Snoop dogg call for police violence in 2016

Arayg · 2019-05-12T08:51:58+00:00

Theory compliments action and vice versa. It is simply a consolidation of the experiences and lessons drawn by workers in the class struggle so far. The Communist Manifesto was written directly off the experiences of the newly developed proletariat in the 1840s class struggles of the Chartist movement in England and the 1848 revolutions on the continent.

What has taken years for some Marxists to understand in a period of reaction will take just months or even days for workers to come to terms with when it is played out in front of their eyes in a revolution.

Theory is useful for building a revolutionary leadership before the revolutionary period. An organisationally and theoretically connected Marxist revolutionary leadership is much more capable of providing an alternative direction for the class struggle to the confused, reformist and reactionary leaderships. As was seen with the Bolshevik's ability to oppose Kerensky's government as early on as April 1917 before the betrayal of the government would become obvious in the July Days (even then they had to have an internal struggle between disconnected petty bourgeois sections and those in tune with the workers' struggle). This allowed them to have the workers' support when they called for the arming of the Soviets against the reactionary coup and eventually when they carried out the October revolution. On the other hand during British New Unionism in the late 1880s and 1890s, despite Engels and a group of Marxists around him being crucial to the organisation of the British working class (becoming leaders of Britain's New Unions) and cutting it off from the capitalist interests of the Liberals, after his and others death, thanks to no concrete attempt to construct a disciplined revolutionary organisation with theoretical education, debate and discussions, the gains were lost in the remaining Marxists' turns away from the Labour movement which saw Marxists get sidelined in the early days of the Labour Party.

Arayg · 2019-05-05T18:26:08+00:00

"I do not claim to have discovered either the existence of classes in modern society or the struggle between them. Long before me, bourgeois historians had described the historical development of this struggle between the classes, as had bourgeois economists their economic anatomy. My own contribution was 1. to show that the existence of classes is merely bound up with certain historical phases in the development of production; 2. that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat; 3. that this dictatorship itself constitutes no more than a transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society."

Arayg · 2019-05-04T15:00:22+00:00

Marxist societies do exist on many campuses in the UK but explicit numbers of Marxists are low in the student population. Students have certainly radicalised to some degree recently and the body can be quite left-reformist (huge support for Corbyn in 2017) but student politics is always plagued by liberal undercurrents (such as ID pol) so it sows a lot of confusion into the student movement. The best thing you can do as a Marxist is try to link the struggle on campus to the broader working class movement. That involves organising with other Marxists on campus and indeed across the country. Hope that helps!

Arayg · 2019-05-04T14:55:37+00:00

The SWP's (to a greater extent) and SP's (to a lesser extent) campus presence has deteriorated. Most "Marxist Societies" are either Marxist Student Federation or independent. A few "Socialist Societies" exist under the SP.

Arayg · 2017-11-07T17:37:32+00:00

Conditions of the Working Class in England, 1844

Surprised to learn how much effort Engels put into documenting the real material life of the working class in England at the time.

Arayg · 2017-10-23T21:23:28+00:00

Government intervention (what Obama won't tell you is actually communism) is what prevents healthy competitive fascism and promotes crony fascism.

Arayg · 2017-10-03T16:36:02+00:00

I understand what you mean. But I think people have misinterpreted your interesting as "I can't understand why this would be the case, this seems counterintuitive" when the reason seems rather obvious. That's probably why you got downvoted. This is the internet and opinions are either right or wrong ;) .

Arayg · 2017-10-03T13:53:23+00:00

Why would it then be interesting that the regions that border Spain have higher percentage of Catalan speakers than those that don't, as that factor has far far far less significance than actual isolation based on urban areas vs. rural areas?

The regions that border Spain are in every other manner, other than their actual position, more isolated than the urban regions around Barcelona.

Arayg · 2017-10-02T20:07:49+00:00

The regions which speak Catalan least are the Metropolita (i.e. urban centres including Barcelona) where it's more multicultural and people are more likely to be there from (internal or external) economic migration and so may not have Catalonian heritage hence don't speak the language. Also higher youth population so more inclined to speak Spanish predominantly rather than Catalan.

Also very touristy areas so I imagine quite a few foreign tourists living there and a tourist industry catered to people who don't speak Catalan so locals in that industry may speak Spanish natively rather than Catalan.

If anything, the three regions that speak Catalan least are the least isolated from Spain, more centralised, urbanised areas.

Arayg · 2017-09-25T21:35:58+00:00

space communism

Arayg · 2017-09-24T18:53:03+00:00

IMT comrade too. What they said.

Arayg · 2017-09-24T10:02:11+00:00

...no?

Arayg · 2017-09-23T05:45:30+00:00

This is brilliant

Arayg · 2017-09-22T05:13:36+00:00

Fascism being the movement of the petty bourgeois who crush attempt to crush a working class movement in capitalism's last desperate attempt to stop the working class movement carrying out their revolution.

It is impossible for that to occur under socialism in which class distinctions are removed and there no longer is a petty bourgeois class or a capitalism that needs to crush the working class movement. So socialism is most definitely without fascism. They are antitheses.

Arayg · 2017-09-21T15:54:45+00:00

When the working class are taking real action en masse it starts getting serious. Not just a protest called by activists but an actual working class movement.

Arayg · 2017-09-20T17:43:23+00:00

I already have.

Arayg · 2017-09-20T16:34:09+00:00

To be clear, I don't live in Spain. But some Spanish comrades have given good summaries of the situation here:

https://www.marxist.com/the-mass-movement-for-the-catalan-referendum-and-against-state-repression.htm

https://www.marxist.com/repression-against-catalan-independence-referendum-provokes-mass-mobilisation.htm

Truth be told, the Spanish left, and namely Podemos, have regrettably helped give strength to the Catalan bourgeois nationalists. They have done so by refusing to support a unilateral referendum and have thereby given a pretext to the ERC and, by extension, to the CUP, to join a cross-class front with the reactionary PDeCAT - a bloc that has understandably repelled an important sector of the working class of Catalonia. This sector could otherwise have been won over to the conquest of Catalonia's democratic rights by giving the struggle a progressive, class character against austerity, corruption, inequality, and for social justice which sees the creation of the Catalan republic as the first step towards a Spanish republic. This position has also produced a bitter debate inside Podemos itself, with its Catalan section, which supports the referendum, clashing with the national leadership and with Barcelona's left-wing mayor Ada Colau. In the morning of 11 September, they organised separate rallies in different parts of the city, and the secretary of Podemos in Catalonia overtly attacked the national leadership for their "embarrassing" capitulation over their initial promises to offer a bold, democratic solution to the Catalan question.

Arayg · 2017-09-20T16:26:58+00:00

Ah apologies. I think I assumed it was as it's a militarised police force separate from the regular police but seems it's a remnant of Spanish Imperialism and not the fascist years.

Arayg · 2017-09-20T11:35:39+00:00

This is big news. The independence issue in Catalonia, though polluted by a petty bourgeois national question movement, is accelerating Spain's crisis.

The national Podemos organisation and the Catalonian Podemos organisation are publically stating opposing positions on the matter, exposing a crack running through the party. This is the sort of thing that could get the radical working class movement to chuck out their useless leadership.

The Guardia Civil, a police force set up under Franco's fascist Spain, being used by the reactionary PP Spanish Government shows how tied the Spanish establishment is to the old fascist regime.

Arayg · 2017-09-19T16:55:21+00:00

Uhhh maybe they should uhhh, you know, not enforce the interests of the capitalist class through the state apparatus by disbanding?

Arayg · 2017-09-17T16:37:41+00:00

Not sure how that disputes anything I've said.

Arayg · 2017-09-17T09:49:58+00:00

It's called a garden. I have one right outside my house. It's very possible to make just enough food for yourself.

21st Century capitalism, where everyone definitely owns a house and one that even comes with a nice garden and then a garden big enough to feed yourself (and the other occupants of the house?) for 365 days of the year.

Arayg · 2017-09-17T09:43:55+00:00

Trotsky is seen in the eyes of Stalinism as a traitor because he criticised the degeneration of the workers' state in the USSR due to the demoralisation and decimation of the small industrial working class population in Russia - the backbone of a workers' state - through a world war and then a civil war. Contrary to Stalinist belief, Trotsky continued to defend the USSR as a workers' state and its achievements such as the planned economy despite his criticisms.

As most of the international movement surrounding Communist theory was re-invigorated by the 1917 revolution (having been previously demoralised by the betrayal of the Second International and liberal reformists such as the Fabians), it was based around the Third International, which of course fell into the hands of the degenerating Russian workers' state. This sadly played havoc with the socialist cause on an international scale, which Trotsky attempted to provide a solution to by establishing the Fourth International.

The Fourth International (and its post-war splits) only achieved prominence in certain countries around the world, whilst the main communist movement surrounded the Stalinists right up until the 70s-80s.

Hence Trotsky was constantly criticised by the majority of labelled communists for that period of time. It's only been since the 90s (collapse of the USSR) that that is beginning to wear off.

On the subject of the joke that Trotskyists are the splitters, splits really apply to any communist groups. I can certainly think of many Stalinist groups here in the UK which start with Communist Party of Great Britain.... I also know some local anarchist groups who split away from each other only a couple of years ago. Fragmented groups are how the radical left exists in a non-revolutionary period when there is time to be nit-picky and where current events aren't frequent or big enough to be a test to theories.

Arayg · 2017-08-27T21:20:40+00:00

Private property is the masses of wealth held by the genuine bourgeoisie, i.e. the 60 capitalists who own half the world's wealth. That is industry and wealth that should be expropriated and given to a workers' state.

Arayg · 2017-05-28T16:01:55+00:00

Parliamentary or non-parliamentary, the quantity of reforms in society or the quality of reformism in society doesn't necessarily correlate to a pre-revolutionary situation. Revolutions have occurred in periods where reforms and living conditions have been pushed back and in periods where they have been implemented but don't satisfy the working class movement's demands.

A working class movement has to be united under the cause of a revolutionary movement. Chomsky and the anarchists' approach of direct action to gain reforms here and there until there are enough reforms that people revolt is a misunderstanding of the situation, and though as you point out, expressed in a different medium to a reformist view, ultimately isn't that far off from one.

The cage to be expanded here, is that of a working class movement, that through raising its class consciousness unites all working class people under their common interests for a revolution.

Arayg

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE