MIDWESTERN MARX
  • Home
  • Online Articles
    • Articles >
      • All
      • News
      • Politics
      • Theory
      • Book Reviews
      • Chinese Philosophy Dialogues
    • American Socialism Travels
    • Youth League
  • Dr. Riggins' Book Series
    • Eurocommunism and the State
    • Debunking Russiagate
    • The Weather Makers
    • Essays on Bertrand Russell and Marxism
    • The Truth Behind Polls
    • Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century
    • Lenin's Materialism & Empirio-Criticism
    • Mao's Life
    • Lenin's State and Rev
    • Lenin's LWC Series
    • Anti-Dühring Series
  • Store
    • Books
    • Merchandise
  • YouTube
  • Journal of American Socialist Studies (JASS)
  • Contact
    • Article Submissions
    • The Marks of Capital
  • Online Library
  • Staff

12/31/2021

The 2020s and Fascism: the Marxist view of Social Revolution, the Danger of Fascism, and the Danger of Liberal Distortions of Fascism. By: Noah Khrachvik

18 Comments

Read Now
 
Picture
In 2022, we are entering a period of what’s often referred to in old Marxist texts  as ‘social revolution’. Due to the developments in production, the old formations of society can no longer remain stable, and begin crumbling under the weight of their own contradictions. In Marx’s day, it was the advent of industrial capitalism; in Lenin’s, it was imperialism and finance capital. Our development in production was the computer revolution, the centralization of capital as and completion of its global dominance, and the debt economy. Because of the various economic crises, this causes debt bubbles and the upper limits of the falling rate of profit. The 2000’s in general, and the 2020’s in particular so far, seem to be marked by a widespread de-legitimacy of what’s often referred to as ‘the establishment’, or the ‘powers that be’ that make up our ruling class--finance capital and its various state machinery, the established economic order. The working class sees its conditions continually getting worse, and begins searching for answers and solutions to these problems.
           
Marxism Leninism shows us how to look beyond the surface appearance of such phenomenon in society, and de-mystify them, so to speak--to look into the history of what led to this moment using dialectical materialist methodology, allowing us a much deeper and more thorough understanding of where we’re at, what the current dangers are, and what the tasks of the working class and the Communist Party should be.
           
So where are we? What got us here?
           
Well, without going too deep into it and changing the entire subject of this essay, we can begin with the repression of the Communist Party. The McCarthyism era and second Red Scare allowed for a hitherto unexplored area of class struggle from the capitalist class: redirection of potential revolutionary energy. It was this period that saw the emergence of the “new left,”   an apparently left wing movement, but liberalized and anti-Communist. The “new left” phenomenon arose partly in response to negative views of the USSR pushed by the capitalist class and a backlash that the first worker state had not created some liberal, individualist utopia where no one had to work anymore and everyone could do whatever they want, and partly due to the repression of the Communist Party here in the USA, leaving them to build new things on their own from scratch, without the guiding influence of those who had experience in class struggle. Because of this, their movement was detached from Marxism, devoid of a scientific understanding of society, with large and important sections of it directly funded and controlled by the establishment.

The new left led as many working class people as they could reach (with billions invested into the project in various ways, from various factions of the ruling class) away from the class analysis and methods of Marxism Leninism, which history had already taught us could be successful in overthrowing the capitalist class and putting the working class in power. The new left also attacked the “old left” (read: Marxist Leninist, or Communist) factions, which had the concrete result of aiding the capitalist class in class struggle, and in the main, to “culture war” narratives; the addressing of issues, sure, but from the bourgeois perspective, with class removed from the central role the Communist movement had discovered. Over time, this allowed the academy, a thoroughly bourgeois institution, to develop and maintain a hegemony over what America viewed as “the left.” For example, Theodor Adorno’s work The Authoritarian Personality and other similar works supported, funded, and published by the CIA’s operation: Congress for Cultural Freedom, would compare Communism, the USSR, and Communists with  fascism. Similarly, there are progressive intellectuals, activists, and journalists who worked for the capitalist state who would play a similar role as that of capitalist academia. One such intellectual and activist was Gloria Steinem, who wrote glowingly about her time working for the CIA and gave us a version of women’s liberation that suspiciously lacked class analysis. The role of capitalist academia and the way its influence grew in this period are essential for us to recognize in order to understand how we got to where we are now. As Lenin said, in his Three Sources and Three Components of Marxism,

Throughout the civilized world the teachings of Marx evoke the utmost hostility and hatred of all bourgeois science (both official and liberal), which regards Marxism as a kind of “pernicious sect”. And no other attitude is to be expected, for there can be no “impartial” social science in a society based on class struggle. In one way or another, all official and liberal science defends wage-slavery, whereas Marxism has declared relentless war on that slavery. To expect science to be impartial in a wage-slave society is as foolishly naïve as to expect impartiality from manufacturers on the question of whether workers’ wages ought not to be increased by decreasing the profits of capital.
           
If we combine this important lesson with another Lenin teaches us, the white-washing and dishonest use of revolutionary figures by the capitalist class, in order to recuperate what they stood for and mislead the working class, we can begin to understand that there is not much real Marxism to the institutions of the capitalist class. Like they have done with important revolutionary and civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., they effectively put a sticker that says “Marxism” or “Communism” or “Revolutionary” on bourgeois ideology, attempting to mislead us.
           
This same phenomenon rears its head in our society today, as liberals influenced by bourgeois social science of the “new left” call themselves Marxists, but attack genuine Marxism from their ivory tower as ‘class reductionism’.

In 2021, how the American working class views “the left” is largely based on the distortions, liberalism, and anti-Communism of the “new left” era, and the academy, controlled as it is by capitalist class interests, with its inherent defense of wage-slavery. With this being the only thing people had access to, how could it not be? Today, we have an entire generation of people who have never heard of the Comintern, or seen the Marxist view of society itself, let alone the Marxist view of phenomena within capitalist society, such as fascism.
           
But let’s back up a step and discuss Adorno and “The Authoritarian Personality”, as this narrative regarding “fascism” is the widespread view on the modern left, and understanding that it is directly from the capitalist class is only step one in understanding the errors the liberal world outlook makes in its understanding of fascism, and the clarity the Marxist Leninist view can give us.
           
So what is this liberal view of fascism, and why is it wrong?
           
​Well, like most things from the liberal perspective, its initial mistake is in how it views societal motion. From the liberal perspective, good ideas poof out of the ether and are put into practice and good things happen, or bad ideas do and bad things happen. There is an all-encompassing “blank slate,” which all things are built upon, and the conditions of the real world, which both inform how we view things and create our possible avenues of action, are only an after-thought, if they’re considered at all. (It individualizes this as well, but this is outside the scope of this essay.) For liberalism and Adorno, there is a set of bad traits and ideas that they deem “authoritarian” and “Fascist”. These ideas are inherent and make up its essential qualities from the liberal perspective, but they seem to be birthed entirely within each individual’s consciousness, and suddenly (maybe through magic? Or a few “bad apples”?), everyone in society is evil. Which is… er… insane.

Everyone who has ever Googled the word Fascism has been made aware of Umberto Eco’s 14 points that make something Fascism. This is a perfect view of the liberal outlook’s mistakes. They pre-define a thing, and then attempt to make society and reality fit this preordained definition, completely oblivious to the material reality, the real history, and the contradictions that give rise to such phenomenon. In this pre-ordaining, they make the common liberal mistake of confusing form for content. They are unable to separate the essential features that make Fascism what it is from the features it takes on within a given time and place it arises. The content of Fascism is, like all things, defined by its motion and interconnection for Marxism. It is capitalism in crisis mode. When liberal, bourgeois democracy can no longer sustain the system of wage slavery and begins breaking down (as we see happening in a period of social revolution), then fascism forms in order to do that job for it. The form this phenomenon takes in any given time and place are unique to the history of that time and place; however the capitalist class goes to extremes to defend itself.

Adorno and the “new left” and bourgeois academy would have us believe these things are immaterial. That, instead, fascism is when a lot of people all somehow develop similar psychological characteristics. (Some of his character traits that are supposedly fascist are a bit ridiculous, as well. They seem designed specifically to make everything outside petty bourgeois individualism somehow the equivalent of Mussolini or Hitler.) This would lead one to believe someone could be “mostly fascist”, or “a little bit fascist”, and other silly nonsense that distracts us away from the real content of what makes fascism dangerous.

In contrast, Marxism Leninism teaches us that, to quote the great beard his-own-self, “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” For Marxism Leninism, it is the objective contradictions within society itself that govern its motion; that thought is only the most advanced form of matter itself. In Marxism Leninism, we see Fascism arise due to concrete and objective contradictions of capitalism during certain crises, its natural cycles of boom and bust, as it continues in its development and undevelopment over time. Ultimately, it is class struggle that is the driving factor of all societal motion, which is essential to the understanding of the unique crises economic revolution causes (the inability to live in the old way, for both the masses and the ruling class). Such unique crises essentially create the need for the capitalist class to historically resort to, as Dimitrov said, “the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital” and defend itself at all costs from both other competing capitalists and the rising working class.

With the upward limit of the phenomenon of profit rates falling in a given cycle, the capitalist class is faced with an utter inability to solve the crises and must defend wage slavery with new methods outside its old liberal order. This is what brings about the threat of fascism. And this is the same period we refer to as the “social revolution”. There is a relationship between the opportunities and dangers this presents to the Communist Party and the progressive forces of society.
           
During this period, with the working class becoming disillusioned with the system, we see a rise in all forms of radicalism, as the brilliant Gus Hall discussed in his 1970 essay “The Crisis of Petty Bourgeois Radicalism”. Petty bourgeois consciousness, a subject worthy of study in the USA of 2022 in its own right, creates a sector of petty bourgeois radicals, and when this sector runs up against its own impotence and inability to create the changes necessary in society, some of them give up the struggle, sliding into nihilism or anarchism, but others harden, become more determined. Like steel. This is only one of the reasons that we see the Communist Party rebuilding with such intensity now. The importance of the Communist Party and its Marxist Leninist analysis cannot be overstated, especially regarding the threat of fascism, which always comes at such times of intensified contradictions of capitalism, as the bourgeois side of the class struggle. The Communist Party’s role in this era is to rally this disillusioned working class, to spread class consciousness, and to make it a “class for itself”.
 
This is how Dimitrov viewed it when he spoke at the Comintern Convention in 1932 with his famous address entitled: “The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International in the Struggle of the Working Class against Fascism.”
           
The title of this address is interesting, as it marks the difference in the Marxist Leninist world outlook. Fascism is inherently a phenomenon of capitalism, and of the capitalist class. What creates a threat of fascism is the same thing that creates revolutionary potential: the crises of capitalism. Historically, fascists have been used like mercenaries by finance capital, in order to smash the growing workers’ movement. It is not anything so simplistic and liberal as “the revenge of the petty bourgeoisie,” which is ultimately nothing more than an anti-Communist distortion dressed in oldy timey revolutionary jargon to blame the contradictions of capitalism on the middle peasants, or its modern American equivalent in the rural American worker or newly disillusioned small business owner whose business was crushed and the property gobbled up by various banks and investment firms during the COVID crisis. It is not, as individualists and idealists believe, some collection of traits in individuals, most of which could be applied to anyone who isn’t a liberal. And I think we’ve gone over enough of the Marxist outlook by now to know that it does not find its genesis in the working class or different confused ideas the masses may have after a lifetime of bourgeois ideology being pushed on them. It is, instead, ultimately, the last defense of the capitalist class to protect itself from capitalism itself in a period of acute crises or social revolution, and the form it takes is always unique, according to the situation that capitalist class finds itself in.

So where does this leave us?

Well, how is our capitalist class made up? It seems as if the most reactionary and chauvinistic elements of capital are no longer at the tippy top of the pyramid, instead occupying a place slightly lower. The Koch Brothers and associated cartel could be considered part of this, for example, with the Proud Boys organization their loyal foot soldiers. The World Economic Forum, Davos, the old WASP network of Rockefellers, Morgans, and the like have been pushed into a sort of social liberalism by the advance of our class struggle over time. How will this affect the formation of an American fascism, and what does it say about our period of social revolution and the dangers we face?

​The potential for socialism is here in the USA. And it is here like we haven’t seen since the great William Z Foster was at the helm. Our crumbling standard of living, de-legitimacy of the state, and inability for liberal democracy to continue functioning in the old way, attacked on all sides by the capitalist class in order to resolve the crises in one faction or another’s favor, has seen to that. But we cannot forget that the potential for fascism is also here. If we do not properly understand this phenomenon and rally the working class to work in its own interests, the capitalist class certainly will. Only it won’t be in its own interests. It will be in theirs. And we’ve seen this problem once already in history. I don’t think we can afford to let it happen again.

Author

​Noah Khrachvik is a proud working class member of the Communist Party USA. He is 40 years old, married to the most understanding and patient woman on planet Earth (who puts up with all his deep-theory rants when he wakes up at two in the morning and can't get back to sleep) and has a twelve-year-old son who is far too smart for his own good. When he isn't busy writing, organizing the working class, or fixing rich people's houses all day, he enjoys doing absolutely nothing on the couch, surrounded by his family and books by Gus Hall.


Archives

January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020

Share

18 Comments
Brendan link
12/31/2021 05:48:15 pm

What is your opinion on the idea that fascism, rather than a phenomenon appearing only in times of crisis, is in fact one of two core aspects of capitalist ideology, the other being liberalism? That liberalism is the primary aspect where wage labor is the dominant form of exploitation, while fascism is the primary aspect where direct expropriation (e.g. primitive accumulation, colonialism, wars of conquest) is the dominant form of exploitation?

Reply
Noah Khrachvik link
1/1/2022 04:58:01 am

Thank you for such a thoughtful question!

I think that's a far more in-depth explanation than the typical liberal one described in the essay, but history doesn't really back this up. If we are to say that all of these things in society are fascism, fascism in a sense loses a lot of its meaning.

I would ask WHY we are calling these things fascism. What is the point? Certainly, "primitive accumulation" far better describes this stage of development, and colonialism far better describes these actions. To me, it seems as if it borrows from the CIA's "new left" for why it would refer to these things as fascism, as it seems that it bases it on anarchistic notions of power relations.

Wars of conquest have different root causes, depending on the conditions the involved parties are in, which historical epoch we're discussing, etc., but I would not say they are the "dominant form of exploitation". They are brutal, crimes against humanity, etc., but the dominant form of exploitation in capitalism/imperialism is wage labor. It is the most common, and prevalent, creates the most wealth for the capitalist class, etc. Wars have been started, in fact, for one capitalist country to force wage labor onto another.

I hope that helps! And thank you again for such a great question!

-Noah

Reply
Catherine link
1/1/2022 11:05:08 am

Loved this. Very focused and easy to read. I'm going to be sending this to a lot of ppl.

Reply
Farhad
1/3/2022 09:25:10 pm

Thank you for this.

Reply
Charles Brown
1/6/2022 06:48:10 am

I have been warning for 20 years that the Republican Party is tending to fascism . The Left must form a Popular Front WITH Liberals, ax it did in WWII against fascism

Abolish the fascist Republican Party
Republican Party has cheated to oligarchic or minority rule through gerrymandering , stealing Supreme Court appointments and minority Presidents . They follow Mussolini's fascist principle :



"After Socialism, Fascism combats the whole complex system of democratic ideology, and repudiates it, whether in its theoretical premises or in its practical application. Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society; it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation, and it affirms the immutable, beneficial, and fruitful inequality of mankind, which can never be permanently leveled through the mere operation of a mechanical process such as universal suffrage...."



https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/mussolini-fascism.asp



We must focus on the class aspect in our most fundamental definition of fascism. Fascism is open terrorist rule by the most reactionary , racist and bellicose sections of finance capital . The Republican Party represents those sections of the bourgeoisie . It is threatening and executing policies with respect to social programs that will _foreseeably_ result in premature deaths of 10,000's just as certainly as if they were machine gunned. The Republican accelerated round up of immigrants , threats to expel Dreamers and others , racist threat against African and Latin immigrants equal the Nazis treatment of Jews in the early years of the regime before the holocaustic level of killing. There is no premature anti -fascism by name . The President has spoken in support of openly Nazi marchers.



Furthermore, the American fascist tradition is the KKK. The KKK had fascist rule in sections of the US before Italy (!) . The KKK is a core constituency of the Republican base . David Duke regularly endorses Trump's actions. Republicans have leaders like Roy Moore, who says life for Black people was better in slavery. The Attorney General is a political twin of Moore. Statues of Confederates litter the Southern landscape and rock star Kid Rock waves a Confederate flag in downtown , 85% Black Detroit.



The NRA is also a rightwing militant and armed core group of the Republican base. And another unique feature of American fascism, I'd say , is libertarian fascism. Unlike the European state centered "well ordered " police forces, America has individualist killers doing mass shootings. This is libertarian fascism para-military to the Republican Party.



The Republican Party is a fascist party. However , even though it holds most government offices , we don't have a fascist government (yet; there is no premature anti-fascism) because of the historical luck that the Republican President is at war with our secret police and spy agencies , the FBI and CIA; and the President is a Russian agent, of sorts ; he stumbled into it. We can't rely on that not changing; we have to warn the people. There is no premature anti-fascism.



How could I forget. The Republicans are also mounting an effort to destroy the trade unions : work-for -less law iin traditional labor union stronghold Michigan, Supreme Court potential blow , Trump attacking.



President supported a Nazi march in which a woman was murdered !



"Fascism" must be used rhetorically , not based on the identity between the current situation in the Republican Party and the fascists in Europe in the 20's and 30's. If we had warned of "fascism" in the time when it actually arose, the term would not have aroused much alarm because fascism had not become what it became : fastest big murdering system of all times. Terms like tyranny, barbarism and savagery had to be used to get people's attention . Of course , technically it was not tyranny, a system in Ancient Greece. But because of the rhetorical need the term was used non-technically. Similarly with fascist today. History does not repeat itself , but it does rhyme sometimes.



On the other hand , on the technical point, the Republican Presidential contenders all represent the most racist , bellicose, reactionary sections of finance capital. Trump threatens open terrorist rule against specially despised national and racial groups. Bush launched aggressive , unprovoked war against Iraq, a Crime Against Peace, which Hermann Goering was sentenced to death for at Nuremberg.So, Republicans are right on the edge with meeting the technical definition . There is no premature anti- fascism



Republican Party is a fully , openly fascist party now.



Someone says : "The republicans are planning to kill thousands more veterans by yanking life-support and healthcare out from under them. They have to know what they're planning will kill that many, but they just don't care.



The GOP core belief seems to be that if you can't work

Reply
Noah Khrachvik
1/7/2022 02:05:25 am

What a great comment! Thank you for adding all of this!

I'd urge you to read the essay in detail. I think it answers a lot of the questions your comment brings up, especially in regards to your quotes from Mussolini and descriptions of historical forms fascism has taken. Marxism Leninism understands the phenomenon far better than the fascists themselves, after all.

Fascism is a growing danger in this period, and we must analyze it according to dialectical materialism if we want to have any hope of fighting it, of stopping its rise, of maintaining the ability to fight in the open that bourgeois democracy provides us.

We need to be able to separate form from content. The KKK was definitely the form American fascism took during the second revolution, and was an integral part of bringing down what WEB Dubois described as the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in Reconstruction in the south, of the freedmen and workers. It's essential to recognize that it was a betrayal by the once-allied bourgeoisie of the North that sealed the fate of this progressive institution and destroyed it, and this allowed the KKK to be used like attack dogs by the bourgeoisie to destroy it. And, really, this is one of the greatest tragedies in American history.

Is our modern fascism the same? The KKK is not what it was in that era. For me, it seems that groups like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, Oathkeepers, etc., are far closer to the most reactionary, extreme right of the capitalist class. They were ALL at the January 6th riots, and their leadership were urging people towards violence and destruction, yet have strangely not been prosecuted. Important to note, that they have different characteristics than the KKK did, as well as being different from the Nazi Party or Italian or Japanese fascists.

There's also a new-ish level to bourgeois strategy against its own class. It's very well-known that leaders of such groups keep turning out to be FBI, representing the higher levels of finance capital. (The essay touches on this divide in brief, but it's not really an economic examination of the ideological stances within the bourgeoisie - which, frankly, is a great idea for an essay.) I believe the widely used term is "honey pot".

For me, the most important aspect to consider is the fact that the most reactionary elements of finance capital aren't the upper elements anymore. The cartels associated with Davos, for example. Understanding what the Soviets called the "Second contradiction of imperialism" (or the contradiction between imperialist cartels for profits and the power necessary to secure those profits) is essential in addressing this question. How do they interact with each other? What is political theater and what is genuine power struggle? And, most importantly, where can we intervene in order to accomplish these essential tasks:
-Make sure fascism cannot rise, allowing us freedom of operation

-Create an anti-monopoly coalition, which organically hinders any motion towards fascism by rearranging the contradictions a bit, pushing the other way

-Put more power in the hands of the working class

I think a genuine popular front is something Marxist Leninists should be looking into more and more as well. The United Front is also an essential element of this, and can't be forgotten, though.

Reply
Charles Brown
1/7/2022 05:01:27 am


Thank you for your response!

As a learned Leninist, I use Dimitrov’s definition of fascism in the first place - open terrorist rule by the most reactionary, bellicose, ( I’d add white supremacist ) sections of finance capital/ imperialism. That’s exactly what we got with the Republican Party right here , right now ( concretely in Leninist sense of concrete analysis of the concrete situation) , don’t ya think.

I used fascist definition of fascist because I was writing to masses on Facebook , not other Marxists .

I have been warning of the fascist tendency in the Reaganite Republican Party for at least 20 years . There is no premature anti-fascism has been my slogan . But it fell on deaf ears on the Left , running up against the US Left anti-Democratic Party dogma by which Lefts prove their bona fides by constantly criticizing the DP and declaring that there is no difference between the parties , that they are both parties if big biz, yada, yada , yada .

For 90 years the US working class has won all its reforms through the Democratic Party , because there is a genuine class struggle in the Democratic Party ; sometimes the 99% wins and sometimes the Bourgeoisie win; the Bourgeoisie totally dominate the Republican Party .
Now Leninists should form a Popular Front against fascism with Liberals as in WWII

Reply
Avery M. King
1/7/2022 02:47:12 pm

"For 90 years the US working class has won all its reforms through the Democratic Party , because there is a genuine class struggle in the Democratic Party,"

Please give me some of what you're smoking, because it must be some real potent stuff.

Do you seriously believe that the current Democrats are like the Democrats of FDR's time, who were forced into concessions through the influence of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party USA?

Tell me, what are the concessions the WORKING CLASS has received over the last few decades? All I've seen from the Democrats in terms of concessions is legal gay marriage and a whole lot of virtue signaling.

And they've even turned that around to make it insidious, insofar as the rhetoric they promote around it obscures class analysis and attacks real Communists! Nowadays if you say "black and white unite and fight," or "class is fundamental," you get called a racist and a class reductionist!

What else do we get from them? Free trade agreements, escalation of war, coup d'etats in countries that defy the unipolar imperialist world order, tax penalties for not purchasing private health insurance, suppression of popular protests (like Occupy) . . .

Tell me, how many times have the Democrats controlled the White House and the Congress and have given us nothing? Who was President from 1993 to 2001, and from 2008 to 2016, when all the things I mentioned above were happening in full-swing?

Get real, sir. The Democrats today are nothing like FDR, and FDR would have been nothing like he was if the Soviet Union hadn't existed, and  the Communist Party USA had not been such a powerful and influential force. There have been no "concessions" in decades! We lost our leverage and ability to wrest concessions when they divided the Communist movement against itself, confused it with faux Marxist ideology, and the Soviet Union collapsed!

Our (New) Left is nothing like the Old Left of William Z. Foster and Gus Hall, and you are proof enough of that! Gus is probably rolling in his grave having people like this you quoting him to push the Democrats and a faux Marxist view on working people!

When you are sick of fighting the ruling class' battles for them and of gobbling up the microscopic crumbs they throw at you, the Communist Party will be waiting, ready to be built into a real, serious, independent force, guided by actual Marxism-Leninism, that leads the fight for the interests of the working class!

The working people of the United States are ready, and they're desperate. Are you going to answer their call, or continue to tail the Democrats?

Reply
Charles Brown
1/7/2022 06:24:34 pm


"For 90 years the US working class has won all its reforms through the Democratic Party , because there is a genuine class struggle in the Democratic Party,"

Please give me some of what you're smoking, because it must be some real potent stuff.

Do you seriously believe that the current Democrats are like the Democrats of FDR's time, who were forced into concessions through the influence of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party USA?

////
I said that the working class has won all its reforms in the last 90 years through the DP, not that the current DP is “like” the Democrats of FDR’s time ; so your question is a sort non-sequitur.
However , todays DP is better than FDR on anti racism . FDR was stuck with a whole lot Southern racists .

///

Tell me, what are the concessions the WORKING CLASS has received over the last few decades? All I've seen from the Democrats in terms of concessions is legal gay marriage and a whole lot of virtue signaling.

///
“Concessions “ is not the correct term; reforms . Let me tell you , comrade , the WORKING CLASS , THE 99%. THE PROLETARIAT has won Obamacare, a Black President and woman VP , pay equity for women act, $700 billion Stimulus, bailout of auto workers jobs , Peace treaty with Iran , two women appointed to the Supreme Court , Dreamers et al. through the DP; with LBJ We won Great Society and War on poverty programs and Civil Rights Acts

Republican Party has steadily eroded what was won by Democrats

////
And they've even turned that around to make it insidious, insofar as the rhetoric they promote around it obscures class analysis and attacks real Communists! Nowadays if you say "black and white unite and fight," or "class is fundamental," you get called a racist and a class reductionist!

///
That doesn’t refute my claim.



What else do we get from them? Free trade agreements, escalation of war, coup d'etats in countries that defy the unipolar imperialist world order, tax penalties for not purchasing private health insurance, suppression of popular protests (like Occupy) . . .

//
In contrast with Republicans,Democrats deescalated war in Iraq , pulled out of Afghanistan and made a peace treaty with Iran.



Tell me, how many times have the Democrats controlled the White House and the Congress and have given us nothing? Who was President from 1993 to 2001, and from 2008 to 2016, when all the things I mentioned above were happening in full-swing?
///
See above on what pro-working class reforms Obama won for the WORKING CLASS. You must have been asleep .

Get real, sir. The Democrats today are nothing like FDR, and FDR would have been nothing like he was if the Soviet Union hadn't existed, and the Communist Party USA had not been such a powerful and influential force. There have been no "concessions" in decades! We lost our leverage and ability to wrest concessions when they divided the Communist movement against itself, confused it with faux Marxist ideology, and the Soviet Union collapsed!
///
See response above ; you get real . See reforms listed above made over recent decades .
It was mainly the working class movement in the Depression that moved FDR ( I ‘m very pro-Soviet ( I joined the CPUSA in 1980, so I’m expert on all that’s great about the SU; I’ve been to Lenin’s mausoleum, studied Soviet history , etc)
///

Our (New) Left is nothing like the Old Left of William Z. Foster and Gus Hall, and you are proof enough of that! Gus is probably rolling in his grave having people like this you quoting him to push the Democrats and a faux Marxist view on working people!
///
Actually , Gus Hall agrees with me. Sam Webb and I have been close comrades for 40 years, and he agrees with me ; I just spoke with him . I’ve been in national meetings with Gus Hall , read his books and many articles , he used to send out audio tapes ; I’m pretty much a follower of Gus Hall
Mine is _the_correct Marxist view on this .
And the New Left talks like you do about the Democrats! So., you’ve got it backwards .

When you are sick of fighting the ruling class' battles for them and of gobbling up the microscopic crumbs they throw at you, the Communist Party will be waiting, ready to be built into a real, serious, independent force, guided by actual Marxism-Leninism, that leads the fight for the interests of the working class!

///
I’m not fighting the ruling class’s battles for it ; I’m a veteran Marxist -Leninist who understands Marxism better than you do. I joined the CP in 1980. Were you even born then ?

///
The working people of the United States are ready, and they're desperate. Are you going to answer their call, or continue to tail the Democrats?

////
You’re not in touch with the working class or objective political reality They are not desperate for the CP ; they are not calling you.

Charles Brown
1/7/2022 06:18:46 am

http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2022/01/gop-has-merged-with-kkk.html

Gus Hall said there was a whiff of fascism when Reagan first got in By now almost 40 years later there is are hurricane winds of fascism

Answer to Is democracy just a total sham with popular vote that has no real power in decision making when true rulers are wealthy rich corporations with their corrupt political minions, religious organisations, monarchies and old money?

by Charles Brown

What is to be done ? Lenin would ask you . The only path to revolution in the US by electoral means .
All working class reforms in the last 90 years have been through the Democratic Party . There’s a genuine class struggle in the Democratic Party ; sometimes the working class wins ; sometimes the Bourgeoisie win. The Bourgeoisie totally dominate the Republicans.
So, campaign for Democratic votes everyday some kinda way; abolish the Republican Party as We, the Majority, know it.
The US path to revolution is accumulation of reforms, quantitative change transforming into qualitative change as with water boiling .

Reply
Noah Khrachvik
1/7/2022 07:33:53 am

I think we enter into a danger area of dogmatism and empiricism when we discuss "using X definition".

Instead, we must use the same analytical methods as Dimitrov, as Lenin, etc. (Both of whom are quoted in the essay) in order to arrive at our own analysis, using Dialectical materialism as both our outlook and methodology.

We can always go to any great Marxist of the past for guidance, and you seem to be very invested in doing just that, which is fantastic. At the same time, we need to be aware of our own forms of these phenomena, in order to properly combat them, to apply the Dialectical Materialist method.

What this essay is doing is making this necessity clear. Its purpose is not to talk about the Bourgeois parties at all, but to clarify the correct way to approach the phenomenon of fascism.

Reply
Charles Brown
1/7/2022 08:16:55 am

My use of the definition of fascism is neither dogmatic nor materialist , but dialectically and historically materialist

As Lenin said , without revolutionary theory , there can be no revolutionary movement. My method is to use Marxist -Leninist theory ; and yes I’m fantastic at it.
It should be clear from what I write that I’m unusually knowledgeable about the US form of fascism. In fact I’m an expert on it as I’ve been studying it professionally as a lawyer for 30 years in the National Alliance against Racist and political oppression, including a paper Outlaw fascistic racist speech .

You’ve got to talk about the Republican Party ! It is the US fascist form !

Reply
Charles Brown
1/7/2022 10:31:21 am

That should be neiither dogmatic nor empiricist . I propose what is to be done , uniting theory and practice, following Marx’s anti-empiricist example in the theses on Feuerbach.

Reply
Noah Khracvhik
1/7/2022 01:15:43 pm

I'm not learned, or a lawyer, or anything, so I really can't tell you anything about that, or about being fantastic, or anything of that nature.

Here's what I can tell you, though. All my life, learned people with fancy degrees have tried to tell me what to think, what to do, and how to act. In fact, that's part of what this essay is about. And you know what? It's never made me want to think what they tell me to. It's done the opposite, in fact. So, if they're right, it would lead me into being wrong, just to spite these people who spoke down to me, and then it would take even longer for me to get to the right ideas on my own because of that.

This is something I think about a lot. It seems like it's a fundamental part of the American working class social consciousness to me. Pretty much everyone I know is like that. Everyone I grew up with. Everyone I work with. Maybe it has something to do with reminding us of the boss? Especially in the modern era, this would make sense to me.

So what I try to do, and what this essay is designed to do, is to help give people the tools they need in order to make their own analysis. For me, I try very hard not to push my view on anyone else. I've been at this studying Marxism Leninism thing for a while, and through that, I learned a thing or two from Lenin, and one of my big "oh wow!" moments was in his foundational assertion that Marxism Leninism leads us to the same conclusions. In 3 Components and 3 Sources, he gives a short overview, and even says that sectarianism is impossible in Marxism.

So, for me (and this is one of the reasons I'm always saying "for me", not wanting to push things on people and allow them to get to their own views), it's always about figuring out the best way to remind people that we're not stupid, that we can have our own analysis, and that Marxism Leninism can help us all see clearly. I respect your views, and I admire your very obvious passion. Just.. in the future, could you please maybe comment on the actual essay, rather than telling me what you would like an essay to be on? That's all.

Oh. And one last thing. One of the things I always think is: "How would Lenin approach this? What would Lenin say? What would Lenin do?"

On the topic of fascism, I think this essay right here shows his insights in a very valuable way.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/sep/26.htm

Thank you for all your comments!

Reply
Charles Briwn
1/7/2022 02:14:26 pm

I was responding to you’re talking to me as if you are my teacher by pointing out that I’m expert on the topic , not really in the category of someone who you should’ talk to like someone you are teaching . You know like warning me about dogmatism or empiricism . It was you talking down to me. My response to people who talk down to me is to talk down back.

Reply
Noah Khrachvik
1/7/2022 03:55:46 pm

Okay.

Reply
Charles Brown
1/7/2022 06:25:54 pm


"For 90 years the US working class has won all its reforms through the Democratic Party , because there is a genuine class struggle in the Democratic Party,"

Please give me some of what you're smoking, because it must be some real potent stuff.

Do you seriously believe that the current Democrats are like the Democrats of FDR's time, who were forced into concessions through the influence of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party USA?

////
I said that the working class has won all its reforms in the last 90 years through the DP, not that the current DP is “like” the Democrats of FDR’s time ; so your question is a sort non-sequitur.
However , todays DP is better than FDR on anti racism . FDR was stuck with a whole lot Southern racists .

///

Tell me, what are the concessions the WORKING CLASS has received over the last few decades? All I've seen from the Democrats in terms of concessions is legal gay marriage and a whole lot of virtue signaling.

///
“Concessions “ is not the correct term; reforms . Let me tell you , comrade , the WORKING CLASS , THE 99%. THE PROLETARIAT has won Obamacare, a Black President and woman VP , pay equity for women act, $700 billion Stimulus, bailout of auto workers jobs , Peace treaty with Iran , two women appointed to the Supreme Court , Dreamers et al. through the DP; with LBJ We won Great Society and War on poverty programs and Civil Rights Acts

Republican Party has steadily eroded what was won by Democrats

////
And they've even turned that around to make it insidious, insofar as the rhetoric they promote around it obscures class analysis and attacks real Communists! Nowadays if you say "black and white unite and fight," or "class is fundamental," you get called a racist and a class reductionist!

///
That doesn’t refute my claim.



What else do we get from them? Free trade agreements, escalation of war, coup d'etats in countries that defy the unipolar imperialist world order, tax penalties for not purchasing private health insurance, suppression of popular protests (like Occupy) . . .

//
In contrast with Republicans,Democrats deescalated war in Iraq , pulled out of Afghanistan and made a peace treaty with Iran.



Tell me, how many times have the Democrats controlled the White House and the Congress and have given us nothing? Who was President from 1993 to 2001, and from 2008 to 2016, when all the things I mentioned above were happening in full-swing?
///
See above on what pro-working class reforms Obama won for the WORKING CLASS. You must have been asleep .

Get real, sir. The Democrats today are nothing like FDR, and FDR would have been nothing like he was if the Soviet Union hadn't existed, and the Communist Party USA had not been such a powerful and influential force. There have been no "concessions" in decades! We lost our leverage and ability to wrest concessions when they divided the Communist movement against itself, confused it with faux Marxist ideology, and the Soviet Union collapsed!
///
See response above ; you get real . See reforms listed above made over recent decades .
It was mainly the working class movement in the Depression that moved FDR ( I ‘m very pro-Soviet ( I joined the CPUSA in 1980, so I’m expert on all that’s great about the SU; I’ve been to Lenin’s mausoleum, studied Soviet history , etc)
///

Our (New) Left is nothing like the Old Left of William Z. Foster and Gus Hall, and you are proof enough of that! Gus is probably rolling in his grave having people like this you quoting him to push the Democrats and a faux Marxist view on working people!
///
Actually , Gus Hall agrees with me. Sam Webb and I have been close comrades for 40 years, and he agrees with me ; I just spoke with him . I’ve been in national meetings with Gus Hall , read his books and many articles , he used to send out audio tapes ; I’m pretty much a follower of Gus Hall
Mine is _the_correct Marxist view on this .
And the New Left talks like you do about the Democrats! So., you’ve got it backwards .

When you are sick of fighting the ruling class' battles for them and of gobbling up the microscopic crumbs they throw at you, the Communist Party will be waiting, ready to be built into a real, serious, independent force, guided by actual Marxism-Leninism, that leads the fight for the interests of the working class!

///
I’m not fighting the ruling class’s battles for it ; I’m a veteran Marxist -Leninist who understands Marxism better than you do. I joined the CP in 1980. Were you even born then ?

///
The working people of the United States are ready, and they're desperate. Are you going to answer their call, or continue to tail the Democrats?

////
You’re not in touch with the working class or objective political reality They are not desperate for the CP ; they are not calling you.

Reply
Noah Khrachvik
1/10/2022 04:59:55 am

I think it was Lenin who credited the success of the Bolsheviks with their ability to learn from their mistakes, wasn't it?

I happen to think the people ARE desperate for the Communist Party, and simply aren't aware of it. If you believe one of the bourgeois parties is a good vehicle for socialism, that's fine. You're welcome to your opinion. I just have to ask.. why not do what Webb did, then, and repudiate socialism and join them? You seem to be a very big fan.

For me, the answer is in the rebuilding of the Communist Party going on right now. Lenin's answer was independent workers' power. I think he was right. Just my two cents. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the bourgeoisie are the answer, and Menshevism was right after all.

As far as Gus Hall goes, the original "American Way to Bill of Rights Socialism" was very clear, and the foundation of the current Party Program.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

Details

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020

    Categories

    All
    Aesthetics
    Afghanistan
    Althusser
    American Civil War
    American Socialism
    American Socialism Travels
    Anti Imperialism
    Anti-Imperialism
    Art
    August Willich
    Berlin Wall
    Bolivia
    Book Review
    Brazil
    Capitalism
    Censorship
    Chile
    China
    Chinese Philosophy Dialogue
    Christianity
    CIA
    Class
    Climate Change
    COINTELPRO
    Communism
    Confucius
    Cuba
    Debunking Russiagate
    Democracy
    Democrats
    DPRK
    Eco Socialism
    Ecuador
    Egypt
    Elections
    Engels
    Eurocommunism
    Feminism
    Frederick Douglass
    Germany
    Ghandi
    Global Capitalism
    Gramsci
    History
    Hunger
    Immigration
    Imperialism
    Incarceration
    Interview
    Joe Biden
    Labor
    Labour
    Lenin
    Liberalism
    Lincoln
    Linke
    Literature
    Lula Da Silva
    Malcolm X
    Mao
    Marx
    Marxism
    May Day
    Media
    Medicare For All
    Mencius
    Militarism
    MKULTRA
    Mozi
    National Affairs
    Nelson Mandela
    Neoliberalism
    New Left
    News
    Nina Turner
    Novel
    Palestine
    Pandemic
    Paris Commune
    Pentagon
    Peru Libre
    Phillip-bonosky
    Philosophy
    Political-economy
    Politics
    Pol Pot
    Proletarian
    Putin
    Race
    Religion
    Russia
    Settlercolonialism
    Slavery
    Slavoj-zizek
    Social-democracy
    Socialism
    South-africa
    Soviet-union
    Summer-2020-protests
    Syria
    Theory
    The-weather-makers
    Trump
    Venezuela
    War-on-drugs
    Whatistobedone...now...likenow-now
    Wilfrid-sellers
    Worker-cooperatives
    Xunzi

All ORIGINAL Midwestern Marx content is under Creative Commons
(CC BY-ND 4.0) which means you can republish our work only if it is attributed properly (link the original publication to the republication) and not modified. 
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Online Articles
    • Articles >
      • All
      • News
      • Politics
      • Theory
      • Book Reviews
      • Chinese Philosophy Dialogues
    • American Socialism Travels
    • Youth League
  • Dr. Riggins' Book Series
    • Eurocommunism and the State
    • Debunking Russiagate
    • The Weather Makers
    • Essays on Bertrand Russell and Marxism
    • The Truth Behind Polls
    • Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century
    • Lenin's Materialism & Empirio-Criticism
    • Mao's Life
    • Lenin's State and Rev
    • Lenin's LWC Series
    • Anti-Dühring Series
  • Store
    • Books
    • Merchandise
  • YouTube
  • Journal of American Socialist Studies (JASS)
  • Contact
    • Article Submissions
    • The Marks of Capital
  • Online Library
  • Staff