8
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
8 points (100.0% liked)
Leftist Infighting: A community dedicated to allowing leftists to vent their frustrations
12 readers
8 users here now
The purpose of this community is sort of a "work out your frustrations by letting it all out" where different leftist tendencies can vent their frustrations with one another and more assertively and directly challenge one another. Hostility is allowed, but any racist, fascist, or reactionary crap wont be tolerated, nor will explicit threats.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
The Lenin quote given at the start is taken entirely out of context. It looks like he just searched for a Lenin quote that would fit his flawed analysis.
Here are a few more quotes from the very chapter Rainer takes his quote from. Note that these are quotes from '"Left-wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder' which was written after the revolution in 1920.
About the necessity of the struggle against the reactionary leadership of trade unions:
About working where the masses are:
Second, he doesn't really talk about reaching the masses. He talks of allying and supporting these reactionary movements which he just assumes have some mass support already and he assumes that the support they have is from working class people. Neither of these can be taken for granted.
The movements he wants to support are not actual reformist movements, they don't propose any significant reforms to the system, they barely even propose particular policies that they want to adopt. Reformist movements, while flawed, have historically had genuine mass support. The support of the working class that had at least some consciousness and wanted to systematically improve it's conditions. These types of movement can be useful for communists but again, a proper strategy needs to be made. Blind support doesn't lead anywhere.
Movements like RAWM also aren't working class movements. They fall into a group of astroturfed movements that are supported by various right-wing elements. I don't know much about Cornel West specifically, but from what I saw since he announced his campaign, he isn't really supported by the working classes of the US and I don't think he's really connected with them either. He's a (relatively) privileged life-long academic and is now attempting to approach "the masses" from above. "The masses" didn't choose him so they won't be radicalized when his attempts at "reform" fail. As far as I can tell, he also doesn't really have any reforms in mind, just calls to empty phrases like "truth", "justice", and some calls for policies like "a living wage" which aren't elaborated on at all.
Two very timely short threads by Roderic Day on this "purity fetish" phenomenon:
Thread 1
Thread 2