Overflow! A new thing where I talk about random #leftist stuff and the direction of the channel and stuff. In this episode I also pitch #Mastodon -- can you dig it?!
https://www.non-compete.com/overflow-lets-talk-about-the-direction-of-the-youtube-channel/
* I'm fundamentally against Left Unity, for exactly the reason you stated. I'm a keen student of history, and one thing that most historians tend to agree on is that history can rhyme. And dismissing people that use historical examples to justify their own legitimate fears, isn't helpful. Left Unity isn't practical, because one side is built on seizing power, while the other on dismantling it. Left Unity is a dogwhistle for giving in to authoritarianism, in my opinion.
* I'm not sure what you're talking about with Anarchists having no power or political party. The fault of Auth-Communists, Demsocs, Liberals, Conservatives and Fascists alike is that they all want to grab power in order to "help the people". If an Anarchist vision of democracy must be instituted, by nature, it must come from the bottom up. Power is not the goal, it was never the goal.
1: I absolutely respect this school of anarchism and will contribute wherever and however I can to these kinds of causes and movements, but I'm also a radical revolutionary student of Kropotkin, who did advocate seizing power for the proletariat. I hope it can be done peacefully but I'm HIGHLY doubtful, at any rate I feel like we're coming into a "time lock" given the state of the environment and the power capitalists are holding and building.
@emerican
Thanks very much for the conversation! For the record, my issue isn't with taking control of democratic institutions, rather the methods in which we do it. Seek to help the people, in order to get votes. Not the other way around. Again, we're looking at a bottom-up approach, starting at the municipal level. Tl'dr: Google Murray Bookchin
@AnarchoEcologistCatgirl
2: Again, this is probably beyond the scope of a Mastodon conversation... I do hope to go into more depth in future content!
@AnarchoEcologistCatgirl Great thoughts though, hope we can keep discussing moving forward! Thanks a lot for watching and giving me your input!
@AnarchoEcologistCatgirl
Again, I understand your sentiment, and I can respect and understand why thoughtful and reasonable anarchists might distrust authcoms -- but I do encourage you to at least read up Marxist-Leninism (Lenin had some writings that are VERY useful for anarchists re: organizing and educating workers, for instance) and to try to keep an open mind in general. You might be surprised about what we have in common with principled modern-day MLs
@AnarchoEcologistCatgirl 1: Thanks a lot for the thoughts! This is a surprisingly complex issue (at least in my mind) and I really do need to write a full article to cover all my bases -- I can understand why a lot of libsocs/ancoms don't want to associate with it, and that's fine.
@AnarchoEcologistCatgirl
2: Also, I personally think it's important to recognize the successes of 20th century leftist states as well as their failures. They did a lot of great things and, on the whole, were on the right side of history (as compared to the capitalist opposition) -- and there were some Marxist states that were short-lived but had no taint whatsoever (i.e. Allende's Chile) that deserve our full respect...
@AnarchoEcologistCatgirl
3: Basically, it's important to understand why the MLs failed in the 20th century but we also shouldn't fall into the trap of sharing capitalist propaganda about them... I'll try to cover in more depth in a future article or vid but, TL;DR I totally get your point and appreciate your thoughts and will keep meditating on this, but for the time being I think I'll keep it in my "tool box" of leftist imagery, personally (continuing with your next comment)
@emerican
Thoughts on the Overflow:
* I wouldn't have so much a problem with the hammer and sickle had it not been tainted by the USSR. We have to accept (as you said later) that things change over time, and a symbol that once symbolised the workers now symbolises oppression. Compare this with the star seen in China's and Vietnam's flags, which people don't feel as uneasy about. I don't think it's unwise to retire the hammer and sickle from libsoc imagery.