Is Now the Time?

[dmcauliffe09]

Recessions like our current one are capitalism's natural way of letting it know that is cannot succeed, at least in the long term. In such a weakened state, is it pertinent that we act now, before capitalist greed once again takes hold, and once again leads to a similar economic downturn (this is what happened after the Great Depression, and look at where we are now)? Are recessions like these opportune moments for (socialist) socioeconomic revolution? If so, how would we go about bringing this revolution? Would it be through the ballot box or the bullet? Or both?

Ideas?

[Wakizashi the Bolshevik]

Now is the time to show everyone that we were right, that capitalism leads to failure, despair and poverty for the Working Class.

But for a violent Revolution in the First World the Communist Parties are simply not string enough I fear. Now we should make propaganda and rally as much People as possible behind the Red Flag.

[Potemkin]

I would argue that the revolutionary left should have been building its own frameworks so when downturns like this do occur, there is another structure in place that can be utilized by the poor and working class to ease the burden of capitalist depression. These should be living examples of the feasibility of anarchist ideas (I'm an anarchist-communist).

Something like that would have had an incredible power to fuel an anti-capitalist sentiment, as well as preventing the working class from starving. This doesn't/shouldn't even be on a large scale, but projects to meet the needs of people from within their own communities, with the resources available in their own neighborhoods.

Even if there were to be enough disgust in capitalism this time around to overthrow it, what would the new world look like? Fascist? Capitalist, again? The revolutionary left isn't strong or loud enough to be a factor in the shaping of what would come after the capitalist collapse.

This shouldn't make us despair. It should make us want to get out, educate, agitate, and organize, preferably in living examples of anarchism through community projects and other things to meet needs without reliance on the capitalist economy or state intervention.

[Ben Chaser]

One thing an economic collapse produces is lots of pissed off workers. If we're not interested in taking over the state, and I am not, then what we can do is help these workers build alternatives in their communities, which includes producing food on reclaimed land, building or taking over housing, and arranging non-hierarchical consensus based groups for decision making, maintaining a small scale so that domination doesn't re-emerge. I'm interested in some libertarian ideas, such as competing currencies, partly because there are more libertarians than anarchists and it would be helpful to appeal to them. If the state is weakened by economic collapse they won't have the energy to shut projects like this down. I feel like now is the time to at least set the groundwork, and this is what I'm doing in Kansas City. It won't look like Russia, China or Spain. It will be better, and we will win.

[cyu]

If so, how would we go about bringing this revolution? Would it be through the ballot box or the bullet? Or both?



The ballot, protected by the bullet. Armed union members assuming democratic control of their corporations, ready to defend themselves and the employees of other democratic companies from pro-capitalist thugs when necessary.