After pondering about it for a bit, it seems the proper Praxis for revolution has severely reduced in variety. A large number of things is holding back the left at the moment, these things include:
Of all these problems, point three is the most important. Those in the U.S. Europe, and the rest of the wealthy Imperialist "1st World" managed to create societies that, on the surface, feels comfortable negative the desperation and need for a Revolution unlike back in the 20th Century. Due to this comfortable existence, all of the left's other problems begin to magnify. People can afford to be Sectarian since there is no real life and death situation that will force compromises int he struggle, consequently many hold to the past and desire to recreate the exact praxis of past revolutionaries (Bolshevik Revolution for Example) and disregarding the importance of the material conditions of the two time periods.
The only places with real revolutionary potential is outside the Imperialist powers due to their poverty and instability, but even there, the Imperialist keep everything in check. So what can one do to make some sort of impact?
Here are the few options: 1. Wait for Instability in the West (I guess we are already doing this) 2. Cause Instability in the West (inb4 Nice Try FBI) 3. Move to the Third World and Help them 4. Extreme Opportunism (as in making countless number of front groups, popular fronts, entryism, and other tactics just to empower your org as much as possible)
Point 3 and 4 seem to be the only possible course of action, as the other two is either Armchair or Glow in the Dark CIA. inb4 "READ LENIN" if only I can apply the works of a man who lived in a country on the brink of collapse from an economically disastrous war, with countless peasants starving, in world where Marxism was not yet so properly attacked and suppressed as it was in the Cold War three decades later, if only if only.
Without the Soviet Union, the communist world no longer has a powerful state to fund their activities. Radical Sunni Muslims can get funding from Saudi Arabia, Anti-Salafi Rebels can get funding from Iran, the West funds anyone that benefits them. Communist no longer have a big funder and must get money on their own. The problem with helping the third world may be the lack of funding to help them in the first place.
Lincoln Perry
The thirld world is a great place for revolutions…if you can get the support og the people ofc, don't follow the example of chairman gonzalo.
I still think that in sommmme moment ,the chinese will support other movements in the world (well, or they will try to be as imperialistic as posible)
The best thing we can do isn't to promote socialism but push anti-capitalism. The revolutionary anti-capitalism not Reformist Anti-Capitalism (TM) lite. I don't think we can push socialism without first paving the way.
Matthew Edwards
Bump
Ryan Peterson
...
Bentley Wood
Blind anti-capitalism is useless without proposing an alternative when discussion of the possibility of said alternative is verboten; we must provide one ourselves. It is easier to simply be anti-capitalist because it can be answered by the usual socdem welfare amenities instead of addressing the fundamental issues.
Connor Walker
the rosa luxemburg stifguntg has an annual budget of around 40 M €. Not for a war, but for supporting communist groups (which they do).
Chase Walker
stiftung*
Ian Bennett
The viability of revolution is purely a question of whether or not the conditions are right, which they clearly aren’t at the moment. That being the case, socialists should instead seek to build our movement in a number of ways in preparation for when conditions change. In practice this means working for ways to improve the lives and political power of the working class, ingratiate ourselves to them, establish ourselves as their allies capable of bringing concrete positive changes. In other words we will have to engage in short term socdem type reforms, while still maintaining the need to ultimately abolish capitalism. This is all geared to ensuring that when conditions change and revolution is on the horizon, our movement has the broadest possible support base and thus the best chance of taking power and implementing socialism.
Robert Cook
So….Extreme Opportunism until the time is right.
Justin Bell
If you're going to keep leftist thought stuck in the 19th century, your "right conditions" for revolution will never materialize.
Jeremiah Rodriguez
It won't be that much longer. The effects of climate change are already being felt in the third world and in the next 20-30 years the whole world will be in a state of crisis
Cameron Martin
Yeah, just like the ice caps will be gone by 2014, eh Al?
Kevin Ramirez
How about "post-capitalism"? You shed all the connotations of soviet and sucdem socialism, assert a demand for radical transformation, and retain the ability to concretely re-envision society.
Kevin Green
Without a civil war or large-scale military conflict between the capitalist powers it will not be possible for a proletarian revolution to succeed anywhere. Even if the Venezuelans had attempted a genuine proletarian revolution and used the most advanced theory and techniques they would have remained isolated in the face of capitalist encirclement. This same isolation will happen to every state that attempts to break free from the domination of global capital. The idea that some kind of peasant revolution in a backwards region could take power and successfully resist global capital alone is an absurdity. It only worked for the Bolsheviks due to the unique conditions of WWI. It worked in China due to the collapse of Japanese imperialism and Soviet support.
And even if a large war occurs between capitalist powers it is likely the gap between them and the developed world would still remain large enough to prevent the full development of socialism. Which means, to me, that it would be far better if Marxist organizations focused on the First World countries
But a serious crisis within the large capitalist does not necessarily entail socialism, only the possibility of a revolution that could establish socialism.
Dominic Thomas
OP, I have to somewhat disagree with you, building up socialism does need capitalism to fail or at least recede, but causing instability is not the answer, if it was, ISIS would have converted France to Islam by now, what is the answer is an united front, building class conciousness, and as an anarchist it makes me feel weird to say this, but, COMBAT LIBERALISM, also, I love how points 1 and 4 are literally contradictory
Benjamin Sullivan
Actually you ain't wrong, Africa, SEA Asia and South America have had and still have, plenty of revolutionary potential, it's just that those revolutions were corrupted by being pawns to the USSR and by the state capitalist model of the USSR(which the USSR by the 80s undeniably followed, like I wanna hear no "Gorbaciov was socialist you revisionist") , or to Imperialism, or in most of the cases, as with Algeria, Namibia, Angola and Peru, to revisionism I also think that places which treat their workers badly and that have revolutionary potential if class conciousness is built like South Korea would also be a good place to start
Christian Lewis
What can be done to take advantage of future crises of capitalism?
1. Theory We need to work on theory. The material conditions of capitalism have created the modern class system. But for one class - the workers - to overcome this system it will require deliberate effort. And before this undertaking can be put into motion it is necessary to become conscious of the conditions that will determine success or failure.
2. Political program Theory results in the basis for a program which plans out real world practice, organization, and the ultimate goal of the class struggle. Without this program there is no point in organizing anything or even taking action at all. The capitalists are constantly planning on how to undermine workers movements, rogue political parties, and any threat to the status quo.
3. Worker organization Once the program is established on a firm theoretical basis it's possible to put the plan into action and organize. The form of organization will almost definitely change over time depending on conditions. Getting caught in the trap of organization for its own sake will lead to the creation of bureaucratic deformations within the workers movement in which immediate material interests override the program and the theory. This happened repeatedly in the 20th century.
Michael Wilson
In summary I'm going to paraphrase what Bordiga wrote:
The problem isn't idpol, sectarianism, or inflexibility. These are symptoms of the real problem which is theoretical confusion and lack of a solid political program. The modern left, even the Marxist left, suffers from all kinds of disagreements of a theoretical nature leading to disagreements about what kind of political program to adopt. We don't know what to expect, what will succeed or fail, or what really happened in 20th century socialist experiments.
Theory is praxis. Right now our praxis must be theoretical struggle.
