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I want to make a thread on revolutionary socialism. What I mean when I say revolution over reform. 🧵 This is 30% a response to Contrapoints and 70% information I've learned that I want to share.Permalink On twitter.com
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Social democrats: believe all the problems with capitalism can be resolved through welfare, universal programs, and (sometimes) unions Democratic socialists: believe in the creation of a worker-run political party that is voted into power to nationalize banks and industryPermalink On twitter.com
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Revolutionary socialists: believe in building institutions separate from the state, that, in the long term become powerful enough to replace the statePermalink On twitter.com
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A good amount of "leftist infighting" is revolutionary socialists arguing over which institution should be the one to replace the state? MLs think it should be a vanguard party ➡️ Dictatorship of the Proletariat, you get the ideaPermalink On twitter.com
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Because the left in the US was pretty much destroyed between 1980 and 2001, a lot of these ideas become compressed versions of themselves. In particular, democratic socialism and social democracy begin to look the same, since they canvass for the same politicians and reformsPermalink On twitter.com
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Revolutionary socialism looks a little bit like nihilism under these conditions. Since we don't participate in these big events, like Nina Turner's campaign or phonebanking for the PRO Act, it looks like we're uninterested in changing anythingPermalink On twitter.com
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The kinds of reforms that social democrats and democratic socialists want are impossible without external pressure applied to the bourgeois state. These campaigns keep losing because the US working class doesn't have the ability to apply the needdd pressure.Permalink On twitter.com
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So revolutionary socialists focus their efforts not on the state, but on building counter-institutions. Building unions and radicalizing existing ones. Eviction rapid response teams. Mutual aid. Community-run socialist councilsOn twitter.com
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We want a situation that Vladimir Lenin called Dual Power: where the bourgeois state and worker's institutions are both legitimate in the eyes of the people. This is exactly what the Black Panther Party built in urban Black communities. That's why it was a successPermalink On twitter.com
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The bottom line here is that revolution isn't some bloody hypothetical we made up because envy or resentment. It's a real political project you can work on in your community. It's more real than trying and failing for 5 decades to pass M4A, anyway. /endPermalink On twitter.com