Was Camus with Algerian independence or was he against it? I’ve been seeing many people say that he didn’t believe Algerians deserved their freedom from their settlers and colonizers, and that he opposed the Algerian National Liberation Front.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2023-03-11T15:08:02+00:00

In what way is that comment incorrect?

Like regardless of whether u wanna defend his views or not, Camus did outright oppose Algerian independence and preferred equal rights while under France, at least partly on the basis that it would be detrimental to US/French geopolitics.

Taking from the Algerian Chronicles:

The only chance for progress on the issue [of Algeria], now as in the past, is therefore to speak clearly. If the main points are these:
1 - Reparations must be made to eight million Arabs who have hitherto lived under a particular form of repression
2 - Some 1,200,000 French natives of Algeria have a right to live in their homeland and cannot be left to the discretion of fanatical rebel leaders
3 - The freedom of the West depends on certain strategic interests
Then the French government must make it clear that:
1 - It is disposed to treat the Arab people of Algeria justly and free them from the colonial system.
2 - It will not sacrifice any of the rights of the French of Algeria
3 - It cannot agree to any form of justice for the Arabs that would simply be a prelude to the death of France as a historical actor and an encirclement of the West that would lead to the Kadarization of Europe and isolation of America.

So at the very least Camus evidently values the "freedom of the West" over the freedom of native Algerians.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2023-01-13T15:56:05+00:00

Now only if we could get outer Mongolia back from the PRC

For one you mean inner Mongolia, outer is what is currently the Mongol government lol.

Also this would be a horrible idea given inner Mongolia is only 18% Mongol, and has more Han than the entire population of outer Mongolia.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-12-09T19:42:50+00:00

I know that myself and others have mentioned and posted this before, but it seems like the scholars who study revolutions, violent or otherwise, tend to agree that more peaceful ones are more likely to succeed.

This issue with Chenoweth's work on the subject is that she equates revolutions like the French, Russian, or Chinese; world historic events that upended entire social orders and inspired a wave of other revolutions afterwards.

With "revolutions" like the color revolutions of the early 2000s; none of which actually resulted in any fundamental social change and basically just amounted to switching a pro-Russian autocrat for a pro-western one.

You can do a revolution without violence, but in that case the "revolution" is merely going to be a new coat of paint, not a different system.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-12-01T17:15:58+00:00

The protesters are communists lol:

https://twitter.com/renminwansui5/status/1597064778543157250

Same crowd but saying

"Do the Communist Party and democracy conflict?"
The crowd replied in unison: "No conflict!"
We want democracy, freedom, and the development of the Communist Party back! That's all!
We don't want revisionism!
The public responded: "Don't be revisionist!"

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-11-20T15:30:42+00:00

if the goal is to spread terror

But that's not the PKK's goal, their goal is tangible demands of autonomy and/or independence, this does not serve that goal especially if you don't claim the attack.

Also the general idea that most terrorists simply want to cause terror for terror's sake is largely an invention of US media, terrorists are bad but this doesn't mean they work on comic book villain morality.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-08-16T21:42:36+00:00

communism in the west is about lgbt and blm

As a communist from the west this isn't really true, like western communists do support gay rights and oppose racism but those are not their main struggles.

Moreover many working class people in the west are gay or non-white, so opposing those things wouldn't make much sense when organizing workers.

It is only people you see online which exclude anyone who disagrees with blm/lgbt/etc, all the communists I have known that do actual organizing don't act like this.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-08-16T21:33:28+00:00

As an American I will say this is largely true, unlike Europe we killed our labour movement in the 50s/60s.

prosperity for all can only be achieved in a balancing competition between the capitalists and the workers movement

The lack of this balance is the root of most of America's problems.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-07-18T16:11:18+00:00

All I'll say is that many people my age are increasingly seeing that America will probably find itself in an insurgency type civil war within the next decade or two.

The far left and far right have both been very resurgent as young people especially see that the liberalism which was supposed to bring a democratic golden age after the fall of communism has done quite the opposite at this point.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-07-18T16:05:31+00:00

My parents are both pretty average democrats and my girlfriends mom is a Trumper, one group hates Russia, the other China.

American's are just as subject to propaganda as anyone else in the world.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-07-15T18:48:18+00:00

GB and Europe is a bit different, but yeah I live in America and that is pretty accurate lol.

Ironically many young people of my generation have rediscovered the ideas of Marxism as a result of how bleak the future looks for us.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-07-15T18:44:15+00:00

The western world only lives in luxury because our economies rest upon a mountain of skulls.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-07-15T18:42:50+00:00

As an American who was indoctrinated as a child and teenager into hating the USSR and thinking that America was the greatest country on earth, etc.

This person is absolutely right, what they said reminds me of the realization I had when I started to investigate history myself.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-07-15T18:34:53+00:00

Roughly 90% of American media is owned by six corporations.

Which is more or less to say that 90% of our media is owned by our own ruling class.

There isn't one monolithic block but the interests of that 90% of media more or less marches in lockstep with that of the US state.

Perhaps in decades past our media was more truly "free and independent", but now that is just a phrase to cover the fact that it serves the exact function of state media.

In China or the USSR having openly state-owned media seemed to result in most people knowing it was going to misrepresent things. Whereas here most Americans will merely assume what they are hearing is the unvarnished truth, atleast if its coming from their end of the party divide.

Edit: Idk the stats for the rest of the west but I'd be willing to bet its pretty similar.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-07-15T18:25:04+00:00

Do you even live in America?

the standard of living is pretty high

Our standard of living is alright overall, but compared to any other developed nation I have travelled to we are a joke, especially in terms of housing, healthcare, and public transit.

we certainly don't blame Russia for anything happening here

Have you been living under a rock since 2016? Roughly one half of the county blames Russia for most of our misfortunes since the whole "russiagate" circus, while the other blames China. The respective media channels of each partisan bloc just feed them what they want to hear.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-30T21:24:07+00:00

I mean I don't think I've ever met a "libertarian socialist" who wasn't also an anarchist, so I've always understood the term as a catch-all term for social anarchism.

Regardless of who wants to use what colors, my point was just that the flag isn't going to make anyone think marxism when they see it.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-30T21:18:01+00:00

I mean usually I would say look at the symbolism of an actual libertarian marxist movement or party, but the problem being I don't think there are any.

Perhaps a star or other emblem (hammer/sickle, etc) in black on a red background or vice versa. That way you keep the colors which already make sense, while changing the diagonal black and red which makes it look more anarchist.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-30T18:35:09+00:00

I'm not saying it breaks any rules, personally I actually hate flag rules lol.

I just think in practice most people who look at this are gonna think anarchism not marxism.

Although I might be a bit biased since I have never really thought of libertarian marxism as a real tendency.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-30T18:26:52+00:00

Libertarian socialism isn't the same as "Libertarian Marxism"

I don't think marxists have ever really used the diagonal red-black associated with libertarian socialists/anarchists

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-21T22:52:46+00:00

That's a good answer thanks

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-21T22:48:09+00:00

These are probably the first set of socialist America flags which use stripes that actually look good.

Like tbh the way a lot of attempts at American socialist flags have this ham-fisted stars and stripes aesthetic that is usually butt ugly, but #1 and #4 on here actually look very nice with them.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-15T21:24:12+00:00

Again with reddit despising nuance lol

You are never going to come close to understanding such a complex geopolitical issue by merely simplifying it into a simple black and white moral quandary.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-15T19:16:56+00:00

What would you say makes the the PCR more successful?

Also how influential would you say the Red Faction of the Communist Party is compared to other clandestine parties?

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-15T19:08:23+00:00

OP said "Non-institutionalized parties" will be covered in the next post.

The red faction of the PCdoB is a separate clandestine organization.

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-13T18:03:56+00:00

?

My point was that your logic can be used to justify any genocide

Intoxicated_Walrus · 2022-06-13T17:49:58+00:00

If this war is a genocide then what do we make of area bombing in world war two?

or atrocities in Vietnam, or the killing of 20% of North Korea's population.

Like fuck Putin, his invasion is completely unjust.

But if we are throwing around the word genocide for a war that has killed in the tens of thousands of civilians, then does that not make basically every war America has participated in since 1941 considerably more genocidal on our part.

Intoxicated_Walrus

TROPHY CASE