The keystone authorities in the application of dialectical materialism to political problems, from the Bolsheviks in Russia to Mao and Ho Chi Minh in East Asia, have all postulated that socialism cannot be developed in a universalist sense; that there is no one size fits all model for achieving the revolution and Marxists should instead seek to adapt their doctrines to the specific national circumstances of their time and place.
This process of adaptation is most evidently the case with Mao’s application of Marxism-Leninism to the national characteristics of his native China in the early 20th century, from which he and his cadre was able to identify a method and programme through which to build and organise a mass movement capable of not only seizing order out of the chaos of the Chinese civil war but also subsequently establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat capable of both effectively governing their country while at the same time quashing push back from reactionary social forces bent on safeguarding the old feudal privileges of the old society.
If the principles of this theory hold true, it should be possible to analyse the national circumstances of 21st century American society and identify a modus operandi for developing dual power, with an eventual mind to overturn the old society and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. What American social phenomena do you think demand adaptations necessary for the organisation of an American mass movement capable of carrying a proletarian revolution through to it’s conclusion? What is your analysis of American society? What obstacles stand in the way of class consciousness, what is the mechanism of their action and how do we defeat them?
The idea isn’t to exclude the working white masses from the revolution because even though they benefit from the oppression that USA is founded on, they are oppressed themselves in one way or another.
My point was that a movement in USA to unite the working people will not have the idelogical basis to succeed as long as imperialism is not addressed as the major force it is in shipping the contradictions of its capitalist society to the global south. There can be many ways to deal with this. Like disseminating propaganda that makes it clear to the people what the role of imperialism is. Or something like the global south freeing itself from imperialist chains so that the USAmerican society is forced to come face to face with the contradictions of capitalism, with no imperialism to ameliorate their life despite the ongoing oppression.
Here’s also why I think BIPOC masses of USA have an important role to play because they, especially African-Americans and the indigenous Americans, almost feel like countries on their own where they are used as tools to uphold USAmerican society while themselves being locked away from the opportunities that the USA has to offer. They are suited better as a group to understand the role of imperialism and why it needs to be done away with.
One thing I haven’t seen articulated too often is what has to come first. Does the US have to fall before imperialism is stopped (the intuitive position) or does imperialism have to stop before the US falls (the not so intuitive position)? Here you are making the case that the US cannot see a change unless imperialism stops but also, how will imperialism ever stop if the US does not change?
We are already deep into uncharted territory but a lot of it depends on to what extent USA and allies are willing to go to war when their hegemony is threatened. Personally I see something like China’s belt and road initiative (something like that if not exactly that) to help in the transfer of knowledge that would enable the downtrodden nations especially the ones in Africa and Middle East to cast off the chains of IMF debt traps and of the hyper-specialised industrial bases that come with it and able to achieve the basic requirements of self-sustenence like food security.
The reason I see this as the more important factor is that anti-war movements of all flavours in the USA have not been able to achieve much and the country has proceeded to squat in all corners of the world without any serious opposition. Despite this, countries like Venezuela, Cuba, DPRK, etc. have managed to resist USAmerican imperiliasm with varying degrees of success. As long as some threat of nuclear weapons exists on the side of these countries, the chances of an all out war will be curtailed to some extent.
I don’t know how history will play out but I feel one of the winning scenarios, if one does exist before civilisation is devoured by climate change, could look something like this.
I wasn’t talking about anti-war movements though. I was referring to a case of US collapse where logistical support would be cut off from the military, forcing a withdrawal. In other words, material action. Let’s be honest, peaceful protesting and anti-war marches of the like are ultimately just noise to an uncaring ruling class.
Why do you think they haven’t done this yet? Why would they even need the aid of the PRC in the first place?
For many reasons. A lot of countries have bourgeois states that are aligned to NATO and don’t have the political will to like in India. Then there are countries who don’t have the knowledge and technological basis since their economies since their inception have been centred around catering to the imperialist core.
The need for aid from PRC or somewhere else comes from the fact that diffusion of knowledge is right now the biggest driver in increasing output. Unless all countries simultaneously turn communist, this can be one of the ways in which the unipolar economic hegemony is disturbed and the unequal terms of trade that come with it.
Sure, but your answers don’t really get to the root of the issues. Why are these countries bourgeois states? Why are they aligned with NATO? Why DON’T they have the political will?
I can’t speak for every country like that. India gained independence primarily due to the effects of WW2 on England and the Atlantic Charter and the independence thus gained was on their terms, which meant they could choose to give the state powers to a political party that allied with England like the Indian National Congress. Brazil is aligned with the USA because they helped install Bolsonaro after a judicial coup etc.
Right, but my point was, why even bother with the IMF? Just say fuck it and do what Sankara did.
I wish. Even Venezuela have paid off their IMF debt.
India is a special case like Brazil and Colombia where it is an appendage of NATO outside the Euro-American geography. We have been doing S-tier bootlicking where we blocked IMF’s SDRs (basically emergency money) for poor countries to appease the USA and have joined them in being hostile towards China while China has been building alliances with Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. I don’t think our current government even considers throwing off the yoke of imperialism as a priority, ironic considering our fascist rhetoric motto is “self-sufficiency”. And the ruling party faces no credible threats because the rest are liberal failures who got us where we are or toothless idpoliticians who are unable to enact any changes in the rare occassions they have come to power. The main communist party are socdem revisionists and the only revolutionaries are fighting a losing battle alongside indigenous tribals.
Covid could change the climate but that remains to be seen. I have also been doing a terrible.job at keeping up with current events due to personal issues.