this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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chapotraphouse

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

While I think the members of Red Star mean well and their faction generally has good positions, I've gotta push back on the idea that they've significantly pushed DSA's international work broadly or their anti-zionist work specifically in a better direction. The recent gutting of the anti-zionist resolution by the NPC and the retraction of the statements on the Venezuelan election and the Israeli assassination in Iran show that at the highest level DSA is firmly in control of chauvinist social democrats on these issues (I had to scoff when I heard of the "left" NPC getting elected last year, as if Bread and Roses are left lol)

Furthermore, DSA's position on the presidential election has always been firmly invested in working within the Democratic party as seen by their focus on the "uncommitted" movement and their recent statement about Harris picking Walz as her VP. They still hide in their dirty break/party surrogate position which functionally ends up the same as the CP's line.

There are a lot of good people in DSA and I learned a lot when I was a member but the organization is fundamentally repelled by any sort of discipline and the social fascists on it's right wing maintain their power through that disorder and have demonstated that they do not care if their opportunism harms the organization or anyone else for that matter. Changing it into something viable would take an immense amount of work that would be sabotaged by SMC/Groundwork/B&R every step of the way, or you could just join an actual Leninist org.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We can pull the DSA left!

  • an absolute mark
[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It's moving left though? Certainly not fast enough to meet this revolutionary moment but it is.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (14 children)

How? In that it verbally tut-tuts Israel?

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago

Stop putting c/the_dunk_tank content in the wrong comm

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (28 children)

Today's not April 1st, is it?

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago

entryism is gonna work, just one more time bro

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Communists belong in the objective left wing of fascism. Yeah, okay. Good. Cool.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

Wasn't that one of Stalin's rare L's though? Social democrats can move in either direction, some of them shot rosa, some of them fought nazis and joined in the post ww2 socialist coalition governments and were integrated with the communists. (Czechoslovakia comes to mind) How many hexbears started out as social democrats during Bernie 2016?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (4 children)

You're looking at it as though it's Calvinism. Stalin's statement is about where the ideology of social democracy fits into the framework of class struggle, not about how everyone who at any point identifies as socdem has the soul of a fascist and has never and will never do anything worthwhile. The point of his statement is that the purpose social democracy serves is the maintenance of capitalism and therefore that people working towards social-democratic ends are working on maintaining capitalism (which is also the job of fascism and fascists, though they accomplish it differently and under different circumstances).

That individual socdems radicalized or fought in self-defense or whatever has no bearing on the statement. What matters for it is that the socdem organization of the SPD, on the eve of revolution, chose to protect capitalism (even though many of its own members objected), demonstrating how even those smol bean well-meaning SPD members who just didn't appreciate Rosa's message until her corpse was dumped in the river nonetheless had been working towards the benefit and promotion of just the organization responsible for it.

Stalin joining the allies also has no bearing on this. It fails to comprehend the difference between ideological conflict and political conflict. What Stalin was drawing were the lines of ideological conflict, which is vindicated a thousand times over by the US, Britain, etc. materially supporting Nazi Germany up until the latter's expansionism put it and the various liberal states into political conflict. Because of this political conflict, it made sense to ally in the war with these liberal states, but that by no means made them somehow fellow-travelers, as demonstrated by how the US didn't even wait until the end of the war to start making barbaric plays in the interest of checking the power of the Soviet Union.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

This exactly. As I've indicated in other parts of the thread, the primary problem of the moment is that of political education. This whole thread is an absolute testament to that. Everybody is so excited to share the good news of communism without having a complex understanding of a non-memyfied version of it. People mistake entertainment (especially shit-postimg) for education.

Perhaps I am a dour nerd in a corner on this, but I am fine with that, it won't be the first or last time.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There's a huge difference between personal politics and organizational politics. There's massive inertia and the fact that it's by definition a democratic socialist organization.

There's value in joining if there's no other org you can be a part of, or maybe to poach people, but you'll never drive them significantly left.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

There is massive inertia, and the NPC is currently minority social democrat. The problem is Trotskyists with shitty third camp opinions making up the deciding votes, which is a better situation than a previously social democrat led org, and you know, those folks can be further pushed as they see the consequences of their actions not work out as they hoped. They're not mustache twirling villians, they're just wrong.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

And if you are still a social democrat after the 2020 election cycle, you either weren't paying attention, and shouldn't be trusted, or you are hopelessly naive, and shouldn't be trusted.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Fuck socdems, but I feel like you're ignoring that not everyone is in your age cohort and experiencing things with the context you were. Also, like, politically disengaged people absolutely should be a target of agitation, what the hell are you talking about?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And if you are still a social democrat after the 2020 election cycle, you either weren't paying attention, and shouldn't be trusted, or you are hopelessly naive, and shouldn't be trusted.

What percent of the US population is currently beyond social democrat? We don't have to win over most people, but we have to win over some people to socialism. Like, IDK, a couple percent? I trust them less if they learn now than if they learned a while ago, but it is still worth educating folks. I've seen some folks really change for the better in the time I've been in DSA.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Then win them over in an actual communist organization while improving your own understanding of revolutionary theory? Join the PSL. Trying to convince comrades who are not currently active in political organizations to salt the DSA is a massive waste of time. This is bad theory.

If you are already in the DSA and already have connections there, then there is little harm in trying to push them further left, but you should ALSO be seeking a party that is ACTUALLY in line with your ACTUAL values. You are literally fighting against senior members and an anti-communist culture with decades of entrenchment, and to believe that you can change that is also hopelessly naive. The DSA is not a bottom-up organization, the bottom is purposefully disorganized.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

THE PSL isn't capable of doing demcent or scientific socialism if this is correct? https://archive.org/details/party-for-socialism-and-liberation-psl-constitution-2022/page/6/mode/2up

The central committee being able to select up to 40 percent of delegates means it's going to be inflexible and less capable of developing in the long term, even if it starting from a better ideological position.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (6 children)

We are not at the point where flexibility is needed, we are at a point where incredibly basic political education is needed. You are literally making excuses not to join an actual communist organization, when the DSA does not, and can never, actually resemble a communist organization.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Stalin himself would go on to ally with governments to the right of social democracies in order to fight actual fascists. It's absolutely an L that he lumped them all in together as basically the same. It's also absurd to be so dogmatic about a comment made 100 years ago in a wildly different political and material context.

How many hexbears started out as social democrats during Bernie 2016?

At the end of the day, these are people who've taken a concrete step left of the Democratic Party. We should be convincing them to take more steps, not calling them fascists.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Have the DSA apologised to Cuba yet?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Nope, although some caucuses have published stuff like this: https://redstarcaucus.org/cuban-links/ and the international committee is establishing guidelines for future trips to prevent the same nonsense from happening. We should apologize but Cuba also understands that DSA is a big tent org with some shitty folks in it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

DSA communist paper says communists should join DSA. In other news red flags are indeed red.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Y'all dismissing the DSA better be in a different org, otherwise it's just internet posturing. Having a radical caucus within a moderate org is a much better place to be than no organization at all. It's also a good first step towards finding like minds and branching off.

If you have a PSL or whatever in your area then great, otherwise join the DSA and meet people. The perfect communist party isn't gonna just pop into existence.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Okay, so I read the article. But I have to say I've really enjoyed the back-and-forth between you and others supporting the PSL. Besides being fun meow-popcorn, it is genuinely enlightening so I want to thank you for participating in the discussion.

I have to admit I also have an anti-DSA bias because of bad experiences with DSA I've had myself, but I also know good people that were heavily involved in DSA and eventually got burned. So I appreciate the work of trying to push it further to the Left and to accept a more Communist guideline. I can especially appreciate since sometimes it's the only Leftist game in town for some areas, so it isn't totally meaningless to push, in my opinion. And I don't really know as much about PSL but I do have a tendency to think that if Communists can that they should join a Marxist-Leninist Party.

Whether that should necessarily be PSL or another Party, I don't know. And your critique about the Central Committee choosing 40% of the delegates is a good one, I can also see how a desire to maintain the direction and ideology of a relatively new Communist organization requires some suspension of democracy. But undoing the liberal concept of "democracy" is something I've mentioned recently before is something I've been working on myself, I think sometimes a Communist Party doesn't need to be fully democratic if it's defending or implementing proper Communist ideology. On the other hand, I also don't know if I would personally want to join some Party where my position and contribution is less important and meaningful in the face of bureaucratism. Maybe that's my own ego I also need to work on, and I wouldn't want to be Party Leader or anything, but I do see value in seeing and feeling your work going into something that wasn't already decided for you.

Anyway, interesting post so thanks for posting and discussing!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But communists can already canvass for the Democrats in the CPUSA. What is the point of them joining the DSA?

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