My dream now is to move to China and create propaganda for the sake of furthering communism. America is so systematically fucked that without literally killing every politician in the country we will never recover. Maybe maoist third worldists are right. We in real doomer hours now.
take it from someone who has (close) relatives in china...
it is 1000x closer to here then to the ussr (maybe try cuba)
but yes the third worldists are right i personally think Brazil is on the table for revolution
i personally think Brazil is on the table for revolution
uh... why? after colombia we're probably the most reactionary shithole in all of south america lol
Northern Brazil has revolutionary potential in the way the south doesn't per my understanding no? Isn't there a state with a communist governor?
i would say the northeast and the north are the regions with the most revolutionary potential, but the working class here (i'm in the northeast) is even more disorganized than in são paulo for instance, and without organizing we won't have shit
as for the state governor, the history of our communist movement is a bit complicated, but to sum it up PCdoB (flávio dino's party) has become a reformist party through and through and PCB is the one that maintains its marxist roots
and this is coming from someone who to this day still thinks even bernie is a socialist, so when i say dino is a lib you can be sure he is lol
Is he more or less of a lib than Lula? Because I view Bernie in the same lense as I view Lula and that's as being unquestionably liberal as is required to remotely being able to govern at all.
lula is a full-on liberal, he's interested in incremental reform done through institutions and he sees mass movements as at most accessory to this (winning elections), not the tools to achieve structural change from the outside
dino is about the same
bernie was a bit different, he at least acknowledged the need for organizing and the existence of class struggle as something that workers can win
Interesting you say that, I guess my perspective is shifted because Lula actually held office, honestly makes me even more disappointed that Bernie lost now given the shear magnitude of the quality of life improvements Lula helped bring to Brazil working class and poor.
Bernie has really done a ton to reignite the labor movement in this country, it really is his lasting change. He's been arguably the most important activist our country has had in decades, but he is still only really an activist.
lula's most important contributions were raising the minimum wage and expanding a sort of "food stamps" program (quotes because it was more like a $50/month UBI focused on erradicating hunger), despite being pretty simple these policies actually yielded massive results
but unlike other pink tide leaders such as chávez and evo, he brought 0 structural change so most of that is gone by now
the only reform he ever did was a pension reform - not to increase pensions mind you, but to cut them (fulfilling promises he made to capital/finance in the infamous 2003 letter, "carta ao povo brasileiro")
plus when chávez wanted to bring telesur to brazil - in an attempt to help create an actual media alternative to our mostly neoliberal-dominated press - lula refused, so as to not displease globo (our largest network)
whenever he was presented with the opportunity to help workers in the class struggle, he backed down and picked the more conciliatory approach - that's the hallmark of liberal politics and it wasted our greatest opportunity in decades
as for bernie, i don't think he would've been able to enact any of his policies (we're not in the post-war period, the conditions for social democracy just aren't here), but people being incentivized by the federal government to become more organized could've been pretty amazing in the long run, so it is pretty disappointing that he failed :(
I think Bernie wouldn't have made any structural changes to our society either. His top issue is clearly universal healthcare and free education, these are ultimately liberal policies that strengthen capitalism over the long term.
Bernie was not going to do things like purge the state department of pro regime change folks in the foreign service. He would've likely chosen a treasury secremovedy that would calm down the markets which would not be performing well due to fears of sweeping change, and he wouldn't want to burn his political capital on this. Scandinavian style social democracy does provide some of the highest standards of living among ordinary folks of anywhere in the world though, but it still isn't socialism.
His top issue is clearly universal healthcare and free education, these are ultimately liberal policies that strengthen capitalism over the long term.
i know and agree, but that's not my point
my point is that he wanted to organize people to enact these policies, whereas lula wanted to negotiate with politicians in congress; it's similar to a warren vs bernie thing (though lula is a bit more moderate than warren)
these are fundamentally different approaches, the former acknowledges the existence of class warfare and acts on it; which can actually create a structural change in the long term as the experience of organizing has a transformative effect on individuals
this is very well expressed in bernie wanting to double union membership while, during lula's terms, unionization rates actually went down (which is a pretty incredible feat for a former union leader)
america has had more riots this year than brazil, would you say america is on the table for revolution?
it's having an organized working class under the right circumstances that leads to this, in our case the circumstances have always been here but our working class has been pretty scattered since the 30s (though they had a little bit of a revival in the late 70s/early 80s)
bolivia, on the other hand, is a place where revolution might go off in the near future
I've known of some Americans moving to Cuba, although it was likely that they were bringing particular skill sets with them.
It would only be fair for Cuba to have a reciprocal wet foot/dry foot policy for Americans fleeing the fascist dictatorship that is the US.
They accept healthcare workers at the very least. I had am acquaintance who moved to Cuba to practice healthcare or research healthcare or something like that.
I agree theyre more capitalist than socialist rn but the entire party is full of actual marxists so I do have hope that they will continue on their path.
I don't know why this myth persists
Western leftists understand just how bleak it would be (or is) to live in a world with no major leftist power, so they are willing to ignore pretty much anything to believe that China is leftist. It's just a better world to live in than one where the two world powers are competing to see who gets to be in charge of the global neoliberal hegemony.
China isn't leftist and they regularly send money to support reactionary states like the Kingdom of Nepal and the Philippines fight leftist revolutions. They're also a horrifically authoritarian police state, and whether you call what they're doing to the Uygurs a "genocide" or not, it's certainly bad shit they're doing over there. China isn't your fucking friend.
The Uyghur stuff is massively overblown by the west. There are legitimate critiques of China such as substantial restrictions on free movement for their citizens with regards to where they live in the country, but there isn't a genocide happening within their borders. It is fair to say they've taken a strong hand against Uyghur seperatist movements though.
China, as well as countries like Russia, do represent a legitimate force against western imperialism throughout the global south though. This doesn't make them socialist in the slightest, but these countries do contribute substantial resources in defending the sovergnty and helping develop formerly colonized nation's.
there are billionaires in the party and china has some of the worst labor rights in the world the only thing that could save the party is a hard liner coup
On the bright side, it's increasingly clear that the US has a decade or less. This is like reading the contemporary reports from like 450, with guys going "we sure are in a bit of a slump, but the next guy will restore our borders and bring back the needed reforms, as long as we don't let that radical leftist Aetius have his way....aarggh (Ostrogoth spear through the chest.)"
Revolution is spontaneous. Did anyone predict George Floyd protests would happen across the country and defund the police would be a mainstream slogan? No one did.
Granted, class consciousness has been decimated in the US. But it's still there festering because of the inherent depravities of capitalism imposed on the working class.
Uprisings are spontaneous, revolutions on the other hand take a hell of a lot of work and party building. Lenin has a lot to say about spontaneity in What Is To Be Done.
It's what reminded me of how fucked we are but I honestly don't give a shit who's VP to that fucking zombie who's gonna be presi.
Fair enough. I'd just say not to get too worked up about electoral politics. It's spectacle for the petit bourgeoisie. It's an allowance from the capitalist class of whose boot is on your neck. It never has and never will be where real change comes for in the country.
I seriously recommend getting involved with SRA membership or with their mutual aid by finding your local chapter. Another great, not explicitly anarchist org that is filled with anarchists is food not bombs.
I can't wax lyrically enough about how much being involved in mutual aid and organization helps remove the doomerism because you see that there are like-minded comrades out there building outside-of-the-state power structures.
Dw I've been out of electoralism for a while. I live in a really small town but im probably moving within the year so I'ma join whatever chapters I can find in OKC.
without literally killing every politician in the country we will never recover
Put that guillotine to work then
Not how the internet works. It's also not murder when you ain't killin humans
