Welcome one and all to the weekly discussion thread, the time tested and honored tradition of our group. I am sorry however due to renovations on the GZD cabin, we must hold this discussion thread outside, I sincerely hope this does not cause anyone an inconvenience
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There’s some sort of constant anger caused by turning communist that I can’t really seem to deal with. I feel like I can’t always channel it into positive energy for organizing and it sometimes burns me out.
Municipality elections will be in three weeks and we have a good chance of winning in my city. Polls have us at 25% of the votes. So even though organizing feels painfully slow, we do have the figures to show us it is working.
I’m also worried about winning the election and getting in a possible position of power.
My main reason is that we will never get >50% and we will have to form a coalition with socdems, greens and possibly christian democrats at best. I’ve voiced my concerns about this on several occasions but I never got a clear answer for the tactics behind a coalition like that. I’m all for building a party and I understand that in this system we need to make concessions. But it’s another thing to ask your marxist members to defend electoral politics and possible bad takes you will have when governing. The point I’m trying to make is that I’m not wanting to become the thing we are currently fighting against. And the party’s vagueness isn’t helping with that.
Another thing I’m concerned about is the naivety when it comes to defending yourself against counter attacks from the neolibs and the far right. And I don’t mean just through the media either. We are talking about the second largest city in the country which is the home to the second largest port in Europe and the second largest port for petrochemical production/transportation in the world. It is an absolutely crucial city in terms of global supply chains. There is no way in hell our capitalist class and those of other countries are going to let a marxist party govern a city like that. And while I’m sure we can put up a good fight against media campaigns against us, I’m still a bit worried things might get out of hand, possibly even physical seeing how the far right already has militias ready to go.
What about “parallel” organizing? There are other means of building political power the party could focus on or support. Union organizing, tenants unions, strikes, protests, etc. Building power outside the government could help create the pressure needed to push changes within it.
Indeed, I think a party should have both a parliamentary and an extraparliamentary wing that can strengthen and control eachother. As long as the party is involved in the streets revisionism at the parliamentary level is less likely. Just look at Graz in Austria, where the communist party is governing together with Greens and SocDems and they still have a lot of support and still stay true to their ideals.
Sure, and I hope a thing like that will happen. I guess every communist party at one point has to ask themselves these questions when they have a chance of getting in power. But at the same time being pragmatic should only go to a certain length before you start dropping your ideals and I hope we can prevent that.
There’s a book I just learned of from the Rev Left podcast called: “Lenin’s Electoral Strategy from Marx and Engels through the Revolution of 1905: The Ballot, the Streets - or Both” by August Nimtz, that you might be interested in. It discusses Lenin’s feelings on parlimentarianism, I haven’t got a chance to read through it yet, but it sounds like it addresses the same concerns you’re stating.
Here’s the preface: http://www2.hhh.umn.edu/uthinkcache/gpa/globalnotes/Nimtz - Lenin-Preface Vol. 1.pdf
And here’s a link to the book itself:https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1385-the-ballot-the-streets-or-both
I don’t know the policy here on ‘high seas’ material, but I can PM you a link to a digital copy if you want ;)
That’s awesome, I hadn’t heard of Graz before.
Inside-outside strategy always works, imho
You need to fire on all cylinders.
Support your candidate, but also, help unions and the needy.
Yeah, being prepared for a position of power is… something.
“we have a good chance of winning in my city.”
That’s great! And yeah, organizing is always painfully slow, in my book.
Anger burns you out.
Every. Time.
It doesn’t drive you; it does the opposite. It’s not a drive, but a bumper.
I’m feeling upset by how few people care about what’s happening in Lebanon
Take a look at my babies:
I love them
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I am contemplating publishing more articles about Finland during the Fascist era. I think that we get really annoyed when generic antisocialists suddenly suspend their ‘antifascist’ pretensions to defend Finland’s negotiations and collaborations with Europe’s Fascist empires, and seeing what it is that they’re unintentionally(?) defending should be pretty embarrassing for them.
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Even if they manage to destroy the airforce (something Russia didn’t do to Ukraine) the U.S. will just lend them or bomb by themselves
That will force the US to engage in a way they did not want to, right now they are able to have the lease plausable of plausable denyabilities, once they engage all of that is out of the window, and they cannot claim the defender roll
Ugh. Definitely possible, although that would be a change from the current US position of pretending it’s restraining “israel” to being directly involved.
I hope you all have a nice week :D
Am I never allowed to have a Meh week, some weeks I just want a Meh week
Meh week? Not possible now 😆
I 2 want funny video from Oppo, otherwise how am I going to have a nie swiek?
:D
XD
That’s pretty much my kid’s energy all day!
Hope you do as well :)
innuendo spoiler
Cute ass!
But in all seriousness, incredibly cute donkey. And what expressive ears!
U2
Umm… That’s clearly a dog
You too oppo :D
opo
Does anybody else think that Dan Osborn sounds suspiciously like a protofascist?
At first he seems okay: he is a labor union leader with some proletarian experience, he supports a minimum wage, accessible abortions, is critical of corporations, he opposes a Republican candidate, and he is even interested in protecting some undocumented workers. So far, so good.
Then looking into his policies, that was when I started worrying: he supports small businesses, he favors stricter border control, and he brags about his military background. Although he does not appear to own a business, his wife works as a general manager of a bar and grill in Omaha. There is also this:
When I learn that somebody has a military background, it tends to concern me but it is not necessarily a major obstacle to cooperation either. When somebody has a military background and misrepresents small business as an alternative to big business, that is when my alarm bells go off. I know that Osborn seems moderate or innocent now, but I’ll be unsurprised if his politics evolve the same way that Oswald Mosley’s did. Call me paranoid if you must.
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High Atlas Mountains , Marrakesh , Morocco .
week
have
Indeed
Have a good week
You too :D
Thank you Oppo
due to my circunstamces ive met many petit bourgeois and a few very wealthy people, and i am glad to say that they are completely stupid 😅
gonna be honest i only wear a mask when i go to densely populated places like a supermarket, most of the time i dont wear a mask. My job is open air (in agriculture) so i dont wear a mask most of the time.
As someone who lives in hell (suburbia) I feel you. I’ve actually pretty much never seen heavily populated places except school and China.
I found out about the struggle session during the aftermath and made me feel guilty lol but not everyone lives in the same conditions.
There’s a rumour at my place of work about a coworker getting on the list for our party for the upcoming municipality elections, which is a touchy subject for my place of work.
Thing is, I know every party member, both out AND undercover, working at my place and nobody seems to know who it would be. I even scanned our list of reps to see if I recognize anyone but nope. It’s probably a big nothing burger but it’s funny to hear.
playing among us irl
You know the Statesian tennis player (Emma Navarro) who threw a tantrum after losing to a Chinese player (Zheng Qinwen) at the Olympics? Well, at the Beijing Open yesterday, she lost to another Chinese player (Zhang Shuai), in the second round. One who had the longest losing streak in history recently.
I’m in Guatemala.
Cool
