I think as Marxist-Leninists we can all agree that organization is one of the most important if not primary struggle we engage. We want as many people in our cause as possible. The armed struggle is something we acknowledge to be a possibility in the future, once we’ve built dual power. But on the other hand we also have to do an analysis on the situation of our nations and what contradictions exist in them. In most cases one engages in the political and economic struggle at the same time but there is one case that flips this on its head. Fascism.

In a liberal democracy we are “free” to engage in our agitation and organization, well before armed struggle is needed. It takes time for revolutions to mature to an armed struggle. Fascism or rising fascism changes the struggle, it flips it from needed to organize to armed resistance. We know what happened in Germany and all other fascist countries to established left wing parties, so the political and organizational struggle is out of the question from a legal standpoint. In a relatively peaceful country, armed struggle is out of the question because it would distance the masses, but in a fascist state it’s the number one priority.

Up to the right wing shootings of protestors I thought that violence was a secondary action or tertiary one, but as I see things I’m beginning to flip what’s the primary form of struggle to the secondary ones. It increasingly seems like armed resistance is possibly taking precedence over organization and the mass line. I want to be careful with what I say here because I don’t want to put this site in jeopardy but, I don’t think the same tactics of “peaceful” organization under a liberal democracy would be a valid tactic in a fascist country. I feel America has gone well beyond the worth of fixating on unions, political organizations, etc. Going from defensive retaliatory actions to direct actions would separate us from the masses but did gaining the acceptance of the masses really matter in fascist Germany?

What I fear is this country pulling us into a war with China, going even more masks off than it already is. Even if we built enough support the government wouldn’t recognize it or negotiate with leaders in which case what is a secondary struggle that could only be done in the case that a movement has time to mature itself to dual power, instead becomes a primary struggle despite the lack of mass support, if only for the sake of resistance, or sending a message.

Just something I’ve been thinking about, do you folks think the possibility still exists to organize peacefully? Or has things changed beyond what we could do before?

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
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    4 years ago

    Organization will always be important, and especially so in case of an armed struggle because such a struggle simply would not be possible without it. I highly recommend reading Lenin’s “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder. Specifically, the Should Revolutionaries Work in Reactionary Trade Unions? chapter dealing with this topic. Any successful revolutionary movement requires acceptance and support of the masses. No serious struggle is possible without it.

  • @TeethOrCoat
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    74 years ago

    do you folks think the possibility still exists to organize peacefully?

    Sure, but to do that requires the left to slip back into irrelevance. Reaction was always going to step up the larger and louder the left gets as we’ve seen so far in the US.

    Regarding that paragraph about war with PRC, I’ll say that if you do indeed have enough support, you can technically stop it without firing a single bullet, although that might require some sacrifices (ok, potentially A LOT of sacrifices). This is done by disrupting logistical function, cutting off food, supplies and whatnot to the military by refusing to work and active sabotage in relevant areas. Of course the possibility of coercion at gunpoint is a thing so that’s why I said sacrifices may be needed. If we want to do logistical disruption without outright massacres, then the armed struggle will have to be included. All of this isn’t relevant without mass support though.

    • @SovietIntlOP
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      34 years ago

      I guess what I’m really asking is whether it’s too late to engage in mass work or whether instead we’re going to have to have a Cuban style revolution working from the mountains etc. Fascism throws a big wrench in proper political organizational work unless we slip so far into fascism that political organization no longer is a valid option and instead insurgency is the only thing left. That is what specifically worries me, the hard work of mass organization is great, when fascism isn’t something we have to worry about. I personally believe America is too far gone from what I’ve personally seen here so it’s quite possible that insurgency will be the only form of resistance in the future, and that all we could hope for is the masses joining us.

      • @TeethOrCoat
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        34 years ago

        In this exact moment? No, it’s not too late to engage in mass work. From what I’ve seen on twitter, there are still comrades doing such work in the US right now.

        Now if you’re asking if it’s too late in an abstract “we must prioritize fighting fascists over feeding communities otherwise we all die” sense, then you and other US comrades would know better than me.

  • @some_random_commie
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    4 years ago

    do you folks think the possibility still exists to organize peacefully?

    You can’t organize parasites into socialism and opposition to imperialism, anymore than you can organize the capitalist class to destroy itself.

    Contrary to those who tell you to read Lenin’s remarks in Left Wing Communism completely out of context, Lenin never gave us any strategy of what to do when the overwhelming majority of workers are beneficiaries of imperialism to such an extent that they themselves are net exploiters. Lenin says don’t bother with red-unions, so long as you can go into the reactionary unions and denounce the leadership as the stooges of capitalism that they are. He doesn’t say go into the imperialist trade union apparatus and try to get workers to abandon their own objective economic interests.

    You could benefit from reading a book like Where were you, brother? An account of Trade Union Imperialism. The imperialist labor bureaucracy is a militant wing of imperialism, actively sabotaging workers on a global scale, in order to increase the imperialist benefits that flow to the workers of the advanced capitalist countries. A more recent book would be Kim Scipes AFL-CIO’s Secret War Against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage?. One thing I found hilarious while reading the book is that Kim Scipes ends up arguing against what he calls “Marxists,” who he says can not explain what he has uncovered! Of course what he actually means is the majority of labor aristocracy denialists masquerading as “Marxists” can’t explain what he is talking about. The David Harveys and Richard Wolffes of the world, when they bother to talk about this at all, even go so far as to champion this crap as a struggle for “union democracy”, such as when they back the struggles of reactionary class collaborationist unions against communist led unions all over the world. For instance, US imperialists have no problems giving millions of dollars to people to organize anti-government unions in China, the sole purpose of which is to attack the government, and perhaps to attempt to create a local labor aristocracy loyal to them. That’s what they did in Circumcised (South) Korea, after all.

    Marxism-Leninism is a failure in the advanced capitalist countries, and always will be, so long as imperialism is able to buy off the majority of the population in the advanced capitalist countries. As far as armed struggle goes, it is likely the only appropriate model would be the one developed by the Blekingegade Gang. With some modifications, their strategy and tactics could be used to cause all sorts of havoc within the imperialist countries, but if you’re expecting any sort of massive guerrilla war to bring to power a communist government, you should sooner expect to see a massive white nationalist insurgency against the US government, especially as imperialism declines.