Role in the core
The above tweet brings up a much discussed point regarding what can be done to build communism in the imperial core, where many workers are content enough with their material conditions, occasionally seeking scrap concessions.
@psaczkowski mentions if our role is limited to managing the fall out as imperialist links continue breaking, which seems to imply there's nothing we can do here (at least in terms of revolutionary change) until imperialist links are broken (depending on how much people in the core themselves can influence that, vs it being all on the periphery gaining freedom).
My thoughts go to the ideas of Objective conditions of revolution vs subjective conditions. In short, that there are things outside of our control, independent of any party or mass action, necessary for the possibility of revolution, the actual success of which depends on that subjective part. Preparation for that subjective factor however need not wait for the presence of objective conditions; in fact it would be foolish to wait. Presume you only have one shot.
Education is the order of the day! Some thoughts:
- Works in the core are said to benefit from imperialism
- At the same time, benefits to workers in the core were concessions made in fear of the Bolshevik revolution
- With USSR gone, scale of class warfare has increased (what some call neoliberalism)
- Is a crisis strong enough to present a revolutionary situation possible even without breakage of imperial linkages?
- Or does the possibility of "bribes" to workers still remain so long as imperialist linkages exist
- Recently, lots of protests of funding to Ukraine have involved comments like "that could have been spent on the homeless" etc.
- I've seen that critiqued with calls of some only being interested in "spreading the imperialist loot" (common criticism of social democrats)
- Perhaps that's true, though in those cases it's being presented as something mutually exclusive - money for Ukraine or for our people - would this not be a good case of self-interested anti-imperialism?
- I suppose down the road a crisis could be great enough to provoke some sort of concession from the working class while maintaining the imperialist structure (though that seems to be facing inevitable decline) -in such a case the common criticisms of soc dems would again be relevant
- That said nobody's been conceding shit for the time being so not sure how relevant that argument is
- Back to the idea of concessions - working class may be satisfied (enough) with material conditions, but there are definite areas I can think of to make a case for socialism (note- many of these things could be campaign points for your "progressive" Western leftist candidate, although showing how they don't do shit is another matter)
- Healthcare is an abomination. Medicare for all would save money and improve lives, though nationalized healthcare altogether would be even better. Millions are w/o insurance though, and for those who have it through their employer, it is precarious. Not to mention the coverage still often sucks. And is filled with needlessly complicated bullshit
- Then there's big pharma
- Housing - home ownership has long been part of the "American dream" (are current homeowners too far gone to convince?). More and more people can only manage to rent, and, well, who likes their landlord? I often think I could be content not ever living in a house of my own, but would be so much happier not paying so much of my paycheck towards rent
- Even for homeowners, it can be a precarious situation for the many people living paycheck to paycheck. And one can recall what happened in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis
- Healthcare is an abomination. Medicare for all would save money and improve lives, though nationalized healthcare altogether would be even better. Millions are w/o insurance though, and for those who have it through their employer, it is precarious. Not to mention the coverage still often sucks. And is filled with needlessly complicated bullshit
On the note of showing limits of the system, things a sincere leader or party could work for
These are but a few examples, but, the next step needs to be educating about the nature of the capitalist system (and the political system as well, along with the idea that they're not these cleanly divided realms). Even if at best we can extract concessions from the system, they will not last without a comprehensive change in the system
The futility of the current system must be matched with a convincing alternate path, as to avoid despair.
More to be updated later.
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