This is mostly a serious question. Also, not for the tankies/MLs. I already know what your answer to that question is. I may not always agree with you on everything, but you do have an answer that if the conditions became right, could actually work.

No, this is for the type of anarchist completely against the wall, gulags, seemingly any amount of getting hands dirty. What is the solution to those types of people? There are so many of them in the US, a lot of which are heavily armed, that they could easily topple a socialist system, and even if they didn't do that, their existence would be incompatible with any marginalized group living their lives, since they love to harass them at best, outright murder them at worse. So what's the solution? Anarchists often seem to avoid this, seemingly believing that if there was a socialist or communist society, they would just say "aw shucks, guess I was wrong about that. Guess I'll no longer be racist or xenophobic!"

So am I missing something, what's the answer?

  • Collatz_problem [comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    If revolution in USA is victorious than you would have half of the world trying to crush it, and I really doubt that capitalists inside would give up without a fight. You will really need strong army to survive. Bolsheviks tried initially to get by just with voluntary militias, and it failed catastrophically, because enemies have military education, military experience, pre-existing organisation, a lot of modern weapons, willingness to use them, and, most importantly, support from significant part of the population, and you could not win just by militias.

    The main downside of militias is that they are extremely susceptible to particularism, when community defense group defend just their community, and that makes them vulnerable to defeat in detail. Plus, you would probably need draft in first years to be able to muster enough forces to survive.

    US has pretty much whole range of needed resources, and that is your advantage.

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

      If the conditions were in place to have a new american revolution, global capital would have collapsed to the point of impotence already. I mean the global economy headed by the US which keeps most of the world as either vassal or farm is weakening even now. We can't keep a Bolivian coup alive. Imagine the world when we h ave a revolution, most of the resource mine nations would have either been rebelling or are starting rebellion and even states like France and the UK would see themselves weakened by right or leftwing movements.

      • Collatz_problem [comrade/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Well, after WW1 imperialist states were extremely weakened, and yet they managed to defeat revolutions in Europe and almost defeated Bolsheviks.

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

          True but capital wasn't nearly as global as it is now. A current capital collapse would see the world imperial powers realize that relying on 1 countries military doesn't work when the country dies.

          • Collatz_problem [comrade/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            They would invade, because a socialist America is a grave threat to capital, and globalization will actually make them more unified than they were in 1918.

            • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
              ·
              edit-2
              4 years ago

              Who is "they"? Who, specifically, would invade America, the country with "a rifle behind every blade of grass"?

              Who will do the occupying? The UK? The EU? Canada? A reformed NATO, without its foremost military? A conglomerate of the police, former DHS personnel, and the Pinkertons? A gig-economy army funded by international finance capital?

              When there are 2000 People's Municipalities throughout America, and invading to stamp them out like the Paris Commune would risk a proxy war with China (and possibly half of Latin America), who is going to take that titanic risk?

              • Collatz_problem [comrade/them]
                ·
                4 years ago

                Primarily NATO.

                “a rifle behind every blade of grass” Fucking half of those rifles will be firing in your direction.

                When there are 2000 People’s Municipalities throughout America, and invading to stamp them out like the Paris Commune would risk a proxy war with China (and possibly half of Latin America), who is going to take that titanic risk?

                That's why capitalists would be attacking your People's Municipalities immediately as you establish a couple. Waiting until revolution snowballs will be suicide for them.

                • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  You don't need to declare everyone an enemy who isn't your ally. Granted, the chuds have the most guns, but they're salivating over their fantasies of the "globalists" invading the USA. You can weaken the systems they rely on without directly declaring war on them. Heck, you can even use their language, and designate yourself a "Freedom Town"... where no one's surplus labor is stolen by private entities.

                  Revolutions don't take place tidily under banners that easily map to prior historical entities. One example of how this works is the gilets jaunes. It might not have culminated in the destruction of the French state, but it caused massive losses to capital, expelled the fascists from its ranks, and came closer to toppling liberal democracy than anything in the previous 50 years.

                  ...So they're going to stop organic communization, are they? At what point are they going to resort to force? Please enlighten me with your scrying.