roseweird posted:

if you live in a part of america with a radical intellectual tradition of sufficient strength to facilitate your belonging to and acting within a party of any meaningful size, chances are you probably live in one of the several large cities in america in which capital is most highly concentrated and most invulnerable—where labor is most transient and vulnerable and distant from mechanisms of real power. the actual basis of american power is in its military class (not revolutionary), its skilled labor and energy extraction (unionized, too well compensated to have revolutionary thoughts, also alienated from revolutionary thoughts due to chattering of arrogant socialist middle class, unwilling to consider its true role in global labor markets and the material basis of its standard of living), and its agricultural output (highly mechanized; owned and administered by concentrations of capital on whose coordination of expertise current methods are dependent; labor-intensive agriculture involving potentially revolutionary groups is confined to profitable luxuries whose harvesting has not been automated, like fruits and vegetables, not infrastructure staples)—probably also on finance in some way that is beyond my idiot understanding. anyway that's how it looks from this college town of bernie lovers in the middle of fucking nowhere here. cheers

i'm down for all of this, though i wonder what room there is for the resurgent class of petite bourgeois artisans in this matrix. y'know, those folks who make the food, the beer, the liquor, the cocktails, or anything else that can be considered "craft" or "artisanal" by those who have the means to consume such products. i personally work and travel within these circles, and am continually frustrated by the extent to which we're perpetually held hostage by the vagaries of upper bourgeois lifestyle.

i'll be honest and say i'm skeptical from the start in attemping to radicalize such folks, given the historical propensity for them to slide into reactionary populism. but the fact remains -- more "craft" businesses spring up every day, leading to increasing precarity for all those involved. it can't last forever, and many folks i know are "feeling the bern". is it worth it to agitate within these circles and risk what little security i've made for myself? or should i write the lot of them off as an ignorant fifth column within the progressive left?

roseweird posted:

its skilled labor and energy extraction (unionized, too well compensated to have revolutionary thoughts, also alienated from revolutionary thoughts due to chattering of arrogant socialist middle class, unwilling to consider its true role in global labor markets and the material basis of its standard of living),

im handing out copies of kruschev lied, settlers and state & revolution at work next week fyi so this should all change fairly quickly

Stalin quoting Lenin in Foundantions of Leninism chapter 4 posted:

In the train of the capitalist exploiters follow the broad masses of the petty bourgeoisie, with regard to whom decades of historical experience of all countries testify that they vacillate and hesitate, one day marching behind the proletariat and the next day taking fright at the difficulties of the revolution; that they become panic-stricken at the first defeat or semi-defeat of the workers, grow nervous, rush about, snivel, and run from one camp into the other" (see Vol. XXIII, p. 355).

Stalin quoting Lenin in Foundantions of Leninism chapter 4 posted:

Wherein lies the strength of the overthrown bourgeoisie?

(...)

Thirdly, "in the force of habit, in the strength of small production. For, unfortunately, small production is still very, very widespread in the world, and small production engenders capitalism and the bourgeoisie continuously, daily, hourly, spontaneously, and on a mass scale"... for "the abolition of classes means only not only driving out the landlords and capitalists-that we accomplished with comparative ease-it also means abolishing the small commodity producers, and they cannot be drive out, or crushed; we must live in harmony with them, they can (and must) be remoulded and re-educated only by very prolonged, slow, cautious organizational work (see Vol. XXV, pp.173 and 189).