Morning Comrades.
I know, another week where I missed putting out a new dispatch on art, well, sort of, there was an art based email on Thursday for the patreons of this newsletter but a thought of late that I wanted to chew through with you to lead you into the weekend.
Before that, a not so subtle reminder to tune into this weeks playlist for all the good vibes to last you through to next week:
On Internationalism: Interests, Materialism and Critical Thinking
One odd little side effect of the internet and the constant onslaught of ( mostly manufactured ) information we get is that for some reason or other a lot of us have this false believe that we need to have an opinion on everything. Whilst I applaud anyones interest in anything, and the internet is probably the best tool we have at hand today to satisfy this need it, like everything else in the world that is bound by science, be a double edged sword.
I don’t intend this piece to be a slight on anyone with interests and opinions, fuck knows I have a few, especially unnecessary ones but I wanted to chew this thought through with you, especially from a Marxist perspective.
There is a difference in praxis between Internationalism and Opinions. To explain, Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is the perception of all communist revolutions as being part of a single global class struggle rather than separate localized events. It is based on the theory that capitalism is a world-system and therefore the working classes of all nations must act in concert if they are to replace it with communism. Pretty straight forward so far.
Proletarian internationalism was strongly embraced by the first communist party, the Communist League, as exercised through its slogan "Proletarians of all countries, unite!", later popularized as "Workers of the world, unite!" in English literature. This notion was also embraced by the Bolshevik Party. After the formation of the Soviet Union, Marxist proponents of internationalism suggested that country could be used as a "homeland of communism" from which revolution could be spread around the globe. The Soviets also funded dozens of insurgencies being waged against colonialist governments by leftist guerrilla movements worldwide. A few other states later exercised their own commitments to the cause of world revolution. Cuba frequently dispatched internationalist military and medical missions abroad to defend communist interests in Africa and the Caribbean.
Proponents of proletarian internationalism often argued that the objectives of a given revolution should be global rather than local in scope—for example, triggering or perpetuating revolutions elsewhere. Proletarian internationalism is closely linked to goals of world revolution, to be achieved through successive or simultaneous communist revolutions in all nations. According to Marxist theory, successful proletarian internationalism should lead to world communism and eventually stateless communism.
That basis in Marxists theory has always been one of the many reasons why I am interested in what is going on in the world, as well as my insatiable curiosity. With that and added privilege of being a white male, add travel to the mix and you start seeing the world a little different and subsequently start to form opinions of what you see and read from around the world.
Opinions on International affairs however need to be weighed against a number of other tasks and realities unless they have the potential to become amplified voices not of your own. These tasks are materialism and reality. To explain, what impact does anyones opinion have on what happens on a different continent when the local cops and government imprison you for not being able to pay rent? Not a whole lot. So whilst your ( and mine ) opinion on anything might be relevant to your own, inner needs, they do not pertain to your material reality. Again, the nuance here is extremely important, be curious and have all the opinions you want, but the focus should always be on your material reality and the betterment of it for your community, according to the principles of international socialism.
What prompted this thought on a rainy afternoon was a person’s question, online of course, no one in the kitchen I work in has the time nor capacity to discuss during work, in regards to the recent protests in China. Of course I have been trying my best to pay attention, learn and read about these but at the end of the day, my opinions are not necessarily relevant and more importantly, it's also none of my business, yet. The Chinese people are perfectly capable of sorting out their own affairs without western "help"- and the track record of that has been disastrous at best.
Again, it is important to me to point the nuanced points in this regard. I or anyone else can have an opinion on anything, of course. Equally, I have to admit the following: considering not only my genuine lack of in-depth knowledge of what is actually going, having to rely on unconfirmed information from the internet ( that, at this stage, I believe to be at least 75% manufactured by Western Capitalist Interests ) in the very short period of time available to me due to the material realities here in my front yard ( wage labour, parenting, etc. ) my opinion is not only uniformed but if I were to amplify it, it would take agency away from the people directly affected by said international events.
Yes, international socialism demands my interests and at the very least my public solidarity with any and all socialist projects. However, it also mandates that I take care of my immediate material realities in the project of making the world a better place, in a place where my opinions and actions have a net positive material affect.
In short, of course, be interested and invested where you wish to be. Be aware of the possibility that our opinions on matters directly of interests to our capitalist overlords are not necessarily always our own and focus on cleaning up our burning backyard first.
As always, from each according to their ability to each according to their needs.
Food for thought.
Thank you for your attention, time and support.
Yours, warmly,
V.