this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
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[–] Juice@midwest.social 0 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Well, I dont appreciate the implication that my views are based on imperialist talking points. I am an admirerer of the Chinese project, but i don't consider it revolutionary. Again I think youre being obtuse when you say you dont know what bourgeois principles are. I think you know that I'm not an imperialist parrot, on the contrary, I think you dismiss my perspectives too eagerly. However I appreciate the push back on the state capitalist definition. My most recent study of those conditions are based on formulations by Loren Goldner, based on formulations of Bordiga. Its not that I subscribe to them explicitly but its clear I need to develop a stronger critique.

Also

The reason Marxists ridicule those accusing socialist states of ā€œauthoritarianismā€

I am hearing that I am not a Marxist because i acknowledge the substance of a criticism, and that ridicule is in fact a viable mode of political discourse. This speaks such volumes. This is exactly the sectarianism I am most principally concerned with.

A party that coexists with the bourgeoisie is reformist, a party that sustains a depoliticized middle class also sustains exploitation for the sustainance of their bourgeoisie. The petite bourgeois and middle classes are the way that a state obfuscates class antagonisms.

I dont think it is a stretch to insist that a party that sustains a bourgeois class would have a bourgeois character. It would surprise me if the Chinese party didn't have a detailed and thorough history of this problem. The bourgeois nature of the party is expressed through state bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is not 1:1 with proletarian administration, bureaucracy is self-sustaining. The CCP has no incentive to abolish itself or to wither away, on the contrary! Whereas you wish to purge opposing viewpoints, I argue the CCP needs to purge its bourgeois reformism before it can ever meaningfully resist imperialism. The idea that the party affects the class, while its essential character is independent of that class is just pure idealist rubbish. You seem to think the party state is buying time for socialism, but I dont think you can prove that it isnt social democratic in nature, that is, withering away of the power of proletariat.

However I did refer to the party as a bureaucratic class which is not accurate either, it is not a class, but rather, a social relation created to mitigate class antagonisms. This also will require further development on my part.

I guess I just kind of wish that you could be straight with me instead of being like a propagandist/apologist? Like I know you have criticism of the CCP, I'm sure you would share them with others who you felt comfortable going so. But rather than viewing me as a comrade, I'm an imperialist parrot deserving ridicule. If you knew three things about me you'd choke on that assumption. Which shows your connection to all this is alienated, because you can't directly connect with me as an organizer, Marxist, socialist or fellow traveler. All connections between people are mitigated through ideology, through affectation and epistemology rather than anything genuinely respectful of difference. Its the puritain, purging mentality of state bureaucrats, not revolutionaries.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 hours ago

I'll move past the first couple paragraphs, which I think you'll be okay with considering the opener was your background and the second you taking issue with me stating the standard Marxist position as in contradiction with yours, implicitly categorizing you as non-Marxist in that analysis. I do maintain that you are removing yourself from Marxism with that analysis, but I'll address what you brought up here.

A party that coexists with the bourgeoisie is reformist, a party that sustains a depoliticized middle class also sustains exploitation for the sustainance of their bourgeoisie. The petite bourgeois and middle classes are the way that a state obfuscates class antagonisms.

Coexistance is not what is going on in China. The bourgeoisie are in a drawn out process of eradication, as the proletarian state gradually collectivizes property. They cannot accelerate this as they are still thoroughly coupled with global capitalism, the transition between capitalism to communism is itself global and thus China plays a revolutionary role in undermining imperialism, the primary contradiction.

I dont think it is a stretch to insist that a party that sustains a bourgeois class would have a bourgeois character. It would surprise me if the Chinese party didn’t have a detailed and thorough history of this problem. The bourgeois nature of the party is expressed through state bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is not 1:1 with proletarian administration, bureaucracy is self-sustaining.

The CPC is not sustaining the bourgeois class, but is restrained by the global transition. The party itself is not bourgeois. Doubtless there are liberals in China, of course there are, but the party is proletarian in nature.

The CCP has no incentive to abolish itself or to wither away, on the contrary! Whereas you wish to purge opposing viewpoints, I argue the CCP needs to purge its bourgeois reformism before it can ever meaningfully resist imperialism. The idea that the party affects the class, while its essential character is independent of that class is just pure idealist rubbish. You seem to think the party state is buying time for socialism, but I dont think you can prove that it isnt social democratic in nature, that is, withering away of the power of proletariat.

The CPC is not trying to abolish itself, nor should they. China is meaningfully opposing imperialism, and has freed much of the global south from the trappings of underdevelopment. The CPC is not "buying time for socialism," China is already socialist. Public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy, and the proletariat is in charge of the state. What remains between now and communism is the long, drawn out transition. Social democracies have private ownership as principle, and capitalists in charge of the state.

However I did refer to the party as a bureaucratic class which is not accurate either, it is not a class, but rather, a social relation created to mitigate class antagonisms. This also will require further development on my part.

I recommend Gramsci's On Comrade Bordiga's Sterile and Negative "Left" Criticism since you mentioned Bordiga earlier.

I guess I just kind of wish that you could be straight with me instead of being like a propagandist/apologist? Like I know you have criticism of the CCP, I’m sure you would share them with others who you felt comfortable going so. But rather than viewing me as a comrade, I’m an imperialist parrot deserving ridicule. If you knew three things about me you’d choke on that assumption. Which shows your connection to all this is alienated, because you can’t directly connect with me as an organizer, Marxist, socialist or fellow traveler. All connections between people are mitigated through ideology, through affectation and epistemology rather than anything genuinely respectful of difference. Its the puritain, purging mentality of state bureaucrats, not revolutionaries.

I'm capable of critique of the CPC, sure. At the same time, I find it far less important than taking a pro-socialist stance that upholds existing socialism. I can recognize your desire to establish socialism while also vehemontly disagreeing with your position, see Gramsci on Bordiga earlier. I think Nia Frome's article Long, Queer Revolution may be helpful for you. Here's an excerpt:

What do we gain from viewing the revolution as a long, queer process? Perhaps the most salutary effect is that it lets us stop arguing about whether any given state ā€œisā€ or ā€œis notā€ socialist. ā€œSocialismā€ names a global transition; a given state may take a leading role in this transition for a time, but we should expect any state, even one in the lead, to be advancing along some fronts while it regresses or stagnates on others (wouldn’t it be entirely too stagist to imagine otherwise?). The game of tallying up progressive vs. regressive features in order to cleanly demarcate socialist countries from capitalist ones can’t ever be brought to a satisfying close, precisely because socialism is just capitalism’s turning into something else, a process that is spread out over the human race in a constantly shifting (combined and uneven) mosaic. It’s unreasonable to think in terms of pure anything, to expect any given fight or institutional innovation to be the fight or the innovation that, if everyone just got on board with it, would finally usher in communism. Instead, we should think in terms of roles — is x playing a progressive role in situation y? Trying to aggregate the answers to this question to arrive at an overall ā€œsocialismā€ score is just as misguided as any other quantity purporting to capture quality.