this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
40 points (87.0% liked)
The Deprogram
1961 readers
56 users here now
"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
International Anti-Capitalist podcast run by an American, a Slav and an Arab.
Rules:
- No capitalist apologia / anti-communism.
- No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
- Be respectful. This is a safe space where all comrades should feel welcome; this includes a warning against uncritical sectarianism.
- No porn or sexually explicit content (even if marked NSFW).
- No right-deviationists (patsocs, nazbols, Strasserists, Duginists, etc).
- Use c/mutual_aid for mutual aid requests.
Resources:
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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.