/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

>>2199761
I should have said, "the failure of the left in America," but I guess we're all Americans at the end of the day…

your situation sounds remarkably similar to mine. i bet this kinda thing is common. all i'm gonna say is that, it's easy to forget, but material conditions radicalize "normal" people more than ideas. Like certain people can be well off in the 1st world and become Communist because they're convinced it's the right idea. But most people, they're going to turn on capitalists once they see their lives get measurably very quickly. Sometimes I'm worried about it not getting bad fast enough. That people will just put up with a decline in their quality of life from one generation to the next as long as it's a slight decline. Maybe it takes a rapid decline. Most revolutions in the past had this in common: A rapid decline in the average quality of life, civil war, invasion, occupation, famine, disease. These are the really radicalizing things. You step in with the theory during these moments. On boring days most people are gonna tune you out. History has to be actively proving you right in a way that is viscerally and actively being felt by the people not simply calculated to be correct from a numb distance.

>How to awoken the masses?
Sincerity. I am a sincere person. I don't even enjoy life on this Earth really. Let me die first. I will die before my acolytes.

>>2199840
From a conversation between Mao and Brazilian communists in the 1960s.

>You can resort to semi-legal activities, openly publish periodicals, not be banned. The cadres and party members can openly carry out mass work, develop the party’s organization – all of this is advantageous. What’s not advantageous is this: this sort of situation is not seen as very good for a revolutionary’s toughening, there is no white terror. Our party was always illegal. We had two instances of cooperation with the Guomindang. The first time was from 1924 to 1927, three years. We used the conditions of cooperation to develop party and mass movement, and carried out some military work. In preparing and carrying out the Northern Expedition, we obtained [nawo] some troops. Party membership reached 50,000. But at the time the Party did not have the consciousness, was not prepared for a serious attack by the capitalist class, was not prepared to oppose white terror. The emphasis was placed at the time on the aspect of organizing a mass movement, including the peasant movement, but this organized several million peasants under our leadership. Though the peasantry [sic, possibly “the party?”] had some weapons, it was not prepared for white terror. In 1927 white terror began, we fell into a hasty position.

>We have told of this experience to many parties, for instance the Indonesian Party, the Japanese Party, letting them use if for reference. In general, there is day when one can meet with this sort of situation. We proposed that they prepare themselves mentally and organizationally, and also, if possible, prepare themselves militarily. But who really taught us to pick up arms? It is not that we taught ourselves. It was imperialism and its running dog Chiang Kai-shek. They taught us by resorting to white terror. We had no other way, only to grasp weapons. Out of 50,000 party members, not many were left. Some were killed, others turned allegiance. The third part turned negative and left the party. The fourth part are those who remained – it’s the few of us. Out of 50,000 party members, only a few thousand remained, less than 10,000, less than one fifth. Similar with your party, which also has a few thousand. We few were not killed, and did not turn allegiance, but were not willing to give up, wanted to continue the struggle.

>Where did we struggle? It was impossible to do in the city. In the city it was only possible to preserve some strength to conduct underground work, we were forced to go to the countryside. I personally did not go to university. Who among them (pointing to Deng Xiaoping and other comrades) went to university? None did. I did not go to university, comrade Liu Shaoqi did not go to university. Comrade Zhou Enlai did not go to university. Comrade Deng Xiaoping did not go to university. Our Central Committee has very few people who went to university. My social profession is elementary school teacher. I also did some newspaper work. The party’s work is to grasp the labor movement, to grasp the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle. During the first period of cooperation between the Guomindang and the CCP, before Guomindang captured power, we used the Guomindang’s signboard as a cover to develop the labor movement. I also studied class relations in the countryside, organized village movement schools [sic, find the right term], such as the Guangzhou peasant movement lecture and study circle. But can one say that I really understood the peasants. No. Who chased out Marxist-Leninist intellectuals from the cities and up the mountains to become guerillas? It was Chiang Kai-shek’s white terror. There was no other way. There was only one road – to go into the mountains to become guerillas. Once we started fighting, we fought for 22 years, all the way until 1949, when at last Chiang Kai-shek was chased out of the mainland.

>It was only when we spent ten years in guerilla warfare that we were really able to understand peasants. The main method was to hold conversations with peasants in the base guerilla areas, to understand their situation. The main shortcoming of the intellectuals (which city workers also have) is that they really don’t understand the countryside, their flavor is the intellectuals’ flavor, out of tune with the peasants. I think that Juliao is like that, as a result peasant don’t trust them. They just look at them and know the flavor is wrong, different from theirs, they won’t speak their mind to you. When you speak to him, pull out a notebook to make notes, he is afraid you are writing things down to rectify him. It’s like Russia’s Narodniks: they advanced the motto of going among the people, but the peasants did not trust them, in fact they were a party of the capitalist class. These experiences – perhaps comrades have already told you – but I feel like I have a duty to tell you once again. For now you don’t have white terror. This is because your country still does not have a real revolutionary situation and a real revolutionary movement. The capitalist class does not yet feel there is necessity to unleash white terror against you, and even more does not feel that there is such a necessity in opposing the old party. The old party has already become a tool of the capitalist class. But when you really start up a wide mass movement, touch their rule, touch their ownership, at that time imperialism, the big landlords, comprador capitalist class will bring down their hand. Cuba’s experience is like that.
https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/record-conversation-chairman-maos-reception-delegation-brazilian-communist-party-new-party

>>2199761
Your problem is that, like the majority of the western left you are an idealist. Your theory of change is that people need to have the right ideas first, you have this fantasy in your head of a revolution that will never come if the most radical thing you can do is read.

Some of the best people who are advancing a revolutionary socialist cause, don't even use the word and *gasp* haven't read Marx. They ACT, because actions require a sacrifice and if people see you sacrificing something then they will at least consider if what you're doing is right.

Not saying theory is bad, but quoting theory at people is not going to work one bit, because they will interpret you as arrogant.

>>2199761
>How to awoken the masses?
Three entire days without food.

>>2199957
You still need a considerable amount of people with understanding. But to convince them I feel you don’t need to directly explain the theory, but rather explain how the institutions are designed to exploit them. How their problems have a cause, and there is a solution.

The biggest ideological enemy is hopelessness and the notion that reality can’t be changed. I was radicalized by Chomsky, watching his YouTube videos first. Nobody ever in real life approached me, nowhere to find leftist literature, etc. I blame the left for its propaganda ineptitude

Reality radicalizes people, trying to evangelize can only ever hurt your cause

>>2200042
>Three entire days without food.
Three entire hours without burger.

>>2200042
>Three entire days without food.
Unfeasible for the majority of places. Both the market and the security state know the potential for such occurrences. Which also require a lot of work to destroy a lot of food stocks. And there is still the problem of response time. People and places keep food around them. To actually "run out of food beyond a "shortage" of certain goods or a "food run" takes a long time and is a gradual development.

Electricity, though… isn't. Electric grid equipment, beyond the production points isn't heavily guarded either. It's a nearly instant off switch with nearly instant grave consequences at a personal and economic level and there is a lot less effort needed to achieve a regional blackout. Unlike food which is a commodity for trade, the maintenance of the grid is a cost of business often skimped on, or delegated to the liberal state(which also does the same) as a sort of insurance policy in case of damages to sue the state for.

>communism as an ideology in the marketplace of ideas
>le masses
It's terminal retardation.