To ‘Revolutionary Left’ is full of different groups with different vibes and perspectives for the world. These groups read a lot of the same core books, with a sprinkling of their own authors now added to the official canon, think everything is terrible and we need revolution, but end up in entirely different places about what the next steps are and how likely revolution is the near future.
This leads to huge disagreements on perspectives, strategy and tactics. I just sorta want to go through these different perspectives, state my opinion on them and just vibe check the whole thing. I do thing these disagreements are fundamental to different groups and often the idea of ‘the left just working together’ is kinda impossible when these very core things exist.
Nothing we can do
Revolutionary pessimism is admittedly a rare way of thinking and also not uncommon at all. It expresses itself in two ways, firstly as a doomer we are all fucked we missed our chance and now we just simply rot in capitalism. To call yourself a ‘revolutionary’ and be sure we are doomed is kinda a contradiction, but they often exist to speak down on the rest of the movement and warn them that thinking things will get better is waste of time. This is basically mono older folk and they are not well liked or respected and mostly just sorta ignored.
The second side is increasingly more common and it’s a Third-Worldist style of pessimism. They believe revolution is impossible in the west, we are all just way to comfortable, we in fact like the suffering of others and we need Che V2 to come out liberate the global south and free us from our shackles. Now on paper that might not appear very pessimistic, but the reality is that the way it affects action is actually very negative.
You’re putting your own emancipation into the hands of others. It leads you to believe that the only way to free yourself from your own chains is to cheer for Cuba, Vietnam and in some cases terrorist organisations completely uncritically. Taking the mantra the enemy of my enemy is my friend to the ultimate degree. It’s okay to acknowledge the struggles of a group against oppression or the successes that a certain government may have had while also acknowledging that their politics and tactics are not something you agree with or that a government is in decline and is reinstating capitalism.
Critical support is not a swear word. It’s okay to have a more nuanced opinion on something.
This grouping is actually extremely energetic and bold to a degree that is downright impressive. Unfortunately, they use all that energy to tell people you can’t free yourself you have to sign a petition. And I will say a lot of this group just sit online and complain. If you don’t think that you can change the world, you might just sorta do nothing and wait for daddy (or mommy) Che V2 to come save you.
We just have to buy our time
Patience is key right. We just have to bide our time, pretend that we are just like everyone else and then when the moment is right, we strike! What this looks like is a bunch of people trying to get into high positions in unions, while completely hiding their ‘actual’ politics and just sitting around. Like you speak to these people at pickets and in public and you’d have no idea they actually think we need a revolution.
I do understand the idea these people have. Being able to directly speak to the workers ‘when the time is right’ makes sense-ish. However, this right time has been extended indefinitely from the like 50’s to today. You more get the idea the don’t really believe revolution is possible and they are just in comfy jobs, and they just want to continue to be in those comfy jobs.
If people don’t know you’re a communist, then they don’t know to come to you when they have questions or might be interested in these ideas. They don’t very actively try and build and share a lot in common with pessimists when it comes to the possibilities for the relatively near future. The possible date of the revolution is between now and the end of time, and this just feels like an excuse to be comfortable.
Overall I think ‘Revolutionary Patience’ is a cop out for the older generation of people who have a lot of good ideas but are just a bit worn out at this point. I don’t think waiting for the world to happen to you, is a great way to live your life or be a revolutionary, and that you have to be proactive to build something not reactive.
The Pre-Pre-Pre Revolutionary Period is happening!
So, considering how dismissive I have been of the other two ‘types’ of revolutionary I must be a Revolutionary Optimist. Yes, I am, but with some caveats attached to the idea.
If you don’t believe revolution is something you need to actively build for, think it is actually going to happen in your lifetime, in your own country then I don’t really see why you would bother at all. A lot of the left is extremely pessimistic so being the only people saying ‘No we can make this better’ has a lot of value to it, especially if you believe it.
However Revolutionary Optimism, when pushed to an extreme has a lot of downsides. It makes you wrong a lot. If you’re out here saying the revolution is going to happen in the next 5-10 years, for 20 years straight, you kinda look silly. It makes you overly hopeful any stirrings or political movements are just signs of ‘the true ferment under society’ and when they don’t pan out you have to backtrack and say its early shock waves. You see everything for it’s maximum possible upside and lose your grounding a little bit.
Groups like the RCP fully believes stuff was really beginning to move as it grew very quickly in a short period of time, changed its name, got all Bolshie and then stagnated in membership for a year having to go back to old tactics. They just look a little bit silly because of it, but at least they really did make a push to grow something and honestly that admirable, but it impacts the members.
If you get caught in this updraft and then nothing really pans out and happens if you aren’t very experienced, it can really affect someone’s morale and might scare them away from radical politics. And because the revolution is always just around the corner, some people are really drawn in and give large amounts of time, money and energy to trying to make it happen. Then it doesn’t happen. Even people with a lot of experience can only keep it up for so long until they realise, they are just chasing their own tail a little bit.
It creates an organisational churn, of being able to get a lot of people through the front door while losing a lot of people out the back.
Revolutionary Optimism must be tempered by reality. Its no-good telling people that we just need to sit around and wait, but it’s also no-good telling people that it’s all going to kick off really soontm, especially when it doesn’t. I think this is basically an impossible balance to maintain and its okay to be wrong if you put your hands up and admit you read the tea leaves wrong.
Offsetting the pessimism of life with the optimism if a better future has a lot of value, it really does. Hope is a powerful motivator, but if people are going to be in it for the long term, they need a realistic grounded hope, which is a lot less sexy but at least it’s true.
The Revolution is coming (I mean it has to our we all just die to climate change), we need to build for that inevitability. But lets try and not put a hard time frame on that, we know better, that’s not something you can do.
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