Being stopped from calling for greater unity and education outside of 'leftist' forums by?....

Being stopped from calling for greater unity and education outside of 'leftist' forums by?....

You may have seen that I have included below a Reddit post that I wrote. If you read the piece you would see that I was essentially making three important points.

1. That people that are not politics nerds or junkies may not believe or understand that there could be an alternative system to that of capitalism
2. That we on the left, that is the whole of the left, from Social Democrats on the right of the left, through Socialists and Communist and all the way to Anarchists on the left of the left*, can make it difficult, inaccessible, esoteric even for those on the outside of politics, and within for that matter, to understand why capitalism is not a divinely bestowed system to live by.
3. That we on the left intersect on fundamental points and issues and need to make our positions ACROSS THE ENTIRE SPECTRUM of the left accessible.

*The spectrum shown here is very truncated and also isn't quite as simple as I've had to make it seem (Anarchists do not have any use for the state at all whilst the others do) but for the sake of what I'm talking about I think it will give you enough of a picture.

 As if to help prove points 2 and 3 for me, when I posted this to the subreddit, Socialism, first my post was taken down for being ableist by use of the word 'idiot'.

1. The word 'idiot' derives from the English word for someone that is ignorant
2. This is part of a quote by Lyndsay Graham, once staunch adversary of Trump but now grafted to the hip

I used it in the title and put the word, as part of the quote, in quotes.

OK, fair enough, it's not my subreddit. So, I retitle the post for them. They then take it down for:

Promotion of liberal politicians or parties: Don't promote liberal or social democratic platforms, parties, or candidates. This applies to left-liberals and social democrats such as Sanders, AOC, Corbyn, etc, as well as bourgeois parties including the Democrats, UK Labour, the Australian Greens, among others. News regarding liberal politics may be posted in the event that it’s presented from a socialist perspective and isn’t obvious promotion or campaigning. More on the mod team's approach toward liberal content can be found here. If in doubt, feel free to contact the moderators.

 So, I write to them asking exactly what it was or how I was promoting liberal politicians or parties?

Here's the response:

We believe in your good intentions, which is why we removed your post but didn't ban you. Yes, capitalism is the main problem. However, your post is addressing CNN as if they can be convinced not to act in favour of the Establishment and mentions how Lincoln would be disappointed if he looked at the current situation. CNN is an inseparable part of the system, meaning that it can't be reformed in any way and Lincoln was by no means a good person by socialist standards, we don't need his endorsement of anything. The overall language seemed liberal. We don't want to make you lose your interest in socialism, but your post isn't as radical as we would expect from posts in r/socialism.Have a good day.

So, not only do they have their own definition for Socialism, I'm unclear what it actually is but it isn't the definition for Socialism they have an invisible notion of what is or isn't in this case, as radical as they would expect!

I am also impressed that they somehow think that by never mentioning anything they consider to be liberal or establishment you will somehow bring that institution down.

I also thought it impressive that Lincoln was 'by no means a good person by socialist standards'. Why? Well, they are inviting every reactionary arsehole to do what they do best. Argue in bad faith. The first words out of any 'good' reactionary in response to such an idiotic, yes, there I said it, idiotic position would be, 'so, let's talk about Stalin'.

I really am disappointed. Not because my post got binned as clearly this is not the place for it, or at least by the narrow view of one moderator. No, my disappointment is due to the fact that I have known since before my politically active life, that the left, left to their own devices, eat themselves. Exactly the point I was trying to make in the post. Exactly the sort of behaviour I would like to avoid. To be able to make the left as a whole more inclusive, more educated and more able to see past the areas of our comrades that don't quite line up with our 'schools' beliefs but be able to see the larger areas that do and will benefit the majority or as I see it, all of society.

Those of you that read closely may be thinking, 'How could you "have known since before my politically active life, that the left, left to their own devices, eat themselves"?

My Dad was a union man. When I was a kid, on Thursday's he would set off to a pub in Streatham, South London where the weekly union meeting was held in an upstairs room. The landlord used to let the union hold its meetings there for 5 pence, we are going back a while but still, the best part of nothing for a room for 20 - 50 blokes to hold a meeting. The idea being that they would have a couple of pints during the meeting and the landlord would make a couple of quid that way.

Anyway, over time it transpires that the guys attending weren't drinking as they would need to drive home or just didn't want to drink or whatever. So, the landlord says, 'Sorry Gents but I'm going to have to ask you for 10 pence a week as I've been losing money by paying for the electric and heating in the room and nobodies buying drinks to balance it out.

The next meeting the union rep starts the meeting in a very serious tone. It went something along the lines of,

Comrades. We have a very serious problem. Our free speech is being silenced and our right to congregate as union members is being blocked.

Understandably, there was a lot of concern amongst those gathered. This is an outrage. Who could be doing this? The police? Special Branch. They are always going after union members (This is not fantastic. We are in the 1970's and it was relatively common for union officials if not members to have SB files) Why are they doing this?

The union rep called for calm and quiet so he could explain.

Comrades. It is the bourgeoisie that is at the heart of this outrage. It is the bourgeoisie that trying to silence us and it is the bourgeoisie that are trying to stop our right to assemble.

There was a lot of disquiet amongst the union members assembled and finally, someone from the floor called out to the rep,

Who is it? Who's doing this? What is it they are doing? What can we do about it?

 The rep stood up straight to his full height, drew breath and began to explain in a calm but righteously defiant tone,

The landlord of this pub is who. The landlord of this pub is implementing unacceptable, socio-economic sanctions on us as union members. He wants to increase our weekly payment for this room........by 100%.

Initially, there were angry rumblings from the massed union men. Then slowly, but surely, it began to tail off of each of the men assembled began to realise that the landlord was asking for 10 pence per week now as opposed to 5 pence. It probably struck each of them exactly why the landlord was doing this. It certainly did the person recounting this event to me, my Dad. The landlord had effectively been paying for the guys to have their meeting for about 9 months. Clearly, he would have preferred to be serving these guys with pints of beer rather than asking for an additional 5 pence per week and was trying to illustrate this to the union rep.

Whilst this is an amusing story now, at least to me, this is indicative of what can happen when we are not prepared to just see a situation for what it is. When people want to use the language and systems that are esoteric to them as if this will somehow 'prove' their credentials as a Socialist, Marxist, Communist or union member. Rather than move past this to reach those that are possibly reachable, obstacles of language, knowledge or ritual are put in the way. Lack of knowledge of the group is used as a way to keep them away instead of recognising that this is an opportunity to help someone learn what may be useful to them, that could open their eyes and to understand better.

Potentially gaining an ally, a friend, a comrade.



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