Received from an my
e-mail:
Though many of us have numerous criticisms of Bernie Sanders,
especially his tendencies toward petty-bourgeois socialism and his weaker than
preferred foreign policy, his political campaign was largely a net good for the
American political discourse. It crops up miles and miles superior to anyone
else running in the Democratic Primary and Sanders was an obvious choice
over Donald Trump. Unlike any other candidate, he brought conversations of
class consciousness to the public spotlight and spoke to the real problems
Americans endure. It is important to know that you can still vote in the
Democratic Primary via mail in Kansas
Bernie Sanders' decision to endorse Joe Biden isn’t surprising but
it is disappointing. He has been hounded day after day about supporting the
Democratic Nominee since 2015, so this shouldn’t have surprised you. In his
view, his position in the senate is more important than him being an active
enemy of the Democratic Party. That being said, Joe Biden represents everything
Bernie campaigned against, and that should be a lesson to reformists. One way
or another Bernie Sanders platform would have come to an end. We saw it with
Jeremy Corbyn and we see it with Bernie Sanders. The Democratic Party, much
like British Labour Party, cannot be reformed into submission. This is a time I
think it is important to read Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
(Libertarian Marxist), The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin
(Marxist), and Reformism by Errico Malatesta (Anarcho-Communist). In
the best case scenario, the Elites of this country would have allowed petty
small concessions to shut us up and then worked endlessly to make any
leftist/socialist/labor movement die. See all the social democracies in the
world: UK , Canada , Mexico ,
Nigeria , Germany , South Africa United
States
1.
Problems in the Bernie Sanders
Campaign
·
Petty-Bourgeois Socialism
·
Probably the worst thing that Bernie had a hand in was focusing on
collaboration between the working class and petty-bourgeois (elite). For those
that do not know, despite functioning similarly, the petty-bourgeois (elite)
class are those people that have private ownership of the means of production
(landlords, business owners, etc), but do not have the power or status to
directly influence policy and the state like the bourgeois (elite) class.
Socialists want the emancipation of all people; that does not mean that some
people can oppress the working class even if it’s not as bad as what more
powerful people are doing. Collective ownership is better than small/medium
sized private ownership which is better than large/multinational private
ownership, so why settle?
·
Foreign Policy
·
Though Bernie has come around on some serious foreign policy gaffs
like tepidly supporting the coups of Venezuela
and Bolivia
·
Class Dynamics of the Democratic Party
·
The Democratic Party much like the Republic party is a bourgeois
(elite) party who serves exclusively bourgeois (elite) interests. Any rhetoric
in either party about public good, working class experiences, or populism
always was and will always be in the service of the bourgeois (elite) class.
The Dems focus on occasionally throwing a bone to marginalized groups and the
Republicans focus on white working class conservative social opinions, but
neither operate in a way that centers policies for working people. Bernie
Sanders winning the nomination would have never been allowed to happen; his moderate
social democratic policies are not in line with the American State
·
Liberal Capitulation
·
Liberals when attacking social democrats and socialists are rarely
done in good faith. The Bernie Bro narrative was classist, racist, sexist,
queerphobic, ableist, and generally xenophobic smear against his supporters. A
lot of the attacks against Bernie and his campaign were pretty clear
anti-semetic and classist smears. Him trying to appease the liberal pundit
class was futile, all it did was low-key condone the abuse. No one should have
to apologize for existing.
·
Irregular Election Dynamics
·
I’m not saying there was election fraud, all We are saying is that
at least half of the primary elections should be reviewed by a third party. The
UN classifies election tampering when an election has a deviation of more than
4% between exit polls and final tallies. There were several primaries that had
a discrepancy of over 10%. Let’s not even get into holding in-person elections
during a global pandemic or clear manufacturing of consent by the mainstream
media throughout this whole process. Bourgeois (elite) society always acts so
brazenly because they have the power of the state.
2.
Success in the Bernie Sanders
Campaign
·
Class Consciousness
·
The idea that Americans would publicly talk about class dynamics
and use the phrase “working class” in mainstream political discourse is highly
unusual. It’s been a rule for a long time to split the working class into the
“poor” and the “middle” class, so that the members of the working class either
seem needy/subservient or they are a part of bourgeois (elite) class that needs
to fall in line. It’s been taboo in America
·
Nationalization/Public Ownership
·
Nationalization and tax based welfare capitalism doesn’t remove or
fix any of the problems and contradictions of capitalism. These things do however
lessen the strain on the working class and give more time and agency to people
to affect more aggressive changes. Bernie Sanders' advocacy of growing the
welfare programs would have only been a net benefit for working class people in
the short term and would have been a nice jumping off point for further action.
Americans now believe we can have more public/collectively owned goods and
services, which is ultimately useful.
·
Unionization/Strike Action
·
We have been undergoing the most number of strikes and unionizing
in this country than has happened in decades, and this can be related to
Bernie’s rhetoric. Now unions and big man politics have never been and will
never be enough, however this is a nice change. Americans are realizing that
collective action and community good are superior avenues for positive social
change than individual social action and exclusively operating through
electoral politics. Again, this has set the stage for the left to build and
draw the American people further left.
·
Activism as Politics
·
Bernie Sanders has used his momentum and campaign not only for
fighting to try and win the presidency, but to push for important legislation
as well as advocating for various activist issues and down-ballot candidates.
#NotMeUs is a social movement that is tied into a wide variety of left-wing
social activism: environmentalism, anti-racism, anti-imperialism, feminism,
LGBTQ+ issues, etc.
3.
What Now?
·
Democratic Primary
·
Please register as a democrat if you are not and submit a mail in
ballot. The more Bernie delegates we can win, the more we can undermine the
right wing of the democratic party. We will never have power in that party, but
at least we can put a thorn in its side as we destroy that worthless party.
Once that is done, We encourage you to register as an independent.
·
Electoral Politics
·
We advocate for a great expulsion out of the Democratic Party.
Anyone who has known me (Steven) knows that though I am a communist, I do
generally advocate for lesser evil-ism voting in a purple state like Kansas Kansas
·
Stay tuned, we are in talks with a couple of parties and the
general strategy in terms of direct action and electoralism are currently in
direct review.
·
Social Activism
·
We need to keep doing what we were doing before. Keep agitating
the general public and push policies to the left whenever possible. We have a
mutual aid network to deal with some local issues. Please get involved in union
and rent striking if at all possible. Use this time during the pandemic to
brush up on political theory and social activism. Just because we are inside
doesn’t mean we have to be sitting around twiddling our thumbs.
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