controlled opposition is done with money and the communists don’t have any, so it’s the democrats since they get money from the billionaire oligarchs like the republicans do.
I’ll be real, I’m not really sure it’s appropriate to be asking people if their parties are “working to overthrow the government”. A newbie could theoretically come along, start giving out a bunch of specific information about their political party and then go on about how they have bombs stashed in their basements. I’m sure it doesn’t take much thinking to see why that would be a problem.
Yeah, if your standard for True Communist Party is them stating they’re going to overthrow the government, you’re going to find nothing but fools and feds (in the U.S. at least). We want organizations smart enough not to confess to crimes without even being asked.
The best realistic position is something like “end capitalism,” “build socialism,” or “create a democracy that reflects the will of the people,” etc.
I’m honestly not sure what you’re looking for with a question phrased like this. If the answer was yes, what would the conclusion be? Who would have evidence strong enough to support such a notion anyway? It’s a bit of a contradictory thing in the first place; if a party is controlled opposition, how is it a communist party at that point? You could go by which parties call themselves communist in the name, but not all with communist intentions will do so. PSL, for example, being called Party for Socialism and Liberation, not Party for Communism and Liberation. DSA also calls itself Socialist, but unlike PSL, I’m not confident of its positions being communist. Dem socs seem to be aligned more with reform, historically, and underestimate the state’s monopoly on violence (if anyone thinks I’m being too harsh on DSA, feel free to say, I’m just using it as an example as a contrast to PSL to make a point). You could go by which parties have a communist program, but if they have a communist program and are actually doing it, how can they be controlled opposition at that point?
It is probably safe to assume every well known anti-imperialist or communist effort in the US has some monitoring or infiltration going on, or at least attempts to do so. But to entertain the idea they are compromised on the whole is sort of silly. Even if one were to demonstrate a particular party’s leadership is some form of controlled opposition, it wouldn’t necessarily mean every group organizing under that party’s name is subject to the same problems. This line of thinking could quickly lead to a kind of paranoia and defeatism if not grounded in step by step analysis. The US is powerful, but it is not all-powerful.
Lets just say that american communist parties would be contempt with cheap healthcare.
Is improving the living standards of the working class not the main goal of Marxists? I don’t see how wanting conditions to be better is some great sin. It’s not like you can’t both work toward revolution and uplift the working class at the same time.
The main goal of marxists is overthrowing the ruling class and establishing a DotP, not concesions, especially in the imperial core since these come at the expense of the rest of the world and the imperial core working class has proven to be irrelevant so far.
I said nothing about concessions. Also the overthrow of the capitalist system is not the main focus of marxists. It is a primary goal, but only in service of creating a societal formation for the betterment of the working class through a DotP how you mentioned.
Without the focus on the working class, any revolutionary movement is soulless at best, and opportunists thirsting for power at worst.
Declaring a working class irrelevant and therefore fit to suffer is genuinely disgusting. Those are people too, equally as valuable as the working class of any nation. The third world is getting exploited whether a poor family of four in Missouri has healthcare or not, it’s just those profits are sequestered and hoarded by imperial entities.
Yes, focusing on concessions is a death kneel for any Marxist movement and not good, but that doesn’t mean throwing the baby out with the bath water is the way to go. How else do you plan to create popular support for a movement or galvanize your movements members if the messaging is, “Fuck you guys, we don’t care about you. We only care about overthrowing the government… wait why won’t you guys support us?!”
Declaring a working class irrelevant and therefore fit to suffer is genuinely disgusting. Those are people too, equally as valuable as the working class of any nation. The third world is getting exploited whether a poor family of four in Missouri has healthcare or not, it’s just those profits are sequestered and hoarded by imperial entities.
I simply cannot agree with this, the imperial core working class is fundamentally different from the rest of the worlds, the class struggle at play is very different when on global scale one of these countries is oppressing others. The working class of these countries have been historically the most ferocious supporters of settler colonialism and continue to be the boots on the ground of current imperialism.
Class Struggle by Domenico losurdo, Chapter 5 and 6, specifically, delve into these intricacies.
i’m not sure if we can apply this logic - we tried working within the confines of regimes such as the United States, Nazi Germany, West Germany, and Israel for many years, if not decades.
even when these movements were Marxist, they failed or denigrated into American chauvinism/nationalism, Strasserism and National Bolshevism, petit-bourgeois idealism, and Labor Zionism - respective to the list, in that order.
that’s not to say we don’t care, but previous orgs had material basis for their success.
The Black Panthers (+ BLA), Brown Berets, Young Lords, American Indian Movement were leading the struggle - it was through their collective struggle that they were able to assist the Young Patriots and the student groups to form the correct line and analysis
I, for one, am not interested in treating Donald Trump like some political outsider, as if I can take the ‘America’ and leave the Trump; take the ‘Nazi Germany’ and leave the Hitler; take the ‘Israel’ and leave the Netanyahu
this isn’t just about ‘overthrowing the government’ - the program of the Communist party is not coupist - and we aren’t populists, either
this isn’t just about ‘overthrowing the government’ - the program of the Communist party is not coupist - and we aren’t populists, either
If imperial core “communists” do not strive for overthrowing the imperialist state and turn it on its head, they are not communists but social imperialists heck might aswell join the democratic party. How will global south people take them seriously?
Well the thing is, wanting the US project to continue and wanting people to not die from lack of healthcare aren’t the same thing, even if they can and do intersect at times in people who cling to the US concept as some kind of bastion of “freedom”, whether because they’re chauvinists or naive. Getting universal healthcare to happen at all in the US, within the US system, seems it will require a significant amount of strength in, and pressure from, the working class. I’m not sure it would happen at all at this stage, without some kind of major electoral win in a genuinely working class party; and if that was achieved, it would mean there is at the very least some kind of strengthened reform movement that likely has some communist cadres supporting it, if not directly involved. Right now, it’s sort of just the red and blue corporations swapping turns on who screws people over.
I guess what I’m getting at is, at least in the context of the US, I’m not sure significant reform is even possible without having a much better organized working class. And if the working class is much better organized, that means it’s much more feasible to galvanize them in general. This would not necessarily be the same situation as if the US were to have had universal healthcare for decades and had made the working class mostly toothless at some point after amid the full bore Red Scare, while slowly eating away at the healthcare system (my rough understanding is that’s more how it is in some of the european capitalist countries).
there are no communist parties in the US, except in embyronic or party-building formation, to my understanding (unless you count the CPUSA). if anyone is working to ‘overthrow’ anything, they certainly won’t succeed anyways. the choices are ‘America’ (the US) or ‘America’ (social-democratic US) for the time being
Look at what they have achieved in the last 30 years and that will answer your question
Other than the CPUSA, DSA, and ACP you can’t really say for sure controlled opposition, but suspiciously funded infantile orgs that do more harm than good run rampant. Something’s definitely up with the RCP and their cult leader bob avikan and the millionaire founders of PSL are sus… these trotskyist/marcyite orgs may not be intentionally controlled opposition but they haven’t done much past newspapers and podcasts as per the tradition. The vanguard party sure hasn’t shown up yet at the very least and the prison system, drug trade, and surveillance state has done a phenomenal job putting potential revolutionaries trying to set one up behind bars.
Other than the CPUSA, DSA, and ACP you can’t really say for sure controlled opposition
Do you mean that the CPUSA, DSA, and ACP are controlled opposition?
CPUSA and DSA have consistently been used to funnel leftists into the democrat party. There have been efforts to radicalize these orgs from the ground up but because of routine liquidations and undemocratic election of leadership they have failed and any attempt at using their resources for good fall flat. The general makeup of these orgs are also very liberal, with the occasional exception to the rule. I recall CPUSA liquidating a chapter through accusations of “black nationalism” and following the black panther playbook, the continual normalization of zionism within the DSA and gutting of anti-zionist resolutions, and the clockwork endorsement and aiding of the democratic party for both (as well as the pool of up and coming democrat “leftists” that DSA serves as). The way these orgs are setup, their connection to the state and the democratic party, it all reads as controlled opposition to me.
ACP is a bit of a different beast, but they have such a strange amount of money and Jackson Hinkle showing up on Chinese television, giving Maduro a brief interview on Venezualan TV, the speech he gave to the houthis, the day 1 ACP meeting with the CPRF, it’s all incredibly sus. I can’t help but see it as an attempt to make sure communist curious white men become fanatic yankee chauvinists, building this “anti-woke” communism that will be used to give communism a horrible face that plays into the stereotypes it already has and to bash actually existing attempts at building socialism. I could very well also see that they’re being used by the state as a means to communicate with anti-US forces as the CPUSA was back in the day. It feels like an updated version of the CPUSA, with our current day’s version of US nationalism and a (scary) youthful energy to the thing. They are the ultimate settler communist org, and I really, really hope they never become influential in any meaningful way.
I’m apart of CPUSA, though may leave.
No, we are not controlled opposition.
CPUSA has said they are unwilling to vanguard on there own website, called the PRC a naiton with 9 parties in congress a 1 party state and has implied that AES is not democratic in a few of there publications
lets also add to this that EVERY ELECTION they just suport the dems, no calls to withold votes, no trying to run a canidate of there own that while it may be bad electoraly would be able to show that not everyone suports the dems
they eject the only 2 chapters that opposed Isn’treal and invited an speaker from Isreal that spoke in favor of zionism to one of there confrences
they are either woefully incompetent, or they are controlled oposition, or both
Can you please add the sources for these? I would love to have them.
None of that is true. The CPUSA members know that the PRC is a nation with multiple parties and have said so. Never has it implied that AES is not democratic, judging by their works on Cuba and Laos and Vietnam. Also, in most elections, they don’t support the Dems and even had a schism over support of Democrats. They’ve run multiple candidates throughout the country recently.
Also, the whole organization opposes Israel and they ejected those two chapters because they were doxxing people, including a friend of mine, and the speaker was a communist who couldn’t say much about his actual politics who was later ejected from the Knesset.
They are not incompetent or controlled opposition. We’ve had several gains under Joe Sims compared to John Bachtell, such as the Amazon Workers Union.
^ This is my reply to the other person.
None of that is true. The CPUSA members know that the PRC is a nation with multiple parties and have said so. Never has it implied that AES is not democratic, judging by their works on Cuba and Laos and Vietnam. Also, in most elections, they don’t support the Dems and even had a schism over support of Democrats. They’ve run multiple candidates throughout the country recently.
Also, the whole organization opposes Israel and they ejected those two chapters because they were doxxing people, including a friend of mine, and the speaker was a communist who couldn’t say much about his actual politics who was later ejected from the Knesset.
They are not incompetent or controlled opposition. We’ve had several gains under Joe Sims compared to John Bachtell, such as the Amazon Workers Union.
Why are you planning to leave to the CPUSA?
I’ve tired myself out.
What do you mean? In which way?
Just hard to keep at it. I’ve been at it for 5 years and it gets tiresome after a while. It’s best I bow out for now.
Wow, I didn’t know that being in a communist party was such a big time and energy commitment.
It kinda is!
It depends how much you’re doing and what’s happening and what’s happening in your life as well.
Why does CPUSA continuously advocate for voting democrat every election? We’ve had this conversation before and I linked direct articles from CPUSA dating all the way back to Obama where they repeatedly tell their members to vote democrat.
Yes, during the Sam Webb years.
But things have been changing.
Even so, we already run our own candidates and try to be in good standing with Dems on the local level, for example, Dem-aligned groups and so on.