency for its vanguard role. In Party practice, Democratic Centralism means that: – 1. “All directing bodies of the Party, from top to bottom, shall be elected; 2. “Party bodies shall give periodical accounts of their activities to their respective Party organizations; 3. “There shall be strict Party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority; 4. “All decisions of the higher bodies shall be absolutely binding on lower bodies and on all Party members”.
V. Proletarian Internationalism
We support the international working class, and the struggle of the oppressed peoples for liberation from imperialist domination and exploitation within this country and around the world, and oppose all forms of imperialism worldwide, fighting especially against the mechanisms of imperialism created and maintained by the current bourgeois regime in our own country, and will actively oppose and work to end its wars of imperialist adventurism around the globe.
VI. Support for real existing socialism of the 20th century
We support and uphold the legacy and lessons of the socialist revolutionary movement of the 20th century, and the contributions of Lenin, Stalin and other leading Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries. We will defend that legacy against defamation by revisionists, Capitalists, Trotskyites, Maoists, Social Democrats, anarchists, Cold War liberal bourgeois and petty bourgeoisie “phony left” radicals that undermine the revolutionary history and struggle of Marxist-Leninist theory and practice. We reject the so-called “21st century socialism” and Euro- communism as revisionist attempts to promote reformist schemes and “market socialism” over true revolutionary struggle and socialist collectivization. We reject all unscientific and dogmatic vulgar Marxism.
VII. Continuing Lenin’s opposition to right opportunism and revisionism inside the World Communist Movement
We oppose all forms of right opportunism and revisionism to supplant Marxist-Leninist ideology in the world Communist movement, historically and especially exemplified by the current CPUSA. We identify this revisionism as an intrusion of bourgeois ideology that weakens and distorts our theory, practice, and purpose, leading to class collaboration and counter-revolution.
VIII. Historically, revolution is the only means to the goal of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and a scientific socialist society based on the science of Marxism-Leninism.
Our position is that class-conscious struggle for socialist revolution is the only means of achieving liberation for the working class. Further, that any measure of reformism, collaboration or conciliation with the bourgeoisie serves only to undermine and prolong workers’ struggle, leading to the further consolidation of capitalist power and dominance. “The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.” [Communist Manifesto, chapter ll, paragraph Vll].
Roderic Day calls Russia an "anti-imperial, decolonizing force" and defends chinese arm sales to israel lol
https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1525221745334132736?t=T7R0WAafeRogbzAXCgSBBQ&s=19
And I'd like to hear responses to his question. Why is trade with Israel a red line but not trade with the most aggressive state on Earth? Is it necessary realpolitik to trade with the US but a rightist deviation to trade with Israel?
So "it's a lot harder" is an acceptable reason to trade with objectively the most destructive nation to ever exist but not with its Middle Eastern outpost. Where does this line get drawn? Is it ok to trade with France, the rapist of Africa? What's the acceptable ratio of billions traded to millions murdered?
Other way around, right. Point still stands. Idk, I forgot that realpolitik means ignoring genocides and putting billions in the econony of countries doing them. But it will surely all work out this time. Just be "pragmatic" and put your copes on the same social contract that did the USSR in but this time capitalister. 👍👍👍
China only bought arms from Israel for about a decade under Jiang Zemin and then stopped around 2001 (which is certainly still bad imo, but it thankfully ended two decades ago at least). They never sold weapons to Israel. They compete against Israel in arms sales, and China's arms sales primarily go to Algeria and South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. The only socialist government that still purchases arms from Israel is Vietnam.
from https://redsails.org/tankies/
T34-85 go brrrrrrrrr
Gonna be pointing primarily at point number 7 and 8 in relating to this comment and post.
PCUSA 8 Points of Unity
I. Marxism-Leninism
We apply the science of Marxism-Leninism as the means to achieve supremacy of the working class and the oppressed.
II. Vanguard-Cadre Party
We maintain that the role of the party, as laid out by the Bolshevik experience, is that of a vanguard workers party, which opposes and organizes against the bourgeois state and its surrogate parties. Such a party acts as the general staff of the working class, educating, organizing and leading the proletariat in its struggle for liberation, and to that end the party must develop and train strong cadres to lead the struggle.
III. Dictatorship of the Proletariat
As Marx and Lenin wrote, we agree that organizing a class conscious working class is the only way to achieve liberation from the bourgeoisie-and that due to the inevitability of the class struggle and the nature of the state as the tool of oppression of one class by another, only the overthrow of the bourgeois state by the proletariat and the active destruction of the bourgeoisie by the dictatorship of the proletariat (Soviet power) will liquidate capitalism and consolidate the power of working-class interests to transform the social and economic relations of the United States into a socialist-communist state.
IV. Democratic Centralism
The principle of organization of the Party of Communists USA which provides both for the vesting of the necessary authority in the leading organs, and the highest democratic practice. Democracy and centralization comprise a dialectical unity; they are complementary; each enriches and strengthens the other, thereby guaranteeing the Party’s maximum efficiency for its vanguard role. In Party practice, Democratic Centralism means that: – 1. “All directing bodies of the Party, from top to bottom, shall be elected; 2. “Party bodies shall give periodical accounts of their activities to their respective Party organizations; 3. “There shall be strict Party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority; 4. “All decisions of the higher bodies shall be absolutely binding on lower bodies and on all Party members”.
V. Proletarian Internationalism
We support the international working class, and the struggle of the oppressed peoples for liberation from imperialist domination and exploitation within this country and around the world, and oppose all forms of imperialism worldwide, fighting especially against the mechanisms of imperialism created and maintained by the current bourgeois regime in our own country, and will actively oppose and work to end its wars of imperialist adventurism around the globe.
VI. Support for real existing socialism of the 20th century
We support and uphold the legacy and lessons of the socialist revolutionary movement of the 20th century, and the contributions of Lenin, Stalin and other leading Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries. We will defend that legacy against defamation by revisionists, Capitalists, Trotskyites, Maoists, Social Democrats, anarchists, Cold War liberal bourgeois and petty bourgeoisie “phony left” radicals that undermine the revolutionary history and struggle of Marxist-Leninist theory and practice. We reject the so-called “21st century socialism” and Euro- communism as revisionist attempts to promote reformist schemes and “market socialism” over true revolutionary struggle and socialist collectivization. We reject all unscientific and dogmatic vulgar Marxism.
VII. Continuing Lenin’s opposition to right opportunism and revisionism inside the World Communist Movement
We oppose all forms of right opportunism and revisionism to supplant Marxist-Leninist ideology in the world Communist movement, historically and especially exemplified by the current CPUSA. We identify this revisionism as an intrusion of bourgeois ideology that weakens and distorts our theory, practice, and purpose, leading to class collaboration and counter-revolution.
VIII. Historically, revolution is the only means to the goal of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and a scientific socialist society based on the science of Marxism-Leninism.
Our position is that class-conscious struggle for socialist revolution is the only means of achieving liberation for the working class. Further, that any measure of reformism, collaboration or conciliation with the bourgeoisie serves only to undermine and prolong workers’ struggle, leading to the further consolidation of capitalist power and dominance. “The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.” [Communist Manifesto, chapter ll, paragraph Vll].
Roderic Day calls Russia an "anti-imperial, decolonizing force" and defends chinese arm sales to israel lol https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1525221745334132736?t=T7R0WAafeRogbzAXCgSBBQ&s=19
China doesn't sell arms to Israel.
And I'd like to hear responses to his question. Why is trade with Israel a red line but not trade with the most aggressive state on Earth? Is it necessary realpolitik to trade with the US but a rightist deviation to trade with Israel?
You can argue that its alot harder to avoid trade with the largest economy in the world than a relatively small country that you dont even border
So "it's a lot harder" is an acceptable reason to trade with objectively the most destructive nation to ever exist but not with its Middle Eastern outpost. Where does this line get drawn? Is it ok to trade with France, the rapist of Africa? What's the acceptable ratio of billions traded to millions murdered?
Other way around, right. Point still stands. Idk, I forgot that realpolitik means ignoring genocides and putting billions in the econony of countries doing them. But it will surely all work out this time. Just be "pragmatic" and put your copes on the same social contract that did the USSR in but this time capitalister. 👍👍👍
No it doesn't lol
This also doesn't answer why it's ok to trade with the US, which is objectively worse than Israel.
I would love to hear your accounting of the fall of the Soviet Union. I bet there's a ton of investigation behind this speech!
China buys arms from Israel because Israel is willing to sell China laundered US military technology.
China only bought arms from Israel for about a decade under Jiang Zemin and then stopped around 2001 (which is certainly still bad imo, but it thankfully ended two decades ago at least). They never sold weapons to Israel. They compete against Israel in arms sales, and China's arms sales primarily go to Algeria and South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. The only socialist government that still purchases arms from Israel is Vietnam.
I don't hate his writing, but man he is just really annoying on twitter. Gives me youth pastor vibes.
Social media and its consequences