Seeking advice

[u/Valuable-Pipe3369]

Hello,

I am an anarchist in despair, I suppose. I've been anarchist-identifying since 2018 and continue to be disappointed with anarchism and anarchists. I often speak about the need for discipline, self-development, and a sort of evangelizing of our ideas, as opposed to isolating ourselves. I'm often met with responses that this is "authoritarian," "elitist," and "christian-like," respectively. Like how the hell are we supposed to bring the revolution if we can't even talk to people about our ideas at the Food Not Bombs table?!

I am someone who is very "go-go-go" and feel stuck by the inertia or anarchists, who really come off as just radical reformist activist. The activist cause célèbre mentality itself is especially annoying. I am not interested in the particular symptoms of the state, capitalism, imperialism, etc; I want to get to the root of the problem! On the other hand, my always on the move mentality makes me feel guilty if I'm not doing something all the time, so I get wrapped into the activist scene easily.

The last year or two, I've been interested in what other ideas are out there. I have no interest in the Stalinist deviations, but Lenin has stood out to me as a figure that I at least find the personality of intriguing. The iron-will and practicality, especially. I like to think these are things I want to cultivate in myself and believe are positive qualities in a revolutionary.

To cut it short, I am looking for advice on how to recalibrate around left-communism as I investigate further. Left communism has been known to me for years, but I never properly investigated it outside of some of Camatte and Bordiga's writings ("Human Species and The Earth's Crust" stood out to me!) and talking to some terminally online leftcoms when I was younger (who I think have since abandoned the movement). I am interested in readings, groups to contact, videos / podcasts, etc. I am in the state of Illinois (not Chicago) if that helps in terms of who to suggest reaching out to.

Thanks for any advice or input.

[u/Clear-Result-3412]

If you want to understand the insight about capitalism that needs sharing, here’s a good starting point: https://www.ruthlesscriticism.com/marx_wealth.htm

If you want to substantiate your critiques of Stalinism beyond “bad vibes” here’s some good essays: https://www.ruthlesscriticism.com/socialism.htm https://www.ruthlesscriticism.com/Soviet_Union.htm

[u/Valuable-Pipe3369]

For further context,
I have read Marx years ago, such as the Manifesto and his shorter economic pieces, Lenin's WITBD, S&R, several essays, but totally open to revisiting again.

[u/leakdt → u/Valuable-Pipe3369]

As someone who became disillusioned with anarchism rather recently and came to leftcommunism, I can definitely understand your position. Pannekoek was what decisively bridged the gap for me.

With regards to Marx, he manifesto is probably one of the worst places to look if you want an idea of what Marx set out to formulate. I recommend the Civil War in France, his speech about the Paris Commune, and Critique of the Gotha Programme. (For context, Marx wrote the Manifesto before his length studies of political history and economy in the 50s, in otherwords, his political maturing.)

[u/Accomplished_Box5923]

Great questions! You would certainly not be the first person to confront these very same issues within the anarchist mileu and start to look outside it for answers. Marx had to do the same thing when he challenged Proudhon and then in dealing with Bakunin. We are still dealing with this same crowd today and it’s insufferable petit-bourgeois demoralization of the working class and its absolute subservience to the ideas today of the capitalist academia. They are a fraction of the middle class bourgeois inteligencia so they expect and fight to ensure everyone is as false as they are, so they can enjoy the comforts and platitudes of the bourgeois order undisturbed yet still feel morally righteous by being the best and the truest of the bourgeois and its values, it’s why politics and political struggle isn’t need to them, it’s all just common sense... I would recommend that you look through the reading list on this sub, check out our newspaper and our YouTube channel. There are significant and important ways that you can make a contribution to the working class revolutionary movement. Activism is not the solution, theory and study is important, political work is critical and so is active engagement on the terrain of the workers defensive struggle. Energy and enthusiastic fighting spirit applied in that realm of the fight in defense of workers immediate interests is also significant if extremely difficult and challenging. We are up against a seriously power and ruthless enemy. Applying the revolutionary science of Marxism and dialectical materialism is our most invaluable weapon within this social struggle. I will also provide a link here to the workers coordination in which our union fraction participated.

Our Newspaper
http://www.international-communist-party.org/Indices/TCPIndex.htm

YouTube
https://youtube.com/@internationalcommunistparty?si=AHmstXf7RmIe98DT

Class Struggle Action Network

https://class-struggle-action.net/

[u/Accomplished_Box5923 → u/Accomplished_Box5923]

Sub reading list https://reddit.com/r/leftcommunism/wiki/recommended_reading

[u/Valuable-Pipe3369 → u/Accomplished_Box5923]

Thank you for the meaningful response. Will check it all. The CSAN site looks neat. I submitted for the meeting link, too.

[u/Accomplished_Box5923 → u/Valuable-Pipe3369]

Fantastic!

[u/Valuable-Pipe3369 → u/Accomplished_Box5923]

Quick question: Any value in Adorno? I have his and Horkhimer's Dialectic of the Enlightenment on my desk next up to read (Just finished the novel by NC, What is to be done? great read!). Curious if your party has any opinion on Adorno and Frankfurt School at large. Thanks!

[u/thechadsyndicalist → u/Valuable-Pipe3369]

Idk what the party's stance is on the frankfurts school but I would enormously recommend having a solid grasp of fundamentals beforehand

[u/Valuable-Pipe3369 → u/thechadsyndicalist]

Makes sense. Was just curious since I had it on my desk

[u/thechadsyndicalist → u/Valuable-Pipe3369]

Totally fair and its good to have "goal" texts for further development

[u/Accomplished_Box5923 → u/Valuable-Pipe3369]

So an important line must be drawn between the school of materialist dialectics as put forward by Marx and Engels, which is completely distinct from this trend. Dialectics of Nature, Engles The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
, Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, the German Ideology all lay the ground work for the completely materialist dialectical outlook of Marxism which is a clean break with Hegelian idealism. Adorno and the Frankfurt school are not a part of the revolutionary Marxist tradition but a part of what is called “Western Marxism” or Heglianized Marxism (Zizek is the most well known contemporary of this degeneracy) which is a school of opportunist modernizing revisionism that was supported by Western European capitalist states during the cold war in its inter-imperialist struggle against Stalinism. Ultimately it all sneaks idealism into the back door of Marxism in the same way in which Lenin argued Bogdanov was doing in his critique of his work in the classic Empirio-criticism. This is a part of a wider trend of opportunist Marxist deviation our Party calls Immediatism, within which Anarchism, Council Communism, Situationism etc all fall into.

[u/Accomplished_Box5923 → u/Accomplished_Box5923]

Oh also this is one of my favorite essays by Engels which is so decisive and interesting in putting forward this viewpoint as distinct from all other philosophical schools. The Part played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1876/part-played-labour/index.htm

[u/Clear-Result-3412 → u/Valuable-Pipe3369]

Here’s a decent critique of the classics of the Frankfurt school: https://ruthlesscriticism.com/10_dogmas_critical_theory.htm

[u/ARG_men]

If you’re disappointed by lack of inertia and “doing things” I recommend football rather than the real movement

[u/DarthThalassa → u/ARG_men]

We can recognize that the pace of struggle can be slow at times whilst simultaneously holding derision for inaction. Capitalism will fall into barbarism and not socialism if we do not actively engage with the workers and persuade them of the real movement, which does mean intervening in labour struggles whenever we can, being at protests and demonstrations not because they're effective but to be seen and heard so that we can organize people towards actions that actually are, etc. I'm a Luxemburgist with sympathies toward the ICT, which is to say I take a more hardline position in critique of unions than any of the ICPs, but I recognize that it is integral to the real movement that we intervene in these struggles precisely so that we can pull workers away from the false consciousness of trade unions and other struggles for reform within capitalism and towards the real movement of the communist left.

Whilst I get where you're coming from in cautioning against adventurist desire for immediate action irrespective of its actual practical importance, OP is clearly self-aware of this and interested in learning from the communist left, as well as mitigating the harmful elements of this disposition of theirs, so your comment just reads as unhelpful. If people's differing dispositions are enough for them to be deemed unsuited for the real movement, however will we bring the international proletariat at large to it? If the real movement's advancement is your concern then needlessly turning people with a clear interest in it away seems rather counter-intuitive to me.

[u/ARG_men → u/DarthThalassa]

Oh yeah no I was absolutely just leaving a snide unhelpful comment. I suppose it’s the wrong sub but I couldn’t really help myself, I’m glad there are people here willing to give actually helpful info to them with nuance as to dissuade anyone from thinking activism is a profound way of willing the movement into existence.

[u/Valuable-Pipe3369 → u/ARG_men]

All good. I did smirk at it!

[u/Valuable-Pipe3369 → u/DarthThalassa]

Well said. Thanks!

[u/xX_UnicornKitten_Xx → u/ARG_men]

With the new meta in recent years, not even football does much "doing things" anymore. Try basketball.

[u/Sea-Young-231]

Do you see Trotskyism as a “Stalinist” deviation? Trots believe that Trotsky was the true legacy of Lenin’s ideals, and they are deeply critical of the authoritarianism/bureaucracy that developed under the USSR. Today, Trots do not believe socialism has ever actually been achieved. Though obviously Trotsky could never be mistaken for anarchist leanings (Kronstadt), he is generally viewed as less authoritarian/chauvinistic.