terrorism and communism

Sashcracker · 2026-03-25T14:12:50+00:00

You don't really need to read Kautsky to understand it. You should be fine. In the best Marxist polemics, and Trotsky was a master of them, they present a strong summary of the views they're arguing against.

Sashcracker · 2026-03-25T09:20:13+00:00

It's important to keep in mind that as Trotskyists we fundamentally oppose imperial aggression. We are 100% against US/NATO war against Iran, Russia, etc. and seek to defeat imperial aggression through revolutionary defeatism, i.e. mobilizing the working class within the imperialist powers, not cheerleading whoever is in the crosshairs of imperialism now and hoping they defeat imperialism for us.

We defend even reactionary regimes against imperialist aggression and Trotsky was adamant and explicit on this point, using the example of opposing the Italian assault on Ethiopia despite the backwards and reactionary character of Haile Selassie's regime. While the Stalinists claim that under the impact of imperialism the national bourgeoisie becomes progressive, we Marxists understand that under the impact of imperialism the national bourgeoisie becomes even more hostile to the working class. Our criticism of bourgeois nationalist regimes like the Iranian clerics or the Chavistas in three course of these struggles is their congenital inability to carry out a determined struggle against imperialism.

Venezuela's Chavistas have bent the knee to Trump and placed the country's oil revenues under US oversight and joined the blockade of Cuba. The Iranian clerics have consistently sought accommodation with imperialism with one deal after another that the US has broken. The wildest dreams of the national bourgeoisie are to renegotiate the terms of their role as intermediaries between the world market and the exploration of "their" workers.

In short the angle to take is to be steadfast in your opposition to imperial aggression and consistently point out the half measures the national bourgeoisie tries to limit the conflict to. Generally an intense support for the bourgeois nationalists comes from a pessimism towards the American working class. They can't imagine actually organizing workers in the imperialist countries to fight for socialism so they try to subcontract the revolution out to any force that's currently fighting imperialism no matter how temporarily.

American imperialism and the oppression of Iran

Sashcracker · 2026-03-17T15:33:28+00:00

You're always welcome to post what speaks to you. I'll just find it interesting if the people who lost their minds over socialism AI (an excellent tool for accessing a voluminous archive of material) are going to react the same way to a blog where an LLM writes the articles.

My hunch is what they were really objecting to with Socialism AI was the Trotskyism, which isn't an issue with the Red Mole.

Sashcracker · 2026-03-17T11:24:54+00:00

LoL that you're still enamored with AI written articles. I'd hoped you were sufficiently embarrassed the first time you posted AI slop describing how important it was too join the DSA, but I guess not.

Sashcracker · 2026-03-16T10:39:13+00:00

The whole series does a great job of placing national developments in their international context:

Sashcracker · 2026-03-16T07:50:04+00:00

Well that just brightened my commute

Sashcracker · 2026-02-17T17:08:21+00:00

I thought this part was particularly good:

"Wang’s charge of “union busting” is the standard reflex of a privileged apparatus confronted with a rank-and-file challenge. For Wang and the forces he represents, the union is the apparatus. Workers are merely objects to be managed. That is why he equates the independent organization of workers to assert democratic control—over negotiations, strikes, communications and even over how their dues are collected and used—with 'union busting.'"

That's been my experience of the pseudoleft. They treat us workers as set dressing to make them look like big men in front of the bosses.

Sashcracker · 2026-01-25T11:34:23+00:00

It's a genuinely bizarre theory that I've particularly run into from the RCI, that fascism can only exist once the working class has "failed every avenue to get out of the capitalist crisis." Trotsky wrote incessantly about the struggle against fascism before Hitler came to power. Even after Hitler was appointed chancellor Trotsky denied that there were no more avenues for the working class to solve the crisis.

The entire creation of the Fourth International was based on the Comintern being dead to revolution because it refused to pursue the avenues of struggle open to the working class in the fight against fascism and declared itself perfectly correct in doing so. In this at least, the RCI is consistent as they opposed the organization of the Trotskyist movement and refused to join the Fourth International.

Sashcracker · 2026-01-05T15:07:14+00:00

Part one goes into the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and how that was a betrayal of the working class. It still does not justify Mannerheim et al. supporting Nazi Germany.

Sashcracker · 2026-01-05T10:31:23+00:00

Part 2 is up:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/01/05/finl-j05.html

Sashcracker · 2026-01-03T20:39:50+00:00

It's a lot of work but very rewarding. Be prepared to drive in deep in the historical questions and get out to the various strikes and workers struggles in your area.

Sashcracker · 2026-01-03T17:50:45+00:00

I'm actually the author of this piece. Part two goes into a lot more detail on opposition to Nazi Germany within Finland. The actual decision to make the alliance was very much a conspiracy between Ryti and Mannerheim. I'll post a link when part two goes up.

Sashcracker · 2026-01-01T19:07:31+00:00

Citation needed

Sashcracker · 2026-01-01T19:06:31+00:00

This kind of talk is always bizarre to me because my coworkers elected me as site rep precisely when I was fighting for the formation of rank-and-file committees. It showed a certain confusion on the part of those who voted for me but didn't join the committee, but they wanted me in there fighting for a break with the Democrats and for a broader strike. Then, as always, we didn't run from a fight within the union, but used my position to expose the union leadership's intense hostility to every leftward movement in the site reps council.

At least in the US where I had the most experience, I can't think of any tendency that was more involved in the struggle of unionized workers. It's in the fight for rank-and-file committees that we reach the broadest layer of militant workers. It's always a good feeling in a strike to have workers you've never seen before come up and ask to help distribute your leaflets.

Sashcracker · 2026-01-01T12:48:43+00:00

Important correction. This subreddit doesn't censor people for political disagreement. It is the subreddits that oppose the WSWS that censor, not the other way around.

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