Just a reminder that the balance of forces is most definitely in our favor, it’s just a question of organizational strategy.

  • MagisterSinister [he/him,comrade/them]
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    4 years ago

    Imagine their cognitive dissonance between "we have to spread out more so the crowd looks bigger" and "social distancing will turn me into an islamomarxist trans catgirl".

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      They want to turn it back to what it was in the 1920s https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/racist-history-portland/492035/

  • penguin_von_doom [she/her]
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    4 years ago

    Just a reminder that the balance of forces is most definitely in our favor, it’s just a question of organizational strategy.

    IDK, proud boys are only one gruop. But large pieces of the country are very chud-y.

    • Bedandsofa [he/him]
      hexagon
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      4 years ago

      And it would appear that even larger numbers of people are not chud-y.

      BLM this summer was/is the largest protest movement in US history. Numbers in the street are representative of the balance of forces.

      • BeamBrain [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Most BLM protestors aren't communists by any stretch, though. They're liberals, and we know which side liberals take when something legitimately threatens capital.

  • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
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    4 years ago

    just FYI for those of you who don't live in Portland, this is probably their max crowd size. Literallh every time they say they're gonna have a gigantic March and portland outnumbers them 10 to 1 and they have to get protection by the piggies.

      • AbolishAmerikkka [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Yup exactly. Fascists are cowards at heart and will only continue engaging in violence when they’re not scared they might die in retaliation.

        When they are met with violence their ranks will shrink and the ones left are the most dangerous and violent ones.

    • Bedandsofa [he/him]
      hexagon
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      4 years ago

      That means we need an organizational strategy that accounts for them having rifles.

      For one, it’s not like we don’t have access to weapons. See, for example, Louisville the other day, or the early days of the George Floyd protests in Saint Louis.

      Second, and more importantly, by virtue of our numbers, we have options available that they do not. Something like 20 million people participated in BLM protests this summer. With the right organization and agitation, that is more than enough people to organize truly massive political strikes, the strike being the single most effective weapon working class people have in our arsenal.

      • joshieecs [he/him,any]
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        4 years ago

        20 million BLM protesters with their own rifles might be a more effective weapon

        • Bedandsofa [he/him]
          hexagon
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          4 years ago

          Eh, I’d much rather have 20 million unarmed people engaging in militant and conscious class struggle than 20 million people armed with weapons but lacking strategy.

          Guns will be there, and in many cases the target audience for our class struggle politics are already armed. It’s a question of how and why to use the tools at our disposal.

          The political power of the working class is a collective power that flows from our role in production. Society only functions by “the kind permission” of the working class—If we withhold our labor, everything grinds to a halt.

          • joshieecs [he/him,any]
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            4 years ago

            Political power flows from the barrel of a gun. They will put us in chains and work us as slaves if we don't defend ourselves. The option will be work or torture. And indeed, that is literally what they are trying to do by charging protesters with felonies, they want to put them into prison-slavery. I don't think work stoppages alone will be enough under current conditions. There is an ongoing war of aggression being waged by capitalist militarized police against the workers in the streets of most major cities right now. Thousands have been arrested with the end goal there being to make them literal state-owned slaves.

            Expecting an unarmed strike to turn the tide seems like wishful thinking at this point. The striking workers will just all be arrested, charged with felonies (right-wing states have already passed oppressive new anti-protesting felonies) -- they can't be stuffed into the already overcrowded prisons, they will have to build literal camps to house them. Shit gets ugly quick. There is some hope here for jury nullification, but it's still a grueling process. No chance a 6-3 supreme court is going to side with the protesters.

            If you can organize 20 million people to be class conscious then might as well take the last step and organize a full revolution.

          • bamboo68 [none/use name,any]
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            4 years ago

            Society only functions by “the kind permission” of the working class—If we withhold our labor, everything grinds to a halt.

            DeLeonism might interest you

            but anyways general strikes like this have never worked in history while revolutions have, sure organize for it, but strikes get broken through violence and we need a lot more than to just say i dont consent, especially in the era of financial capitalism

            • Bedandsofa [he/him]
              hexagon
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              4 years ago

              but anyways general strikes like this have never worked in history while revolutions have

              What if I told you that both of these things are on the spectrum of working class struggle? The point of strike agitation isn't to argue that strikes are the end all be all, but to make the point that the working class needs to take power and it can do so using working class methods of struggle. Strikes are uniquely good opportunities to raise the political level, because the tactic requires workers to think and act in their capacity as workers.

              Like sure, the need for self defense is there, but self defense isn’t the goal, the goal is to win power. If there’s no strategy or objective, taking up arms doesn’t magically allow you to improvise.

              • bamboo68 [none/use name,any]
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                4 years ago

                yeah sure, but the ability to defend the strike or whatever movement is the biggest issue is the point id make

                and of course building dual power through unions and just general worker solidarity is based and good and very much something i support

    • OgdenTO [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      And supported by the police and national guard

        • OgdenTO [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Yes, but they will come out to support if asked, since they are paid, trained, and we'll armed.

          • joshieecs [he/him,any]
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            4 years ago

            yes, they will, but they are still heavily outnumbered. you also have to figure they are spread out across the country. so the numbers that could bear on any individual city would be much lower than that, assuming the demonstrations continue nationwide rather than just one or two cities.

    • hauntingspectre [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      I watched some streams of both this and the counter rally and I can't imagine the type of person who would see both and be like "sure, the Proud Boy speakers were racist and kept trying to grift me, but the counter demonstrations had weird people and also let black people speak, so I'mma stick with the PBs"

  • AbolishAmerikkka [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Next time just put up a fence around them with razor wire and post guards outside and call it a day.

    • Bedandsofa [he/him]
      hexagon
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      4 years ago

      I say that like there are objectively many more of us than there are right wing patriot dipshits.

      Bourgeois defeatism Revolutionary Optimism

        • AbolishAmerikkka [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Just haven’t been radicalized enough yet but the police brutality is doing that for us.

            • Bedandsofa [he/him]
              hexagon
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              4 years ago

              The thing about political consciousness is that can change, especially in periods of crisis (like now).

              And people don’t have to be communists to participate in struggle. Like the objective of communist organizing is to organize people who are not communists. By raising demands/strategies that are informed by Marxist analysis we can raise class consciousness and shift the trajectory of movements.

  • Blurst_Of_Times [he/him,they/them]
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    4 years ago

    Don't get cocky, that's still more fash than I like to see in one place. Never stop talking, never stop explaining, never stop making more Socialists.

    • joshieecs [he/him,any]
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      4 years ago

      we don't need more guns we need more people with guns. 20 chuds each owning 20 guns = 400 guns but it's really just 20 guns they can shoot at once. on the flip side, you could arm a lot of comrades by raiding their miniature-armories.

      • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Well yeah, I obviously didn't mean that one antifa supersoldier should have 10,000 guns lmao

        • joshieecs [he/him,any]
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          4 years ago

          but it's okay if they do, because unlike chuds who want to horde them, antifa supersoldiers would use their stash to arm their comrades.

    • Bedandsofa [he/him]
      hexagon
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      4 years ago

      We need better organization than they have, and we have such a numerical advantage that we should be able to dictate when/how the battles are fought.