Realistic unity for us to organize

[Leftsolidarity]

Before you read this I just want you to note that I am not saying that we need to pretend like we are some big happy family that always agrees or anything like that. This is to be realistic while improving our faults.

We as Leftists have a common enemy and very similar goals. Our enemy is capitalism and our goals involve the liberation of society from the capitalist state and capitalism in general. Yet, many here seem to think that our enemy is the ones of some other tendency. People will attack Trotskyists or Stalinists or Maoists or Anarchists, etc., etc.

While we do all disagree in some minor and, to some, major ways we all do in actuallity end up on the same side. If you think about it RevLeft has an amazing capability to mobilize Leftists, spread news, and form new ideas. Yet, this is not what I see and it seems like such an incredible waste.

I propose that we (at least in this thread) put aside the differences between our different tendencies and save those arguments for a different place and a different time. I think RevLeft needs to become more of a force for positive momentum in the Leftist movement and a place for all of us to organize together rather than just a place where everyone comes to ***** at another comrade just because they are of a different tendency.

I think we need to ACTUALLY start to organize with each other. Other websites are able to organize people for their pointless things so why can't we work to organize ourselves to work towards something we all care about? I'm not talking about anything huge here but it needs to start happening sometime and we might as well start now. I'd like to hear suggestions of what kinds of things are practical and realistic for us to try to do.

[Q]

I'll point to my short blogpost (http://www.revleft.com/vb/blog.php?b=1598) on the subject of unity.

[redarmyleader]

I always wonder to myself whenever anyone talks about unity why they never can say concretely on what basis and for what purpose. So the question is on what basis and for what purpose?

It is worth pointing out that everyone does not have the same goal; people are to be judged not on the basis of how they describe themselves, but on the basis on what they actually are

[Leftsolidarity]

I always wonder to myself whenever anyone talks about unity why they never can say concretely on what basis and for what purpose. So the question is on what basis and for what purpose?

It is worth pointing out that everyone does not have the same goal; people are to be judged not on the basis of how they describe themselves, but on the basis on what they actually are

That is one of the reasons I asked for suggestions.

I personally would like to see it as a way to better organize with other comrades physically and virtually.

[redarmyleader]

You need both a set of principles and some concrete actions that allow you to test people out. For me, anybody that I am joining with in an organization must 1) recognize the need for political independence, 2) recognize the need to deal with the question of racism, and 3) recognize the need to organize youth as the vanguard force that is capable and prepared to build a mass movement.

Right now the defense of public education is an absolutely essential question to organize around because universal public education is the most important, egalitarian, and democratic gain of the American working class in the last century. I think anybody worth anything ought to be doing organizing on this question.

Sorry for the briefness of this. I will try to spell my thoughts out more on my blog here on revleft.

[Leftsolidarity]

You need both a set of principles and some concrete actions that allow you to test people out. For me, anybody that I am joining with in an organization must 1) recognize the need for political independence, 2) recognize the need to deal with the question of racism, and 3) recognize the need to organize youth as the vanguard force that is capable and prepared to build a mass movement.


I think you might have misunderstood me. I'm not asking to form anything offical since I am already in the SPUSA. I was thinking of something more along the lines of a Black Bloc (not with the whole "let's go smash some windows and say we attacked the capitalist state" stuff though) as an organization example.


Right now the defense of public education is an absolutely essential question to organize around because universal public education is the most important, egalitarian, and democratic gain of the American working class in the last century. I think anybody worth anything ought to be doing organizing on this question.


I completely agree. What do you think would be a good way to convey the importance to other people?

[Fopeos]

I believe we can unite in struggle even if we don't agree in theory. In other words, organize a union in your workplace. March with workers who are on strike. Join in protests against things we all disagree with. Participating in common struggles will open opportunities for us to share our politics with eachother and more importantly, with the uninitiated.

[redarmyleader]

Thanks for the clarification on the question of organization leftsolidarity. Though these three things are essential in building a movement to defend universal education. For example, II oppose all efforts to deal with the attack on public education strickly from an economical view and refuse to deal with the further segregation and inequality that is the result of the assualt on public education. I will spell this out some more later though.

What is happening in Detroit is a great example. We were even able to do an occupation of a high school, and a walk out from another one that have been really dynamic. www.bamn.com (http://www.bamn.com) is where you can find out about that.

[Leftsolidarity]

[QUOTE=redarmyleader;2139764]
What is happening in Detroit is a great example. We were even able to do an occupation of a high school, and a walk out from another one that have been really dynamic. [QUOTE]

Walk-outs are cool. 2 years ago all the highschools in my city were doing walk-outs but our school ending up rioting instead and they had to bring a shit load of police in, that was fun.:lol: haha

I don't know if you have done this already of not but I think it would be worth a shot to try to get the others on RevLeft who live in Michigan to get something done.

[Ocean Seal]

The basis of unity should come from the necessity of the struggle. The struggle has not reached a point where we can successfully say that we are a threat to the state in any aspect. We need to organize and defend against the historical revisionism of the capitalists. In order to do this we have to uphold the achievements of all existing socialist or "state-capitalist" regimes--but at the same offer a reasonable critic of them. Those who believe that a certain regime is state capitalist should list the positives of it, and then state why they believe that it was state capitalist. In addition we need to work together to take back several terms.

Anarchism
Socialism
Communism

Are the core three.
Lastly we should dispel the myths about the left.

Stalin and Hitler were the same thing.

* I don't care what you think about Stalin, but if you hear this and do nothing, you're not doing the revolution a favor.

Anarchy is lawlessness and disorder

* Stop: Authoritarians it is your responsibility to give a legitimate definition of anarchy

Lenin killed so many people and made the USSR poor. Look at how much poorer the USSR was than the United States. Nothing socialism has made has ever been good.

* Left-Comms, don't just say we'll they were both capitalist. No one knows what you're talking about. The USSR was a pre-industrial society which improved greatly in a very short period of time, to become a rival of the US. " Its peasantry were exploited". Tell me in what country were the peasantry not extremely exploited? Why didn't those countries develop. (I think that Trotsky put forth an argument similar to this in A Revolution Betrayed).

All socialism is authoritarian
Talk about the anti-authoritarian revolutions in Catalonia, the BSR, and so on. And state their positives and their accomplishments and how most of them were shut down by hostile powers outside the nation.

[wunderbar]

If there's any Reddit users interested in discussing issues of left-unity, there's the group r/alltheleft (http://www.reddit.com/r/alltheleft/). Keep in mind that this group also allows various social democrats (such as Greens and Progressives) to participate, but from what I've seen there, the anti-capitalists outnumber the reform-capitalists.