I don’t think accusations of revisionism are particularly productive at this point. Party A can accuse party B of revisionism and vice versa and who benefits? Someone accuses CPUSA of revisionism, someone else starts calling the PCUSA names, another person goes on a diatribe against the PSL, and what was gained from all of that?
I think we should focus our criticism on more specific instances of where certain individuals or parties fail and adopt erroneous positions and policies (and JT certainly deserves a lot of criticism for his latest video), while accepting that it is to everyone’s benefit if we don’t entirely dismiss them or label them this or that derogatory term.
Let’s instead work with them on a case by case basis where our goals and strategies align.
Granted the CPUSA are quite literally the definition of revisionists. They pivoted to become Khrushchevites and rallied against Stalin.
But in all seriousness, have you seen their policy positions and electoralism? I kid you not, for the past 15 years it has only been “vote blue”.
Yeah the first part isn’t something i would hold against them today. It was a long time ago, i’d say let bygones be bygones, and there are more important things to focus on…
…more important things like that second part. That is a serious red flag to be honest and far outweighs any “revisionist” positions they may or may not hold on some historical country, leader or event. How are you going to call yourself communist if you constantly go to bat for a bourgeois imperialist party? “But the Republicans…” is not an argument. If communists adopt an electoral strategy it should be “vote communist”, not “vote for the blue fascists so we don’t get the red ones”.
See this is what i mean. This isn’t just name calling it’s a justified criticism and they absolutely should be called out on this boneheaded policy. And even so i would like to think that we can still find some common ground, especially with the rank and file members to work together, and maybe try to convince them that their tailist strategy is very misguided and not at all productive.
I heard that the local chapters are more radical than the top, so I won’t say that JT is revionist simply for being a member of CPUSA
I mean, CPUSA main branch is kind of hot ass garbage but hasn’t JT said he doesn’t really approve of it and he works with his local branch do actually promote more true ML stuff? At least that what I though last time I saw him really go into it but that was a while ago… I don’t think he’s revisionist, I think he’s doing the best he can to build a local movement with what’s available to home.
I saw a few videos of his I disagree with but they have a purpose in doing that. Their podcast and videos are about brining people in to begin the “deprogramming.” I remember finding their stuff after I had listened to all of the “Proles of the Round Table” and thinking “man this is some baby shit.” Then some of my friends that were actual little baby commies and soc Dems listened to it and now they are going as hard as me and give me shit for not having read as much as them… So I get why they have to tone it down. If I introduced my firends to the harder stuff right off the bat… They’d never have continued to listen to me. I think their little trio has a purpose and that is it bring more viewers that aren’t communists in closer. Ses to me they try to make content that’s bother for harder communists and also people just begining to touch on it.
And I mean, it’s working. I remember when I joined their subreddit and discord about a year and a half ago and general sentiments, many were still on the fence about China and shit. Now there lots of full blow support for Xi. I’ve seen a significant shift in it leading people harder left. The problem is people treat it like it’s the last step Like this is it and we should just only watch their stuff and nothing else. when it’s meant to be stepping stones to more hard left stuff. Many of the later episodes got more hard left but they still have to make content to bring in the babies too. At least that how I see it.
And to all the haters… I mean, how many people have you actually radicalized by sitting here online and talking shit about people doing actual praxis?
I have to roll my eyes ever time shit like this comes up. Even JT disagrees with the main branches stance and think they are kind of trash. His goal is to improve the organization from the inside. Going online and removed about the org isn’t going to change it. Me and my friends have joined our own local branch. Some are “unofficial” because they don’t care to pay dues to the main org because we all think it has generally trash stances on a lot of things, but we wouldn’t have met any other communists in real life or gone out and done actual praxis by helping the community. Just because you are part of an org doesn’t mean you agree with everything it says or does. As communists in the west we don’t have a whole lot of options. We either make due with what we can and try and make it better or we can sit at home and attack actual people doing praxis solely because they do it through some org we don’t like, like some fucking ultras or some shit.
CPUSA is hot liquid shit but it wasn’t always that way and there’s a big push since 2022 to reclaim the party from FBI and pro-Democratic Party plants. That being said I think many leftists are misunderstanding what the purpose of revolutionary? parties like CPUSA or PSL or what have you. You can’t simply vote the revolution into power, but they serve as a barometer for revolutionary sentiment.
Yeah, idk when it happened because I quickly lost interest in them as they began to lean into the parasocial side more, but clearly JT is revisionist.
