A brilliant Marxist and anti-imperialist author who went full lib after October 7th and disavowed all his previous works, calling it “false” and “one sided”. Has he responded after Israel committed an undeniable genocide and most if not all of their claims against Palestinian Resistance turned out to be projections?
Potentially, but the DSA is far more likely to devolve into a mere electoral drive to secure concessions from the capital class, rather than displacing the entirety of the rotten system. Are securing concessions bad? No. But the concessions should not be the end goal.
A social democrat approach also fails to eliminate the unequal exchange that fuels the system, which is a nonnegotiable prerequisite.
Concessions are only gained if you can mount a sizeable threat. What leverage does the PSL have that is similar to western workers leverage over the turn of last century using the USSR.
I’m sorry, I don’t think I understand your last sentence.
But if you’re trying to say that the PSL is an ineffectual non-threat, then I could readily point to the Bolsheviks themselves who began as a laughable organization in comparison to even the Menshiviks and were hardly able to threaten the system before growing into a meaningful political threat.
If your assertion is that the PSL is currently weak in your eyes and therefore utterly incapable of growing, expanding, evolving, or ever becoming a threat akin to the Bolsheviks, then why bother at all? Why shouldn’t the American worker sit on their hands or remain complicit to the system if any alternative is forever incapable of ever mounting a meaningful challenge? What choice is left beyond desperately hedging the hegemon to ensure the system does not collapse? Any structure is better than no structure, and without hope for a better future you might as well give up or give in.
I meant the New Deal was a concession gained from similar aims and ended up being fuel for a more murderous imperialism. (Western workers gained concessions using the Soviet Union as leverage to threaten domestic revolution. There is no equivalent now, so I am asking what’s the game plan to (1) get concessions (2) not worsen imperialism if you do gain concessions (3) If there isn’t a viable roadmap then why appeal to settlers in the first place and call selves ML)
(I don’t think concessions should be an end goal. I think the better options is to study the New Afrikan/AIM movements ie the folks most likely to benefit from the fall of US imperialism within US domestic territory.)
Revolution?
Kill the capitalists running the system?.. Change the economic base?.. Stop doing imperialism???
I’m sorry, do you think I’m advocating for a social democratic system where the workers beg the capitalists for some treats at the expense of the Periphery?
What I’m advocating for in the current moment is that while a vanguard party build toward a revolution, why not squeeze the capitalist for anything the class is willing to give up? Those concessions both weaken capital’s ability to terrorize the periphery, and improve the conditions of the proletariat. The capitalist base is eternally paranoid at losing power, and as the system decays an organized mass of workers can pressure the capitalist class in diverting resources away from militaristic, police, and other elements of capitalist control in a desperate attempt to placate the workers. Why not take those?
How to get there? By building a vanguard party and movement, same as every other successful Marxist revolution in history.
A dead end is thinking that the concessions are the end all be all, as seen in the New Deal.
Totally agree