Malus V.

A blog about far left politics from a Libertarian Socialist Synthesist

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This blog is being moved

Tumblr is dead Go here instead for my posts https://blackrosesocial.wordpress.com/

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Why Communalism is a form of Anarchism

Communalism is a form of anarchism, an extension really. bookchin after leaving anarchism still talked about destroying hierarchies, destroying the state, distributing resources according to need, and radical direct democracy. How is this not anarchism? Bookchin broke off with anarchism because of "lifestylism" because he saw no purpose in riots and black bloc tactics, he saw no purpose in smashing windows and punching cops on the streets, he saw this as basically larping and wanted a real revolution, and it wasnt his only problem with anarchists, he submitted the idea of libertarian municipalism and delegates and the anarchists rejected it over and over, and Bookchin was fed up with it. and nowadays anarchists use his principles without even realizing it while still slamming him. In short, Bookchin didnt leave anarchism, he left the anarchists

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Bigotry on the left - Lumpenproletariat

The term lumpenproletariat refers to a section of the proletariat, the term "lumpen" meaning "ragged", for we are the rags, to be tossed away, worthless parts of the proletariat, because we neither own the means of production nor do we sell our labor (which  is false as sex workers do sell their labor, while the disabled like myself sell instead our freedom to the state.) Marxists.org definition:

Great Soviet Encyclopedia Definition:

The lumpenproletariat hold the most revolutionary and intellectual potential. We are the disabled, criminals (which capitalism CREATES mind you, Marx should instead have sympathy towards us but instead demonizes us), sex workers (fucking SWERFS), the unemployed and poverty stricken (which once again capitalism creates and Marx should sympathize with), those without home nor bread. CPUSA calls us "unorganizable" yet it is we who tend to organize the most as we are the most exploited. People who join the far left tend to because we are lumpenproletariat, because we are without bread or home, without a job, those alienated the most under capitalism. to only recognize the socially accepted, non-outcast proletariat as revolutionary is to be a bigot against those who are at the very bottom layer of society. Many marxists including Marx himself compared us to being agents for the state and bourgeoisie, yet that would make us bourgeoisie not proletariat being the most highly exploited at the bottom, we would be instead closer to the top of the pyramid. to assign the disabled, sex workers, poverty-stricken, etc. as agents of the bourgeoisie is biggotry and a conspiracy theory. The following are quotes from Marx’s “The 18th Brumaire”

Only the black panther party regarded us as comrades. Its co-founders Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton viewed the lumpenproletariat as a potential organized threat if the party did not mobilize us (and Mao seemed to think the same). Newton called us "street brothers", alienated from the system of oppression in the US, and sought to recruit us into the party. Quotes from the Black Panther Party Reconsidered:

Stirner celebrated the lumpenproletariat as authentic rebels, and bakunin was dubbed the lumpen prince by Engels. Bakunin wrote that only in the lumpenproletariat "and not in the bourgeois strata of workers, are there crystallised the entire intelligence and power of the coming Social Revolution. The following are from “on the international working mens association and marx”, “marxism, freedom, and the state” and “statism and anarchy” all by Bakunin

Thoburn writes that for him, the lumpenproletariat represented a "kind of actually existing anarchism." We are without shelter, without bread and healthcare. we are the ones who push for these things to be distributed according to need more than any other social group Marx called us scum, Lenin called us opportunists, Bukharin called us as having lack of discipline, Trotsky blamed us for the rise of fascism and even compared us to petit bourgeoisie,  The following quotes are from Marx’s Communist Manifesto,  Labour Markets, Identities, Controversies: Reviews and Essays, and Trotsky’s “What is Fascism and how to beat it”

The great soviet encyclopedia defined us as petite bourgeoisie, and china had some 500,000 lumpen in "reeducation camps" in 920 camps by 1953, and August Bebel of the social democratic party of germany basically called us responsible for the spread of anti-semitism in germany. the only marxist to give us any sway was Mao, but only to certain parts of the lumpenproletariat. This is from Mao’s “analysis of the classes in chinese society” and “the journal of asian studies vol 72 no 4.”, and “the encyclopedia of world poverty”

We could also refer to some of the best known Marxist theorists as lumpen. Lenin in his final years had hyperacusis, insomnia, regular headaches, as well as possible neurasthenia or cerebral arteriosclerosis, or sypphilis. he also had 3 strokes, and was rendered into a wheelchair. stalin from 1946 till his death in '53 was largely rendered unable to do his job, giving very little speeches and mostly a few minutes long, and was taking several vacations frequently. he died of a cerebral hemorrhage and atherosclerosis. in both these instances, Lenin and Stalin had become lumpenproletariat. disabled, unable to do their jobs, they were rags. Theres also the fact that Stalin was a well known bank robber in Georgia, particularly the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, threw bombs and killed 40 people in Yerevan Square, Lenin supported him in doing all this. He did this all before 1912. Look at your own heroes before bitching that the Lumpen Proletariat are worthless. It should also be noted that sex workers are among the lumpenproletariat. despite the fact that sex workers DO sell their labor, people who are bigoted against sex workers (cough cough Lenin) are regarded today as SWERFS. Also, no, the text regarding Lenin as killing sex workers was not a mistranslation. I refer you to this native russian speaker as proof, and no i wont reveal the OP as i dont want them getting harassed by ML that might see this

And to count the unemployed and unemployable (mainly disabled) among the lumpen, how fucking bigoted of you to say that just because someone is unemployed or unemployable that they are easy pickings for fascists, that they are reactionaries, opportunists, to be locked up and treated like cattle that are ready to explode at any moment. Frankly I would place intellectual leaders among political parties as being far more likely to be opportunists and reactionaries than any disabled person, sex worker, unemployed, or "petty criminal"

And honestly how can you have a revolution today without lumpen? we make up such a huge percentage of the general populace that there is no way you can have a revolution without us in your ranks. But its not like marxists today discriminate against lumpenproletariat..right??....right? incorrect go to the twitter page of one "Kiran Opal" as well asl "Jason Unruhe" and discrimination is wide-spread among their circles. I myself was the victim of marxist harassment for being disabled. I left the marxist community after only 2 months of being a marxist specifically because i witnessed harassment at every corner from my "comrades", and once i publically left, a week-long wave of harassment followed where marxists (particularly marxist-leninists) calling me a "degenerate tra**y" as well as claiming i should be put against the wall and shot because im a disabled waste of resources. Needless to say, this left an eternal impact on me (and it wasnt even the first time the marxist-leninists harassed me, 3 times ive been victim to their dogpiling)

So who are the lumpenproletariat? we are those who cannot afford lives of our own. we stand by eachother in solidarity moreso than any vanguard, for we know eachother's plight of being exploited far more than the average proletariat. Why is it that the far left is so frequently made up of LGBT+, PoC, disabled, unemployed, the jailed, the mistreaten, the scorned and ostracized, the rejects of society, those deemed as rags to be thrown away? because we know about the struggle under capitalism far more than the average cishet white abled man that previous revolutionaries depended on so heavily.

We are Lumpen, we are proud, and we will defeat capitalism.

[elbow-noodle]

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Libertarian Socialist Synthesism

My name is Rose, I am a Libertarian Socialist Synthesist. I fuse ideas from Communalism, Anarcho-Communism, Council Communism, and Marxian critique of capitalism 1) Libertarian Socialist A)  Against all forms of tyrannical and/or centralized authority and replaced instead with de-centralized direct democracy. Opposed to authoritarian socialist tendencies such as Leninism, Marxism-Leninism, Trotskyism, and Maoism. B) Workers should democratically own their workplaces. Rather than having shareholders, a CEO, and board of directors decide what to produce, how to produce it, where to produce it, etc. those will be decided by the workers who work in the workplace C) Elimination of producing things to be treated as commodities. In a world where we are driven under capitalism by profit, resources should rather be distributed according to need 2) Communist A) Abolition of the state, which is a centralized institution ruled by a small elite who govern a bordered area and claim a monopoly on violence inside (and even outside through imperialism) those borders, and replaced with individual de-centralized communes B) Abolition of social classes, where we live in a world where, instead of privilege and status where the few rule over the majority, instead everyone will be equal without privilege. There will no longer be proletariat, lumpenproletariat, landlords, peasantry, bourgeoisie, or petite bourgeoisie, there will only be us, humans. C) Abolition of money in place of Mutual Aid, as proposed by Pyotr Kropotkin, Russian evolutionary scientist who proposed the best of the species survived, not by Darwin’s idea of survival of the fittest, but rather by those who help each other in mutual aid. In a world where we are ruled by profits, we must, as said in the socialist section, distribute resources according to need, not profit

3) Anarchist A) The idea that any hierarchical structure that cannot prove it’s legitimacy must be dismantled and replaced with something else, including the state, capitalism, and landlords, and that hierarchies should be replaced with horizontal organization instead of vertical B) The idea that consent is important in an economical system and social relations

4) Communalist A) Social Ecology, the socio-historical analysis of the development of hierarchy and freedom. It espouses a reconstructive, ecological, communitarian, and ethical approach to society and advocates for a reconstructive and transformative outlook on social and environmental issues, directly democratic confederal politics, and evnisions a moral economy that moves beyond scarcity and hierarchy toward a world that reharmonizes human communities with the natural world while celebrating diversity, creativity, and freedom, and that the roots of current ecological and social problems can be traced to hierarchical modes of social organization, and hierarchy cannot be resisted by individual actions alone such as ethical consumerism but must be addressed by more nuanced ethical thinking and collective activity grounded in radically democratic ideals. The complexity of relationships between people and nature is empasized, along with the importance of establishing more mutualistic social structures that take account of this B) Dialectical Naturalism, the ethics and philosophy of communalism that follows a dialectical pattern through the lense of nature rather than Hegel’s Historical Dialects or Marx’s Dialectical Materialism C) Libertarian Municipalism, the idea that we should have local assemblies within a municipality (town, city, village, tc) where citizens are encouraged to participate in directly democratically making decisions, where those assemblies can unite toward a common goal under confederations, and elected delegates that can be immediately recalled at any point for any reason by those who elected them as well as frequently rotated, and those delegates carry out additional tasks to the ones they already carry out. For more information on Libertarian Municipalism, please read here https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-libertarian-municipalism-the-new-municipal-agenda D) Automation should be encouraged to replace menial and rather boring and harmful jobs that no one wants to engage in, giving us more leisure time to enjoy with our friends and family and engage in hobbies we enjoy F) The idea that any hierarchical structure that cannot prove it’s legitimacy must be dismantled and replaced with something else, including the state, capitalism, and landlords, and that hierarchies should be replaced with horizontal organization instead of vertical 5) Council Communism A) The workplace should be directly democratic with worker councils consisting of the workers within a workplace electing delegates that can be immediately recalled for any reason at any time and the position is frequently rotated. For more information on Council Communism please refer here https://malusvio.tumblr.com/post/177301953987/council-communism-councilism and here https://libcom.org/thought/council-communism-an-introduction B) The idea that revolution is a process. As Antonie Pannekoek wrote quote: ”The revolution by which the working class will win mastery and freedom, is not a single event of limited duration. It is a process of organization, of self-education, in which the workers gradually, now in progressing rise, then in steps and leaps, develop the force to vanquish the bourgeoisie, to destroy capitalism, and to build up their new system of collective production.” C) parliamentary debates and propaganda during election campaigns could be used to ‘enlighten the workers about their class situation’. However parliamentary debates and worker unions should not be the main focus in developing class consciousness, as the workers must take action themselves D) Organization and class consciousness are linked through a dialectical relationship. New forms of struggle and organization arise spontaneously, in the sense that they are not planned consciously in advance, and they arise as a practical response to the problems faced by workers in the course of their struggles. Once these new forms have arisen, however, they can be made more widely known, and other groups of workers can begin to act on their example. 6) Marxian (as opposed to Marxist) A) Criticisms of Capitalism including the idea that workers are alienated from their work when the fruits of the worker’s labor ends up in the hands of the employer; The idea that workers are exploited and extracted for their surplus value, the amount of labor that one puts into a product has a portion of the worth of the product they built taken from them and given to the employer, creating further alienation; that Capitalism is a contradiction-laden system with recurring crises coming from tendency of the rate of profit to fall; Capitalism is another stage in the evolution of economic systems; and many other criticisms.

7) Other A) I oppose a violent revolution, as appealing as it sounds, instead I support Democratic Autonomy as a method to achieving a socialist society. I’m not saying I oppose all violence. I support violent resistance to fascism, but a full-blown revolutionary war would kill millions and wreck havoc on the environment. Violent revolutions are a distraction if you have well-developed tech and infastructure. Just build an alt-government on anarchist principles and ignore what the state and capitalists are doing and build good things. I will support the revolution everyone fetishizes if it happens but theres risk of it failing, degrading into fascism or reverting back to capitalism. So what we must do is normalize socialism, organize socialists around mutual aid and charity works to improve our image and accomplish more than LARPing, build power inside and out of the existing power structures, institutions, unions, and organizations, engage in mass strikes and non violent demonstrations. Police attacking non-violent protestors or demonstrators is a bad look, makes us look good. Modern revolutions are won in the arena of public opinion. When 75 million people decide to back something, fighting it with violence isnt possible. The reason for 75 million is that the civilian casualties would run into the tens of millions if bio or nuclear weapons were used. 75 million is ¼ the US population and you arent gonna win revolution without that much support. The state is going to smear us as terrorists when we get violent, and use that as justification to impose all kinds of evil legislation. The United States alone has over 350 million people. Are we really willing to let that many people get slaughtered, and have our hometowns look like what Afrin looks like today? Are we willing to provoke nuclear war and wipe out the entire continent? Dust thrown into the air would block the sun, radiation would contaminate food and water. Instead I support, as I said, setting Democratic Autonomy, in which Libertarian Socialists infiltrate the nation-state’s government alongside Libertarian Municipalities and Worker Councils being set up immediately, ignoring what the nation-state’s government says, setting up counter-power, while simultaneously leeching off of it. This is a non-violent revolution. For more information read here http://daf-sd.org/assets/daf_supporterintroduction.pdf B) Prefigurative politics is important. It is important for us to act in a way in our current capitalist society as we would after it. If we are to have a violent revolution that succeeds, we need there to be no leaders during it, just as we would after it Influences Karl Marx Antonie Pannekoek Joseph Dejacque Pierre Joseph-Proudhon Mikhail Bakunin Pyotr Kropotkin Nestor Makhno Emma Goldman Lucy Parsons Murray Bookchin Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Various Twitter & Discord Users Libertarian Socialist Rants Anarchopac My friends

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Russian Communist-Stalinist-Monarchist flag

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When you hit “random” in ideology

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Updated my Libsoc Synthesis page

I updated my Libertarian Socialist Synthesis page, specifically the council communist section here as I read “Council Communism by Mark Shipway” found here and integrated some things into my own ideology

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Satanic Anarchism

“He expressly forbade them from touching the fruit of the tree of knowledge. He wished, therefore, that man, destitute of all understanding of himself, should remain an eternal beast, ever on all-fours before the eternal God, his creator and his master. But here steps in Satan, the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds. He makes man ashamed of his bestial ignorance and obedience; he emancipates him, stamps upon his brow the seal of liberty and humanity, in urging him to disobey and eat of the fruit of knowledge. “ - Mikhail Bakunin, “God and the State” It is proudly I label myself a Temple Satanist, specifically the Temple and not the Church of Satan, as the Church is full of cops. But what is Satanic Anarchism all about? Well it is a set of guiding principles that fit well with both Satanism and Anarchism that we should strive to follow. Whether theistic or atheistic Satanism, the Satanic Temple offers a basic set of principles for Satanists to follow:

1) One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason. 2) The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions. 3) One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone. 4) The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own. 5) Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs. 6) People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and remediate any harm that may have been caused. 7) Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

On the basis of anti-authoritarianism and anti-hierarchy, you can see why these 7 tenets of the Satanic Temple would fit well with anarchism. But how is satan a figure against authority? As said by Mikhail Bakunin, God had set up the tree of knowledge in front of Adam and Eve, ordering them not to eat from it. Pushing aside that he literally put it right in front of them for no reason and showed them the existence of this specific tree near them, Satan comes along and says NO! Man must be allowed knowledge, independence, and free thought. So he Tempts them, as a liberator, into eating from the tree and gaining these qualities, freeing mankind from the shackles of god and his authority, free to do as we please. “But Malus” you may say, “Is Satan not a killer?” While it is true that Satan killed 10 people: The 7 sons, and the 3 daughters of Job, and only under contract with god. Meanwhile, god struck down Sodom and Gemorah, he caused a worldwide flood, killed innocent children in Exodus as well as the plague, the Midianite Massacre in Numbers, killing the Israelite army in Deuteronomy 2, the Ai massacre in Joshuah, the Ammonite massacre in Judges, and countless more deaths adding up to roughly 24 million people. The genocidal deity known as god is nothing more than an authoritarian killer with no regard for those he created, playing with them like a child shining the light through an eyeglass at an ant below him.

It should be noted that the Satan who freed man is not the same Satan who tempted Jesus. Why? Well the original Hebrew translation of Satan is “Ha-Satan” which means “The Adversary” and was a title not a name of a single person. And so the adversary who tempted Jesus is not the same adversary who freed mankind is not the same adversary who killed the children of Job. However, when Satanists talk about Satan, we are referring to the first adversary, the first Ha-Satan, the one who freed mankind from the shackles of god. It should be noted that the Church of Satan is shunned by Temple Satanists, as the Church is filled with right-wing, Ayn Rand loving Libertarians and edgy centrists and alt-right fascists. The Church also explicitly does not allow felons to be members, showing the Church is just ran by cops. Many times have they gotten in arguments with the Temple, saying that “Anton Levay created satanism” implying it did not exist before Anton, and also saying that “The Church is the only true satanists” talking like a catholic saying only catholics are the true christians. The Church has many parallels with the bourgeoisie and is not to be trusted, only to be mocked and scorned.

In “Revolt of the Angels” by Anatole France, the Temple’s only canon book, Satan is described, as previously, a liberating, anti-authoritarian being who loves humanity and the hell to which he escaped to. Here are two quotes which reflect this from the book:

"God, conquered, will become Satan; Satan, conquering, will become God. May the fates spare me this terrible lot; I love the Hell which formed my genius. I love the Earth where I have done some good, if it be possible to do any good in this fearful world where beings live but by rapine. Now, thanks to us, the god of old is dispossessed of his terrestrial empire, and every thinking being on this globe disdains him or knows him not."

"The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

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My politics so far edit

I have edited the article “Libertarian Socialist Synthesis: My Political Ideology Thus Far” simply by adding the “Prefigurative Politics” under the “Other” section

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Ask me things!

[fuckyeahanarchistposters]

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Council Communism & Councilism

Councilism and Council Communism should be differentiated before we begin. Councilism is a form of organization under communism, and Council Communism advocates for councils as well, along with additional characteristics. I myself identify as, not just an anarcho-communist, but a councilist, as have many ancoms in the past, Kropotkin himself advocated for worker councils without calling it Councilism.. Marxists advocate for worker councils as an end goal without calling themselves council communists, and anarcho-communists advocate for councils with some alterations, myself altering it even more. Councilists advocates for the formation of worker councils in which the workers elect a delegate in which the position is rotated, and the delegate carries out additional tasks and works alongside the workers at the same time. The great thing about these councils is the delegate can be removed at any point for any reason by the workers.

Council Communism itself also is critical of Bolshevism and Lenin's policies, and consider the USSR to be a state capitalist system, as most libertarian socialists have said. They are anti-authoritarian and generally are against party politics, and as such are against bureaucratic state socialism, as they see party politics as antithetical to communism, and only lead to authoritarianism and dictatorships. Council Communists have also been very critical of trade unionism, criticizing it's ability to, not to perform the revolution in the working class, but is ineffective in agitation within the class, and encouring people to take control of their own lives democratically, as said by Otto Ruhle. Council Communists also see trade unions as undemocratic.

Examples of Council Communist can be shown in various places throughout russia and surrounding areas before Lenin abolished worker councils, and 1956 in Hungary as an example of workers councils arising naturally out of intense class struggle, despite workers lacking understanding in theory of Council Communism itself.

Overall Council Communism is something all stripes of communists should strive for, though with some alterations. The delegates should be elected through direct democracy with single transferable voting system implemented as well, which you can learn about here For more information on Council Communism & Councilism, please refer to this link here

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Philosophy of Anarchism

Depending on the anarchist you meet, the philosophy of anarchism will change slightly. Some will say anarchism is the right to make your own decisions without interference, some say that anarchism is radical democracy, some will say that anarchism challenges everything to meet the burden of proof that they are required for a just life. Me? Personally I say that anarchism is about consent. We advocate for consent, not coercion. However, all these definitions are valid. Anarchism as a philosophy is whatever you choose it to be. We all advocate for body autonomy after all. When you are born, you are immediately thrusted into a system that brands you with a gender, your class, your worth, and your future. You will most likely live as a cis male or female as a working class individual who makes under $30,000 and will be threatened to work or die, and your career will likely be something that bores you and is not of interest. Anarchism proposes that the state is thrusted upon us without consent from birth. You have no say over your workplace. Your surplus value is taken from you. You cannot choose to live under capitalism, it is thrusted at you from birth, and capitalism and the state are inherently coercive. This violates consent and should be dismantled “But what about anarchists being coercive toward capitalists?” you may ask. Simply put, we do not tell you what to do with your life. Under anarchism, you choose how to live your life without others forcing it upon you. You choose what to do with your labor and democratically own your workplace. Want to live in an empty house that has noone living in it? Impossible under capitalism as squatting is illegal. Under anarchism? Go ahead. Need to satisfy your stomach but have no money? No problem, take what you need to satisfy your belly. Capitalists say we want to force anarchism upon others, but in fact what we do in revolution is allow anyone who wants to join to do so, appeal to workers who might want to join, spread our message, and grow.  Anarchists believe that, if you choose to label yourself as trans, agender, genderfluid, etc. then that is valid. You are who you wish to be. If you proclaim yourself a trans woman, that is who you are and noone can say otherwise. Your identity is your own. You are your own master. Are you polyamorous, feel free to engage as many partners as you want.  Noone should be telling you how to live your life, what to do with it, and who you are. Anarchism sees the world through the lens of consent vs coercion. And our lives today are born under coercion. Smash the state, abolish capitalism, fire your boss, squat the world, abolish borders, liberation for all collectives and individuals, take what you need, and class war now! Anarchism is freedom, anarchy is order

[misterzapata]

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Is Bernie more radical than he seems?

Is Bernie Sanders a real Democratic Socialist, or a Social Democrat?

I found a post on reddit a while back with various sources on Bernie Sander's history with socialism, including his advocation for worker self management and real socialist policies, but it seems it was deleted. fearing this, i did manage to save the entire post on a file before it was deleted. I will be posting it now, then post my thoughts afterwards

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[–]Rvb321 100 points 2 months ago* I've said it before and I'll say it again, Bernie Sanders is a fair bit further to the left then he initially seems. While attending the University of Chicago, Sanders was a member of the Young People's Socialist League, and he discusses his reasons for joining it, in this interview . Sanders began his political career as a member of a socialist party in Vermont called the Liberty Union Party. Here is their platform, Sanders put out a short documentary about American Socialist, Eugene Debs. This article from 1982, discusses Bernie's election as Mayor of Burlington.This image depicts Sander's speaking at a 1983 meeting of the Socialist Party USA, and this WNYC piece gives some context to his what he says and features clips from the speech itself.

In this speech from the 1985 Progressive Entrepreneurship Forum, Sanders talked about worker alienation, the need of people to see themselves in their work, and the necessity of worker ownership. In this 1985 interview, Sanders can be seen defending the gains of the Cuban Revolution. And Here is a video of Sanders introducing Noam Chomsky, at Burlington City Hall, where Chomsky gives a speech about US foreign policy. Sanders discusses his opposition to US foreign policy in Latin America, in particular. Sanders even sent a letter to Ronald Reagan expressing his opposition to US support of the Contras in Nicuragua, around the same time. Here is a 1998 C-span interview, in which Sanders talks about Class. Sanders gave an address as Mayor about US imperialism in Latin America. This video includes Sanders, on a panel of others, discussing observations about the Soviet Union after a trip there, in 1988. In 1991, Sanders gave a talk at a DSA meeting, and talked about how, in the short term, he believes that the US should catch up with the rest of the world, in terms of Social Democratic policies, but that we should ultimately move towards Worker Control of the economy, as a long term goal. In 2007, Bernie Sanders advocated Worker Ownership in the US Congress. Here is a speech that Sanders gave that is very similar to the one he gave at the Progressive Entrepreneurship Forum. Sanders advocated for worker cooperatives in point 3 his 12 point economic plan. He doubled down on his views on Cuba, and the rest of latin america on Democracy Now shortly after the death of Fidel Castro. He even denied his status as a Capitalist on CNN. This 2015 Guardian interview has Sanders discussing the impact that the moving of Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles had on his Politics. This 2016 Jacobin article discusses Sander's roots in in America's rich Socialist Tradition. In this Reddit AMA from a few years ago, Sanders expresses a clear intent to move towards worker control. And very recently, in 2017, Sanders and his fellow Vermont senator introduced legislation to expand co-operatives nationwide. Furthermore, Sanders also discusses worker co-ops and other examples of collective ownership on pages 243 and 259-262 of his book Our Revolution (Thomas Dune Books 2016). Speaking of Our Revolution, let's look at some quotes from the book: What I learned playing on the streets and playgrounds of Brooklyn was not just how to become a decent ball player and athlete. I learned a profound lesson about democracy and self rule. (Our Revolution. pg 11) O'Malley's [Owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers] devastating decision to rip the Dodgers out of Brooklyn in order to pursue greater profits on the West Coast was, I suspect, one of my first observations regarding the deficiencies of Capitalism. (Our Revolution. pg 13) It wasn't just that racism, war, poverty, and other social evils must be opposed. It was that there was a cause and effect dynamic and an interconnectedness between all aspects of society. Things didn't just happen by accident. There was a relationship between wealth, power, and the perpetuation of Capitalism. (Our Revolution. pg 18) In Israel, we spent time working on several kibbutzim [collectively own and run Israeli communities]...People there were living their democratic values. The kibbutz was owned by the people who lived there, the "bosses" were elected by the workers, and the overall decisions for the community were made democratically. (Our Revolution. pg 21-22) This type of greed, and ruthless Capitalism is not an economic model we should be embracing. We can do Better; we must do better. The economic establishment tells us that there is no alternative to this type of rapacious, cutthroat, Capitalism, that this is how the system and globalization works, and that there's no turning back. They're dead wrong. (Our Revolution pg 260) Employee owned enterprises boost morale, because workers share in profits, and have more control over their own work lives. The employees are not simply cogs in a machine owned by someone else. They have a say in how the company is run. (Our Revolution pg 261) The Workers in these operations understand that when employees own their workplaces, when they work for themselves, when they are involved in the decision-making that impacts their jobs, they are no longer just punching a time clock. They become more motivated, absenteeism goes down, worker productivity goes up. (Our Revolution pg 261) We have got to send a message to the billionaire class: "You can't have it all." You can't get huge tax breaks while children in this country go hungry. You can't continue getting tax breaks by shipping American jobs to China. You can't hide your profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens, while there are massive unmet needs in every corner of this nation. Your greed has got to end. (Our Revolution pg 266) Even if you're unconvinced that he's a Socialist, which is perfectly fair, he definitely helped push plenty of people further left, and help make Socialism much less of a dirty word in American Politics. Plus, a lot of this information is useful in helping introduce Bernie supporters to Socialism. Edit: Apparently, not only is it Bernie Sanders' birthday, it's also the birthday of Star Trek. I think we all know what that means https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOim8Y2bSoI.

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---------------------------------------------- So it seems to me that there are 2 possibilities 1) Bernie has abandoned actual socialism but is unable to detatch himself from his history as a DemSoc, and so has continued to call himself a socialist while moving to SocDem 2) Bernie is using his socdem policies as a cover. He is simply a reformist. He plans to slowly move the country further and further left, first to Social Democracy, then towards Socialism (perhaps a "socialist state"?) and while he does this, he calls himself a DemSoc and quotes Eugene V. Debs etc. in order to make socialism more popular. If this is true, it seems to be working effectively as more young folk have positive views towards what they call socialism, and its increasing at a fast rate. Honestly if it werent for him, I NEVER would have become the Anarcho-Communist I am today.

What do I believe? I'm not sure. I don't have enough evidence from RECENT events, since the 2016 election, to make a conclusion. He's not said a word as far as I know about worker ownership post 2016 election. So I leave it up to you instead

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