There’s no vanguard at the moment, but that doesn’t mean we can’t form one, nor that we should not. Communists are not being driven underground, we should combine legal with illegal work as has historically been successful.

Then we are in agreement. I want the very western tendency of splitting and infighting to be done away with, and for us to form a cohesive vanguard. I’m not suggesting that conditions are perfect and that revolution can happen tomorrow, I’m stating that if you zoom out you can clearly see that the working class is increasingly aware of its enemies. What we need to be doing is making sure that in all working class organizations we form, we thoroughly purge patsocs and MAGA communists, and force a disciplined and pro-national liberation stance for colonized peoples.

I’m not saying that our task is easy, but I don’t think it’s impossible either. It’s difficult, but that’s the historic duty of the Statesian communist, to end this miserable country and replace it with a colonized-led socialist state. It isn’t to spark a civil war and hope for the best that another reactionary government takes hold of the US millitary and nuclear stockpiles.

I’m perfectly aware of the settler-colonial nature of the US Empire. What I am telling you is that there is less of a chance of trying to start an insurrectionist guerilla war, or otherwise trying to spark an outright civil war, doing anything other than get leftists killed. The most important task is to build up a revolutionary party, and that’s actually becoming more feasible the more the Empire creaks and crumbles.

You accused me of bordering on idealism earlier, but tell me, which do you genuinely think is more feasible? Getting together a group of dedicated cadres to sparking a war, and having that ensuing war not go nuclear, and result in anything other than yet another fascist regime rising from the ashes, or steadily building up a revolutionary working class party with colonized peoples at the forefront?

As we get further and further out from the height of the Red Scare, and people see the surging of China, Marxism-Leninism is on the rise in the US Empire. As dialectical materialists, we know that there is a quantitative buildup before qualitative leaps, the growth of working class orgs isn’t linear but explodes exponentially in crisis.

Comrade, with all due respect, the idea that it would somehow be easier to form an underground guerilla movement that can meaningfully spark a civil war, and for the outcome of that civil war to not cause the utter devastation of the working class and marginalized peoples all over the imperial core is absurd. There are not hidden Maoist Red Guards engaging in protracted wars from Appalachia. There are no adventurist terror cells.

What exists is a dying empire lashing out against immigrants and marginalized peoples, the treat printer turning off the tap, and an increasingly politically aware working class. What we need to do is build up a vanguard, and unite the working class. We should not take notes from the Gonzaloites in Peru, we should take lessons from the Black Panther Party.

This is just sacrificing the colonized peoples within the heart of the imperial core. The US Empire is headed to collapse, not civil war. I do agree that the US Empire collapsing is a positive, but we as communists should do our best to facilitate the creation of a socialist state via an indigenous and colonized-led vanguard made up of the organized working class. A socialist state replacing the empire is far better than whatever reactionary rump state would come from the aftermath of civil war.

Revolutionary potential isn’t 0, the most effective course is to organize and build dual power. The Empire is crumbling without our accelerating that, what we need to press is a correct political line and build up strong mass movements into a coherent vanguard.

What we want is a socialist revolution in the heart of the Empire, led by an organized working class with indigenous Americans and other oppressed nations within the imperial core at the forefront. This is feasible, increasingly so, as imperialism crumbles and the treat printers run dry.

Yep, westerners take any failings as deep moral failings. It’s why AES not being “pure” and free of sin immediately loses support. That’s also why parties endlessly split, there isn’t a focus on unity because accountability means admitting failure.

Sure, I don’t disagree. I don’t think we are disconnected, I just think it’s important to not deny the potential for revolution in the west.

Sure, I suppose, but the point is that being doomerist about org work and revolution just pushes all of the responsibility and agency to the global south, while we passively enjoy the spoils of imperialism. It’s selfish, and is common to western leftists that just purity test.

We should still do the best we can to organize what we can. This will mitigate the worst effects, and therefore is the best chance for success. Working actively towards collapse is harmful, assuming organizing is not the primary activity.

These feelings are valid, but ultimately stem from a lack of theory. You don’t need to worry about convincing people capitalism is bad, if people’s material conditions aren’t in a place for them to be susceptible to such ideas. Further, reading theory better helps you explain why capitalism is unsustainable. The US is the number one block, but as imperialism crumbles the chance for revolution raises. We must organize the working class to do so.

Read theory! You’ll be happier for it.

As @starkillerfish@lemmygrad.ml said, accelerationism isn’t particularly useful, and risks desparation from the reactionaries plunging the world into war. Without working class organization, there is nothing to resist that meaningfully.

I think a common pattern with your posts is that they tend to fall into desparation and confusion stemming from a lack of theory. In your case, I think reading theory would be immensely clarifying and comforting. I made an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list, but many others out there exist as well. I recommend you give that a try!

There were classes under Mao, and later the Gang of Four. Class cannot be eradicated without building up the productive forces to a level where public ownership and planning works most effectively, you cannot simply decree rural cooperative farming into full-scale industrialized and collectivized production and distribution. The same applies across the entire economy.

If the Gang of Four and those who uphold them were still in power, China would still have classes, and would not have had nearly the same development. Abolition of class happens by abolishing the material basis of class, not simply by legalistic decree. Even the Soviet Union had black markets with private property, and they existed because there was an economic, material basis for them, not just because the soviets didn’t root them out well enough.

Both Mao and Deng played invaluable roles in China’s history. We must uphold both of them, because they both generally applied Marxism-Leninism correctly for the conditions of China at the time of their administration. The PRC is not “half-socialism,” it’s a socialist country that is steadily and rapidly developing thanks to the success of Reform and Opening Up, as well as Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign that rooted out opportunism that began to take hold in the late 90s and 2000s.

Cheng Enfu’s model here is a decent way to picture China’s strategy for continuing socialist development.

It feels like that too

May the Empire crumble to dust, solidarity with Venezuela!

Thanks! And like what comrade rainpizza suggested, if you helped with prolewiki then that would be extremely useful for anyone that primarily speaks Persian!

No Persian translations linked unfortunately, but I made an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list that might be helpful!

No way to know. For now, it seems electoralism and strikes are how the Korean working class engages with the chaebol and the state.

I myself am not Korean, so take this with a grain of salt, but in my opinion, the ROK is so heavily stratified and so intensely anti-communist at a state level because Southern Korea has a vivid class struggle historically. Marxism is not common in the ROK due to anti-communism and the US Empire’s presense, but the history of the Korean people across the peninsula has been one of vivid resistance to colonialism, and in the south especially against dictators like Rhee Syngman, Chun Do-Hwan, etc.

Right now, the US Empire is waning, and the current SocDem president Lee Jae-Myeung is somewhat trying to normalize relations with the PRC after the previous fascist Yoon Seok-Youl dramatically increased tensions with the DPRK and moved towards the US. It’s a bit of a powder keg at the moment, with rising fascism and incel movements alongside rising feminist movements and strong labor union movements.

There’s no vanguard right now, no professional revolutionaries, no consolidated working class organizations, but class struggle is alive and sharp. Even looking at media like Squid Game shows that this is a common sentiment, and is why the brutal crackdowns on leftists are happening. There’s a dialectical relationship between the working class’s level of political advancement and the direct crushing of working class organization at the state and corporate level, the intense crackdowns exist because the working class is increasingly radicalized (though some are going the fascist incel route, and that’s intentional).

I can’t answer when a revolution will happen, but I can say that the Korean working class is more aware of its own conditions than the US Empire’s working class. It’s also bribed by imperialism, and the US Empire’s presense on the peninsula is a constant saber to rattle. It’s complicated.