From discussions online and articles from communist or “leftist” publications, I’ve seen an increase of anti-vax/mandate thinking, either being framed as
- Pro-vaccine means you’re pro-big pharma
- Pro-vaccine is inherently racist
- Pro-mandate is bourgeois authority meant to dissuade organizing
- Pro-COVID “hysteria” is a way to further oppress the working class
Other than a psyop meant to discredit the left, what about those that are genuine? I’ve seen online communists with seemingly good politics fall to this line of thinking, and even sources like Greyzone and MintPress have pushed out similar drivel. And of course I’ve only seen this from Western “leftists”, mostly from the US but not limited to them.
The pandemic has been a serious issue since the beginning, and now that rates of infection and hospitalizations are spiking well past the highs during the “peak” of the pandemic in the US, these voices have grown. The irresponsibility of these supposed comrades spouting out their hurtful rhetoric despite AES countries like China taking the necessary steps to continue to contain the pandemic speaks volumes to those privileged enough to be anti-health of the working class.
No. I am in favor of building a movement of the working class. That kind of behavior divides the working class so it is not in anyone’s interest but the ruling class. It’s objectively counterproductive.
Great.
So you agree that just because a group of workers wants something, doesn’t mean it’s good and deserving of support, right? That a class of workers have interests that they, at the very least feel, align closer with the Bourgeois due to their position in the liberal meritocracy?
Yes I agree. But this is not the case with the vaccine mandate protests. Richard Wolff explains it best https://twitter.com/profwolff/status/1454266810400972801?lang=en
The tried and proven form of a workers movement is the harmony of the workers following the leadership of the communist party. The party learns from the people, the people follow the leadership of the party. If there is a misalignment, this process has failed somewhere and you do not have a successful workers movement.
In the national context of the US, there are multiple communist parties, which is already a problem. And none of them have significance in politics. They are completely out of wack.
And you take this error of factionalism further by individualizing it. I don’t care if you as an individual support or oppose mandates. Are you in a party and that is there position? If so, how successful are they at leading the workers? Not very, would be my guess. So what is the point of preaching pro-mandate if no one is listening to you or your party?
Even if you think mandates are good, are your own fee-fees more important than what you would lose by alienating striking workers? You could be helping these people organize. Educating about the importance of unions. This is an opportunity! It’s also an opportunity for the ruling class if no one acts. It’s an opportunity to leverage the division in society to pass legislation against strikes on the basis of public health. It’s an opportunity to give employers more power over their workers. How can you not see this?
I don’t give a single, solitary fuck about your dogmatism, or idealism.
I also don’t particularly care what Wolff had to say here either, given it’s three months old and predates the return to a 9-11 every other day, and his conclusion seems spurious at best. If you want to cite something more relevant temporally, that would be fine.
There is no organized, strong communist presence in the US. You wanna know why? Because we’re still in decay. There won’t be an actual leftist reckoning until the final stages of the sublimation of the national Bourgeois into the international, and near complete proletarianization of my people.
So, no. I don’t particularly care for delusional counterfactuals about enticing the labor aristocracy.
And also, I’m not engaging with you. I don’t care what you think. I care about innoculating anyone here against blatant misinformation that’s killing people.
Then explain how I am those things. You don’t get to invoke those insults out of thin air.
Ok. You really think he changed his mind?
https://twitter.com/profwolff/status/1484580551340089347
Why? The entire US media is doing that for you. You think there are really people who are against mandates are just waiting to hear the same points from a communist to change their minds?
And it’s not misinformation that’s killing people, you haven’t demonstrated that in any capacity despite the information I have provided in this thread.
You are theoretically bankrupt and a defeatist. You are shifting responsibility to the third world instead of taking responsibility in the first world. The labor aristocracy is not a class, it is a tendency of the working class. And even in the early 20th century, when this tendency was observed in the west, the communist movement was at its peak in the USA. Sure, it is possible that the ruling class does what Lenin said. They bribe labor leaders and striking workers with super profits. But they are not doing this as much, because unions are dead in the USA. So the labor aristocracy, as it was understood by Lenin, is not a prevailing tendency in American politics when the real working class is living at the bare minimum wages needed for survival.
In a time when the entire country is anxious about the economy, are rioting en masse and rebelling through various channels, and are looking for a new system, I think the people are not at fault for the reason why we see no communist movement. The blame is solely on the failures of the American left.