Right now, ultra-leftism of the adventurist kind is rapidly growing in its relevance, and in the threat it poses to the working-class movement. Even though anarchism has been declining in its presence, and so has “Maoism,” we are seeing the rise of a politics that’s in many ways more dangerous than these other kinds of ultra-leftism. What’s happening is that especially in the cities, and also in certain college towns, the recent failures of leftism are giving way to desperate and reckless measures. You can find this within essentially any group which affiliates with the “antifa” label: a culture in which wanton vandalism and violence is seen as a valid approach.
History shows that this culture doesn’t even need to be created by federal infiltrators, though feds are of course deeply involved in these spaces; adventurist leftism arose as a trend unto its own, with a prime example being Russia’s Narodniks. And in this era, Narodnik politics are going to be the main kind of ultra-leftism, as they’re what the American left will logically gravitate to amid the present stage of imperial collapse.
The way that we defeat the new Narodnik politics is by refusing to operate on the same playing field in which this politics dominates. By not centering our organizing efforts within the metropole, or confining it to the student elements; but rather following Lenin’s advice to go lower and deeper into the real masses. And a critical part of this is to expand the communist movement into the rural, thereby building a support base that goes far beyond the narrow space the Narodniks inhabit.
This new ultra-left current is based within a very contemporary kind of identity politics, with its rhetoric and mentality mainly coming from 2010s wokeism; but its relationship to the workers movement is equivalent to that of the Narodniks, anarchists, or other problems from the left which Marxists have needed to deal with in the past. And in the realm of American worker organizing, William Z. Foster provides clarity on which types of harmful ideas such forces propagate:
The organized left wing must make a scientific study and application of strike leadership. It must study carefully every mass strike or other movement of the workers and learn their lessons. It must be courageous, militant, and flexible in its policies. It must know how to struggle for power in the unions, before, during, and after strikes. It must work consistently for the building up of an energetic and capable trade union leadership, defeating on the one hand, tendencies towards a merely opportunistic scramble for union office, and on the other hand, the ultra-leftism which looks upon all office holders in trade unions, whether good or bad, as parasites and grafters.
It must combat the anarchistic conception that the workers need no leaders and that union officials shall serve not more than one term -- an illusion cultivated by the I. W. W. which has effectively prevented the growth of a real leadership in that body. It must colonize with militants those industries and plants entering into strike conditions which are not producing leaders capable of handling the approaching strikes. It must know how to practice the principles of democratic centralism: that is, while keeping a firm grip on the strike situation and preserving an iron discipline, at the same time maintaining close contact with the masses and securing their support for every move that is made. Such an organized left leadership must act as a real general staff, conceiving and working out its problems largely in the sense of military strategy.
To truly overcome these types of infantile notions about how political struggle works, American communism will need to undergo a process that parallels the one which China’s communists went through. This was the process in which the Communist Party of China, after being driven out of the metropole, was forced to stop neglecting the rural masses. Our task is to achieve this forward evolution in our thinking and practice, without needing to be forced into it by circumstance; we shouldn’t do the right thing only after having already faced the repercussions for wrongheaded actions. And Mao has already given us a guide on how to carry out such a broadening within our movement’s geographical scope:
If you are to win over the peasants and rely on them, you must conduct investigations in the rural areas. The method is to investigate one or more villages and spend a few weeks there to get a clear idea of the class forces, the economic situation, living conditions and so on, in the countryside. The principal leaders, such as the general secretary of the Party, should themselves undertake this work and get to know one or two villages; they should try to find the time, for it is well worth the effort. Though there are plenty of sparrows , it is not necessary to dissect every one of them; to dissect one or two is enough.
When the general secretary of the Party has investigated one or two villages and knows what's what, he will be able to help his comrades to become acquainted with the villages and attach importance to dissecting one or two "sparrows"; true, they know something about the countryside, but their knowledge doesn't go very deep, and therefore the directives they issued do not quite fit the rural conditions. Likewise, the comrades in charge of the leading bodies of the Party at the central, provincial and county levels should themselves investigate one or two villages, or dissect one or two "sparrows ". This is called "anatomy".
Only by taking these measures, or the equivalent measures for our own conditions, can we effectively combat ultra-leftism. The same applies to combating the far right, or any of our other ideological enemies. Their strength depends on the failure of an authentic working-class movement to go into the masses in a serious way, and to comprehend the conditions of our society beyond one or two specific mass elements. This is part of why Mao’s historical lesson about China’s communists being driven to the countryside has such utility: taking that leap into the neglected aspects of mass work will largely free our movement from ultra-left influence. It will also provide us with the critical part of a revolutionary base that’s missing when you only focus on the metropole; we cannot defeat our class enemies while operating entirely within the spaces where they have the greatest advantage.
This effort to go into rural America is how we repudiate the CIA-backed, ultra-left “Maoism,” and instead apply the Mao Zedong Thought which guides modern China. It doesn’t resolve the entire battle against incorrect ideas, but that battle is going to continue regardless; the testing of ideas is a never-ending process, and once we’ve progressed into being a rural movement, we’ll have new problems to resolve. Likely a major debate will be over the strategy of how to counter the American class enemy, which we’ll likely need to continue fighting for decades of protracted struggle. When we reach that later stage, though, we’ll be in an infinitely better position if we’ve already internalized the lessons from our mass work.
Our movement won't be in an immediate position to gain victory until we’ve won support from a broad range of the people, and undertaking such a mission will give us a level of experience that American communists haven’t so far reached. We must translate this experience into a wisdom that lasts, and informs how we tackle every new problem from there on.
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