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JudasMaiden
8th March 2014, 10:45
I see all of you discussing about Anarchism or Marxism yet I never see any of you willing to make pamphlets/brochures/leaflets/descriptive fliers to spread the word about Anarchism or Marxism, let alone trying to put Anarchism or Marxism into practice. Are any of you willing to skip or quit school/work(since our current education status won't matter in a Marxist/Anarchist society) to start a Anarchist/Marxist commune anywhere in the world(I recommend a poor African country or a uninhabited island/small inhabited island to begin with)?
Fascists/Neo-Nazis have already token control of the Ukraine! Right-wingers all over the world are starting to spread their ideology around. Are anyone of you willing to spread your leftist beliefs around like handing out pamphlets/leaflets/descriptive fliers or making speeches about your political beliefs? Are any of you Anarchists/Marxists willing to overthrow the governments and capitalism of developing countries or an unequal developed countries, even if it involves a lot of bloodshed?

If you have any links to any leftist pamphlets/leaflets/descriptive posters or if you made any leftist pamphlets/leaflets/descriptive posters avaliable for downloading, please post them here.

Red Economist
8th March 2014, 11:35
Speaking for myself, regrettably, it is not as simple as professing the 'one true faith' to which, once a person's is exposed to, they suddenly convert. Nor can any of us be certain that we are the possessors of such a faith or that holding it makes it inherently true or right as we are still limited by our own experience, perception, knowledge of the world and self-knowledge.

People have to be emotionally susceptible to Marxist/anarchist ideas and to know that something is 'wrong' with the world. The most fervent adherents are not simply people who have read a book and 'seen the light', but who have found obstacles or difficulties in life, or else great injustices, where they were assured by the ruling ideology they didn't exist and went on to challenge their ideological conception of social reality and what they believe is possible to achieve.

For most people in 'western' societies, the opportunities of consumerism, social status through a 'successful' career, the security of domestic monogamy etc, still hold an emotional pull which can blind them into accepting the injustices of the world that affect others because it does not affect themselves. Plus walking away from that and knowing your going to disagree with people- often who are very close to you- is particularly difficult. This is especially true given that a sense of rejection, marginalization or 'alienation' can be so pivitol in adopting such views. Being on Revleft and knowing your not alone in holding such views can make it a lot easier to accept being 'outside' the system and getting up the courage to accepting and acting on those beliefs in later life through political activism.

No-one can 'will' a revolution to happen, nor can we 'will' the society that follows to have a libertarian or democratic character. it takes a great deal of faith and generosity in the best instincts in 'human nature' to contradict the reality of human selfishness as it now exists and to believe we- as a species or class- can grow beyond it.

Whilst I'm not a believer in god, there is very much a 'religious' element in both Marxism and anarchism in how man and freedom are defined (and re-defined in contrast to the existing social system) and of soul-searching your way through the moral maze of revolution, dictatorship and social injustice on both sides of the iron curtain. It does not lend itself easily to communication with the "non-believers" who have yet to feel the impulse to reject global capitalism and still are willing prisoners of the 'real-world' who are not prepared, nor have the motivation to dream. Becoming a Marxist/Anarchist is one thing; staying there and sustaining those beliefs is quite another.

Blake's Baby
8th March 2014, 12:26
I suggest you read the pieces collected here:

http://www.theyliewedie.org/ressources/biblio/en/Kropotkin_Peter_-_Small_communal_experiments.html

Jimmie Higgins
8th March 2014, 13:04
I see all of you discussing about Anarchism or Marxism yet I never see any of you willing to make pamphlets/brochures/leaflets/descriptive fliers to spread the word about Anarchism or Marxism,I've probably made literally hundreds of fliers, I've made pamphlets (both straight political but also just cultural/comic/fiction zines for fun) and I have been involved in a lot of organizing. Not everyone has the opportunity to organize though... I live in an urban area and am older, some folks here are from more isolated areas or are young and in school or whatnot.


let alone trying to put Anarchism or Marxism into practice. well in my view it would be impossible to put Un-capitalism in practice in capitalism.


Are any of you willing to skip or quit school/work(since our current education status won't matter in a Marxist/Anarchist society) to start a Anarchist/Marxist commune anywhere in the world(I recommend a poor African country or a uninhabited island/small inhabited island to begin with)?
Frankly, this comes off as a bit trollish... Like a post-USSR version of "go back to Russia":lol:

At any rate, since I have no trust fund, no savings, no house, etc... It would be a bit hard to travel to let alone buy or occupy forcibly some island. Then there's the question of costs to create a new community (possibly a hidden one so that some military doesn't come and force us off squatted land) from scratch. Since I have only lived in appartments and have no interest or experience in homesteading and farming... This doesn't sound like a very likely for me.


Are any of you Anarchists/Marxists willing to take over a developing country or an unequal developed country, even if it involves a lot of bloodshed?marxism and anarchism in my view are about self-liberation by the exploited and oppressed, "taking over" seems to imply some kind of coup or taking power at the top of a society. I don't know if that's what you meant, but at any rate, ends and means are linked and since I see achieving communism as only possible through class revolution, I think the means for that need to be organizing class resistance and arguing among fellow workers and in movements with the aim of putting forward revolutionary politics and building an independent class movement.

Tim Cornelis
8th March 2014, 13:28
What you propose is romantic adventurism, not Marxism or anarchism. Socialist revolution does not come about through self-segregation or secession as per establishing communes, nor through putchism as you seem to propose as well. I don't have any intention of Evangelising socialism either.

radiocaroline
8th March 2014, 13:35
Are any of you Anarchists/Marxists willing to take over a developing country or an unequal developed country, even if it involves a lot of bloodshed?

Sounds eerily like Jim Jones and The People's Temple

RedMaterialist
9th March 2014, 01:44
I see all of you discussing about Anarchism or Marxism yet I never see any of you willing to make pamphlets/brochures/leaflets/descriptive fliers to spread the word about Anarchism or Marxism, let alone trying to put Anarchism or Marxism into practice.

Marx suggested running for political office, not necessarily for the purpose of winning an election, but for educating the public by forcing your opponents and the media to engage in debate. It doesn't cost that much to run for a local political office. It happened in Seattle, maybe it can happen in Arizona. I think the important thing is that you have to get organized. Find ten people and start a new party with a new Marxist tendency:). Of course you'll have to keep in mind that half of them will be local police agents. Just don't do or plan anything violent. Although many people don't know that only advocating the violent overthrow of the govt is completely legal (Brandenberg v. Ohio, I think.) However, just announcing that you are a communist or socialist candidate for political office should get you enough attention. Good luck.

Marx also said that it was insane to engage in violence when reform was still possible. When a revolution does start, and you can't predict it or create it (as Rosa Luxembourg showed,) you shouldn't have much trouble finding somewhere to put your anarchism or Marxism into practice.

By the way, you did know that anarchism and Marxism are mutually opposed and incompatible political movements?

The Garbage Disposal Unit
9th March 2014, 03:24
I trashed a bunch of one-liners in response to RedMaterialist's derailing tendency bait. I'm asking y'all to please ignore it.
RedMaterialist, this is verbal warning. Keep it on point and drop the petty baiting, or you're getting an infraction.

I'm part of a small collective that puts out a monthly small-run agit-p(r)op broadsheet. We don't have a home on the internet yet (anyone interested in hosting a few .pdfs and a no-frills page?), but response "on the streets" (or, at least, at gas station where I buy coffee) has been pretty positive.

*shrug* Probably most of us don't see any need to brag about our outreach activities on the internet since, "Communists produce small media!" isn't particularly exciting or innovative. Though, if we want to talk about the specifics of our projects - the how/when/where/why of specific broadsheets/papers/pamphlets it might be interesting.

As for the suggestion that we run away to the third-world to start communes, I don't want to be unduly harsh, but that's a really terrible idea. It wouldn't likely do struggles there any good (unless you're talking about bringing some particular group of people with specific technical skills that people there need for their struggles), and it certainly wouldn't do struggles here any good. And, y'know, probably struggles here, in the imperial centre - "the belly of the beast" - are our responsibility to take on, and not just run away from to live in fairy-tale communes.

Nothing against collective living, of course (and, in fact, I think it can be an important part of certain types of organizing), but . . . yeah, fight where you stand, y'know?

BIXX
9th March 2014, 07:16
Yeah, ok op.

I'm a 17 year old who is trying to form a free school with a small group of people, including two of our own members. I have written pamphlets and I have handed them out on the street.

And yet I don't pretend this makes me a better radical than anyone else- I am only doing what anyone else in my position would do.

Your post comes off as elitist and snobbish. I understand why you can feel that way (hell, I often get frustrated by inaction) but that doesn't mean you should act all high and mighty.

radiocaroline
9th March 2014, 08:35
I think self education is a crucial process and that's one of the main reasons that I joined this forum..

It is important to first solidify your own views before implementing how you see fit - I know a hell of a lot of people including myself on this site are involved in trade union movements and do lots for their communities, it's hard to practise international communism believe it or not,

Ele'ill
9th March 2014, 19:24
I think the valid critique is slightly different from the op and would be why is there so much activism and no progress not why isn't there enough activism or 'things being done'. There are main currents of praxis technically working correctly and are a part of and facilitating the things it's supposed to be opposing, operating internally just like the things it's supposed to be opposing, based in a tradition of past times etc..

Chainsaw
14th March 2014, 16:26
Fascists/Neo-Nazis have already token control of the Ukraine!

That's just false. I live in Kiev, and I can confirm that they were a useful tool for getting rid of the kleptocrats. Our Prime Minister is partly of Jewish descent.

There was a poll taken, and the Fascist Right Sector only has 1.6% of the popular vote. They aren't seen as people who can lead an entire country.

According to Haaretz - the Right Sector leader met with the Israeli Ambassador:

In the meeting, “Dmitry Yarosh stressed that Right Sector will oppose all [racist] phenomena, especially anti-Semitism, with all legitimate means,” the embassy wrote on its website.

“The parties agreed to establish a ‘hotline’ to prevent provocations and coordinate on issues as they arise,” it said.
You're gonna have to google the entire quotation for the source, because I'm apparently not allowed to post links if I have below 25 posts.

Therefore, stop swallowing the dick of Russian imperialist propaganda.

Also, Ukraine doesn't have the article "the" in front of it; that sort of thing is reserved to regions within countries.

Sperm-Doll Setsuna
14th March 2014, 23:13
According to Haaretz - the Right Sector leader met with the Israeli Ambassador:

There are pro-Israeli nationalist swine, you know. That doesn't mean shit.

Also, it's not like the new leaders aren't corrupt, right? It's all clean and good now. Not just the same shit all over again as always.