I think this is where we find fundamental disagreements. To me it is vastly worse to support imperialist shills like Bernie than to have a common cause with people who happen to hold some reactionary views on cultural issues.

There are countless communists in the global south with reactionary views on gender and sexuality, and while those views are wrong and should be denounced and corrected through ideological struggle, this does not justify refusing to support or work with them.

There is no issue more important for the global liberation of workers than the anti-imperialist struggle. If someone holds all the correct positions on cultural issues but does not oppose, or worse, even reinforces and supports imperialism, then their net effect on the world is a reactionary one.

More so than that of anti-war, anti-imperialist right wingers, regardless whether this position comes from a place of principles or opportunism, or simple contrarianism. What matters is the result, and although they don’t realize it the libertarians who take up anti-imperialist advocacy are directly helping to undermine the capitalist system they think they are trying to save.

Capitalism cannot survive without imperialism. And it is capitalist imperialism that is the greatest obstacle to the liberation of all oppressed peoples and disadvantaged minorities.

Contradictions are present everywhere and in everything we do. In a broad spectrum anti-war, anti-imperialist alliance there will be severe contradictions. Regardless the faults of the groups participating in these movements, the only ones who benefit from trying to turn people away from supporting or joining such movements through moralistic purity arguments are the imperialists.

I’m sorry but i think what you and a few other comrades here are doing in taking up these radlib talking points about RAWM is exactly what Rainer has been criticizing about Brian Becker and the PSL. Becker is someone who i personally have a lot of admiration and respect for, and so does Rainer, but the criticism expressed in this piece is absolutely valid.

One cannot claim to be serious about the cause of workers’ liberations while repeating and reinforcing imperialist propaganda narratives.

The guy is real cozy with “patsocs”

This purity fetish has to stop. Guilt by association gets us nowhere, and the term “patsoc” has become just another meaningless smear term.

dabbles in straight up reactionary Russian Nationalism

Rainer explicitly advocates for the return of the Soviet Union, this is the antithesis of Russian nationalism.

He considers backing LGBTQ and drag shows to be “alienating the masses”

Please show me where he ever said this.

he only cares about a small portion of the masses

I have seen no indication of this in any of his writings.

Not sure on the opp or not since some pretty famous Marxists the last century made similar errors before some of the big wars and had a century less of noise/propaganda to filter through. We do need an international anti-war movement, but it should be grassroots and notso funded by billionaires. The sentiment is 100pct there, lots of sympathy from bars to workplaces in even in the Imperial core, moreso in the periphery, real question is to make use of it, not overcomplicate things, but that’s more for influencers, orgs etc who can project and get out there to come up with everything, not me.

I’d agree with you because RAWM is also funded by various big bourgeois factions (Peter Thiel comes to mind), just a bit more cloaked in anti-imperialism, imperialist anti-imperialism if you will, made to perfectly consolidate some power from the most reactionary parts of the petite bourgeois/bourgeois using some culture war stuff and what’s left of the mostly gone anti-nuke movement as a lure to confuse. Its a simple playing every side that can be found, though not so simple, though by airing their complaints this time the bourgeois again push themselves deeper into fascism.

On diamat he must have done the standard western 3 stager that falls short of true analysis which goes through the ‘dark night of the absolute’, which I think was left off here if I were to wager, which is why on the surface it’d seem like its a critical support ala your usual anti-imperialist but imperfect theocracy or what not, but you look into it more, think of who in the imperial core benefits if this ran to its conclusion, if they’d truly be what they said, who is running this, how bourgeois movements tend to push the opposite of what they desire; Ex fighting for their illusory ill-defined freedom leads to the tightening grip of markets and development of fascism. RAWM is no threat to the core’s machinations for big war beyond our nightmares, and is a good trojan horse should they need to gain control of the movement for any purpose, ironically even pro-war.