Social Democrats target “billionaires” in rhetoric instead of Capitalists and try to act like this is radical, but it really shows that they believe Capitalism just has to be “reined in.”
Billionaires could be gone tomorrow, and the system that produced them would still be here.
Nothing short of systems change will be enough to save us.
Trust us when we say:
Most of your favorite politicians who call themselves “Leftists” are Liberals in practice who think they’re being “realistic,” when they’re really stifling the radical potentialities of the people.
Any real Leftist stepping into the political superstructure of the bourgeoisie who understood what is at stake would not be content merely being on the “inside” as someone with some sort of class analysis, but would rather link their platform to an “outside” campaign or strategy.
What do we call someone who says they believe in worker control of the economy, but who stifles worker self-organization by sheepdogging the masses into Neoliberal political institutions as a supposed “entryist” tactic while the world continues to burn and fascism is on the rise?
If “Leftist” politicians want to actually be useful in this moment, then they need to come to the table with grassroots Left organizers who have a social, economic, and political #DualPower program, and commit to an “inside/outside” strategy in which they can be held accountable.
There are many roles for politicians to play...
We cannot reform Capitalism, but our fight can be made a bit easier with “non-reformist reforms,” for example (see the thread below).
Politicians can also amass massive amounts of attention and resources that can be directed toward “dual power” institution-building, which could allow us to begin building a new world in the shell of the old, and connecting this to a real social movement.
The point here is that we cannot continue to blindly throw resources and support behind individuals operating from within the institutions of the ruling class, even if they claim to have good intentions.
We need a united front grounded in some very particular principles + terms.
FYI:
A #DualPower project or initiative is a grassroots org grounded in a localized economic focus, politically using the institutions of the Solidarity Economy Movement – Worker Self-Directed Enterprises, Community Land Trusts, co-op housing, etc. – to build economic democracy.
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As more systems collapse, it will become even more important for us to find people we can trust, and carve out physical space and infrastructure in which we can begin to live without bosses and landlords, and in balance with non-human nature.
There is a need for eco-communities.
How can those wanting eco-communities 1) find each other, 2) build trust, 3) find locations for decommodified land and housing, 4) pool resources and fundraise, 5) manage projects and resources transparently and democratically, and 6) securely connect and federate with others?
Re: #1, as of now, most people are using Twitter, IG, FB, Discord, Reddit, etc., to do this. While these apps are popular, they are also highly centralized, and subsequently less safe and/or secure. We do not control them, and they are also not designed around (direct) democracy.
We need principled and respectful polemics – not passivity and people-pleasing – when it comes to discussions around strategy in these times.
We need to be making cases for holistic movement-building and not leaving so much to chance under such disjointed, fragmented conditions.
We shouldn’t shy away from tough convos about certain organizational vehicles and approaches (what they do and don’t do). And we shouldn’t keep leaving everyone’s respective focuses in “buckets.”
We must figure out how to connect all of the focuses under world-building projects.
And by “world-building,” we mean “building a new world in the shell of the old one.” Ensuring that “not relying/waiting on the state” means more than just reactive charity masked as “mutual aid.”
That it means infrastructure for a parallel social, economic, and political system.
Many still refuse to interrogate what they consider the basics of “life” or “society” (re: “America,” capitalism, hierarchy, etc.), no matter what.
Because to go back to “Step One” (re-trace humanity’s “steps”) and interrogate feels like a lot of “work” with scary implications…
Why go explore “over there” if it’s just going to unearth and even delegitimize so much of what you’ve built your identity and life around?
Isn’t it easier and better to just hold on to the mythologies and facades, even as they’re unraveling and crumbling in our very hands?
No.
As a matter of fact, to try and hold on to those “integral and assumed things that never really did serve [you] all that well” is a futile attempt to prolong the inevitable: systems collapse.
Not only this, but it also leaves you unprepared for what is to come on the other side.
A real “democracy” would be direct (unlike representative “democracy” under capitalism), and therefore wouldn’t allow for social systems of domination to thrive like they do in our current society. And the rule of the young by the old is called “gerontocracy” (for those curious).
“Left unity” is a farce, not only because a monolithic “Left” doesn’t exist, but because “Left” is also defined by what millions with varying ideologies are AGAINST, not FOR…
Many find the “Left” so exhausting because they insist on holding on to an illusion in “big tent” orgs.