08-15-2016, 06:01 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-15-2016, 09:35 PM by FireIceTalon.)
Hey folks, been a while. I thought I'd share this article I found on American anti-communism, written by a socialist writer, analyzing how anti-communism as a problem is actually more significant, historically, on the so-called "Left" or "progressive" side of standard politics (since anti-communism from the right-wing is normal and to be expected), in the USA.
I found it a refreshing piece, since it was put in a historical materialist context and that the Left (especially the revolutionary left) has been so scattered and divided, yet it doesn't need to be. Now in this era of late-stage capitalism, the time is more ripe than ever perhaps for the ideas of socialism/communism to once again become predominant in the global political arena (especially in light of endless imperialism carried out by both Republicans and Democrats, raging austerity, Islamaphobia, Trumpism and its fascist rhetoric, economic instability and crisis, and an American Gestapo police force that has its crosshairs on every person of color that goes out in public since in America, since being black in America is essentially a criminal act). I've said many times before that as long as capitalism is the prevailing social order, that the ideas of socialism (in particular Marxist socialism) and the quest to achieve it will not go away; but this article touches specifically on the absolute necessity to counter anti-communist propaganda from the Left and its institituions.
Understanding Anti-Communism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat by Curry Malott
In particular, I agree with the authors notion that the Left is too busy "battling Stalin's ghost" and that its focus as a result is entirely misplaced, as well as the critique of neo-liberalism mentioned and how its false (and irrelevent) notions continue to serve as mouthpieces to and for capitalist apologists or defenders of the status quo in general to keep working people distracted from the real issue(s). Finally, while I'm not a Marxist of the Marxist-Leninist variety, the examples of his thought used in this text to drive the authors point home regarding the DOTP, are accurate.
I found it a refreshing piece, since it was put in a historical materialist context and that the Left (especially the revolutionary left) has been so scattered and divided, yet it doesn't need to be. Now in this era of late-stage capitalism, the time is more ripe than ever perhaps for the ideas of socialism/communism to once again become predominant in the global political arena (especially in light of endless imperialism carried out by both Republicans and Democrats, raging austerity, Islamaphobia, Trumpism and its fascist rhetoric, economic instability and crisis, and an American Gestapo police force that has its crosshairs on every person of color that goes out in public since in America, since being black in America is essentially a criminal act). I've said many times before that as long as capitalism is the prevailing social order, that the ideas of socialism (in particular Marxist socialism) and the quest to achieve it will not go away; but this article touches specifically on the absolute necessity to counter anti-communist propaganda from the Left and its institituions.
Understanding Anti-Communism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat by Curry Malott
In particular, I agree with the authors notion that the Left is too busy "battling Stalin's ghost" and that its focus as a result is entirely misplaced, as well as the critique of neo-liberalism mentioned and how its false (and irrelevent) notions continue to serve as mouthpieces to and for capitalist apologists or defenders of the status quo in general to keep working people distracted from the real issue(s). Finally, while I'm not a Marxist of the Marxist-Leninist variety, the examples of his thought used in this text to drive the authors point home regarding the DOTP, are accurate.
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"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)