The partisans of Zionism and U.S. imperialism are depending on us not taking seriously our job of resisting them. They need us to let ourselves be swayed by the arguments that the forces of controlled opposition are putting forth; the arguments for why we should remain insular in our practice, and reject any path that will actually let us build a connection with the broad masses. They’re hoping for us to act afraid of winning, as the American left has been doing for so long. With the emergence of a coalition between different antiwar elements amid the Ukraine conflict, there’s recently come to be potential for this dynamic to change; for our social movements to no longer be dominated by opportunists who seek an organizing monopoly. And the failure of the pro-Israel narrative has made it all the more urgent for the imperial state to prevent that change from happening; to ensure that the insular leftist organizations maintain their dominance over our mass movements.
Recently, the main thing the agents of these controlled opposition groups have been doing is try to discourage solidarity with the Uhuru organization; this is because Uhuru has been subjected to sabotage by PSL’s ANSWER, and since Uhuru has refused to be silent about the situation, those who are obstinate about defending ANSWER seek to discredit the party which has been victimized.
As Uhuru has observed about the further damage that these opportunistic actors have done by trying to divert the blame elsewhere: “Becker and PSL are attempting to hide their treacherous, interventionist role in splitting the Palestinian and African liberation struggles by blaming the contradiction on Palestinians. We are clear that our contradiction is not with the Palestinians, with whom the African Liberation Movement has always stood shoulder-to-shoulder in deep anti-colonial unity. Our contradiction is with the opportunist white left, which continues to demonstrate their willingness to isolate the Palestinian people and struggle by separating it from other anti-colonial struggles, including Africans in the United States.”
Uhuru is worth siding with over PSL not only because it’s the party that’s been proven to be a victim of foul tactics; but because it represents the ideological tendency within the communist movement which can truly be relied upon to win the struggle. That being the element which is based within the working class, as opposed to the radical intelligentsia. It’s always been working class politics, and the ideas which are adjacent to working class politics, that have won against the reactionary forces; this is because these ideas are based within what’s practically necessary for getting victory, rather than what satisfies the reactive desires of the alienated petty-bourgeoisie. Petty-bourgeois radicalism is unserious because the class conditions that produced its ideas are not ones which incentivize doing what’s logistically needed; they instead incentivize a crude lashing out against anything perceived to have contradictions.
This ideology is absolutely connected to ultra-leftism, which is why even certain working class individuals are able to be won over by petty-bourgeois radical arguments: ultra-leftism is often initially appealing to workers who share the alienated feelings of the radical intelligentsia. And PSL is one of the many petty-bourgeois radical formations that view ultra-leftism as useful for advancing its goals. What the ultras who aid these opportunistic projects do is apply arbitrary standards to all the forces which truly seek to build a base within the people; then use this to justify refusing allyship with these forces. The effect is to keep our popular movements too fractured to be able to challenge our ruling class; which gives these anti-solidarity actors the same role that imperialism’s counter-gangs around the world have.
As Caleb Maupin has described, these groups use the same tactics that the Trotskyism-aligned leftist intellectuals do:
In China, each child is given a red scarf when they begin their education. They are told that this red scarf is their own piece of the Chinese flag, and that it represents a political project toward building a prosperous society, which they are automatically part of it. Similar rituals exist in the Bolivarian countries, the Arab Nationalist states, and almost every other country where the government can trace its origin to an anti-capitalist revolution. Meanwhile, the primary strategy of Wall Street for toppling these governments has been to employ the rhetorical style of Trotskyists, and appeal to the alienation and anxiety of the privileged elite. The CIA and its network of aligned NGOs has discovered key methods of manipulating and unleashing the desire for chaos among the middle class. Figures like Samantha Power talk about “mobilizing” for human rights around the world. The primary way the US has attacked independent countries in recent years has been fomenting revolts such as Euro-Maiden in Ukraine, the “Green Movement” in Iran, the “revolution” in Libya.
The majority of the left has forsaken solidarity with Uhuru; and rejected the Rage Against the War Machine coalition which Uhuru works adjacent to; because in our situation where any working class movement has been highly marginal for decades, the primary ideological forces which call themselves “socialist” are ones based in this sense of alienation. They’re hostile or indifferent towards these formations because whereas these formations seek to build a connection with the majority of the people, they’re alienated from the majority of the people. The petty-bourgeois current within socialism sees no reason to embrace the working class current’s strategy of orienting oneself around the masses; which is why somebody with this mindset can’t see why an anti-imperialist united front is so indispensable.
Embracing this way of thinking makes one susceptible to the narratives the imperialists use to try to invalidate the anti-imperialist cause. The anti-popular arguments that U.S. hegemony’s partisans use to attack those challenging them; such as that anybody who opposes the official foreign policy narratives is only promoting conspiracy paranoia; are especially able to influence members of the compatible left. The alienation-based leftists will easily accept statements that appear to confirm their view of majoritarian politics; in this view, those seeking to expand the cause beyond an activist or intellectual niche are all seen as suspect. As affronts towards the essential wisdom which this niche supposedly has.
Marxists in this country are going to need to accept that coming to a practice which rejects elitism and alienation does not mean forsaking the struggle’s principles; it means the opposite. The struggle can only succeed on the basis of making one’s political project compatible with the majority, which requires recognizing the errors the socialist movement in this country has been making for so long. The movement has so far been unsuccessful not because of the people, but because of our lack of willingness even to work in proximity with the people; we correct this mistake, and our enemies lose.
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