#leftism – @kropotkindersurprise on Tumblr

Anonymous asked:

any chance you could explain your perspective on the rift between anarchists and MLs/communists/socialists/etc? i understand there's some methodological disagreements, like anarchists would never place their hope for revolution in a socialist/communist/etc political party, but i've genuinely heard self-proclaimed anarchists refer to "communists" with such disdain and it just makes me go ?????? we (anarchists) are also communists?? we ultimately want the same things - communism is a STATEless classless moneyless society. just, what's going on here??? surely this is not the best use of our time?

anarchistfrogposting answered:

I used to be pretty hardcore about hating on MLs etc. in my defence, some of them can be pretty annoying, but I’m sure much the same is true of anarchists if you’re stood on the other side of the argument.

One thing that is almost certainly and provably true is that the overwhelming majority of radical leftists believe what they believe because, at their core, they think the current state of society is unjust, and want to work to build a better one.

But I also don’t think the argument that runs something like “we’re all just communists with different methods of getting to communism” holds much water. I don’t think anarchists can completely work with their ideological opponents; the belief that hierarchies are unjust and need to be dismantled is fundamentally incompatible with the idea that you need a centralised proletarian vanguard that derives its power from the representative democracy of workers councils. There has been significant and bloody conflict between both camps for a reason.

On the other hand, right now, those conflicts are petty and ridiculous when neoimperialism and neoliberalism continue their stranglehold over society and economy. I have worked and do work with many MLs/Trots/Maoists etc., and we need some serious solidarity with the left right now.

When millions struggle to meet their basic needs, when the proles are beaten and killed in the streets simply for asking for their basic rights, when the rights of minority classes are routinely and systematically infringed upon and reversed, when the whole planet is choking and dying, what does your opinion on a worker’s vanguard matter? People don’t even have their basic rights. It’s petty and useless to badmouth obvious allies in a struggle that is right on our doorstep.

anarchistfrogposting

Left unity is achievable, feasible, and critically important right fucking now. Stand with the people who fight for and alongside you.

#anarchism #communism #leftism #activism #unity

kropotkindersurprise

Anonymous asked:

How out of touch can you possibly be when you say a good way to start doing praxis is look for local groups? That might work if you lived in a big ass city, but many people don't. Hell, there aren't even demonstrations where I live if im not doing them. You anarkiddies talk about the working class, but you have no connection to or knowledge of the working class outside of your local area 💀

Sometimes people live in different conditions or different places than you. I know this must be confusing for you, but its true.

It sounds like you live somewhere like antarctica, or perhaps the sahara desert, where there are no near-by cities or towns at all. In that case it would indeed be a better idea to start your own group without checking, I agree. In many other places if you look around you will find other leftists already organising near you, even if its just small groups.

But seriously, OBVIOUSLY the first thing you do when you start being interested in organising is looking for local groups. And then by looking you might find out there are no local groups, or that they used to exist but are no longer active. This might mean you can contact people from previously active groups, or that you need to start your own new one, but then you actually know, and can connect to local historical struggles possibly. Often you dont have to invent the wheel of left-wing organisation all by yourself.

I'm not saying you should expect to find antifascists or communists or anarchists in the closest small town to you, but for most people there will be SOME kind of organisation in the closest medium-sized town to you, either now or historically.

What an incredibly weirdly passive-aggressive message.

#Anonymous #ask #organising #tumblr #leftism #socialism #communism #anarchism

kropotkindersurprise reblogged

generalstrikefarm

amelsewhere

queeranarchism

(we do not need 9 propagandists for each fighter though. Check your other options before you decide to start yet another podcast.)

kropotkindersurprise

if you feel like you absolutely HAVE TO start a podcast ( or gif blog :v ), make sure you also get involved in other ways. Posting ain't praxis.

#activism #leftism #anti-capitalism #praxis #anarchism #socialism #communism #antifa #antifascism #antifascist action #tactics #propaganda

kropotkindersurprise reblogged

taubeki-deactivated20180805

kropotkindersurprise

[video]

What are these other ones? *attempts vigilance with cultural magoo eyes*

kropotkindersurprise

One is the Meander symbol, used by the Greek neonazi party Golden Dawn:

The other I believe is the Serbian cross, used by Serbian nationalists:

The Serbian cross is not a symbol used by Serbian nationalists it is one of the traditional symbols of Serbia and Serbs that appears everywhere from the flag of Serbia to the flag of the Serbian orthodox church. Comparing it to the Golden Dawn symbol and to the nazi swastika is frankly disgusting

That’s ignoring the fact that the video is from Greece so either the Greek nationalists have started using it for their own purposes (doubtful) or that is not a Serbian cross but rather a poorly drawn tetragrammic cross.

kropotkindersurprise

How is it not a Nationalist symbol if it’s the national symbol of Serbia? The video that the gifs are from is a mobilisation video for the pan-balkan anti-nationalist march in Thessaloniki.

Yes a national symbol not a nationalist symbol. The Meander is a nationalist symbol but the greek flag is a national symbol altough it too is used by nationalists. Do you not see the difference? If the serbian cross should be crossed out than so should the croatian chequy, the montenegrin eagle, the macedonian sun… And still to compare any of those symbols to the nazi swastika is disgusting.

kropotkindersurprise

Of course the Greek flag is also a Nationalist symbol. National/nationalist symbols are often quite harmless in one context, and a sign of far-right nationalism or fascism in another context, see the Flemish and Dutch lion, the French fleur-de-lys, the turkish moon and star et cetera. Another Serbian person commented on this post earlier complaining about the Serbian cross being graffitied everywhere in Belgrade, do you think that’s not being done by nationalists?

Anyway; This is the final graffiti it was part of, you can follow the link in the original post to try to convince the makers of it that it’s not a nationalist symbol, but I assume they picked the symbols from personal experience on what is being used by nationalists in their area.

Hello, a Serb checking in!

The Serbian cross isn’t necessarily a sign of nationalism/fascism, unlike, say, the Nazi swastika or the Meander; its primary purpose is to represent Serbian culture, language and the Serbian people as a whole. Conflating it with symbols specifically designed to spread bigotry and hatred is absolutely disgusting.

… With all that said, though, the symbol is nonetheless often used to represent Serbian ultra-nationalism, neo-Nazism and fascism. Like @kropotkindersurprise mentioned, if one sees a graffiti of the Serbian cross in some public area, the chances are it’s being used to represent the vile shit I just mentioned.

Combating nationalism, fascism, xenophobia and capitalism is incredibly important regardless of one’s ethnicity, race or nationality. Never forget that.

#reblog #discourse #leftism #fascism #antifa #serbia