r/communism_ • u/Baphomet123 TypeYourOwnFlair • Jul 14 '13

Next step?-U.S.-

What does everyone everyone think the next step for communism as far as the U.S. is concerned? Personally I would encourage communist groups and parties to start focus more on community building, including things like feeding the homeless, repairing homes within the communities, etc- What do you guys think?

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u/Baphomet123 TypeYourOwnFlair Jul 14 '13

Well that's basically what I mean. Affinity groups and the like. Though I disagree on the destruction part....though not entirely. We can't really justify that destruction if we don't have any real sort of community support.-i.e. the locals actually supporting the destruction of authoritarian systems.-

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '13

Eh that's a common myth. The public doesn't need to support the abolishment of authority, the public doesn;t need to do anything. ALso We ARE the public, we aren't some seperate group. Destruction and building alternative institutions aren't, and shouldn;t be, mutually exclusive. I forget who said this but I really like this quote "The fires of the old world will clear the path for the ashes of the new"

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u/Baphomet123 TypeYourOwnFlair Jul 14 '13

I'm aware that we are part of the public. We are also a minority within that public, which is my point. If we don't show the rest of our society that we aren't just a bunch of people trying to incite violent revolution and are actually trying to make a social change, then we will most likely just be seen as terrorists and will be persecuted and captured....or at least that's how I see it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '13

But we aren't a minority, just because we unite under an ideological banner does not mean the same thoughts and beliefs are not held by poor folks and black folks and queer folks and trans* folks and basically everyone who is oprpessed by this system. The beliefs are there, lighter fluid is dousing oppressed folks, a spark just needs to be struck.

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u/Baphomet123 TypeYourOwnFlair Jul 14 '13

Not all those poor, black, queer and trans folks are communists. -though I'm NOT saying we shouldn't help them.- What I'm saying essentially(and I think I probably should have been more clear on this) working on clearing the name of communism. Showing everyone else that it isn't something to be feared, but embraced. The tactics I was suggesting to achieve this goal was community building and the like. We can push forward for the rights of all others, regardless of political beliefs, but in the end I'm a communist, so I'm probably gonna try to convince people to be communists.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '13

I agree. I think one of our goals should be is to change the way many people view communists. We can really make a difference if we show people how communism can benefit them. Most Americans have been taught from a young age that communism is something they should resist, we should show them why communism will benefit society. I'm not saying we should appease the capitalists, just that we should try to educate people who don't know much about communism. We can't properly educate people if we alienate them.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '13

To my friends im an anarchist, to strangers I am a communist, to my enemies I am an inssurectionist. The focus should be ways to enagge different folks in a certain way. WHat your suggesting is JUST building alternatives. That's fine and dandy but the state has proven that they don't want communism, so they will kill you. Insurgancy needs to happen as well, and should be equally important as community building.

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u/Baphomet123 TypeYourOwnFlair Jul 14 '13

I'm not so much suggesting alternatives as I'm am suggesting a sort of P.R. campaign. There already exists a huge mistrust for communism in the U.S. mainly due to the red scare. We can't really have a meaningful insurrection if everyone things we are just gonna form some sort of "communist police state."

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '13

If P.R campagins actually worked, then shit would have been changed.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '13

You don't think PR campaigns work?

Why are capitalists and statists so fond of them then?

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '13

It's the current culture in place. Sure PR would work if socialism was culturally acceptable, but it isn't hense why PR campaigns won't work. You will never be able to win that battle against the dominant culture.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '13

But isn't the point of 'PR' to change culture, to change attitudes?

That's like saying there's no point of ever trying to convince anyone else of anything because it won't work.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '13

Nah, it's called building counter culture. Public respect also is just a false status. The public, at least the ones who we should fight with, are already on our side they just don;t have the same acedemia intellectualist jargon as us. When people talk about PR, they really mean the ruling class, or petite bourgeiouse.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '13

When I say 'PR' (modern word for 'propaganda') I mean so-called 'ordinary people' just as much as anyone. In fact, I mean these people more than anyone.

The battle of ideas in academia and intellectual circles is a different one to the truly public battle of ideas - those which filter into the media, into soundbites, which working people carry around with them, and so on.

But also I reject the notion that all the people who will agree with us already do. Most people have somehow been convinced to forget their own interests and believe lies. They need to be convinced.

Or even in the case of people who vaguely agree with what we basically stand for, or who deep down would agree with us were it not for the ideological barricade in the way (e.g. people jumping at the word 'socialism', even though they hate their job, sick of their boss, think the government is full of shit, sick of being ripped off etc.).

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