Just got sent this, getting myself some popcorn for the inevitable cringe
Just got sent this, getting myself some popcorn for the inevitable cringe
Early on June 24, Vladimir Putin addressed Russia about the unfolding rebellion of the Wagner private military company, saying that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion is “pushing the country toward anar...
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Weapons grade cringe. Hard to believe how these people can be so eager for civil war and the complete breakdown of order in their society while their country is in an existential conflict with a literal fascist state and the entire imperialist West behind it. But of course we know from history that anarchists have this tendency, as even while the Bolsheviks were busy defending the newly established Soviet state against the white reaction and the imperialist intervention forces, anarchists were doing their best to sabotage them every way.
Also, lol at the idea of defending against Wagner and/or state forces' tanks and artillery with "solidarity and mutual aid". Sure buddy... Are we sure these are adults and not children writing this? Or have they just been bought off by the CIA? Luckily these people are tiny and fringe groups that will never amount to anything.
It becomes immediately obvious why the Russian people don't take anarchists seriously. Compare this nonsense to the much more mature and sensible statement put out by the Communist Party under Zyuganov who are certainly no fans of Putin...it's clear who the serious people and who the clowns are, and why it is the communists who have widespread popular support and not the anarchists.
Isn’t the Communist Party in Russia basically controlled, nationalistic opposition, which wants a return to the Soviet Union because of tradition, not class struggle?
I might be wrong- I am not very well informed about this.
No, absolutely not. That is a completely false propaganda narrative that has been fabricated specifically in order to fool gullible western leftists (radlibs and ultras especially) into not supporting one of the biggest and still among the most active and politically vital communist parties in the world today. It's no different from the narrative which claims that the PRC has turned capitalist and is therefore not deserving of the anti-capitalist left's support.
We see this exact same trick being played on western leftists with virtually every politically relevant communist or socialist party in the global south. They all get painted as "fake communists", "revisionist", "nationalist" or any number of other excuses to get well meaning but ignorant and misinformed leftists in the imperial core to become totally nihilistic and demoralized and only support the most fringe and insignificant groups that have no real world impact. Unfortunately it seems to have worked.
Mind you, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is not perfect and there are definitely some positions they have taken which they deserve to be criticized for, but they are effectively the only real opposition to Putin that exists in Russia. All the rest, the so-called "liberal opposition" are overwhelmingly astroturfed with very little organic support in Russia and mostly propped up by western and western-affiliated NGOs and money from western intelligence cutouts like the NED.
In fact one of the most interesting things you will find if you actually analyze the positions of the KPRF today and what their ideas are about how to build a modern socialist economy and society you will find that they resemble to a surprising degree the ideas of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. This is of course a point of contention for some ultra-orthodox MLs, the Hoxhaist types who call the CPC capitalist and/or revisionist, but it is a sign that the Russian communists have done a lot of work figuring out what went wrong in the USSR and trying to understand what can be done better the next time around.
I think this issue is caused by a fundamental weakness of the Western Left. We seem to have formed such a habit of splitting off into more and more obscure parties, that the idea of actually advocating for or organizing for the change of an already existing party to more closely resemble what you want, to improve already existing socialism rather than tearing it down or trying to ignore it, seems outright heretical or impossible.
This inclination towards "disavowing" explicitly communist political parties is, while sometimes necessary when parties are obviously astroturfed (like with the CPUSA), taken to an extreme that is reminiscent of someone refusing to talk to a friend after they do something they don't like, instead of talking with them.
Not that western leftists should start trying to forcibly change parties in other countries, that would be weird and impractical, but it's telling that nobody even thought to consider bringing up legitimate criticisms directly to parties like the Communist Party in Russia, instead sidestepping all confrontation or actual organizing work by making a more sectarian party, and "disavowing" a party in another country (whatever that means), instead of arriving at the level of organizing in western countries that would allow a Western communist party to reach out to the Russian communist party and request solidarity on some issue (like queer rights).
It is reasonable to expect someone to care about people similar to them, even in other countries. So, while you are correct that most of these concerns are propaganda, it will always ring hollow to most western leftists. The only way to actually deprogram them from this is to show them how silly it is by offering a legitimately actionable alternative. That, and the inherent inclination Westerners have towards believing propaganda for their own self-assurance, but that's an issue that has to be tackled separately and simultaneously.
But instead, we have closed ourselves off, playing a game of "but they started it!" in groups whose ideologies die off the moment they're created.
I blame multiple things for this splintering mindset:
- Historical conflicts between anarchists and Marxists and the popularity of anarchism in the West.
- The prevalence of left-communism in the West
- And, at the root of it, a fundamental misconception that the idea of a party line necessitates constant agreement at all times, when in reality, disagreement is necessary for the growth of the party, and much more importantly than that, this purist idea of democratic centralism has now provably led to an absolutely miserable organizing situation, because it has made it fundamentally impossible to organize with members of the first two points. The end effect is that western communism has slowly been hemorrhaging politically radical members into complete obscurity and uselessness.
If we eliminate the last issue, which is also the easiest one to confront, the other two should become less relevant as Western communists see more victories.