"As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say that we're tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We also know that when the people understand, they cannot but follow us. In any case, we, the people, have no enemies when it comes to peoples. Our only enemies are the imperialist regimes and organizations." Thomas Sankara, 1985
International Anti-Capitalist podcast run by an American, a Slav and an Arab.
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I could easily believe that trump was personally blackmailed by Israel to go to war with iran with footage acquired by epstein or the likes...
But that's an important distinction between starting the war as a distraction.
And the US would've gone to war anyhow.
Revolutions and revolts don’t manifest thinly out of air. I remember some libs being bewildered how people could be able to protest „so long“ and then reinventing like supporting people financially while on strike.
The masses are so neutered that even manuals, for example basic socdem union strikes for better work conditions, are not anchored in the American proletariat.
So what can realistically be expected of them?
i mean, what were they expected to do? go kill a bunch of untouchable rich folk? its just more demoralizing. turning it into all kinds of conspiracy garbage instead of focusing on victim advocacy. sad but predictable.
A lot of people are succumbing to apathy rather than joining an org and getting involved.
the prolecattleiat is not being elevated to sapience
"Look at how connected I am to the people!"
The phrase "Epstein class" is a step closer to class consciousness, not a step away from it. If you tell people there's a bipartisan class of people who are above the law and so wealthy/connected that they control many of the biggest levers of power, they will now know what you're talking about and largely agree. That's a huge break from the standard drivel about "we have an imperfect democracy but it's broadly controlled by the people."
Yknow, it really is posts like this that start to grind my gears. Just because you are a communist doesn't mean you're seperate from the people. It doesn't make you an enlightened god that singlehandedly determines the fates of millions, and certainly does not make you infallible [not all of these apply to the post above, they're general grievances].
There's also been a lot of doomerism lately. I get why, certainly. But goddammit, compare the world today to the world of 40 years ago, or even 20 years ago. Would everyone here have maintained their belief through the collapse of the USSR, reform and opening up, the arduous march, etc.
Shouldn't the gulf war have sparked class consciousness? Shouldn't Russia and the rest of the eastern bloc rebelled and reestablished communism? Certainly. But they did not. And yet, here we are. If you want to wallow, then wallow. But being bitter doesn't inherently mean something is medicine, it just means it is bitter
I feel you. Venting is understandable, but we need to not confuse venting with doing an analysis. And doing a grounded analysis often requires investigating. But investigating can take time and energy and study that may be largely thankless to do and you might get told you're wrong even if you do. Still, it is something I will beat the drum about on the regular because it matters so much. Sometimes I slack on it myself and slip into poorly supported speculation. But the reality is that in times when what I'm saying is backed by investigation, it is night and day the confidence and sharpness I have on the given subject.
And if this way of putting it doesn't move people at all, consider that having what you say be well backed by investigation is probably going to be more persuasive when convincing others. Somebody hearing "this is what colonialism did to people in the Congo in specific detail" is probably going to stick with them more than hearing a general "colonialism exploited people in other countries." Somebody hearing "here is the documented way these two events are connected and how various factions reacted to them" (a good example of this I can recall is Blowback podcast's series on Korea) is probably going to stick with them more than hearing "this event [fuzzy line to] this event and then now we are here."
This goes the same way in the positive. Being able to drop facts on somebody about AES advances in rights, literacy, quality of life. And then you can drop the framework on them as needed too. "Well why did x happen this way?" "Because [revolutionary theory worldview]."
An example as a general response to the comments on this thread about apparent concerns about me conflafing white settler nation and imperial core nations with labour aristocracy because of relative internal domestic poverty...
After Brown Vs Board, it got worse for black folks immediately after. White civil society en masse took to further discrimination, lynching and torture against the black population. There was a decrease in black teachers (for example). So what exactly happened here? Integration was a top down initiative from the state, not becauae of a black + white worker collaboration against the capitalist state, but why? Because the state was worried about marxism spreading like wildfire both domestiy and internationally citing US capitalist segregation (including how it dirrctly inspired Nazis). As a concession for this, civil rights groups like the NAACP had to purge communists from their ranks and institutions like HCBUs had to purge them too and many black only shchools lost their licenses to practice too.
When the Obamas of the 21 century point to the progressive nature of the US State - they have realworld examples of the above to point to. The USAmerican state at times had been more progressive than White civil society, which means the institution racism is at service to the white settler nation, not juat the richest few. This should not be a surprise to marxists, because we should know the state exists to protect a class, the question is which class and in this it is the settler nation and the segregation of old was now formenting real revolutionary black movements wielding the science of marxism - an actual threat to capital.
It is partly fucking why when the epstein files were revealed there was no real mass revolt because (1) not a threat to the settler nation (2) this was already well known happening to folks who were not part of the settler nation. It'a like being aghast at ICE killing white folks, when that shit was happening to black folks everyday.
Why would the Epstein shit cause class consciousness? Things like him are gonna lead people to resort to conspiracies rather than material analysis for causes.
trump was right tbh, he could whack a dude in the middle of madison square garden and he would still win an election.
Well, I know what you mean when you say you're irritated with how people use Epstein Class. (Westoids acting like they can't figure out why they're bombing kids & attributing everything to corruption) I think that it has some utility in describing the cross-class alliance we see in the emails, though. Not everyone involved is international bourgeoisie. You have a lot of labor aristocrats and petty boug in these research departments. Lumpenized American communities are used as a source of flesh. There is complicity across society, a quiet acceptance of the lawless exploitation inherent to treating one's family as part of the property serving as your gateway to retirement treats in exchange for being part of the Epsteins' (Blackrock et al) vast equity pool
The Epstein class is just a class so wealthy, they get buy with anything, destroying humans, planets, petty bourgeoisie, economies, governments, while the bourgeoisie and lesser income people may or not, depending on luck, who they know, etc. Epstein class is entirely bipartisan.
I do want to point out that Iran also uses the term Epstein class. Not that that's right but just that people here seemed supportive of the term at the time
It's fine and useful when non-westerners use it. When westerners use it begs the question why the lack of mass revolt; clearly complicty includes the civil society.
-_- Of course...should've guessed that
Haha no worries. Westerners as a class agsinst the global south apparently is a step too far in this thread because I have to care about the feelings of poor whites while their imperialist state and civil society collaborate in crushing folks domestically and abroad while paying lip service against the Epstein files. In a ML space(!) Had to make a separate comment about Brown vs Board to make it extra clear that ain't just some tiny super rich elite that is the problem here. I took a break from lemmygrad because of white settler politics apologism here but I wonder if my development as an ML probably has outgrown this place.
Man, it's so wierd MLs think racism and such are caused by the ruling class.
I read a quote recently that was like,
"In the final analysis, national struggle is a matter of class struggle. Among the whites in the United States, it is only the reactionary ruling circles that oppress the black people. They can in no way represent the workers, farmers, revolutionary intellectuals and other enlightened persons who comprise the overwhelming majority of the white people." That must've come from like a eurocommunist or and FRSO member or something.
And before you accuse me of book worship, my point is that it's very presumptuous and arrogant to claim you're above a space when they're simply arguing a line that has been existent since Lenin, if not marx himself. Even if we are to presume you are right
I think in this case by "outgrow", they mean "shifted to something other than ML." Their takes in this thread, from what I can gather, represent a tunnel-visioning on the labor aristocracy view, to the point that it overshadows everything else. My main disagreement with them in this thread started from them writing off a billion people as comparable to documented ruling elite pedophiles: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11901324/8319299
It has been a bizarre experience. They keep saying it's about the settler contradiction, but have yet to explain to me how exactly they think the contradiction needs to be confronted in a way that is different from what people are already trying and in a way that people can realistically taken action on. Like I'm well aware of the possibility of betrayal, that it has happened before, but the whole back and forth made more sense to me in the context of a quote I recently read about Bordiga: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11887529/8317276
It is fine to be cautious or to be concerned, but we need to examine what the real, observable threats/deviations are. For example, the ACP. We can point at that and say, yeah, people should stay away from that and be wary of it. If we point at a billion people and say, people should stay away from that and be wary of it, that's unrealistic and impractical to say the least.
The whole thing feels reminiscent of ultra-like criticism of AES states, but applied to any attempt at all on the part of westerners to dismantle the horrific systems it has. There are of course valid criticisms of attempts made. Some attempts are far less effective and some are downright shitty, but they are not all the same across the board.
I have stuff going on and don't have the time and energy to get in the posting trenches but you are correct and I uncritically support your struggle to make westerners seriously analyze class relations in the global system of imperialism.