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Rodrigo
4th October 2011, 16:59
ATTENTION: This thread was opened for debate purposes! I'm not for Third-Worldism!

Thanks to those who understood.




Our wages are down.

This is a half-truth about male American workers of the last 30 years. It excludes benefits which have exploded thanks to the increased U.$. sponging off the rest of the world.

They're stealing our jobs.

Quite, the contrary, you are stealing the jobs of Indians, Chinese, Mexicans, Brazilians etc. in financial services, law, real estate etc. It's no secret that under capitalism it takes capital to hire people and your country robs indigenous people of land, robbed Blacks of labor, robs Arabs of oil, robs Chileans of copper and robs the whole Third World today by paying low wages. Not surprisingly the countries ruined by imperialism have fewer good jobs because your country robbed them.
Your competitive urge on this question is what leads you to racism, national chauvinism and war--and then you wonder why there is "terrorism." Under socialism everyone is guaranteed a job anyway.

Ditto the question of declining family pay. It neglects that per person pay has increased in the united $tates in real terms while average family size has declined. In other words, it's an arithmetic trick.

Their wages are lower, because their cost of living is lower.

See our article on international living standard comparisons in 2005 (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/contemp/whitemyths/internationalprices2005.pdf) This myth is how the big and small exploiters make themselves comfortable with the knowledge that Third World workers average 50 cents an hour in pay. It is a statement that bears no relationship to the facts. In all countries, some goods are cheaper than in other countries. Overall, to live the same living standard there is not much difference among the world's countries--certainly nothing that would justify that kind of gap in wages.
Price data shows that the cost of living in Seoul--the largest city of southern Korea with 10 million people --is 24 percent higher than that in New York City. The difference is not affected by the dollar's exchange rate, because the Korean currency is more or less fixed by the government in proportion to the U.S. dollar. Other cities that are more expensive than New York to live in but with lower wages include Brazzaville, Congo; Taipei,China; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Singapore; Douala, Cameroon; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal; Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Amman, Jordan; Jakarta, Indonesia; Cairo, Egypt and Montevideo, Uruguay. Tied with New York in cost of living are Bangkok, Thailand and Lima, Peru. Only 12 cities out of 125 surveyed have costs of living less than 80 percent of that in New York. Bombay and New Delhi, India are the most important of these, ranking in at 76 percent of New York City costs. Another three cities in that category are from Canada, which is an indication that the difference in costs of living internationally is not radical.
MIM Notes citing Source: USA Today International Edition 9June1995, p. 2a.

They earn less, because they don't work as hard or aren't as smart.

There is no factual proof of this. Bourgeois studies of international labor productivity do not back this assumption of the racists and national chauvinists.
MIM handles the productivity comparison globally in this book as well. (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/contemp/mt/imp97/index.html)

It's politically unwise to offend the American workers by calling them exploiters.

Imagine what they would have said before the U.S. Civil War, because fewer than 10% of whites wanted to give Blacks the right to vote and otherwise treat them equally at that time: "Of course we cannot give Blacks the right to vote" they would have said, because it would be politically unwise.
These supposedly tactically shrewd people have given up the goal of fighting exploitation and for human harmony. We should let bourgeois politicians say things like that. We need a movement to get things done.
See also, Why don't you tone it down? (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/contemp/faq/tone.html)

You should support the economic demands of the majority.

This argument is very similar to the one above. In 1860, their program in the South would have been to support the Southern battle against tariffs and to side with the small slave-owners against the big ones. We can just see the Ralph Nader of that day running around campaigning with the slave-owners of 10 or fewer slaves, the same way he is campaigning for small and medium-sized corporations today. Simultaneously he would be assuring non-slave-owner consumers of slave-produced commodities that he would either not change the system or find other slaves to keep the prices down. It begs the question: where would you stand if the minority happened to be slaves.
There was no progressive way to stand up for the economic demands of small slave-owners or consumers of slave-produced commodities in the 1800s and there is no progressive way to stand up for the demands of small exploiters today. Before getting stuck on this question, people should ask themselves what they wish they would have done had they lived in 1860.
MIM does stand for the economic demands of the majority, the 90% of the world. We have to understand what a small fraction of the world the American, Japanese and EU petty-bourgeoisie is. (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/imperialistpopulation.html)
See our response to a letter advising alliance with the petty-bourgeoisie in America (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/contemp/whitemyths/pballiance.html)

Most Amerikans live at subsistence level.

Contrary to the myth that most Americans are getting poorer, in fact, most are living in ever greater luxury obtained from pillaging the Third World.
Let's quote some facts about U.$. conditions and those in official poverty: "For example, the average person in 1970 had 478 square feet of house space. In the mid-1990s the figure was 814. Color TV went from 34% ownership to 97.9% ownership.(p. 7) Going to college went from 25.4% of high school graduates in 1970 to 60% in 1996.(p. 56)
"In 1971, 31.8% of all households had air- conditioners. In 1994, 49.6% of households below the poverty-line had air-conditioners.(pp. 14-5) The poor also do better than 1971 U.S. households in clothes dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, VCRs and Personal Computers. That is not comparing the poor of now with the poor of the past. We are comparing the poor of now with all households of 1971 and the poor of now are better off."
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bookstore/books/ capital/cox.html

Americanconsumer debt is piling up.

Under capitalism, debt is actually a sign of the ability to pay as recognized by banks. Wealthier people have more debts. What is important is the net worth and physical standard of living. Even if credit card companies do make more money than ever, it does not prove anything unless the physical living standard, consumption of actual commodities declines and there is no proof of that.
Anxieties concerning debt are real, but most such concerns are bourgeois anxieties, the same ones Donald Trump has to have. Third World debts are smaller relatively speaking, but have a real effect on real proletarians.

Most American workers do not own the means of production.

The fact is that American workers own monopoly capitalist companies in airlines, groceries, car rental and many other industries--outright.
That is not including via pension funds.
Nor is that counting what happens in bankruptcy court where we find out who owned the company all along--again, often the "workers."
Finally, we have to learn to recognize that net worth is means of production, in which home equity and pension funds have to be counted. Many capitalist investors also do not own literal means of production. They have millions in cash or certificates of deposit. It means they have access to the means of production and this is something small exploiters also have. Many have sufficient access to the means of production to be able to hire hundreds of Indian workers on their credit cards.
Others such as the contractors in Iraq gain access to the means of production strictly through their political alliance with the imperialists and this is what allows them to appropriate Third World labor and natural resources time and time again. It's about time Marxists accounted for it. In the end the real proof of the ownership of the means of production in a political world with various forms of business partnership and an expanding repertoire of investment forms is the ability to appropriate labor and the small exploiters that constitute the U.$., British, French, Swiss, Belgian, Dutch, German, Italian and Japanese majority do have that ability.
The big exploiters are much bigger than the small exploiters, but the big exploiters do not rake in enough profits in a year for there to be any exploitation of the people MIM is calling small exploiters. For example, $500 billion a year in profits is too small compared with salaries and exploitation of the Third World to be stemming from exploitation of U.$. "workers."

Pilots own 25% of imperialist United Airlines (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/mn218/air.txt)
List of employee-owned companies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_employee-owned_companies)
Getting a realistic grip on the assets of the richest people in America (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/mn210/wsj.txt)

Your argument is too nationalist or race-oriented.

There are two parts to this argument: 1) We are benefiting the oppressed nation bourgeoisie. 2) We fail to see the humanist aspects of Marxism that allow even imperialist country whites to play a role.
We would point out that the white nationalist parties calling themselves Marxist-Leninist are usually good at sniffing out the Third World bourgeoisie, but not so good at sniffing out the imperialist country labor aristocracy bourgeoisie, the more numerous petty-bourgeoisie. The ultimate reason for this is an economically warped view of the world that does not account for the fact that the English minimum wage worker is in the top 10% of the world by income. (See our discussion of this of how the imperialist country workers are the global elite, the petty-bourgeoisie. (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/imperialistpopulation.html))
What is more, the Third World bourgeoisie may have a progressive role to play in some agrarian contexts. The labor aristocracy has no historically progressive role to play, for the same reason that small slave-owners did not have a progressive economic role in the Civil War.
Bourgeois humanism has always given the exploiters breathing room. It's no different in the case of the imperialist country exploiters known as labor aristocracy.

You are the first to say this line is Marxist: you're actually an anti-white hate group.

In MIM's experience, much of the resistance to its line is white hysteria--an emotion based in no real reading or listening. White hysteria also infects some people of color seeking to conform to American culture.
Before MIM, there was the Black Panther Party, again targeted as some novel anti-white group instead of the 1960s Marxist-Leninist-Maoists. Going back and reading BPP critics or watching television news interviews from the 1960s, white hysteria is plain.
Before the BPP, contrary to almost all of MIM's critics, Lenin ordered that the line be there is a Black nation in the united $tates. Then Stalin specifically ordered that we oppose the white nation, white chauvinism and white imperialism. It is NOT MIM introducing any of that for the first time. People saying so reveal that they practice white worker identity politics.
Not only Stalin ordered the specific usage of the terms "white chauvinism" and "white oppressor nation" in connection to super-profits and the labor aristocracy. Others in the Comintern did the same thing. One named Pepper proposed the MIM line in its entirety long before World War II! Pepper ended up writing important official papers on the Black nation. Here is one from the Comintern-backed Communist Party of the United $tates in 1928 using ALL the language MIM subsequently used. (http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:AYRhToRVXKYJ:www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/cpusa/1928/nomonth/0000-pepper-negroproblems.pdf+Pepper+Negro+site:www.marxists.o rg&hl=en)
In actuality, the MIM line is resuscitated language and line that existed in the 1920s and 1930s applied to today's conditions. The only difference is that whereas Pepper tried to pass a line and failed, MIM has adopted the line on the labor aristocracy all the way, with confidence thanks to the change in conditions since then. Because white exploiters dominate even Marxist language today in the united $tates few people know this. Those that insist MIM made up all the talk of white chauvinism and the white oppressor nation are hysterical chauvinists. If you are talking to such a person, you have a pretty good indication that you are wasting your time: chances are good that customary oppressor usage of Marxist terms is all that the people stuck in white hysteria can understand, because it conforms to a fantasy of a white proletariat that has not existed for decades.

Why would the capitalists buy off the labor aristocracy instead of making more profit?

What portion of the world is some kind of bourgeoisie, petty or capitalist is not up to the individual exploiter. People who think in these terms don't understand that classes are society-wide. In a sense, competitive capitalists all wish there were no other exploiters, but they never get their way. MIM did not make that up and the concept of labor aristocracy did not either. Before there was any discussion of super-profits and labor aristocracy, each individual bourgeois had to work with other members of their class and form business partnerships. Not even Bill Gates can get around that. So this is really the same thing as asking why there is more than one capitalist in the world. It's an attempt to vulgarize the question to the individual level when obviously the answer is not at that level.

Why are strikes and violently repressed strikes declining in imperialist countries?

See our article on the all-time low for strikes in the united $tates (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/mn225/strike.txt)
See our article on strikes in England (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/countries/england/englishproledead.html)

Where in history has there ever been a revolution by a population of a majority unproductive sector workers?

Why did German so-called workers fail to revolt when Hitler's army was smashed?

See our article on Germany in World War II and its aftermath (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/countries/germany/imperialismoverthrown.html)

Why did all the French rebels pass on seizing power when there was a physical chance for revolution when the government abdicated in 1968?

See our article on Paris, 1968 (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mt/mt8french.html)

Study materials:

J. Sakai, Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat
See a book that historically preceded the MIM line by H.W. Edwards titled Labor Aristocracy: Mass Base of Social-Democracy (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/contemp/whitemyths/edwards/index.html)
See Imperialism and Its Class Structure in 1997 (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mt/imp97/index.html)

RED DAVE
4th October 2011, 17:06
Just for openers:


Our wages are down.

This is a half-truth about male Amerikan workers of the last 30 years. It excludes benefits which have exploded thanks to the increased U.$. sponging off the rest of the world.This is not true. Real wages in the USA are about at the level of 1964, having peaked in the 1970s. Benefits are declining.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Real_Wages_1964-2004.gif

Stop posting shit.

RED DAVE

Seth
4th October 2011, 17:08
Among other things, when they spell America as 'Amerika' it becomes really hard to take them seriously or even push on to the next sentence.

Ocean Seal
4th October 2011, 17:14
It's politically unwise to offend the Amerikan workers by calling them exploiters.
Imagine what they would have said before the U.S. Civil War, because fewer than 10% of whites wanted to give Blacks the right to vote and otherwise treat them equally at that time: "Of course we cannot give Blacks the right to vote" they would have said, because it would be politically unwise.
These supposedly tactically shrewd people have given up the goal of fighting exploitation and for human harmony. We should let bourgeois politicians say things like that. We need a movement to get things done.
See also, Why don't you tone it down? (http://www.anonym.to/?http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/contemp/faq/tone.html)

This portion of the argument is devoid of sense. Its not that back in the 1800's we should have been against giving blacks the vote because it was unpopular, because by all reason we should always support expanding equal suffrage. No, but it would still be innacurate to call the vast majority of white exploiters, even if they did support a system of extreme exploitation and had a good degree of privilege. Because exploitation, in Marxist terms, has a very specific definition whites back in the 1800's (the majority) didn't benefit from slavery although they were not as equally harmed as the blacks. Today first world workers aren't as harmed by imperialism as are third world workers. But we still support the liberation of first world workers while supporting the overthrow of imperialism. Much like we would have supported white workers in the South all the while championing the overthrow of slavery and full equal rights for blacks.

Also do you uphold third-worldist views?

Ryan the Commie Girl
4th October 2011, 17:40
MIM, MTW, LLCO etc. is Revisionist bullshit for self loathing trust fund babies.

graymouser
4th October 2011, 17:53
MIM, MTW, LLCO etc. is Revisionist bullshit for self loathing trust fund babies.
Yeah, that pretty much summarizes the entire Maoist Third-Worldist trend: these are people who are privileged and feel guilty about it, write that privilege back over the working class, and slander all of them in unison.

Apoi_Viitor
4th October 2011, 18:05
Hopefully this means Rodrigo will get restricted.

EvilRedGuy
4th October 2011, 18:12
^I hope so.

mosfeld
4th October 2011, 18:31
Yeah man what's up with this crazy Brazilian. Please, great anarcho-trotskyite moderators, send him to the dungeons immediately! I want nothing to do with him -- I mean it seriously hurts for us white boy liberals to hear from third world people anything that shatters our petty-bourgeois worldview (that's why red cat had to go), like that we're the most privileged social group on the planet, that we will not get to be condescending saviors in this great revolution on the horizon, that socialism will primarily benefit other social groups.. Restrict him! Immediately!

Ryan the Commie Girl
4th October 2011, 18:38
I'm not for anyone being restricted unless they are an ought and ought troll. If someone posts some total crap (MTW, LLCO, MIM etc.) then they should be prepared to defend their position or learn the truth and change. Simple enough.

Per Levy
4th October 2011, 18:41
I mean it seriously hurts for us white boy liberals to hear from third world people anything that shatters our petty-bourgeois worldview like that we're the most privileged social group on the planet, that we will not get to be condescending saviors in this great revolution on the horizon or that socialism will primarily benefit other social groupsah ok, so american workers are now the most privileged social group on the planet. and what other social groups do you mean exactly? i always thought socialism would be good for the workers, as it seems american workers and first world workers in general dont count as workers in your and rodrigos logic.


(that's why prana and red cat had to go)red cat left on his own, he didnt got banned or restricted to my knowledge at least.

RED DAVE
4th October 2011, 18:55
Yeah man what's up with this crazy Brazilian. Please, great anarcho-trotskyite moderators, send him to the dungeons immediately! I want nothing to do with him -- I mean it seriously hurts for us white boy liberals to hear from third world people anything that shatters our petty-bourgeois worldview (that's why red cat had to go), like that we're the most privileged social group on the planet, that we will not get to be condescending saviors in this great revolution on the horizon, that socialism will primarily benefit other social groups.. Restrict him! Immediately!red cat left, you lying motherfucker, because he justified the rape of German women by the Red Army. He would have been restricted or banned if he hadn't left.

RED DAVE

Per Levy
4th October 2011, 18:55
Contrary to the myth that most Amerikans are getting poorer, in fact, most are living in ever greater luxury obtained from pillaging the Third World.
Let's quote some facts about U.$. conditions and those in official poverty: "For example, the average person in 1970 had 478 square feet of house space. In the mid-1990s the figure was 814. Color TV went from 34% ownership to 97.9% ownership.(p. 7) Going to college went from 25.4% of high school graduates in 1970 to 60% in 1996.(p. 56)
"In 1971, 31.8% of all households had air- conditioners. In 1994, 49.6% of households below the poverty-line had air-conditioners.(pp. 14-5) The poor also do better than 1971 U.S. households in clothes dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, VCRs and Personal Computers. That is not comparing the poor of now with the poor of the past. We are comparing the poor of now with all households of 1971 and the poor of now are better off."

so much bullshit here, i mean its not like "clothes dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, VCRs and Personal Computers" are now much cheaper then 40 years ago(heck who did have a computer in 1971 anyway). also tell that to the homeless population of the usa, they'll be glad to hear they have it so good.


Anxieties concerning debt are real, but most such concerns are bourgeois anxieties, the same ones Donald Trump has to have. Third World debts are smaller relatively speaking, but have a real effect on real proletarians.

so debt has no real effect on american workers? i mean when they loose their home because they're bank forces them to do so, its not a "real effect" on their lifes. also, "real proleatians" classy.


What is more, the Third World bourgeoisie may have a progressive role to play in some agrarian contexts.

class collaboration, wonderful that will bring socialism.


The fact is that Amerikan workers own monopoly capitalist companies in airlines, groceries, car rental and many other industries--outright.

oh do they now, i didnt know that my fiance who had back in the day 3 jobs in order to survive actually owned the buisnesses she worked for.

this whole article is nothing else then a huge pile of shit.

Rodrigo
4th October 2011, 20:41
I saw "12 replies" and thought "cool, let's see what people are debating", when I see a load of stupid commentaries just because it's from MIM (or a topic opened by me). As mosfeld mentioned, it shatters your petty-bourgeois worldview, so you all got angered.

Did I say I agree with everything in this text? And if I did agree, would it be reason to restrict me? When people talk shit like RED DAVE: "you lying motherfucker", or Stammer And Tickle in another thread "fuck you Maoist motherfuckers", no one asks for restriction! But if a "Stalinist" JUST SHARE INFORMATION: OMG RESTRICT! OMG BAN!


STOP BEING HYPOCRITE!

Tim Cornelis
4th October 2011, 20:58
According to you the American working class is petite-bourgeois because they have higher and increasing wages? (The latter being false by the way).

A few questions, is Russia collectively exploiting the third world like you claim the US is?
How about Botswana? Or Brazil exploiting Africa?

Why not? Surely, much of the Brazilian population lives off of resources from Africa?

graymouser
4th October 2011, 20:59
Because it has half a fucking brain, this site does not consider Maoism-Third Worldism to be an actual revolutionary current. MIM and all the leftover bits of MTW are anti-Marxist in their analysis, which holds the workers of the core countries responsible for the crimes of the imperialist masters whose crumbs they are lucky at best to receive. This is an anti-revolutionary line which says at best that white people can be cheerleaders for third world revolutionaries.

If you're not an MTW you should be opposing this shit, it's not exposing any petty bourgeois tendencies, it's angering workers because you are lumping them in with the very imperialists that we hate and fight against.

black magick hustla
4th October 2011, 21:01
great anarcho-trotskyite moderators

neat trick, where did u learn that?

redcat wrote in perfect english and posted in the internet so tone down your praises whiteboy, he wasn't a miserable peasant in the red corridor, and he had some pretty disturbing views on violence in general and i wouldn't be surprised if he had some personality disorders. not all people from the third world are raging violent machines of death you know, actually most people in the third world consider those people sociopaths or insane, but what would some motherfucker from iceland that lives vicariously through third world violence would know about it?

tir1944
4th October 2011, 21:01
MTW/LLCO,amirite?

Rooster
4th October 2011, 21:07
And if I did agree, would it be reason to restrict me?

Yeah, maoist third worldists aren't allowed.

thriller
4th October 2011, 21:11
[B]

This portion of the argument is devoid of sense. Its not that back in the 1800's we should have been against giving blacks the vote because it was unpopular, because by all reason we should always support expanding equal suffrage. No, but it would still be innacurate to call the vast majority of white exploiters, even if they did support a system of extreme exploitation and had a good degree of privilege. Because exploitation, in Marxist terms, has a very specific definition whites back in the 1800's (the majority) didn't benefit from slavery although they were not as equally harmed as the blacks. Today first world workers aren't as harmed by imperialism as are third world workers. But we still support the liberation of first world workers while supporting the overthrow of imperialism. Much like we would have supported white workers in the South all the while championing the overthrow of slavery and full equal rights for blacks.

Also do you uphold third-worldist views?

^This and...
The fact that black slaves were in the same geographical area as white workers suppressed wages even further because slavery was an option for the capital owning class. Not to say white workers were AS harmed as black slaves, but they were hurt by it on another level.

WeAreReborn
4th October 2011, 21:17
As mosfeld mentioned, it shatters your petty-bourgeois worldview, so you all got angered.
Nope, the reason isn't that we are petty-bourgeois, which you would know if you were an actual Marxist. The reason is that you promote a view that alienates a large portion of the world based upon non-Marxist analysis of classes.


When people talk shit like RED DAVE: "you lying motherfucker"
If you actually read Red Dave's post, the reason he said that was because he felt mosfield was being intentionally dishonest to prove a point.

Stammer And Tickle in another thread "fuck you Maoist motherfuckers"
So? There is plenty of sectarian hate. Look at how much shit every other tendency gets.

Rodrigo
4th October 2011, 21:34
Benefits declining:



Real Wages and Productivity in USA, 1890-2009, Source: Richard D. Wolff, In Capitalist Crisis, Rediscovering Marx (http://www.rdwolff.com/content/capitalist-crisis-rediscovering-marx)


http://www.rdwolff.com/sites/default/files/images/Productivity%20vs%20Real%20wage%20%28chinese%20art icle%29.jpg



http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/images/minimum_wage_usa_1954_on_5KB.gif


http://www.fusioninvesting.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/usa-unemployment-vs-interest-rates.png


http://www.istockanalyst.com/images/articles/poverty2010935656.jpg

Rodrigo
4th October 2011, 21:50
No, but it would still be innacurate to call the vast majority of white exploiters, even if they did support a system of extreme exploitation and had a good degree of privilege.

I agree. The white and privileged portion of the working class is still proletarian, under the command of employers, selling their labor et al. But we have to agree it's harder to convince them about the fairness of communism.


Also do you uphold third-worldist views?

No.

Ryan the Commie Girl
4th October 2011, 21:53
Because it has half a fucking brain, this site does not consider Maoism-Third Worldism to be an actual revolutionary current. MIM and all the leftover bits of MTW are anti-Marxist in their analysis, which holds the workers of the core countries responsible for the crimes of the imperialist masters whose crumbs they are lucky at best to receive. This is an anti-revolutionary line which says at best that white people can be cheerleaders for third world revolutionaries.

If you're not an MTW you should be opposing this shit, it's not exposing any petty bourgeois tendencies, it's angering workers because you are lumping them in with the very imperialists that we hate and fight against.

That's an epic post. I've been in the trenches against LLCO culties on FB for months now. You're post captured perfectly why the MTW's must be exposed.

Rodrigo
4th October 2011, 21:56
Nope, the reason isn't that we are petty-bourgeois

More than 90% here is petty-bourgeois. Get over it.


The reason is that you promote a view that alienates a large portion of the world based upon non-Marxist analysis of classes.

Did you actually read in my post that MY views are not the article writer's views? -.-'


If you actually read Red Dave's post, the reason he said that was because he felt mosfield was being intentionally dishonest to prove a point.

So I can call anyone I feel it's being "intentionally dishonest" a lying motherfucker? No, of course I can't, but because I'm Maoist. If I weren't it wouldn't be so serious, right?


So? There is plenty of sectarian hate. Look at how much shit every other tendency gets.

It was just to make clear how hypocrite a lot of RevLeft members are. :)

Rooster
4th October 2011, 21:57
Benefits declining:



Real Wages and Productivity in USA, 1890-2009, Source: Richard D. Wolff, In Capitalist Crisis, Rediscovering Marx (http://www.rdwolff.com/content/capitalist-crisis-rediscovering-marx)


http://www.rdwolff.com/sites/default/files/images/Productivity%20vs%20Real%20wage%20%28chinese%20art icle%29.jpg



http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/images/minimum_wage_usa_1954_on_5KB.gif


http://www.fusioninvesting.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/usa-unemployment-vs-interest-rates.png


http://www.istockanalyst.com/images/articles/poverty2010935656.jpg

What point are you making? That people in the the US are getting poorer and that more of them are becoming unemployed? :confused:

#FF0000
4th October 2011, 21:59
petty-bourgeois

define this real quick because uh i don't think this is true

Rodrigo
4th October 2011, 22:06
Yeah, maoist third worldists aren't allowed.

So Trotskyites also shouldn't be allowed to, since they're as counter-revolutionary, anti-Marxist, petty-bourgeois, etc. as MTW. :)


According to ...

MIM. Not me.


If you're not an MTW you should be opposing this shit

Read again.




People here are very angry without reason. You should drink some passion fruit... :)

Tim Cornelis
4th October 2011, 22:08
More than 90% here is petty-bourgeois. Get over it.

As far as I know not one revleft user advocates small privately owned businesses competing in a market economy. The fact that you argue 90% of the revleft base is petite-bourgeois suggests you have no clue what "petite-bourgeois" means.


So Trotskyites also shouldn't be allowed to, since they're as counter-revolutionary, anti-Marxist, petty-bourgeois, etc. as MTW.

No they're not. Trotskyists advocate a dictatorship of the proletariat along Marxist lines. Verdict: they are Marxists. Leninists, Trotskyists, Luxemburgists, council communists, Maoists, Hoxhaists, and Stalinists are all Marxists of some kind (although some a closer to original Marxist thought than ohters), but Third Worldism rejects internationalism in the sense of international solidarity of workers world wide, is devoid of actual class analysis, and reject the labour theory of value*. Third Worldism has no place on the revolutionary left along side Trotskyists, Marxists, and anarchists.

*rejecting the LTV itself is not bad an sich, but it certainly isn't Marxist.

Rooster
4th October 2011, 22:10
MIM. Not me.

Yeah but, why did you post an article for MTW without comment? Normally that means you support the article, ceart?

#FF0000
4th October 2011, 22:15
I saw "12 replies" and thought "cool, let's see what people are debating", when I see a load of stupid commentaries just because it's from MIM (or a topic opened by me). As mosfeld mentioned, it shatters your petty-bourgeois worldview, so you all got angered.

Did I say I agree with everything in this text? And if I did agree, would it be reason to restrict me? When people talk shit like RED DAVE: "you lying motherfucker", or Stammer And Tickle in another thread "fuck you Maoist motherfuckers", no one asks for restriction! But if a "Stalinist" JUST SHARE INFORMATION: OMG RESTRICT! OMG BAN!

If you don't agree with everything in the text and just wanted to start a discussion then maybe you should have posted something other than just the article.

ProletarianResurrection
4th October 2011, 22:22
neat trick, where did u learn that?

redcat wrote in perfect english and posted in the internet so tone down your praises whiteboy, he wasn't a miserable peasant in the red corridor, and he had some pretty disturbing views on violence in general and i wouldn't be surprised if he had some personality disorders. not all people from the third world are raging violent machines of death you know, actually most people in the third world consider those people sociopaths or insane, but what would some motherfucker from iceland that lives vicariously through third world violence would know about it?

So did some 19 th and 20 th century anarchists probably by your standards, its the old thing, yes capitalism is horrible but the violence of the oppressed is worse? Catch yourself on, moral superiority wont change the world. Do you know this former poster personally and are you sure of his class background?

#FF0000
4th October 2011, 22:25
So did some 19 th and 20 th century anarchists probably by your standards

they did though and they turned out to be wrong


its the old thing, yes capitalism is horrible but the violence of the oppressed is worse? No one said this and I wouldn't call the violence of the college-educated middle class kid "violence of the oppressed".

black magick hustla
4th October 2011, 22:29
So did some 19 th and 20 th century anarchists probably by your standards, its the old thing, yes capitalism is horrible but the violence of the oppressed is worse? Catch yourself on, moral superiority wont change the world. Do you know this former poster personally and are you sure of his class background?

a lot of the 19th century narodniki types were probably mentally ill, case in point sergey nechayev. i don't care about redcats class background, he was a shitty person in general and i am 100% sure a peasant from the red corridor wouldnt post perfect english posts in an anglocentric, internet forum. invisible unicorns might exist if redcat actually was a holy peasant gun totting warrior. my point is that mosfield was going off about how "us being white middle class" or whatever make us have a petit bourgeois viewpoint, while i am almost certain redcat was the equivalent to that demographic but in brown color.

ProletarianResurrection
4th October 2011, 22:37
No one said this and I wouldn't call the violence of the college-educated middle class kid "violence of the oppressed".

Usually the college and labor aristocracy centric fashionable labels Communists lumpens and peasants, but now we are college educated middle class kids? Yes some of the leadership of revolutionary communist movements as come from kids who managed to get a college education which allowed them to get a broad view of social reality in their countries and so help the masses chained in poverty to awaken. The vast majority of revolutionary communist fighters aka Maoists in the third world dont come from those backgrounds.

ZeroNowhere
4th October 2011, 22:57
Nope, the reason isn't that we are petty-bourgeois, which you would know if you were an actual Marxist.
For 'petty-bourgeois' read 'pussy'. It's more clear without the euphemism.

Rodrigo
5th October 2011, 00:30
As far as I know not one revleft user advocates small privately owned businesses competing in a market economy. The fact that you argue 90% of the revleft base is petite-bourgeois suggests you have no clue what "petite-bourgeois" means.

Yes, I have a clue. The social origin of most people here in RevLeft is petty-bourgeois, they don't need to "advocate privately owned businesses etc" to be considered as such.

The understanding of Trotskyism as representing the influence of the petty bourgeoisie on certain elements of the proletariat and of the Communist Party was repeatedly expressed in the resolutions of the Congresses of the CPSU, specially the XIII (1924) and the XV (1927). Trotskyism, like anarchism and "anarcho-Marxism", "libertarian socialism", etc. are petty-bourgeois socialism.


No they're not. Trotskyists advocate a dictatorship of the proletariat along Marxist lines.

I'd complete: ...along Marxist lines and also non-Marxist and revisionist ones, like the pseudo-"permanent revolution", the thing I call "the theory of Stalinism" (or "how Stalin 'fucked up' everything" lol), the elitist view about the peasantry and other opportunistic lines... Just like Third-Worldism: they say they support the PPW and Maoism, but... They think Palestinians aren't Third World. They think that communists in India, Philippines and Nepal are revisionist, crypto-Trotskyist CIA agents and First Worldists. LOL


Yeah but, why did you post an article for MTW without comment?

My mistake, sorry.

Vladimir Innit Lenin
5th October 2011, 00:37
The OP doesn't understand what petty-bourgeois is, and what defines someone as either proletarian, petty-bourgeois or bourgeois.

Vladimir Innit Lenin
5th October 2011, 00:38
Also, OP, why are you spelling America with a 'k'? Are you some sort of MTW racist? I find it offensive. If you don't change the spelling, i'll report you.

Rodrigo
5th October 2011, 03:39
Also, OP, why are you spelling America with a 'k'? Are you some sort of MTW racist? I find it offensive. If you don't change the spelling, i'll report you.

I changed, though I didn't write the first post myself. Happy?

S.Artesian
5th October 2011, 06:05
^This and...
The fact that black slaves were in the same geographical area as white workers suppressed wages even further because slavery was an option for the capital owning class. Not to say white workers were AS harmed as black slaves, but they were hurt by it on another level.

Huh? Do you have any evidence for that-- particularly since the whole conflict in US history revolves around the Northern free soil farmers, and free labor advocates mobilizing to prevent the spread of slavery into the new territories where industrialization was hardly dominant.

Like... ever hear of the Maine-Missouri Compromise? Bloody Kansas? The Kansas-Nebraska Act? And the turmoil associated with these?

In what states or territories were white worker wages suppressed by competition by slaveholders using slave labor?

That's just historical fact. Your take on it is wrong.


Doesn't mean white workers benefited from slavery. That take is just as unsupported by any data. But it does mean that there is a different historical development to the white working class as compared to the black working class; that racism is real enough but its explanation is certainly not in the ignorant fantasy that says wealth extracted from African-American slaves, and following emancipation, rural tenants/sharecroppers was used to "bribe" the entire white working class.

Racism on the part of "native-born" white workers is hardly confined to black workers, or Spanish workers.

If for example if you look at the development of organized labor in California, you find that organization is inseparable from the mobilization of the white artisans, petit-bourgeois and workers against the Chinese workers who were considered to be a threat to the economic security of the whites. It was not a case of "super profits" extracted from the Chinese being used to buy labor peace with the whites.

The issue is much more complex than that simple-minded parroting of the weakest aspects of Lenin's Imperialism.

Os Cangaceiros
5th October 2011, 06:27
I'd like to drive a few MTWists down to my town's local trailer court and watch them try and convince some of the residents there of their privilege and position in the "labor aristocracy". :thumbup1:

Tim Cornelis
5th October 2011, 16:23
Yes, I have a clue. The social origin of most people here in RevLeft is petty-bourgeois, they don't need to "advocate privately owned businesses etc" to be considered as such.

Apparently you know the background of all revleft users? Because someone was born into a particular class it means their politics is necessarily the same? Marx was born into a petite-bourgeois family and Engels was an industrialist, a member of the haute-bourgeoisie. Using your logic I can only conclude that Marxism is bourgeois. It also means anarcho-communism is actually aristocratic (after all: princes becoming anarchists). But that's pretty ridiculous, just like slandering all tendencies you do not agree with "petty bourgeois".

Just because you do not agree with Trotskyism does not mean it's not Marxism. It's a different form of Marxism, built around and on the theories of Marx and Engels.

By the way, 71.43% of revleft were born into a proletarian family: http://www.revleft.com/vb/class-you-born-t161493/index.html

Rodrigo
5th October 2011, 17:39
1. "It excludes benefits"

These benefits exist, because of racism, sexism, etc. but it's not something the worker can choose.


2. "They're stealing our jobs" and answer

This is typically neo-nazi, but if there's "robbery" of jobs, because of nationality, color, gender, etc. it's the employer's fault.


3. The answer to "Their wages are lower, because their cost of living is lower." seems reasonable. What do you think?


4. "There is no factual proof of this."

Correct.


5. It's politically unwise to offend the American workers by calling them exploiters.

In fact, it is.


6. You should support the economic demands of the majority.

Of course we shouldn't support demands just because it's majoritarian; they might be biased by manipulation of the ruling class. But the guy got a point: "Where would you stand if the minority happened to be slave?" And that's why we need to always make class analysis.


7. "Contrary to the myth that most Americans are getting poorer, in fact, most are living in ever greater luxury obtained from pillaging the Third World."

No class analysis. It simply put "Americans" in "the same bag", with no differentiation between the poor American working class, the middle-class American workers, the American petty-bourgeoisie, the American bourgeoisie, the American landlords and the poor American peasants.


8. "Anxieties concerning debt are real, but most such concerns are bourgeois anxieties, the same ones Donald Trump has to have. Third World debts are smaller relatively speaking, but have a real effect on real proletarians."

What's wrong with these assertions?


9. "The fact is that American workers own monopoly capitalist companies in airlines, groceries, car rental and many other industries--outright. ETC"

I didn't like this article, the guy doesn't explain things very well. What percentage of Americans?

Here's what I think of that... In USA there's the ideology of the American Dream, the cult of the entrepreneur and its "economic freedom"; it's propaganda made up by the American bourgeoisie to corrupt the working class; they wouldn't lose much with workers turning into bourgeois (not that it's happening in a big quantity - I don't have the info for that), since economic exploitation in another countries is wide and their profit is guaranteed, at least while the spoliated countries continue to be USA-bootlickers.


10. "The labor aristocracy has no historically progressive role to play"

Of course the unconscious workers wouldn't have a progressive role, but that can be changed since they're workers.


11. "In MIM's experience, much of the resistance to its line is white hysteria"

Sorry, but that's just what we saw on this topic. But MTW, by the way, is also non-white hysteria.

Rodrigo
5th October 2011, 17:43
By the way, 71.43% of revleft were born into a proletarian family: http://www.revleft.com/vb/class-you-born-t161493/index.html

Well, 126 votes and poll closed? Anyway, I'm talking about the nature of their ideology. A non-proletarian can defend a proletarian ideology, and vice versa (so-called proletarians with bourgeois ideology).

Revolutionair
6th October 2011, 00:41
Rodrigo, what does petite-bourgeoisie mean according to you?

Rodrigo
6th October 2011, 01:33
I didn't use the term petty-bourgeois here according to me personally, or someone specifically, but according to its popular usage. It's something not difficult to note...


P.S.: Something I forgot to mention to the people who thought I was MTW: you just had to look at which sub-forum I opened this thread: Discrimination. ;)

CAleftist
6th October 2011, 01:49
"White proletarian myths"?

Did you mean, "white (mostly) bourgeois/petit-bourgeois myths that are embraced by a lot of (again, mostly) white proletarians"?

Something ole Karl said, about the ruling ideas being the ideas of...well, you can finish it I'm sure.

graymouser
6th October 2011, 02:03
The reaction to your presentation of a pile of MTW nonsense was not white hysteria, but reflected the disgust of revolutionaries at the kind of idiocy engaged in by Maoist-Third Worldists. That's an important point, because your accusations are entirely wrong on this.

As you note, MTW simply is not a class analysis. It takes the concept of "labor aristocracy," which is intended to indicate stratification within the working class, and uses it to write off whole layers of workers. It also uses (and this is what is meant by the "ownership" of corporations by workers) pension funds being tied up in stock market speculation to indicate actual meaningful membership in the bourgeoisie, when any worker will tell you exactly how much control he or she has over the companies in their pension fund or their 401(k) - which is precisely, none.

There's really nothing to seriously dig into, and the exercise is not a healthy one as it involves wasting your time dealing with the disingenuous claims of anti-Marxists who are generally not relevant in themselves. If there were a significant third-worldist current, it would be necessary to ideologically defeat them, because their ideas run against organizing the working class for revolution. But there isn't, and as such it's not really a question that needs more than a cursory answer.

Devrim
6th October 2011, 02:24
3. The answer to "Their wages are lower, because their cost of living is lower." seems reasonable. What do you think?

Just to look at one of them, the MIM piece on this is complete nonsense. They wrote:


heir wages are lower, because their cost of living is lower.

See our article on international living standard comparisons in 2005 (http://www.anonym.to/?http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/contemp/whitemyths/internationalprices2005.pdf) This myth is how the big and small exploiters make themselves comfortable with the knowledge that Third World workers average 50 cents an hour in pay. It is a statement that bears no relationship to the facts. In all countries, some goods are cheaper than in other countries. Overall, to live the same living standard there is not much difference among the world's countries--certainly nothing that would justify that kind of gap in wages.
Price data shows that the cost of living in Seoul--the largest city of southern Korea with 10 million people --is 24 percent higher than that in New York City. The difference is not affected by the dollar's exchange rate, because the Korean currency is more or less fixed by the government in proportion to the U.S. dollar. Other cities that are more expensive than New York to live in but with lower wages include Brazzaville, Congo; Taipei,China; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Singapore; Douala, Cameroon; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal; Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Amman, Jordan; Jakarta, Indonesia; Cairo, Egypt and Montevideo, Uruguay. Tied with New York in cost of living are Bangkok, Thailand and Lima, Peru. Only 12 cities out of 125 surveyed have costs of living less than 80 percent of that in New York. Bombay and New Delhi, India are the most important of these, ranking in at 76 percent of New York City costs. Another three cities in that category are from Canada, which is an indication that the difference in costs of living internationally is not radical.
MIM Notes citing Source: USA Today International Edition 9June1995, p. 2a.

Now if you go to the linked article you read this:


International price data released in 2005 continue to show that there is not as much difference in prices between the rich countries and poor countries as stereotype might suggest. Fitting the stereotype, Tokyo (134.7) was the world's most expensive city out of 144 cities surveyed by interests representing multinational corporations placing employees globally.

Now the key thing here is the piece I have put in bold. You can't compare the cost of living for ex-pats working for international corporations and the working class.

According to this article the cost of living in Istanbul Turkey is slightly less than the cost of living in New York (NYC 100:Istanbul 93.8) and higher than that in San Francisco (84.9). This is blatantly untrue. Istanbul is obviously a cheaper place to live than San Francisco.

I used to live in Istanbul (I now live in Ankara, which has similar prices, housing is slightly cheaper, transportation is slightly more expensive), and I have been to Boston and know many people who have been to other places in the States. There is a reason that people come back saying "Ullah, Ullah, it is really expensive".

To give a couple of examples of what prices are really like for ordinary people, I pay $345 a month to rent an three bedroomed apartment in the city. I pay $0.88 to travel anywhere in the city on public transport. I pay $0.32 for a loaf of freshly baked bread. Now I could be wrong, and America could be lots cheaper than I imagine, but just checking on the easiest stat to check, public transport, I see that in New York a single ticket costs $2.25, which is two and a half times more expensive than Ankara, remember Istanbul is cheaper, and in San Francisco it is $2.00 whereas according to MIM's calculations, New York should be slightly more expensive than Ankara (or Istanbul) and San Francisco cheaper.

Clearly something is wrong here.

I suspect if you went through real comparisons of the things that make up the monthly expenditure of working class families you would find them to be very similar. Does anybody on here in New York have a three bedroomed apartment cheaper than mine?

So what is the problem. Basically what the statistics that MIM have based their 'analysis' on are the prices that are charged in what for want of a better word we will call 'international class' goods and services. Yes, you can go to the rich part of town and find places to rent that are probably comparable in price to those in the better parts of New York. However, that is not where the working class live.

It is the same with virtually everything. Yes, you can go to Starbucks and drink Café Latte, or you can sit and drink great Turkish coffee in a normal cafe for about a fifth of the price.

Now this doesn't mean that workers in the so-called 'third world' aren't worse of than workers in America. Obviously they are, but the method and 'analysis' used by MIM here are fundamentally flawed. I don't believe that Cairo, which I know well and is substantially cheaper than Turkey, is, as MIM claim, more expensive to live in than New York.

Devrim

Devrim
6th October 2011, 02:26
Yeah man what's up with this crazy Brazilian. Please, great anarcho-trotskyite moderators, send him to the dungeons immediately! I want nothing to do with him -- I mean it seriously hurts for us white boy liberals to hear from third world people anything that shatters our petty-bourgeois worldview (that's why red cat had to go), like that we're the most privileged social group on the planet, that we will not get to be condescending saviors in this great revolution on the horizon, that socialism will primarily benefit other social groups.. Restrict him! Immediately!

I also agree that these people shouldn't be banned or restricted however confused their ideas may be.

Devrim

Rodrigo
6th October 2011, 03:58
Thank you, Devrim. I don't have much info about life in USA as you guys (obviously, you live in USA! lol). I noted that MIM's analysis is based on somewhat bourgeois analysis typical from sixth grade Geography classes. Amirite? I'd be curious to know what they have to say about Brasil.


I also agree that these people shouldn't be banned or restricted however confused their ideas may be.

Agreed, since it's somewhat easy to convince them of the contrary and the debates are shown in Google. Haha

Savage
6th October 2011, 07:40
what exactly is the program for MTW organizations existing in the USA?

Devrim
6th October 2011, 14:31
Thank you, Devrim. I don't have much info about life in USA as you guys (obviously, you live in USA! lol). I noted that MIM's analysis is based on somewhat bourgeois analysis typical from sixth grade Geography classes.

It seems an apt description (I just checked what sixth grade meant).


I'd be curious to know what they have to say about Brasil.

It is more expensive than New York:


Other cities that are more expensive than New York to live in but with lower wages include Brazzaville, Congo; Taipei,China; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Singapore; Douala, Cameroon; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal; Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Amman, Jordan; Jakarta, Indonesia; Cairo, Egypt and Montevideo, Uruguay. Tied with New York in cost of living are Bangkok, Thailand and Lima, Peru.

Devrim

Rafiq
6th October 2011, 14:37
I also agree that these people shouldn't be banned or restricted however confused their ideas may be.

Devrim



Mtws usually get banned anyway on their own for other reasons, though

Rodrigo
6th October 2011, 19:55
It seems an apt description (I just checked what sixth grade meant).

It is more expensive than New York:

Devrim

This comparison is not so absurd if we see also compare the situation of the majority of the Brazilian working class to the US working class, and the cost of living here and there related to "each working class" capability of having access to services and goods where they live.

Devrim
6th October 2011, 22:13
This comparison is not so absurd if we see also compare the situation of the majority of the Brazilian working class to the US working class, and the cost of living here and there related to "each working class" capability of having access to services and goods where they live.

The comparison would not be so absurd if it were done properly. Some things, mostly 'tech', are actually slightly cheaper in America than in the so-called 'third world'. Many day to day goods are much cheaper.

Of course workers in those countries are poorer than workers in America. I can't really imagine being able to afford to buy a new car, and would struggle to buy and run a second hand one, which is something many American workers take for granted.

However, this article does not offer us anything remotely resembling a serious analysis. Nor would showing that workers in those countries are poorer prove much anyway.

Devrim

Rodrigo
6th October 2011, 22:48
The comparison would not be so absurd if it were done properly. Some things, mostly 'tech', are actually slightly cheaper in America than in the so-called 'third world'. Many day to day goods are much cheaper.

Of course workers in those countries are poorer than workers in America. I can't really imagine being able to afford to buy a new car, and would struggle to buy and run a second hand one, which is something many American workers take for granted

Yes, they are cheaper if we compare but because of taxes in imported products, "to protect the national market". But even without them, hi-tech products are expensive to the 3rd World average joe. Purchasing power is very different:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/GDP_PPP_per_capita_2009_IMF.png


However, this article does not offer us anything remotely resembling a serious analysis. Nor would showing that workers in those countries are poorer prove much anyway.

Well, it proves he's wrong, at least that's something.

Engel
7th October 2011, 02:38
lol. U mad bro?

Leftsolidarity
7th October 2011, 03:10
Yes, I have a clue. The social origin of most people here in RevLeft is petty-bourgeois,

I'd LOVE to see you prove this

Sputnik_1
7th October 2011, 08:10
Could someone explain me what exactly is third worldism and what makes it wrong? I've tried to read something on wikipedia but it didn't clear my ideas much.

Art Vandelay
7th October 2011, 15:51
So far from the simplistic analysis I have gotten through this site and reading others posters is that they view proletarians in the first world as somewhat complicit in exploiting the third world and have some pretty extreme views on how to rectify that come time for revolution. Ultimately why they are wrong is because the working class has no borders. They alienate a good portion of their allies and ultimately abandon class analysis.

Rodrigo
7th October 2011, 16:01
I'll just add something to rosario's explanation, it's something I noted but I don't know if it's really true: it seems for them that "First World" = USA, or that every country of the "First World" is equal to USA.

They see every first world proletarian hand-to-hand with the bourgeoisie, that's why they think they're "complicit in exploiting" the third world. That's just called unconscious, ideologically alienated worker, which of course will be bigger in number in countries where capitalism is stronger, but they prefer to discriminate instead of convincing.

I don't think they're evil, just dumb and confused.



@Leftsolidarity, who said "I'd LOVE to see you prove this": I already explained why I said that.

graymouser
7th October 2011, 17:47
Could someone explain me what exactly is third worldism and what makes it wrong? I've tried to read something on wikipedia but it didn't clear my ideas much.
Third Worldism extends Lenin's concept of the labor aristocracy (referring to the highly paid skilled strata of the labor force in places like Britain) to basically the entire working class of first world countries. (Most variants of third worldism make exceptions for oppressed nationalities / internal colonies.) They hold that revolution must come from the third world nations where the truly oppressed are located and not from the metropolitan first world. Maoism-Third Worldism holds that particularly first world workers are paid "above" the value of their labor, and that this benefit from imperialism invalidates them as a possible revolutionary force - it treats them as reactionary through and through.

What is wrong with third worldism? Well, it's not a class analysis, and it tends to blur together nations in class terms. So the national divisions in third world countries are overlooked, as well as the national divisions in first world countries. The concept of "third world" is a slippery one in and of itself; what do you do with the BRIC countries which are becoming capitalist powers themselves, to no benefit for the working masses there?

It's also a poor analysis to say that the working class is paid above the value of its labor. What this means is that, for instance, you've got a worker in an auto plant in Detroit assembling cars. If some of the materials are made in Mexico or China, the worker is taking in more of the portion of value for the whole car than the workers who made the constituent parts. This is a distortion, since the reality is that the workers still add surplus-value to the car, although the rate of surplus-value is relatively lower than in other countries. In other words it does some tricky accounting to pull things out of its ass.

The claims of third worldism tend to be made by well-off revolutionaries in imperialist countries, and they tend to get the third worldists off the hook in terms of organizing for revolution in "their own" countries. In a literal sense it's a petty-bourgeois ideology masquerading as a form of Marxism.

Leftsolidarity
10th October 2011, 02:11
@Leftsolidarity, who said "I'd LOVE to see you prove this": I already explained why I said that.

And I see that it was explained how you were talking out your ass :)