Pre-Crisis Radicals...

[Jimmie Higgins]

So for those who were interested or active in radical politics before the economic crisis, how has it changed your political perceptions of the world, history, tactics, theory etc?

I don't really mean on political positions or whatnot (though feel free to talk about that because that would be interesting too) I think more generally: perceptions. It doesn't need to be really specific... I don't know, I feel like I view historical change itself differently. Having experienced only confident and surging neoliberalism my entire life (you know, old enough to have been young enough to see a star wars [the real star wars trilogy, duh] movie in the theater) but then seeing the shift to crisis neoliberalism unfold just makes me view things I differently. I'll have to think of a better way to say this -- but in the interim... discuss.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I rember I had been radicalizing prior to it, just grasping basic things, was basically introduced to the Manifesto a few months before it happened. The only president I had in my memory was George Bush, so I had an inkling of faith in Obama that very rapidly went away. Biggest reason for that was because of the reaction to the crisis. So it definitely cemented my belief that the political system was not something that would bring about the change we actually needed.

It was also one of those[continuing] events that real plainly showed me the nature of class war. That if we don't seize the moment the onslaught by the capitalists is brutal even when they're at their most vulnerable and weak.

Also really changed up my reading material. Up to that point I was mostly interested in history. Was reading the history of the Russian Revolution, labor unions, various communist movements, but when the crisis hit I wanted to understand a little more about economics.

[Comrade #138672]

I wasn't a radical before the start of the crisis in 2008 (partly because I am still quite young). The crisis contributed a lot to my radicalization and drove me to Anarchism (at first) and Marxism. Radicalization can be very quick in my experience, because it is necessary self-defense.

[Popular Front of Judea]

Living in the crisis -- which isn't over yet -- has made me very aware about how little classic Marxism has to say about a declining capitalist economy. Marx was writing amidst the long ascent of British capitalism. It would be interesting to see what he have written if had lived past the First World War when Britain started its descent.

America is now firmly in the asset stripping phase of the capitalist cycle. One of its biggest exports to China now is scrap metal. Detroit's decline is very much on my mind. It like the Communist Manifesto's famed description of the vigor of capitalism -- being ran in reverse.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

The biggest differences I´ve experienced are people who are not radical taking my views more seriously and people who were left- leaning before the crisis becoming more radical and/or open to radical politics.