Politicians from both capitalist parties are terrified that Mamdani’s dominant primary victory signals the emergence of a mass socialist movement in the heart of global finance capital.
The idea that “historical marxists were right but this time it’s different” is not a new or unique line. It’s a common basis for revisionism which dates all the way back to early Leninism. I would also love to see this disciplined western leftist movement, because from what I see, western leftists have been trying your strategy of capitulations and reformism (in everything but name) since before Gus Hall cemented it in the 60s which is what led us specifically to this moment in which the movement has no teeth. The solution is not to defang even further by removing even the allusion to socialism.
Nobody wants to be a communist in the west because the western communist movement doesn’t fight for anything. “Right wingers” and “progressives” don’t want to be communists because we have allowed communism to become an ambiguous term for whatever they dislike, rather than standing firm and saying “we are communists we want x”.
Have the workers been freed? Have the chains of capital been broken? If not then communism is alive and well, it just needs people willing to pick up it’s banner and put in the work and stop throwing it under the bus every chance they get in efforts to capitulate to liberals. Mamdani winning while calling himself a socialist is proof that the banner itself isn’t the problem, your asking us to retreat in the face of victory.
This is the very same anti-intelectualist rot that stems from undisciplined movements with incoherent ideology. Theory is not “fantasy” it is a record of how prior movements used the science of Marxism-Leninism to shape the world and build successful communist revolutions. It is necessary if you want to do the same. You wouldn’t criticize a baker for studying and applying chemistry to their craft.
Mamdani won the primary while identifying as a socialist, the fact you can somehow take that win and twist it into a negative, insisting we should abandon the label, shows that you in fact are the one who has abandoned reality for fantasy, the fantasy that the bourgeoisie has won a decisive battle against communism and our only remaining solution is to retreat onto their terms.
This is not the case. Organized, disciplined class struggle can, and will, break the chains of capital.
You wouldn’t criticize a baker for studying and applying chemistry to their craft.
It’s fun you bring this up because it’s been a debate for a long time: baker theory and practice beats chemistry every day if you want to make nice bread. Baking and proofing are not exact sciences and in most scenarios, even industrial breadmaking, complete reproducibility is unfeasible. When it’s achieved, it’s achieved at the cost of making terrible bread.
Mamdani won the primary while identifying as a socialist, the fact you can somehow take that win and twist it into a negative, insisting we should abandon the label, shows that you in fact are the one who has abandoned reality for fantasy, the fantasy that the bourgeoisie has won a decisive battle against communism and our only remaining solution is to retreat onto their terms.
Thousands and thousands before him ran for mayor under a socialist identity. He won because he built a strong infrastructure, he has good communication, he doesn’t care about intellectuals and theory but actual, concrete problem as lived by people and not as investigated by sociologists. The same is true for Die Linke in Germany: decades of swinging around their socialist identity and no result. Purging the old ideologues stuck in their books and 6 months of building infrastructure for canvassing and they tripled their votes.
Organized, disciplined class struggle can, and will, break the chains of capital.
For sure, but old identities and old practices are repulsive and an obstacle to obtaining such result. Organization is built on relationships and relationships are built on commonality. If people do not identify as socialists and think socialists are losers that keep talking about irrelevant stuff, that commonality is not there and it’s harder to build.
You know what’s the cool part about this new way of doing politics on the ground? That most people are realizing they can leave behind opinionated communists: they make for worse organizers because they question everything and reason from prime principles, they have no leverage, and they have no positional power. We are just collectively moving on from the need of stale leftists to be involved at all. We will leave you larping on the internet, quoting dead people to each other while we do the work.
The idea that “historical marxists were right but this time it’s different” is not a new or unique line. It’s a common basis for revisionism which dates all the way back to early Leninism. I would also love to see this disciplined western leftist movement, because from what I see, western leftists have been trying your strategy of capitulations and reformism (in everything but name) since before Gus Hall cemented it in the 60s which is what led us specifically to this moment in which the movement has no teeth. The solution is not to defang even further by removing even the allusion to socialism.
Nobody wants to be a communist in the west because the western communist movement doesn’t fight for anything. “Right wingers” and “progressives” don’t want to be communists because we have allowed communism to become an ambiguous term for whatever they dislike, rather than standing firm and saying “we are communists we want x”.
Have the workers been freed? Have the chains of capital been broken? If not then communism is alive and well, it just needs people willing to pick up it’s banner and put in the work and stop throwing it under the bus every chance they get in efforts to capitulate to liberals. Mamdani winning while calling himself a socialist is proof that the banner itself isn’t the problem, your asking us to retreat in the face of victory.
You should do some politics in the real world. You clearly leave in a fantasy made of theory books
This is the very same anti-intelectualist rot that stems from undisciplined movements with incoherent ideology. Theory is not “fantasy” it is a record of how prior movements used the science of Marxism-Leninism to shape the world and build successful communist revolutions. It is necessary if you want to do the same. You wouldn’t criticize a baker for studying and applying chemistry to their craft.
Mamdani won the primary while identifying as a socialist, the fact you can somehow take that win and twist it into a negative, insisting we should abandon the label, shows that you in fact are the one who has abandoned reality for fantasy, the fantasy that the bourgeoisie has won a decisive battle against communism and our only remaining solution is to retreat onto their terms.
This is not the case. Organized, disciplined class struggle can, and will, break the chains of capital.
It’s fun you bring this up because it’s been a debate for a long time: baker theory and practice beats chemistry every day if you want to make nice bread. Baking and proofing are not exact sciences and in most scenarios, even industrial breadmaking, complete reproducibility is unfeasible. When it’s achieved, it’s achieved at the cost of making terrible bread.
Thousands and thousands before him ran for mayor under a socialist identity. He won because he built a strong infrastructure, he has good communication, he doesn’t care about intellectuals and theory but actual, concrete problem as lived by people and not as investigated by sociologists. The same is true for Die Linke in Germany: decades of swinging around their socialist identity and no result. Purging the old ideologues stuck in their books and 6 months of building infrastructure for canvassing and they tripled their votes.
You know what’s the cool part about this new way of doing politics on the ground? That most people are realizing they can leave behind opinionated communists: they make for worse organizers because they question everything and reason from prime principles, they have no leverage, and they have no positional power. We are just collectively moving on from the need of stale leftists to be involved at all. We will leave you larping on the internet, quoting dead people to each other while we do the work.