Re: <nettime> The Left Needs a New Strategy

[Iain Boal <boal@sonic.net>]

Nettimers,

I’ve no idea of the identity of the sinomane telecommunist (‘Kleiner') defiling this conversation, or their whereabouts, or their condition (though the aggressive logorrhoea is suggestive). However, to call Brian’s profound - and profoundly open, generous, and dialogical - contributions to the discussion “mccarthyist gatekeeping” is either wild self-satire or grounds for a strategic ‘intervention' from our moderators. Ted?

IB  


On 18 Jan 2021, at 08:28, Dmytri Kleiner <dk@telekommunisten.net> wrote:


On 2021-01-18 13:42, Felix Stalder wrote:

> So, what exactly is the lesson that China holds for "us", that is,
> cultural/knowledge workers

While these questions hold promise, it feels to me like the precondition is that cultural/knowledge workers in the west stop carrying water for US intelligence and work on developing a respectful relationship with the global left.

I'm not sure that many who are here in the core realize how badly we are viewed by our comrades abroad due in no small part to the cartoonish cold war pejoratives we see here on this list all the time.

I understand not knowing, it's hard to know what is said about us at MST schools or among comrades in Kerala or in shop-floor meetings among Numsa members, as we are most often not there.

What I do not understand is not caring, and when this is mentioned, reacting with white rage and mccarthyist gatekeeping and doubling down on chauvinist denouncements, as we've seen from some contributors here.

While asking "what lessons" can we learn from China is interesting, in my view there are far more pressing questions. What role should we play as tensions heighten with China? How do we deal with the fact that in many cases progress of our comrades abroad are directly sabotaged by way of aggression from our own countries? How do we deal with the fact that in many cases workers here benefit from exploitation abroad, and so we have differences in material interests that create obstacles to solidarity?

What strategy can we pursue that addresses the challenges of worsening social conditions at home, heightening international tensions and aggression and the existential threat of climate change?

Many of these questions are not new and where key areas of discussion in the "old fashioned" position of proletarian internationalism elaborated on in Stuttgart, Basel and Zimmerwald from 1907 to 1915, before the Russian revolution led to the 3rd international era, with it's spy-vs-spy intrigue in the bosom of which the western embedded left was distilled and synthesized as a liberal strain, separate from and hostile to the global left, branded "authoritarian" by the spin-doctors of Der Stürmer or der Wochenspruch der NSDAP, who's greatest hits continue to be spun on the Mighty Wurlitzer to irresistible effect among the meandering pundits in our midst, who gladly dance to this beat.

In my view, we mustn't dragonboat all the way to China to find the lessons we need, we just need to stop feeling entitled to judge and denounce the Chinese workers and deny their accomplishments. We must understand that the struggle continues everywhere, there and here, and trust them in their struggle, while we focus on our own. We only really need mention China at all when confronting the propaganda used to justify aggression against it by our own countries. We must turn our weapons on the class enemy at home.

In terms of lessons to take, we can find the lessons we need in the legacy of the US Progressive Era right here in the imperial core, in the work of Freire, and building upon the practices of Jane McAlevey, "deep organizing."

We don't need a "new left strategy" we need to stop the ever changing iterations of the bullshit new left and its various derailments into thirdwayism from sheepdogging our movements away from the tried and true dialectical materialism that has been proven to work everywhere, among the revolutionary workers of the global left, and has blossomed in art, pedagogy, labour organizing, and even business management and design practices.

As has been advocated in this thread now many times, in my comments, in Frank's comments, in William's comments, in Vincent's comments, etc. We need a practice resident among and rooted in the efforts of the people themselves facing concrete proglems, led by their own organic leaders, not third party pundits, where we organize, try stuff, learn the results and iterate forward, always building class power.

This is the strategy we need, and as Jane McAlevey would note, there are no shortcuts.


-- 
Dmytri Kleiner
@dmytri
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