Not just here, but also on reddit and other social media.
Sure, there is a propaganda war brewing wherein a lot of Western media are pushing exaggerated narratives, Adrian Zenz is a theological dope of an academic, and the CIA has a vested interest in accelerating conflict, etc. but surely there's got to be room to also address the shortcomings of China as well? Whether it's about LGBTQ+ issues, or the exploits of Chinese capitalism, or being able to criticize or make fun of Xi, I see posts here routinely and systemically brigaded and comments downvoted to oblivion that even sniff at criticism of China.
I consider myself a free agent, and China's meteoric rise gives me some hope for a brighter tomorrow (in contrast to the US), but this blatant campaign of social media manipulation gives me pause for concern. It just screams insecurity and makes me not trust what feels like a counter-propaganda narrative. (Mods, please never get rid of the downvote counter.)
Anyway, here's hoping for a brighter future, but please let ideas breathe.
Thanks for listening.
I understand the argument you’re making, but isn’t the sentiment that “Chinese capitalism” is not my problem” just a complete abandonment of proletarian internationalism?
Like if you’re drawing your thought from Marx and Engels at the baseline, they are pretty damn clear that “The working men have no country.”
This isn’t an idealist position in either sense of the word—capital doesn’t respect national boundaries and literally treats the working class as an international pool of labor power:
Just as the development of capitalism leads to an international capitalist class, the working class, too, is an international class, with international class interests. “An injury to one is an injury to all” is not limited to workers of “your” nation: the victories of the working class in China (or Bangladesh or Burkina Faso or Chile or wherever) are the victories of your class, and their defeats are your defeats.
What you lose when you take the position that “Chinese capitalism is not my problem,” is the internationalist perspective that is an essential part of what it means to be a communist—it’s all part of the same struggle, and the solution is an international working class solution.
I feel like that argument ignores the material analysis that would need to be made before settling on what needs to be dismantled. American capitalism is the hegemon. It is, in no uncertain terms, the center from which all other systems of capitalist currents flow out of (Read Long Twentieth Century). We are operating in America's world system, a system that ideologically claims to be a free market while imposing tariff and protections to stop other countries from benefiting wholesale from American markets - in the process of "loosening tariffs" the American diplomatic body pressures, and bribes other countries to adopt neoliberal reforms; neoliberal reforms come in the way of laws, and market systems, those economic systems give rise to neoliberal politicians, which oppress and pillage their own people, and rotten cultures that treat their workers as disposable. China opened up to America and had to make certain agreements, like market reforms. Countries that refuse to adhere to these neoliberal policies end up isolated and cut off from other countries unless they are willing to play politik with America's opponents.
So if I am seeking to end capitalism as a whole, and we are really playing by America's rules, what cause do I have to focus on Chinese Capitalism (I'm using your terms, I don't think China is, in my dumbass opinion, wholly capitalist). Especially as someone that lives, breathes, and exists within the imperial core?
Chinese Capitalism (according to you) exists because America exists and sets the rule of the game. Putting pressure and collapsing the American center, pulls the rug on the entire system. If I want to show solidarity with the Chinese worker, then I want them to survive in a stable country (not one balkanized and turned into a warlord's paradise, like America wants to do). I want them to assert their rights to their labor and all it creates without the U.S putting pressure on China to suppress, an alleged, communist reemergence.
The headquarters of the international class of factory owners (and financial capital) rests in America. So again, the only way to destroy the system is to advance the collapse in America, insofar as it weakens the leash with which they control other countries and their workers. As someone born in Venezuela and has experienced this firsthand. It's very clear that as long as America exists my people won't have the economic siege warfare placed upon them (see UN Human Rights report on Venezuela) lifted. Thus my criticism should not go towards the Maduro government doing the best it can with the material conditions as controlled by America, but America itself.
I mean, there’s some interesting points in there, but I’m not really persuaded to abandon the Marxist perspective in favor of your analysis.
Capitalism is a world system, but moreover it is a set of productive and social relationships that grew over time into a world-encompassing system. The US is, for the time being, the most dominant capitalist nation within that world system, but it hasn’t always been, and may not always be, given US capitalism is either on the precipice or has already begun its decline. We already see how US imperialism is less effective now than 100 years ago: trade agreements are not so one-sided, the US hasn’t decisively won a war in decades, regional powers Outside of the US sphere are exerting more influence in places like the Middle East.
America sets some of the ground rules for how capitalism operates, but again, capitalism predates the US dominance of the system and, to some extent, does not require the US to dominate the system.
More than that, I want the working class in China to take power, just like I want the working class in Italy to take power, or Chile, or South Africa. I want the international working class taking power and building international socialism, because that is the only way to transform and overthrow the existing international capitalist order. We need not only an international perspective, but international coordination.
I mean, a good bulk of capital is based in the US, but this is mostly plainly incorrect. Of the 10 largest companies in the world by revenue, only 2 are based in the USA. Many large companies not only operate globally but are conglomerations of capital from different nations. The company that makes Budweiser, the quintessential American beer, is actually a conglomerate of US/Brazilian/Dutch capital, and has headquarters in all three nations.
How are you appraising that the Maduro administration is “doing the best it can?”
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