This was originally posted in r/TankieTheDeprogram by firefighter 430 (not the same image though). On reddit the ACP (American Communist Party) is infiltrating subreddits, and tried to infiltrate the tankie one too. Be aware that the ACP is not marxist nor are they communist. Pls stay safe everyone on lemmygrad.
If we can’t dialectically tear them a new asshole whenever they voice a jingoist or idealist statement then we are poor marxists.
Im not saying we shouldn’t ban them but if there is any actual fear of them convincing any of us then we all need to brush up on our diamat to easily reveal them as clowns.
I wouldn’t doubt it if some of their members are viewing this thread right now and are calling us reactionaries or feds. They also seem to be making inroads on twitter and IG, stay informed and aware to call them out, comrades.
I do think some of them might have infiltrated Lemmygrad, Im not sure how to message the admins though.
Let’s not tip over into paranoia. If and when they start to vocally advocate for positions that are against stated Lemmygrad rules i’m sure the mods will address it. Until then, if they are here, let them lurk. Who cares? Maybe they will change their minds.
The issue is that there is evidence that this was a deliberate planned brigade. I have created a new post that documented all the of the evidence, but I will attach the picture here too. The chairman of the ACP was calling for a brigade of other leftists subs on reddit. He is the Op of the post found in the picture.
Lol. They are just childish larpers doing typical Reddit nonsense. This isn’t Reddit.
Still we should be informed about them, especially since they also use other platforms (tiktok) to spread their propaganda and even show low-key trump support. If their shit is on tiktok it can influence many kids and young people and that is the problem.
And I do really hope that some people will find their way out of the ACP
Uphold two hole theory. Chairman Haz is the knower of knowledge, a stable genius and a friend of the working class - especially the delivery drivers /s
A “communist” party that declares itself to be patriotic and conservative is actually a fascist party.
I think patriotism in 3rd world communist parties is good and needed to some extent.
Agree with you in context of first world tho
You’re correct, what matters is what the patriotism serves, national liberation or continuation of imperialism. If your state is imperialist, you should stand against your state. If your state is imperialized, patriotism services national liberation.
I mean Uncle Ho made it quite crystal clear in “The Path Which Led Me To Leninism”
Side note, but my favorite part of this text is when he’d talks about literally jumping up and down with excitement when reading Lenin, and reciting it out loud to no one:
Though sitting alone in my room, I shouted out aloud as if addressing large crowds: “Dear martyrs compatriots! This is what we need, this is the path to our liberation!”
If only it was that simple. A lot of socialist and communist parties in the global south consider themselves patriotic and hold some degree of socially conservative positions.
By your simplistic formula every ruling communist party today with the exception of Cuba (and even they are patriotic, just not conservative anymore) would be fascist. The CPC would be fascist. The WPK would be fascist. The CPSU would have been fascist.
The distinction that needs to be made here is what that patriotism is directed at. In the imperial core patriotism is most likely reactionary, especially so in settler colonies like the US, because it protects a reactionary state formation.
On the other hand, in countries which are victims of neo-colonial exploitation and imperialist subjugation and/or aggression, patriotism can be revolutionary and progressive insofar as it serves the cause of liberation.
Social conservatism also needs to be seen relative to the position of the masses in a country. A communist party that tails the masses on social and cultural issues is indeed reactionary.
In the imperial core the prevailing opinion on social issues has advanced further than in most global south countries. Therefore it is not excusable for communists in the imperial core to lag behind even most liberal parties on these issues.
Well said! I find that one of the few universal principles of scientific socialism is that things are rarely an easily applied universal principle. Which is a somewhat cheeky way of saying, there’s no “cheat code” for working out what’s going on in the world. Properly applied dialectical and historical materialism might at times feel like a cheat code in contrast to the wishy washy nature of metaphysics and idealism, but it’s still just contrast. There is no getting past the need to investigate conditions and context. Doesn’t mean we all have to each investigate the same stuff, but somebody’s gotta do the investigating. It is rare that a situation is so simplistic that it can be understood only by applying principles, without digging into the detail of it.
I think this is generally understood what OP is talking about, America is not a real country/nation but rather a capitalist behemoth. The difference is between proletarian and reactionary nationalism.
I don’t recall having heard of them. I may have and forgot, but yeah, thanks for this!
Vijay Prasad also refused to have any further association with them after learning they were Nazbols.
Talk about grace under pressure! Anyway using the excuse that currently AES states are “conservative” doesn’t excuse any of that, it means there’s more work to be done.
🫡
Thanks for the heads up. Can you please give us the skinny on ACP? Thanks in advance!
The American Communist Party (not to be confused with CPUSA) is a group of Statesian PatSocs, ie imperialist “socialists,” more akin to the German Nazi Party than anything actually communist.
imperialist “socialists,”
It will be hard to convince people to be wary of the ACP and other reactionary socialists like them if we call them imperialist when for the casual observer they appear to be very vocally anti-imperialist. They make it pretty clear that they side with most anti-imperialist struggles, from Gaza to Yemen, to Venezuela, Russia, China and the DPRK, and even Cuba.
That kind of unforced error gives them ammo to discredit us as attacking them dishonestly with easily debunked accusations, which in turn lets them win undecided baby leftists to their side since they will appear as the reasonable ones.
We need to be more sophisticated and more accurate in our analysis of groups like this. We need to actually point out the contradictions in their reactionary positions with the foundational principles of socialism rather than resort to clichés.
more akin to the German Nazi Party
Comparisons with the Nazi party are also unwise at this point because, again, at least in rhetoric they are pretty anti-Nazi, at least in the context of the Soviet Union during WW2 and Russia’s current war against Nazis in Ukraine. I think it’s too far fetched of an accusation to make in the eyes of someone who is unsure who the “real communists” are and trying to decide whether to side with us or with them.
The Nazis were clearly anti-Marxist. They weren’t claiming to be Marxist-Leninist. Their “socialism” was extremely superficial. They weren’t quoting Marx and Lenin. They weren’t pretending to be anti-imperialist. They were openly and aggressively imperialist. Even calling them Strasserites muddles the discussion because the Strasserites also didn’t behave like this.
I think a more potent angle of attack is to point out how when supposed communists adopt socially reactionary positions this undermines the potential to form diverse coalitions with marginalized people, which in turn serves as a form of sabotage against the revolutionary movement. This is the behavior of Feds and wreckers.
While I do agree with you, it’s important to understand that they aren’t just socially reactionary, but in advocating for ultranationalism within imperialist countries, they are passively also supporting imperialism. There’s a contradiction at play between their anti-imperialism and their ultranationalism, which was the point I tried to highlight.
Their sort of MAGA Communism is ultimately based on ideas like small business, petty bourgeois quasi-socialism, socially reactionary positions, and ultranationalism within the imperial core. They would be bad enough if their only flaw was being socially reactionary, but the fact that they uphold nationalism within the imperial core betrays their supposed anti-imperialism as well, not to mention the incorrect analysis leading to the petite bourgeois focus.
I do appreciate you holding me to a higher standard though, comrade, and I mean that genuinely.
in advocating for ultranationalism within imperialist countries, they are passively also supporting imperialism. There’s a contradiction at play between their anti-imperialism and their ultranationalism, which was the point I tried to highlight.
I don’t know that I would use the term “ultranationalism” because that term has a more specific meaning that is not just “strong patriotism”, but yes, this is correct. That is exactly the problem with “patriotism” in the imperial core. This is what I also pointed out in my other comment:
The distinction that needs to be made here is what that patriotism is directed at. In the imperial core patriotism is most likely reactionary, especially so in settler colonies like the US, because it protects a reactionary state formation.
It’s not the patriotism itself, it’s what you’re patriotic for: a reactionary, imperialist, settler-colony that exists on stolen land.
not to mention the incorrect analysis leading to the petite bourgeois focus.
Yes. This is, I think, the proper Marxist critique of their position that we should be focusing on (as well as their reactionary position on social issues and the national question) because it is a glaring contradiction with the Leninist ideas that they claim to support. Lenin was very explicit about pointing out how small-producer economic relations reinforce capitalism and lead to bourgeois thinking.
I believe we are broadly aligned then, just nuances in emphasis. Thanks for explaining your position, I agree.
its comments like these why I joined the grad. this the core of accepting and dealing out criticism to make each other advance both in understanding and as a person that gives me hope of a future that is actually conducive to human development for everyone.
thank you comrades. o7
its comments like these why I joined the grad.
Same. It’s refreshing to be able to have this level of civil and intelligent conversations in an online space.
Yep! Grad is nice because there’s a good understanding of correct criticism and a common grounding in Marxism-Leninism. It’s an extremely chill space for me that I greatly appreciate for discussion.
Meanwhile on reddit: “100 gorbillion dead in Russia and 40 bazillion killed in the great leap forward.”
Lemmy.world and the other liberal instances too.
exactly. I do find that it would be great if more people could understand the need and purpose of all this faster but I also get that the material conditions arent right for that atm. i would be highly interested to see how the grad progressed in the past couple of years in terms of activity and users. that could tell us about how politics affects ML ideological accession.
Exactly, as soon as I read maga communists I remembered! Apparently we had the same assessment.
The ACP are basically a bunch of nazis pretending to be commies. Also according to Wikipedia they are founded by Jackson Hinkle… They spew some weird ass-shit. They describe themselves as socially conservative and that Marxism was historically conservative. They also describe themselves as “MAGA communists”
Anyways here is the wiki article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Communist_Party_(2024)
Prole wiki: https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/American_Communist_Party_(current)
this reads a little like the bsw in germany who split from the “left” party. i would love to have an in depth analysis of the bsw done by a seasoned ML. that would rock.
I wouldn’t call it an in depth Marxist analysis, but i wrote a few comments explaining my view of the BSW and its role in the present German political ecosystem here:
https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/7358785
The comparison with the ACP is not entirely wrong because they do share some of the same characteristics, but i think the similarities are also fairly superficial.
For one thing, BSW is an actual serious political party, and the ACP just isn’t, they’re more like an online fanclub.
Also, BSW doesn’t pretend to be communist. They don’t distort communism and lead new potential communists astray like the ACP. They are essentially just a socdem party.
They fill the niche that was left open when Die Linke decided to turn itself into almost a clone of the Greens. If you’re interested here is my take on where Die Linke is currently at:
https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/7386374
I also don’t think the BSW will have much success, for reasons i explained here:
Brillant analysis! Thanks! :) always a pleasure reading your texts.
I mean I know what the BSW is. I am half german btw… But Imo the ACP doesn’t have the same actual political engagement as the BSW has had. Though keep in mind that the BSW is still a relative weak party and only had its seats in the past government because they used to be part of “die linke”. The ACP was purely created to disrupt especially on social media, people are also theorizing that they are feds, I think they only have one actual politician in government in Vermont.
Oh those people. I do recall having heard of them now. Nat Cs.
American Duganist Party
