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Black Socialists in America

@BlackSocialists

27 Jan

As much as “progressive,” Social Democratic politicians talk about “democracy” and throw around the word “grassroots,” you’d think more of them would be interested in moving campaigns that help poor and working-class people build grassroots, direct democracy in their communities.

The “politician” role is an inherently *top-down* role under our current socioeconomic paradigm and system of governance.

Therein lies the contradiction for “progressives.”

Even amongst so-called “progressives,” the implicit/assumed orientation is an orientation of paternalism.

“Democracy” is a concept only spoken to in the context of “representative democracy.”

“Grassroots” is a concept only spoken to in the context of “grassroots” efforts to elect new “representatives” or “leaders.”

Very few politicians are interested in addressing these conundrums.

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Black Socialists in America

@BlackSocialists

10 Jan

The 300,000+ indigenous Mayans who make up the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ) in Chiapas, Mexico have one of the most advanced systems of democratic, consensus-based governance in the world.

Here are some clips from “People Without Faces” (2016) that explain.

“Suggest, but do not impose.

Represent, but do not replace.

Build, but do not ruin.

Obey, but do not dictate.

Descend to the people, but do not dominate.

Persuade, but do not defeat.

Serve the others, but not yourself.”

“If there is some profit remaining from the work, the representative gathers all of the families of the support base, and they make a decision on how to use that profit, where to invest it.”

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Black Socialists in America

@BlackSocialists

6 Jan

For years, Liberals, left-Liberals (“progressive” Social Democrats), and baby Leftists have looked at us as too “radical” or “unrealistic.”

Now it is becoming more clear to many that things are going to get more and more “radical” and “surreal,” whether they want them to or not.

Anyone who has studied 20th-century German history knows *exactly* what is happening right now.

Anyone who has studied events all throughout Latin America within the last century knows *exactly* what is happening right now.

Not only is it not shocking...

It has been predicted.

Get with the program.

The program is #DualPower.

It’s not just one thing. It’s not just one tool.

It’s every tool in the toolkit.

And it’s grounded in principles of cooperation, communalism, direct democracy, consensus, prefigurative politics, internationalism, and much more.

Read 6 tweets

Black Socialists in America

@BlackSocialists

26 Dec 20

Informal hierarchies will develop in movements for systems change, but there should be zero tolerance for attempts to gatekeep in these movements.

Be skeptical of those taking on “organizer” or “activist” as an identity under broader organization and then expressing entitlement.

True social revolution is the culmination of many different social processes that are catalyzed as a result of many different actions in many different places. Not all of these social processes are catalyzed through actions tied to people or forces grounded in Left values either.

There are also many areas in which people must move in order to help others self-organize and cooperate; there is no one space to “organize,” and no one network through which people develop new social relations.

No one person or group can have a monopoly on new social relations.

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Black Socialists in America

@BlackSocialists

27 Nov 20

Something that must be understood:

The term “dual power” was coined by Lenin in 1917, but most of the core conceptual underpinnings for this term were spoken to by Proudhon in 1851, over half a century earlier (please see here: panarchy.org/proudhon/econo…).

This is worth unpacking.

Let’s start with Lenin’s first use of the term in 1917 (see here: marxists.org/archive/lenin/…) when he began to observe workers self-organizing + self-governing, cultivating power that ran parallel to the power of the Russian Provisional Government set up after Nicholas II abdicated.

While Lenin emphasized characteristics of the soviets and their use of power that we’d certainly admire today, this was, for him, ultimately contextualized around the idea of this power being used to develop state power (as opposed to making the state obsolete and destroying it).

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Black Socialists in America

@BlackSocialists

21 Nov 20

Please stop using “Communism” as a synonym for centralized economic planning under State Capitalism (aka “authoritarian Social Democracy”).

As people all across the political spectrum (Left or otherwise) continue to do this, they render the term/concept even more useless.

Communism is good.

No, it is not what exists or has existed in most of the territories most of the world points to and calls “Communist.” And no, just because a political entity paints itself red and calls itself “Communist” does not make it good (same for any other Left label).

A communist society is a classless, moneyless, stateless, post-scarcity society where the means of production are democratically controlled by the community for the benefit of all.

Wage labor is non-existent, and production is planned for human needs, rather than private profit.

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