American Communists get under my skin
So today, I attended the Emergency Rally to Save Reproduction Rights in downtown Chicago, which was basically designed to (a) speak out against anti-abortion legislation in Alabama and other states and (b) urge Illinois General Assembly to pass a law that would remove some anti-abortion laws that are still on the book and that would become valid should Roe vs Wade be overturned. I was just there to show my support, and be a male who shows support.
As always, there were a number of Communist groups taking part. Because, as I've written before, there are usually 2-3 different ones hanging around anything even remotely left-adjacent. And none of them are quite as far left as Revolutionary Communist Party USA, who can usually be counted on to have big banners and to urge people to overthrow the bourgeois capitalist oppressors.
The rally itself was fairly big-tent (unless you think that having access to safe and legal abortion is just too extreme). There was a nice rally at the Federal Plaza (which is called that because, you guessed it, a lot of federal departments have their offices over there), followed by a march to Thompson Center (where a lot of state agencies and elected officials have offices) to reinforce the whole urging the General Assembly to take action part.
As the crowd slowly started to disburse, RevCom people still hung around. And their speaker... I had to give credit for this - she didn't show her hand right away. She started out talking about the evils of Trump Administration, about the need for change, and then slowly but surely worked up to how Republicans and Democrats are all tools of bourgeoisie capitalists, how Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weren't socialist enough and how only way to teach anything was to follow the teachings of the glorious leader and teacher Bob Avakian, who would bring the true dictatorship of the proletariat government by the working people.
One of those days, I will tell American communists who show up to any even remotely left-leaning protest exactly what I think. That socialism in Russia wasn't corrupted - it was doomed from the get-go, because when you seek a dictatorship of anything, even proletariat, you give yourself license to oppress. That when you decide that you and you alone know what's best, you quash innovation and give yourself license to oppress. That it's easy for Westerners who never had to deal with consequences of socialist revolutions to wish for one. And that you cannot force a utopia, no matter how noble it may sound. That if you want to change the current deeply flawed capitalism-for-the-sake-of-itself status quo, you need to do better than regurgitate fundamentally flawed revolutions that keep causing death and trauma time and time again.
One of those days, I will say all that - but today was not that day. I did tell RevCom to go fuck themselves, because seriously, screw them and their creepy cult of personality, has history taught them nothing?
As always, there were a number of Communist groups taking part. Because, as I've written before, there are usually 2-3 different ones hanging around anything even remotely left-adjacent. And none of them are quite as far left as Revolutionary Communist Party USA, who can usually be counted on to have big banners and to urge people to overthrow the bourgeois capitalist oppressors.
The rally itself was fairly big-tent (unless you think that having access to safe and legal abortion is just too extreme). There was a nice rally at the Federal Plaza (which is called that because, you guessed it, a lot of federal departments have their offices over there), followed by a march to Thompson Center (where a lot of state agencies and elected officials have offices) to reinforce the whole urging the General Assembly to take action part.
As the crowd slowly started to disburse, RevCom people still hung around. And their speaker... I had to give credit for this - she didn't show her hand right away. She started out talking about the evils of Trump Administration, about the need for change, and then slowly but surely worked up to how Republicans and Democrats are all tools of bourgeoisie capitalists, how Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weren't socialist enough and how only way to teach anything was to follow the teachings of the glorious leader and teacher Bob Avakian, who would bring the true dictatorship of the proletariat government by the working people.
One of those days, I will tell American communists who show up to any even remotely left-leaning protest exactly what I think. That socialism in Russia wasn't corrupted - it was doomed from the get-go, because when you seek a dictatorship of anything, even proletariat, you give yourself license to oppress. That when you decide that you and you alone know what's best, you quash innovation and give yourself license to oppress. That it's easy for Westerners who never had to deal with consequences of socialist revolutions to wish for one. And that you cannot force a utopia, no matter how noble it may sound. That if you want to change the current deeply flawed capitalism-for-the-sake-of-itself status quo, you need to do better than regurgitate fundamentally flawed revolutions that keep causing death and trauma time and time again.
One of those days, I will say all that - but today was not that day. I did tell RevCom to go fuck themselves, because seriously, screw them and their creepy cult of personality, has history taught them nothing?