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As_A_Substack 2: The Left Undead w/ Sean KB
🕑 Added 2024-02-22 23:00:04 +0000 UTCIn which Sean writes another Substack article and reads it out for patrons on the feed!
This time about the republican communist turn, the death of civil society and our opportunity to build an organization of a new (old) type. We'll be talking about it all, plus hanging out at the meetup this coming Saturday at 5:30pm,
585 Woodward Avenue, Ridgewood, NY 11385.
See you there!
Comments
Jim
Lovely stuff Sean. It's beautifully written, with such a strong sense of voice and clarity of ideas. I couldn't agree more on your main thesis i.e. the need to build up 'aggregate institutional forces of class power' for the next organisational (party) form to reveal itself. Strangely (or perhaps not), I make exactly the same argument in an article I'm posting on my Substack in the next couple of days. I'd like to share it with you and get your perspective on it if you can spare the time. A comment: for any workers civil society institution, it has to centre the LTV and have an international orientation from the offset. The import of these ideas are evident, but I do intend to expound upon them as requirements and political devices at some point. I think they're absolutely crucial to think about from day one, even if an organisation can only practically meet 'local' needs immediately.
James Murray
Labor Notes' and the Moody R&F perspective is to create "a sea to swim in" in which socialist politics arise organically and can thrive. This is restricted solely to the union movement. A similar perspective applied to a larger task in recreating (quasi) independent civil society is no small one. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Best of luck.
MoldyTolge
Can’t be there but I hope this club burns it down! The popular front, not Woodbine.
Trebor
💯
neowave
Please try to record/stream this. I'm really interested in hearing what you guys talk about.
Alienated Commulist Bott
I wish I could be at the meeting, but being on the other side of the big pond sadly makes this unfeasable.
Samwise
You'll have to forgive the diatribe, but you brought up wildfires as a signal of the times, the very world itself creating it's own symbolism in fire, chaotic and destructive. And while that's certainly apt, the naturalist in me cannot help but see the other side. Giant sequoias, for instance, cannot reproduce without wildfires, as they act as the signal to drop their seeds and start a new generation of redwoods in soil cleared of competition by passing flame. Capitalism, if analogs to nature are to be made, represents humanity in an evolved state of nature. Unconscious competition foisted upon us even as we fancy ourselves beyond such base ways of living our lives. The promise of communism is to transcend this relationship, to act as stewards of this world -- our only world -- and stewards of ourselves as conscious actors deciding on what is best, rather than simply leaving it up to the chaotic systems of competition and enclosure. Though the wildfires may burn out of control and old, venerable trees may fall before their time by way of fires made more powerful by climate change, it is only with that clearing of the underbrush and signal to long slumbering giants that seeds are released and new saplings may take root. We'll be watching out on the west coast!
Jo
Wish I could be there from Seattle! If there ends up being a stream I will find it. <3
Alex Hennessey
Was thinking of making the trip from Toronto for the meeting but fortunately or unfortunately my tenant union is having a big meeting and is relying on me to run the A/V side of things. Hope it goes well!
