Thread by @theoristPowell

Just so we're clear: the Soviet Union did not have a communist economy. It had a state monopoly capitalist economy. The Bolsheviks killed Russian communism in the 1920s when they took over the soviets and centralized power. (1/3) #socialism #Communism

Whether they acted from the best of intentions, whether they had no realistic alternative, doesn't change the outcome. We evaluate a state or a society by its practical relations, not its ideology. (2/3)

Communism should mean: workers owning the means of production. Nothing less. By this measure, Stalin was the greatest anticommunist in history, and Lenin was his enabler. (3/3) #socialism #Communism

Coda: The fact that under Putinism there is some state redistribution of the means of consumption, and opposition to American imperialism, does not make Putinism a form of socialism. It is radically capitalist, and also fascistic. #FascistPutin

Second coda: the #UkraineRussianWar raises serious questions about how to articulate a coherent, realistic, effective socialist anti-imperialism. Doing the Noam Chomsky trick of blaming the US for everything is radically insufficient.

Third coda: For one thing, American geopolitical power has been waning since the 1970s, as @iwallerstein has pointed out for decades. They are not dictating the course of world affairs. No single force is.

Fourth coda: Often US or Western intervention is aggressively antidemocratic. Once in a while it is the lesser of two evils. Western meddling may have contributed to the #UkraineRussianWar, but abandoning Ukraine is not a good solution.

Fifth coda: Aside from the renewed cultural erasure of the Ukrainian people, Russian victory in this war would strengthen Putin's autocratic grip on Russia, and the global fascist resurgence of which he is a leading figure. #FascistPutin

Finally: How can radical socialists articulate a good alternative to the "realist" and "liberal" variants of Western neo-imperialism? I think the contradictions of the #UkraineRussianWar indicate how much work we have to do to answer that question.