this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
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"As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say that we're tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We also know that when the people understand, they cannot but follow us. In any case, we, the people, have no enemies when it comes to peoples. Our only enemies are the imperialist regimes and organizations." Thomas Sankara, 1985
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Third Worldist Maoists when a poverty-stricken, trailer-park, white family in West Virginia; Section-8 Black family in Baltimore; and a rural Hispanic family in Mississippi are virtually indistinguishable from third world populations in terms of material conditions, power, and wealth. Not to mention those groups make up over HALF the US population.
People see one labour aristocrat tech-bro on Reddit and throw in the towel.
But the US sits in a different position in a globalised economy. The poor in the US are still consumers of resources from the Global South. In terms of the Earth's production, it's a big funnel and the Global South consumes a tiny amount relative to the West. Even those in poverty in the US consume a lot more based on metrics like electricity use, fuel, steel, fertilizer, clothing etc.
There's a big imbalance there regardless of the internal inequalities of the US.
I agree, however a relatively tiny percentage of the US population consumes a disproportionate amount of resources, with a small spattering of concessions given to an almost equally tiny labour-aristocratic vanguard. The working class enjoys little to nothing of the imperial spoils, at least not much that they can buy without going into debt peonage with a credit card. However that imbalance is the result of systemic capitalist extraction and superprofit, which must be dealt with by a changing of the base. Something that is not possible without revolution, which is why I was also referring more to the necessity of building an intersectional class consciousness among the lowest echelons of US society, as hundreds of millions are internally subjugated and used as fuel for the capitalist machine.
I don't think that revolution will happen. Historically the communist revolutions took place at a nation level in opposition to EXTERNAL exploitation. You don't have that in the US. It's not in the class interest of the lowest echelons of US society to overthrow their government because they still do benefit from the imbalance of the global economy.
The buying power of the US dollar gets them the affordable clothes, fuel, electricity, white goods and so on. If the USD fell, their purchasing power would go downhill fast, leading to a drop in living standards. Similarly if they tried to produce the manufactured goods themselves rather than purchase from overseas, it would be less affordable.
This is why that solidarity doesn't exist.
This is a case where looking at the bigger picture blinds you to what actually matters: the average American cannot recognize or feel the privilege they experience from living in the West when they are living in a tent on the sidewalk, drowning in medical & college debt, unable to get a job and relying on the kindness of strangers to provide for themselves. Try to tell someone in that position that they are privileged in literally any way and you're probably not going to convince them of anything you say because in that moment, under those conditions, how can they perceive anything else?
Nearly every American communist I have met up to this point has cited common issues with housing, unemployment, disability, marginalization, or some other severe issue that goes beyond just regular exploitation of labor as would occur under a welfare state/social democracy. These experiences are radicalizing people. The fact we benefit from imperialism isn't being felt; we cannot feel or perceive it. The privilege might be there but you'd be hard pressed to find an American struggling to survive who feels like they got it better than somebody else in the world who isn't also a Marxist who understands how imperialism works.
This critique would've made sense in the 1970s but those times are over now. The "Middle Class" is being erased, the wealth gap is widening, the welfare state has been euthanized. The treats valve was keeping everyone docile and it has been not only turned off but straight up dismantled. We are increasingly relying on the crumbs of imperialism that fall off the ruling class' table and onto the floor and that simply isn't enough - which is why it's vital for communist agitation right now to convince those who are aimless about what to do that if we just go back to the way things were before we'll just end up here again. The American proletariat isn't completely hopeless. Our class interest is in socialism and if we can unlearn the propaganda we're raised on we can learn to find solidarity with our comrades around the world and bring about that better future we all want today.
Giving up on us is defeatism. There is a reason communism is an internationalist movement: we must, all of us, overthrow capitalism together. Comrades in the Periphery aren't going to save the world by themselves any more than comrades in Core will; we both need to do our part. The beast needs to be killed from within and without or it won't fucking die.
They may not perceive their advantages but the advantages exist. If the advantage of the USD value went away, they would be even worse off than they currently are. So it is AGAINST their material interest to lose the power of the USD.
Because of that, the path towards a socialist revolution in the US is not straightforward.
It's actually not in the world's interest to see a USD collapse either. Some sort of black swan event could cause that and then everyone worldwide will have no choice but deal with it.
USD value doesn't really matter. The U.S. is obscenely wealthy in many ways that go beyond just the value of our currency. Conditions might worsen immediately but the infrastructure exists to negate that effect relatively quickly - more so than many other countries could. We have a vast territory with extensive resources and a large agricultural sector. The biggest hurdle is rebuilding domestic industry, but we're still starting off from a far better position than China or Russia did.
Obviously the shape of an American socialist revolution is going to be shaped by its conditions and will likely not resemble what happened in China or Russia as a consequence. The initial shape might look more like modern China and Vietnam than, say, the USSR at any point in its history. But we will still require a revolution to make this happen. It's not something we can just vote on a ballot for.
The world operates on a global market especially for commodities like crude oil, fertilizer, natural gas, iron ore etc. Even if it is produced domestically, the base price is set based on the world's supply and demand. If the USD falls in value, many resources are inputs to the economy. Fertilizer affects agriculture for instance.
Crudely:
Material conditions (think relations rather than stresses) influence one's worldview, even with relative poverty. It's why reactionary politics still exist within a settler nation (think peoples rather than borders).
Right. And at the nation level, Global South countries learn that in particular big sectors like mining, agriculture, oil, clothing, they need some sort of nation level solidarity to make the big deals.
If they don't, they get hyper exploited. If they have a comprador class of sellouts running things, they're fucked. Hence this is where the socialist revolutions are going to come from IMO.
The socialist groups in the US don't have that aspect that can unite the masses.
MAYBE AI data centers are a unifying target for everyday people because of how much of a drain on the US economy they are.
Calling out the Epstein issue hasn't really done it.
I should have made it clear; it wasn't a retort against you. I mean look at my other comments on the thread here and the downvotes associated.
Apparently the above is too painful an analysis to consider on a fucking ML site of all places. I don't see what hope the rest of the masses the western countries have. I share your pessimissm about the lack of actual change in the imperial cores without the Global South forcing their hands.
I do understand.
But It IS a good meme to exploit the divisions within the US. There is a perception that the "Epstein class" is hierarchically above the supposed laws.
In a similar way, the build out of AI data centers are a current news item that reflects the unequal allocation of energy and water within the country because of the dominance of a few tech companies in the economy.
Both topics could unite the masses in the US to oppose the capitalist class.
What I don't see is how that would create any coordination with socialist movements in the Global South. It's not in their material interests.
Why isn't it? Clean food, water, air are universal needs. So is shelter. A survivable climate. Not everyone is so myopic, although the majority are. Corrective lenses are about to be forceably applied.
Because the US needs to purchase resources on the global market as inputs to its economy. The purchasing power of its dollar maintains the prices that it can acquire those resources.
That's why justice is represented as a scale. Ma'at/Anubis series of tests. You can say you didn't lie, cheat, steal, mistreat those of humble means, but what is done in the dark eventually comes to light. And there's always beings of more humble means.
Name your communist movement that has convinced the three aformentioned groups to your cause. Or are they props for your settler apologism.
Maybe, just maybe, consider there are oppressed nations of people within nations and not lump the Gazans with Israelis in an attempt to appeal to Israeli proleteriat.
Marxism-leninsim is a science. If black prisoner maoists have a more correct line than you then maybe learn from them.
Creating a straw man of an argument using the genocide of the Gazan population is quite disgusting. The societal conditions of the United States are vastly different to those of Isntreal, and permit for a intersectional solidarity.
The Rainbow Coalition. If the vision of intersectional class unity was realized before, and it can be done again. That is the entire point of building class consciousness.
Currently? The PSL. During my travels across the US and my work with various PSL chapters, I can say each chapter was comprised of the most diverse group of individuals that came from a litany of backgrounds. The communities the chapters were embedded in also saw marked increases of inter-solidarity and class action; as scores of people, again from all walks of life, showed up for rent protests to forcibly protect peoples homes; food drives to feed the destitute; and mobile medical clinics where "labor-aristocratic" doctors would work for no personal benefits to help those abandoned by society. Then, those very same people seemed much more agreeable to joining book studies and learning about ML thought. Strange.
It's almost like race is a capitalist construct and class is the true unifier once a class consciousness is built. Who would have thought.
EDIT:
This line was added as part of an edit well after the fact, however I feel this line is quite telling. Declaring yourself the supreme authority from which all have to learn is incredibly pretentious, especially when you present an utterly nonsensical idea.
What's their answer to the question of the labour aristocracy and settlerism?
Failed. Why?
Consider intersectionalism is not marxist. Eg trans emancipation is not add on-to fighting imperialism it is intrisic to fully understanding how capital works
There are more than enough "anti-capitalists" who evoke such sentiments without being marxist-leninist. That sentiment without the science is what leads to "pro-palestinian" westerners saying gazan proleteriat should unite with Israeli proleteriat against the "elite". (To which the correct response to that is: no you racist fuckhead the israeli jewish proleteriat is part of that elite)
COINTELPRO and direct federal repression and assassination of key members. Understanding the governmental response to the Rainbow Coalition is vital for any contemporary movement. That's the entire purpose of socialist experiments. Though using your logic, the Soviet Union failed, so socialists should never again set up a socialist state. A completely nonsensical logic.
I genuinely have no clue what this sentence is trying to say. From what I can understand, saying that intersectionality is not Marxist is so bizarrely incorrect that all I can say is that you are deeply unserious.
You are fighting a complete strawman here and conflating the material conditions and societal realities of two vastly different situations.
Consider the autodynamism of dialectical materialism and how the CPC learned from the Soviet's mistakes. The wolves have teeth are a given, we have to learn how to defend against them from previous mistakes.
on intersectionalism: it was deliberately developed in bourgoise acadaemia to evade how marxism is emancipatory for "minorities"
You are fighting a complete strawman here and conflating the material conditions and societal realities of two vastly different situations.
Israeli apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide is entirley western in its charecteristics; the false division imagined between "Israeli' and US"American" is the gap you are afraid to close.
Again, you are arguing a strawman which was answered perfectly by amemorablename in their comment below. I am disengaging as this conversation is completely unproductive.
Our comrade isn't wrong. It's a painful truth, but we have to face our privilege and complicity.