no. two capitalist nations fighting is not comparable to genocide by a settler colonial entity

seeing libs compare this Ukraine bullshit to Palestine is beyond infuriating. y'all dont care about us until its debate time

mutual aid is going to catch on soon. when we are eating stale bread and drinking water illegally 😒

Eh there’s no lack of “socialist” mutual aid programs

In fact I’d argue theyre over emphasized to the point of detriment

there isn’t? you know this how? i’m going to trust people on the ground - respectfully.

Because I’ve organized for years and have participated in mutual aid programs myself

Leftist food programs are dime a dozen. For many, that is the extent of their activism. Simple “red charities” are not only limited in scope (you can go to any church pantry with far more resources and stability comparatively), but are also often devoid of any political content. They tie up a great deal resources and people power often to only reach a relatively small number of people. Mutual aid needs to be combined with real political agitation and organization. But because the US is so plagued by rightism they almost always become means of simple, ineffectual economism. A purely defensive maneuver. That’s not to say that they can’t be useful - for example we used a mutual aid org started to help propel us into tenant organizing here - but the majority of the left uses them as a end to itself. We need real, militant political organizing that attempts to build power for our class.

These things of course are not mutually exclusive, but all too often mutual aid is such a large investment in resources that actual organizing get set to the side. On the other hand, many people such as a lot of anarchists believe that mutual aid SHOULD be the primary if not sole means of organization. A position which is naive to say the least if you’re serious about trying to build power

I would assume the widespread availability of mutual aid style programs can be attributed to it being the extent of what most people are actually capable of doing and dedicating time towards. Stuff like union or labor strike organizing is a lot more situational and depends on both the geography of where you live as well as the type of work you participate in. Other forms of political organizing (i.e. electoral) within the US almost always ends up as thinly veiled partisanship - even when "leftist candidates" win local positions, it doesn't change and/or do anything. There's CPUSA (and similar) candidates who have won like local council positions for example. Was basically the same as a democrat winning functionally. There are other forms of organizing, sure, but if you're trying to organize for the purpose of playing minecraft irl you shouldn't be surprised you're not gonna get much traction, spread, and/or participation.

Marcuse

I’m not at all proposing we run candidates like CPUSA, who like you said are basically democrats (even worse in fact!). We need to build independent organs of political power

Struggles are to be found everywhere, it’s just a matter of conducting social investigation in order to identify them, rather than mechanically assuming that people need food and therefore we should try to provide them food as the full extent of our organizing

I don’t deny that in many areas, mutual aid may be the only immediately practical form of organization. But these should be done with the goal of agitating politically, identifying sites of potential struggle, and acting on these struggles. Platforms for social investigation and class a***ysis to inform social investigation. Not simply doing economistic mutual aid as an end in and of itself. 9 times out of 10 leftists do the latter

And you’re right, lack of dedication is a huge problem that needs to be combatted. This goes back to the very rightist nature of the majority of the US left, a result of their relative privilege as many of them come from petite bourgeois backgrounds or are part of the labor aristocracy. Until first world “leftists” get the dedication and commitment for moving past mutual aid we are doomed

@krishna_bound i’m reading the theory of partisan and is awed at how much i actually understand the text and what a partisan is from just reading a bunch of Mao lmao

There’s a part in it where Schmitt talks about admiring Mao and his relationship with ideology idk if you’ve gotten there yet but I’m sure you’ll like that part

Schmitt is also really popular in a lot of Chinese intellectual circles. There’s even books from them saying the theory of the partisan is basically a parallel of Maoism link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137466594

Can you link this? I’d like to check it out

i’m on prussian misconception of the partisan rn i’m exicited to get to the parts of Lenin and Mao and seeing the mention of Stalin using partisans to defeat the nazi made me soy out

heard he was popular in china gonna check out the book in link after i’m done Volume 8 of Mao

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Make sure to also read Concept of The Political

He has other words too but those 2 are the most important

my horseshoe theory is from becoming an anarchist to a Stalinoid

Revolutionaries are an archetype

I'm a centrist

Im a centrist among communists

wasn’t that Stalin between Bakunin and Trotsky

In that era, in that party, and that part of the world, yes

Centrist among communists communist among centrists

Just finished the Mao part the whole bit of the various enmity that the Chinese communist had reminded me a lot of Althusser argument of over determination in the Russian Revolution.