There are many critiques of the west that are similar to the idea that the west does not have a proletariat class.
“People have it too good and are too comfortable” “Even the poorest workers take from imperialism countries.” “If you believe food comes from the field you’ll defend the field if you think it comes from the super market you defend the super market” “The west has no industrial base” etc.
All of these have flaws, and they don’t address the primary problem of western leftist movements seeming to be largely ineffectual and prone to economism. Not to mention the lack of popularity such movements struggle with. The reality is that the poorest in the US DO struggle, in spite of safety nets you still find deaths from poverty, some of the largest prison populations in the world, and there still are large populations of people working in industry. It’s easy to dismiss the west for one reason or another as simply not having the conditions for revolution but the reality is that where ever there is capitalism, there are the conditions for revolution.
I believe that the west’s problems do not come from a lack of opportunity to organize, or a lack of enough suffering to force people to spontaneously resist, which in itself has been critiqued, but rather a failure of western leftist movements to; agitate the working class showing them their true enemies, organize the masses putting theory into practice, forming solidarity with international workers, and preventing the movement from being hijacked by economism/pro-capitalist forces.
So what I ask I guess is how might you suggest people in the west resolve these contradictions. I’ve personally tried to convince many people but i still lose some to several points I will list; -Feelings of inadequacy/powerlessness, in which they describe support for the idea but the inability to support it in any way meaningfully out of fear of consequences. -Fear of consequences, such as losing the privileges they are afforded by complying with capitalists, even despite encroaching dissolution of said privileges. -Opportunism, abandonment of the ideals of Marxism-Leninism, solidarity, or even basic morality for the opportunity to gain privileges. -Lack of resources, those who want to help but are too burdened by their circumstances to, in their own opinion, meaningfully participate. -Lack of direction, individuals with the resources, and education, but do not act because they cannot see themselves as leaders, and do not see an organizing body in their region.
It can be difficult to convince one out of these behaviors or circumstances and it isn’t so simple as cutting welfare or funding a preexisting group. What are some strategies one can employ to resolve the contradictions and get people to begin organizing for a proper workers movement.
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to me it always starts with the most local and specific issue in the community. bringing people to organise around it, making a change, connecting this issue with capitalism etc. is a good way to show people the basics of organising for power
There has been an inadequate level of agitation but it wasn’t a “failure” of western leftist movements so much as it was that they were beaten. We need to avoid moralizing and assigning blame.
The problems you are describing is mostly just individualism. Feelings of inadequacy/powerlessness, Fear of consequences, Opportunism, Lack of resources, Lack of direction, these are all just individual problems, when workers come together in a collective none of these concerns matter.
The world runs on the backs of the working class. We are each powerless but together we hold all the power. If we all come together they can’t punish us all. If we all stay dedicated to the fight there is no payout that they will give that is greater than what we will get when we destroy the bourgeoisie. We don’t need “resources,” workers have the trump card, Labor power. Without it the world falls down. We have a unified direction, the end of the exploitation by lazy slobs who never worked a day in their life.
We don’t need every worker to become a scientific socialist, we need every worker to want to overthrow capitalism. If a worker wants to become a Scientific Socialist that should be encouraged and they should be directed to read theory and if you can turn that into a study group that is awesome, but If all you get in response to agitation is “I want things to change” that is a win. If all the workers want change we will get it.
I think you have a very accurate assessment. Although often the “I want things to change” is co-opted by bourgeois forces into ineffective or anti proletariat movements. BLM was a pretty big movement that was redirected into meaningless recognition and no fundamental changes. Often right wing people hate the “Elite” in charge by channel it into reactionary elements instead of a workers movement.
The main left in most western countries is revisionist and redirects revolutionary potential into ineffective means of resistance. They’re honeypots. The left seems to have trouble organizing outside these honey pots.
I know from my own life is that one of the biggest issues is that the conditions so many people live in in the west - overwork, severely underpaid, hunger, etc, put them into a state of survival where they are just so consumed with desperately trying to pay the next bill, desperately trying to stay fed, trying to get through the absolute minefield of bureaucracy in modern life, utter exhaustion and complete stress, coupled with lack of decent medical care, that they simply do not have the energy to revolt. Add to this the fear of losing their job if they rock the boat. To most people, immediate survival is just a more pressing issue than starting a revolution in the hope it may one day lead to a glorious utopia.
I agree with this analysis, but I think it carries an implication that the people did not suffer these under other successful revolutions. Infact this way of life and its sharp contradictions is part of the reason so many joined the marxist movement. The reality is a failure of organizing with others, as it diminishes the suffering. People in the west are incredibly distrustful, prideful, and individualist. As such they have trouble even coming together to solve seemingly the simplest of problems. I know a great many western leftists who are too prideful to live with others and insist on each having their own home, with its own driveway and their own car’s and their own front and back yard, etc. This is a simple example that does not describe every situation as many are living with others or their families, but the individualism is starving most westerners in most aspects of their life.
Life being tough should BE the reason people come together, not the opposite. When two people come together their efforts are not just multiplied by 2x but many more than that. Being able to both work towards survival is far easier with even a single additional person, let alone 5 or 6. If one were to meet with their neighbors and all dedicate their resources to simple long term food storage they stave off hunger. Carpooling to lessen gas burdens. Living in one home to decrease rental burdens. By working together you mitigate the suffering of the whole. This only becomes easier the more you have. Its how societies began in the first place, and how we continue.
I do agree that those reasons are the reasons people do not organize, but its misdirection by capitalists that you can only find freedom from it in grinding for the capitalists, instead of from helping and in turn being helped by your community. This is part of the frustration I have in talking about this subject and why I made the initial post. Everyone is suffering, everyone struggles, and in the past even the most oppressed people fought for their own freedom. The problem is not the struggle, the struggle is because of the problem. That being the failure to organize.
