Can you elaborate on how Mamdani captured and contained radical dissent outside of you saw some people online being positive about him? Like what actual capturing have you seen? Did PSL go all in on this guy? Are people not protesting because of a supposed dem soc is running for mayor in NYC? What revolutionary capacity exists that this guy is draining?

[–] revolut1917@hexbear.net 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

mainly by legitimising the bourgeois electoral process as a means to achieve power against capital, which forestalls the development of revolutionary consciousness. if the DSA were more like a Bolshevik party (or a party of any kind, really) then these campaigns would be more useful bc they'd be able to dictate his moves and use him to demonstrate the inadequacy of bourgeois electoralism, but instead this campaign is leading the DSA in the direction of further participation in electoral politics as a route to achieve "socialism".

What revolutionary capacity exists that this guy is draining?

it's more about how over-emphasis on electoral struggles in imperial countries prevents the necessary development of revolutionary capacity. the only usefulness of these kinds of candidates is when they inevitably move into the Democratic mainstream and inadvertently disillusion a lot of people who were hoping they'd be more radical, which results in SOME of them developing more revolutionary ideas as a by-product (while pushing more of them into apathy or outright reaction)

[–] LangleyDominos@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

mainly by legitimizing the bourgeois electoral process as a means to achieve power against capital, which forestalls the development of revolutionary consciousness.

Now explain how you achieve power against capital in 2025 USA. That's rhetorical because nobody knows. If we knew the exact path from right now to communism, every choice and who needs to do what, then we would already be there. It's not enough to point towards vague concepts outlined in theory, there has to be an actual implementation. So far, nobody has that. Is it just unionizing? Is it protesting? Is it mutual aid? How do these things grow to communism without electoralism in 2025 US? We don't know and can't rule out some curve ball path that includes electoralism. The only way we know is by doing, because historical materialism is an inductive process that moves between theory and practice. It's not determined ahead of time from a list of axioms about revolution.

In practice, if someone who is at least sympathetic to socialist policies gets in, they need support. It can't be that we just expect them to do socialism by themselves, with only their little cabinet. If there is not political pressure from the streets constantly pressing, then of course they're going be sellouts. They will be alone in trying to implement long-shot policies. If people are in the streets every week, supporting radical policies, then that gives the candidate ammo to use against outside pressure. Imagine an establishment dem tells him he can't say defund the police but he has thousands in the streets every weekend saying defund the police. Even if he starts out wishy-washy but sympathetic to the idea, being able to wield the cudgel of popular support will make the stance clearer.

I do understand that a mayor of NYC will not bring about communism. However there is an opportunity to make it a notable landmark on the journey to communism. It's at least an opportunity to do the practice of implementation, and get people out of the analysis paralysis of theory and posting.