americans are the most heavily propagandized people on planet earth. this includes anarchists. most don’t know the real story of any communist/socialist/AES states.
so anarchists are against any state that imposes “authoritarianism” or police/prisons on anyone, and they don’t understand that the reasons those are imposed by socialist states is to protect worker’s power, not destroy it. they think that governments in AES countries are oppressive like capitalist governments are, because of the propaganda they have been fed. it is extremely useful to the capitalist states to be able to have anti-capitalists who oppose other anti-capitalists. just because their (meaning CIA, FBI, MSM, capitalists in general, etc) manipulative, divide and conquer tactics are working, is not a reason to blame those anti-capitalists who fall for it. they are potential allies even though they appear to be as against state communists as they are against state capitalists. our project is to counter capitalist propaganda to these constituencies by doing things like pointing out how china kills billionaires, how the USSR and China pulled the most people out of poverty in the shortest amount of time in world history, how AES countries use capitalism to grow their own power so they can one day end it, etc etc.
also there is a long history of communists jailing and murdering anarchists when they dissent/rebel from the party line of the communist party they find themselves living under/with. sometimes this is with good reason, as it protects the stability of the communist project, and sometimes it is a mistake/bad reason, as no political party is perfect and makes only correct decisions all the time.
even if you are feeling personally attacked, i think it is more useful to attempt to de-brainwash anarchists about AES/foreign countries than treat them as enemies.
I’ve “turned the other cheek” for years now and all it’s gotten me has been both sides of my face getting slapped. Someone else, preferably one of their kin in white supremacy and habitus, can do that shit. It won’t be me.
It’s more productive to just out-organize anyone doing dumb things. And usually pretty easy because the people doing dumb things are usually either small in number of terrible at organizing.
Most of the time, calling people out just draws attention to infighting. Sometimes it’s useful and necessary but most of the time it seems to be an exercise in personal validation and a distraction from doing work. This goes for the people with whom you (probably rightly) disagree, but unfortunately they’re not going to see this message and they’re also not going to internalize it even if they did because it’s just some individual saying things.
Instead, imagine being able to mobilize 100, or even 1000 comrades with a unified plan and its own goals. This could be an org or a united front. You will eventually be able to marginalize wrong voices through largesse and progress to a stage of semi-open criticism that is no longer perceived as infighting, but instead a denunciation of and separation from organizations that are screwing up your work. You will no longer be that individual or those 4 people from the weird org fighting with other vague lefties. You’ll be a wall of voices making an intentional decision that can’t be ignored.
Basically… have a good internal political education program, recruit, and work in coalition. Resist the urge to crit publicly. It usually backfires. Only do so strategically and with intent and while considering your audience. Be prepared to play a longer game than the immediate issue or action. You want to be trusted by and recruit from the people in these spaces. They will care more about you being a contributing member than a person with the better argument.
maybe you argued with me 10 years ago. but here i am now.
so it’s probably not the same people you are interacting with over and over again. there are new radicals coming up all the time.
it’s not on you personally to have to engage in this type of organizing and education. i’m just saying it is possible as a communist movement to do so and have a positive outcome.
as a former anarchist, perhaps i can explain.
americans are the most heavily propagandized people on planet earth. this includes anarchists. most don’t know the real story of any communist/socialist/AES states.
so anarchists are against any state that imposes “authoritarianism” or police/prisons on anyone, and they don’t understand that the reasons those are imposed by socialist states is to protect worker’s power, not destroy it. they think that governments in AES countries are oppressive like capitalist governments are, because of the propaganda they have been fed. it is extremely useful to the capitalist states to be able to have anti-capitalists who oppose other anti-capitalists. just because their (meaning CIA, FBI, MSM, capitalists in general, etc) manipulative, divide and conquer tactics are working, is not a reason to blame those anti-capitalists who fall for it. they are potential allies even though they appear to be as against state communists as they are against state capitalists. our project is to counter capitalist propaganda to these constituencies by doing things like pointing out how china kills billionaires, how the USSR and China pulled the most people out of poverty in the shortest amount of time in world history, how AES countries use capitalism to grow their own power so they can one day end it, etc etc.
also there is a long history of communists jailing and murdering anarchists when they dissent/rebel from the party line of the communist party they find themselves living under/with. sometimes this is with good reason, as it protects the stability of the communist project, and sometimes it is a mistake/bad reason, as no political party is perfect and makes only correct decisions all the time.
even if you are feeling personally attacked, i think it is more useful to attempt to de-brainwash anarchists about AES/foreign countries than treat them as enemies.
I’ve “turned the other cheek” for years now and all it’s gotten me has been both sides of my face getting slapped. Someone else, preferably one of their kin in white supremacy and habitus, can do that shit. It won’t be me.
It’s more productive to just out-organize anyone doing dumb things. And usually pretty easy because the people doing dumb things are usually either small in number of terrible at organizing.
Most of the time, calling people out just draws attention to infighting. Sometimes it’s useful and necessary but most of the time it seems to be an exercise in personal validation and a distraction from doing work. This goes for the people with whom you (probably rightly) disagree, but unfortunately they’re not going to see this message and they’re also not going to internalize it even if they did because it’s just some individual saying things.
Instead, imagine being able to mobilize 100, or even 1000 comrades with a unified plan and its own goals. This could be an org or a united front. You will eventually be able to marginalize wrong voices through largesse and progress to a stage of semi-open criticism that is no longer perceived as infighting, but instead a denunciation of and separation from organizations that are screwing up your work. You will no longer be that individual or those 4 people from the weird org fighting with other vague lefties. You’ll be a wall of voices making an intentional decision that can’t be ignored.
Basically… have a good internal political education program, recruit, and work in coalition. Resist the urge to crit publicly. It usually backfires. Only do so strategically and with intent and while considering your audience. Be prepared to play a longer game than the immediate issue or action. You want to be trusted by and recruit from the people in these spaces. They will care more about you being a contributing member than a person with the better argument.
that’s fine.
maybe you argued with me 10 years ago. but here i am now.
so it’s probably not the same people you are interacting with over and over again. there are new radicals coming up all the time.
it’s not on you personally to have to engage in this type of organizing and education. i’m just saying it is possible as a communist movement to do so and have a positive outcome.