"Contemporary" Political Topics

[RNK]

Do you feel that the leftist movement, particularly the revolutionary aspect, is too ignorant (I don't mean that in a bad way -- just that we ignore it) of many of the mainstream political issues? I'm talking about things like abortion, gay marriage, the environment, immigration, and the wars.

Sure, we all have a stance on these issues (and I'm fairly certain we all share the same stance), but what is lacking is our ability to actively pursue these opinions into the public's consciousness. Essentially, to make an analogy, we show up at the rally with a statement of our beliefs, but we never actually deal with explaining these beliefs to the people.

I've been watching the far-right fascist movement a lot lately, and I believe I've come to a conclusion as to why they are (relatively) popular.

Their main asset is their unyielding persistance when it comes to addressing issues. They don't shy away from them; they embrace each topic, and produce a clear answer for it. A flawed answer, of course, but that often doesn't matter -- the fact remains that they provide an answer that is easily digestible by the masses.

That isn't to say that fascists are enjoying any sort of success in the world. Revolutionary and leftist forces out-number and out-gun them, by far. But in the west, atleast, they have developed a peculiarly effective strategy for "maneuvering" through bourgeois democracy, while us revolutionaries essentially operate independant and outside of it.

I don't have any answers myself but I feel this warrents some sort of political discussion. We need to reach out into the mainstream. As much as it hurts our sensibilities to dumb ourselves down to answering bourgeois questions, it's something we need to do -- we can't ignore the fact that the majority of society has essentially been captivated by the bourgeois state apparatus. Rather than forcefully and bluntly trying to break through, we need ingenuity; a strategy to play them at their own game, essentially.

That being said, I'd like to know how other leftists here feel about the "mainstream" political issues, inparticular, your thoughts on how they should be addressed.

[graffic]

Rallys against partys like the BNP should be more organised, having 20 or so student girls shouting at the BNP just makes it too easy for the them.

What would be rad would be too see 50 or so men shouting like football hooligans at the bastards.

[Enragé]

yes that might be "rad" and all
but what we need is a popular anti-fascist movement, a large one, broad, covering all "sections" of the working class

the most "rad" thing would to see whole families, kids included, shouting at the bastards, and grannies chasing after the fash with their purses

[Janus]

Certain political parties may ignore certain social or political issues at times but you can't generalize/stereotype the entire leftist movement based on certain sectors or sections of it. The fact remains that each individual leftist or group is going to be more attracted to/focus certain issues, you can't expect every leftist to be knowledgeable or to concentrate on every socio-economic issue out there. It doesn't mean that we should simply ignore all other issues by prioritizing class struggle but that we tend to look at the bigger picture and focus on the political issues that affect us most.

[graffic]

Question: (i presume this is the topic for this question) Which is the most Left party in the UK at the moment, which gets more than 100,000 votes?

[Enragé]

Respect i reckon

[Cheung Mo]

If Respect were the only one, my answer would be none.

[JRR883]

We aren't ignorant of explaining our stances on the issues, it's just that the general population is too jaded by government propaganda about the far left (i.e. equating anarchism with chaos, communism with totalitarianism). If we did get our views more public now, it would be more detrimental than helpful. The laypeople will say "OMGZ NO GOVERNMENT?! HOW WILL WE LIVE?!", "COMMUNISM IS EVIL!!!", and "wtf is capitalism?" We need capitalism to be more pure so that the people know exactly what is keeping them enslaved.

[Enragé]

no we dont

more pure capitalism means a purer capitalist mentality.

The best example of this is if you debate with a european about communism and then with an american.

[graffic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 08, 2007 01:09 am
Respect i reckon
What about the communist party of Great Britain?

I voted Lib Dem in the last election

[graffic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 07, 2007 04:21 pm
the most "rad" thing would to see whole families, kids included, shouting at the bastards, and grannies chasing after the fash with their purses
I think those types of people you described are on the whole very anti far-right politics. Just the fact of being active in your views, and alot of people believe in free-speech a bit too much.

Still not as bad as the yanks concerning free-speech though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9TIrOPwk0M

[The Grey Blur]

Well this is a crucial idea isn't it. You need to have a correct grasp of Marxism I feel before you can formulate a correct approach to each of these questions. I don't know about yourself but I and other comrades would actively engage in campaigns we could find common ground with, even if there is no explicitly socialist or revolutionary elements to them. We have to become visible and we have to engage with the working-class and lead them to revolutionary conclusions, rather than stand outside and pout.


I'm talking about things like abortion
A woman has the right to choose whether or not she gives birth, this is a basic stance we can take - that a woman should be able to control her body.

Aside from that, we can explain that it is exactly due to Capitalism that there is such a need of abortions - the lack of proper sexual education provided to young people, that a woman's ability to survive in Capitalism can be hindered by the raising of a child.


gay marriage
We have no choice in our sexuality, and should not be victimised for it. Capitalism creates homophobia I believe, I will look this up and get back to you on it.



the environment
It needs to be conserved; what's the point of trying to create a better global society if there is no globe to live on? We should especially engage with the more radical elements of the green movements, and using the below arguments to explain to them how only socialism can protect the environment.

Capitalism fuels the destruction of the environment through it's relentless requirement of profit. With a planned socialist economy, utilising different fuels, using sustaianable methods and funding scientific research into alternatives to environmentally damaging practises we could cut down totally on this destruction that capitalism must wreak.


immigration
Well as a first we would have to counter the right-wing arguments - "they're stealing our jobs" (they're not, they're actually fuelling the economy) etc etc. Then we have to expand on how Capitalism forces this immigration, in it's creation and supplementation of inequality between nations, through colonialism and economic imperialism, that people don't want to immigrate but they are forced to in trying to be able to live without the fear of starvation of persecution. We should also explain how the bosses are exploiting the cheap labour of immigrants, and that unity between workers is the solution.


and the wars.
Well I'm sure you understand Lenin's theory of Imperialism, that these wars are a natural part of capitalism, in fact it's most advanced stage. War is a constant part of monopoly capitalism and always will be until we overthrow it. As socialists/communist/anarchists/whatever we have to join the mass anti-war movements and campaign on a working-class basis, that the poorly educated working-class soldiers have to realise the Iraqi on the street isn't his enemy, that Bush is. We would also have to give support to the anti-Imperialist forces which fight for national liberation, while critiscising their errors and facilitating the growth of a left current within these movements (for example the Iraqi worker's congress in Iraq).

In the end we have to use these theories that have been handed down to us, from Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, these thinkers and leaders of the class war and apply to them to the conditions which exist today, and allow our thinking working-class brothers and sisters to draw socialist conclusions and spark the revolution of tomorrow.

Hope I've helped, bit of a rant really.

[Kia]

The problem your noticing I can't comment about except in relation to America. Europe has a different mentality along with every other continent and region.


There are a couple reasons/possibilities why the far-right and fascists have been gaining grounds or seem to be getting increasingly popular.

First off is the current political mainstream trend in America. American mainstream politics has become nothing more then bickering between two parties that look exactly the same in action except claim to be totally different. Republicans have used this to there advantage..by constantly being against what democrats are for they have shown the far right that they are not democrats and that they need to rally together in order to make sure America stays the same "family value, patriotic, American dream" land that it supposedly always has been. By playing to the far right the republicans have coerced the far right from the shadows and brought them to the front. These groups have been around for awhile but never really voiced there opinions in the last 10-20years so much since they fell out of favor during the 60-70s.




Religion. Every far right and fascist group appeals to the American public through religion. While many of us (if not all) are proclaiming that religion is a lie and that people need to stop believing in such nonsense, the right is turning this against us. The majority of America is still rather religious..and no one likes someone claiming that their hope and faith is a load of nonsense. The radical left constantly forgets how powerful religion is...its been around since civilization began..and its probably going to be harder to remove or subdue then even capitalism. America only recently in the last 50years really begun to move away from its religious background....we probably have 50years at least to go before its become weakened enough for us to not have to worry about it as much.
Such topics as abortion, gay marriage, even environmentalism are all tied to religion too. Religion is usually conservative, so the right has used religion as weapon to fight such progressive movements as equal rights for gays, making abortion legal, etc....
Neo-Nazi parties and fascist groups have used religion and current religious ideology especially well in attracting new members.


Misunderstanding/Time. Communism and Anarchy in America are completely misunderstood by the greater public.
I've had to explain anarchy to people maybe 30-40times to make them realize that it isn't CHAOS but an actual political system. Anarchy is misused in the media daily....wars break out and news articles have titles such as "Anarchy in Somalia...300 Killed". Anarchy is hard to pinpoint too..we have basically no parties (duh), we do not participate in the government, and no country in recent history has ever labeled itself as anarchist (Spanish civil war did have anarchy in it..and shows us that it can work...but the country never became "anarchist"); people have no example to look at so they can understand what it looks like.
Communism suffers from time. The USSR only collapsed in 1991, its only been 16 years since then. Peoples views of communism are still based upon what they knew (and thought they knew) about the USSR. The USSR tarnished the idea of communism in America so much that it's going to take quite a few years before people no longer associate communism with the USSR directly. The American gov did a BRILLIANT job of counteracting communist thought in America and mislabeling it so much that it seemed like it was from hell itself. We all know that in reality that many people actually agree with us on our ideas and principles..that many really do noticed the class war going on, the separation between rich and poor, that everyone needs equal rights, that capitalism is messing the world up...they just don't realize that communism/anarchy agrees completely with them..that we are trying to fight these problems.


Division. We're all split up into so many little different groups that argue and bicker that its hard for someone to believe we can change anything. This problem is constantly brought up by members on this forum..and the solution is unknown. I talked about anarchy's division earlier. Communism in America is divided up into so many little groups all with different ideologies. Instead of function as a fist smashing the state..we function as little fingers each poking the state....its just not the same. The solution I don't know..but either we need to unite together in some kind of alliance..or wait till certain groups die off..so that only the few and the strong remain...both have its problems.
You don't notice this separation as much among the Right...on issues that matter to them..they all share almost the same point of view on the subject...they may be divided physically but they're united in thought.

Racism. It exists..America has the illusion that it has CONQUERED racism and that everybody is accepting of each other..what a load of bullshit. Racism is still a huge part of America. Far Right groups use this to there advantage...they still use the race card to show that the left solutions to problems do not work. Take for example Oakland,Ca....most people realize that live in the bay area realize that Oakland is a mess and needs to be fixed. The solution is easy..the standard of living needs to be raised along with the providing of better opportunities in life. However racists say that Oakland is a mess because of blacks...they say that they're given equal opportunities yet they still fuck up. By making false correlations between races and problems..they are able to gain more ground against us.
It is luckily one thing we are all united on,the end to racism..but we have to push a lot harder if we wish to remove it.







There are many ways we could try and tackle these problems..but finding the solution that will work will be rather difficult. I only have a few suggestions...

pay attention to the mainstream media and politics. Even if we disagree with most if it, don't ignore it. The mainstream media allows us to know what most of the population is believing to be fact (it sometimes is, it sometimes isnt). The media influences peoples views on social issues and their morals...if we don't know what is changing them..then we have no way of counteracting them. Saying it is all lies..does nothing at all other then piss people off. Mainstream politics is important too, it influences us all, if we ignore it or just denounce it without paying much attention then we again have no clue how to counteract.

Fight in their arenas. When arguing don't immediately spew ideology (all of us do it..), instead try and counteract their arguments without even using our ideology, hint at it..use the very things they believe in against them. Argue religion with religion. An example would be gay rights..if someone is against it, all you have to say is, "do you believe in equal rights for all?" most people will say yes..if they do then ask why gays shouldn't have equal rights...most have no answer..if they do its usually extremely prejudice and makes everyone else around realize what kind of person they are. Participate in mainstream groups..you don't have to agree with them..just debate with them. Many anarchists have this thing of not talking to newspapers or media groups..we should! Formulate our comments so that they are simple and easy to understand.

Educate! Correct people on their mistaken views about who we are and what we stand for. If your teacher says that "communists believe religion is the opiate of the masses", explain to the teacher and the students exactly what is meant by this. Education is our greatest weapon.

Through out old idea/words/and symbols that no longer work..come up with new ones! The concept of the bourgeoisie is very hard to apply simply and easily to America these days...its original meaning really doesn't work anymore. Use other words instead or be more specific..say the rich...or say lawyers, CEO s, bankers, etc..... Get rid of such symbols such as the AK...the AK is irrelevant to the ideology of both communism and anarchism..sure its a symbol of revolutionaries and their fights...but that doesn't apply to America...hell if we want a symbol here it should be the musket. The AK is a symbol of violence..and even if we do condone it at times..our beliefs are not bloodshed..anarchy isn't about shooting people....we are not trying to create a situation in which people shoot each other..thats not the theory at all. The AK is a cool symbol..but it really doesn't say much about what we stand for.






Its a long struggle for America.

(i apologize for all the spelling and grammatical mistakes..I'm just too tired to check it all through)