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The symbol of socialism is supposed to be the rose not the bayonet. And yet here we are spreading "internationalism" by keeping our proletarian brothers in chains!

Take a look at this map comrades, listing every last vote in the VSVR. http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b444/lettherulingclassestremble/elect.png

Something is missing.

An international state must precede a stateless society. And the way to an international state is by letting go, not grabbing territory. The VSVR can not expect that Germany and Germany alone will dictate the will of the Commitern. If anyone of you "internationalists" actually believed what you said, you would be campaigning on lessening the independence of the VSVR and giving real powers to the Commitern!

And then you call us racists for opposing your socialist slavery. Is there no depth to which you wont sink?
 
The symbol of socialism is supposed to be the rose not the bayonet. And yet here we are spreading "internationalism" by keeping our proletarian brothers in chains!

Take a look at this map comrades, listing every last vote in the VSVR. http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b444/lettherulingclassestremble/elect.png

Something is missing.

An international state must precede a stateless society. And the way to an international state is by letting go, not grabbing territory. The VSVR can not expect that Germany and Germany alone will dictate the will of the Commitern. If anyone of you "internationalists" actually believed what you said, you would be campaigning on lessening the independence of the VSVR and giving real powers to the Commitern!

And then you call us racists for opposing your socialist slavery. Is there no depth to which you wont sink?

You do realise one of the key points of the Marxist platform is granting more powers to the Comintern, right?
And please explain "Socialist Slavery".
 
Spark

Time to Choose

Comrades, this election, more than any other, comes down to a fundamental clash of visions. It is true that every election sees disagreements between the factions about policy, about the best way to go about managing socialism. However, this election, for the first time, has seen direct challenges to the very principles of socialism from the majority of the factions running in it. It is time for the comrades of the People’s Party to give a resounding “No!” to this abandonment of socialism, and an equally resounding “Yes!” to the people’s principles of internationalism and solidarity.

The stakes could not be higher. The People’s Party has always been the historically-revealed representative of the working class. It was the People’s Party that united the most advanced revolutionary elements in 1848. It has been the institution to which the people went for their political education, whose papers they read, and in whose clubs they debated. As such, it has always been an important, leading institution in government. However, now its preeminence is, thanks to the demands of the Marxists, enshrined in the Constitution. While the Party could afford vacillations and slip-ups before now, it must now make every effort to stay on the path toward socialism, and to guard against any croppings-up of bourgeois ideology in its ranks.

The two great bourgeois ideologies are liberalism and nationalism. Both have organized expressions in the People’s Party in the form of the Democratic Anarchists and the National Communists. While we Marxists have no doubt that the members of these factions are sincere in their beliefs, we cannot say the same of these factions’ leaderships, who concoct these beliefs and disseminate them. For example, in the realm of economic policy the difference between the Marxist conception of things and the conceptions of other factions cannot be more clear. Both the Soviets and the Unions championed by the Democratic Anarchists and the National Communists were constructed out of individuals’ brains and injected into society. It was thanks only to Rosa Luxemburg’s genius in idealist formulation that the Soviets meshed so well, after a few decades of trying, with the Party-led State. For in truth, the Soviets today form a part of the State – a devolved part, working on the principle of federalism rather than unitarism, but a part nonetheless. Drexler, by contrast, is not so lofty a thinker. He remembers well the debacle of the old Unions, and he makes his new Unions powerless to guard against its repetition. In doing so, he makes them superfluous, and not worth defending.

The Marxist conception, meanwhile, gives the State the powers it needs to help society transition from capitalism to communism, and empowers the Party over the State. No matter how powerful the State becomes, thanks to the participation of the masses in Party affairs and to its institutional position, the Party is always stronger. And indeed, if the Marxist faction gets its way, the State will soon be in a position to stop expanding for good, so that it may begin its contraction. We have achieved the eight-hour day, the shortest working-day the technical realities of production will allow. We have achieved, insofar as is possible outside of communism, the liberation from work. We have achieved liberation from hunger in old age and unemployment. Creating the most rigorous health and safety standards, and the most comprehensive health care system possible will allow us to achieve liberation from injury, and from the tyranny of illness. Far better, say the Marxists, to have one’s health and an unemployment check than to have a job but no left hand!

The issue of African independence is a smokescreen, designed to draw the Party members who hang on to their eclecticism despite the stakes away from these coming social triumphs. The socialist project in Africa has never been about independence. It has always been about two things: protecting the primitive communist societies in Africa from destruction and super-exploitation by capitalism, and aiding in the transition from primitive communism to modern, industrial communism. This project was always going to be difficult. As we saw in the Great War, no matter how much territory and how many people our Republic brought under its protection, the threat of the imperialist powers would always be great on the continent. But think how much greater the threat to the people of Africa would be if they had been under capitalist rule instead! Great as that hurdle was, and is, to overcome, aiding in the transition from primitive to modern communism, even as we ourselves transition from capitalism to communism, is even more daunting. Those Africans who never experienced class society never organized as an oppressed, revolutionary class. On the one hand, this meant they had much to teach us about community and solidarity. On the other, it meant that they were susceptible to propaganda about what social struggle was, and how it related to socialism. It is no coincidence that National Communism and the real – as opposed to existing in the minds of a few intellectuals – movement for African independence from the VSVR began their lives within five years of each other. It is too much to say that the National Communists are deliberately orchestrating events so as to disrupt the socialist project in Africa, but they are certainly taking advantage of events in order to spread their bourgeois ideology, rather than seek a socialist solution.

It is entirely possible that the striking Africans have specific legitimate grievances. The Great War disrupted what oversight systems were in place, and the Marxist-instigated industrial expansion in Africa, beneficial though it was, did put those systems into further disarray. The do-nothing Troika ensured that the inspectors were without the resources necessary to do their job properly. The Marxist solution is not to engage in highfalutin nationalist schemes that have nothing to do with the socialist project, but simply to ensure that the State machinery in Africa can do its job as it has been prevented from doing. Despite steps in that direction, we are not yet ready to do without the State. Africa proves it. Where there is nobody to administer justice, and the society is too new-built to have generated its own justice, injustice will occur. That is the real grievance of the African strikers, as opposed to their idealist, nationalist leadership.

Internationalism has a role to play not only in our Republic, but across the entire Communist International. Just as there is no lawful discrimination between nationalities in our Republic, there must be no discrimination between states in the International, particularly in the realm of trade. States are, after all, the creations of history, destined to be undone by history. Preferential treatment towards one or two states in the International merely prolongs their existence beyond their time, holding back the liberation of humanity that much longer. Just as we are reaching the zenith of the state in our Republic, we must begin building the world human community. This is true not only in the International, but also outside it. There can be no world human community while the people of China, the industry of Britain, and the land of the United States remain outside it. All our foreign policy – for our relations with other states in the International is not really foreign policy – must be directed toward the goal of revolution in those states and their clients.

The Marxists in this election stand on the principles of solidarity and internationalism. Solidarity between brothers in our Republic as we march towards liberation from all material cares. Solidarity between nations in our Republic as each develops its culture and material wellbeing to their flowering. Brotherhood in the International itself, to pave the way for a human society beyond work, beyond care, beyond nation. Utopia is within reach, perhaps within twenty years, comrades. But we must remain on the path. Vote Marxist, Ballot Line 4.

-Comrade Zimmerwald
 
An exceptionally well-written article from Comrade Zimmerwald. Bravo! I would say it is his best yet.
 
Brilliant piece by Zimmerwald there.
 
Democratic Anarchists
 
You do realise one of the key points of the Marxist platform is granting more powers to the Comintern, right?
And please explain "Socialist Slavery".

Power comes out of the barrel of a gun, comrade. The Marxists would throw a few ineffectual scraps of "authority" in the direction of the Comintern but not show any actual courage in agreeing to the Comintern's will on matters like plunging the world into another world war.

As for Socialist Slavery, it's simple enough. Cologne makes the calls and the good little Africans are expected to fall in line for a government they have no real say in. How many African politicians can you name?
 
If we hold onto a people who do not wish to be led by us, then we are no better than the "feudal empires" so much of our rhetorical space is spent excoriating; if we build our economy and broaden our material resources by forcing our systems and ideas onto a weaker people, then we are no better than the "bourgeois capitalists" we decry day in and day out. The issue isn't whether Africa should be released, unilaterally, by the VSVR; the National Communists' proposal is to allow the African citizens to vote on their separation from Cologne. If our government is as enlightened and benevolent as we like to believe, surely they will choose to retain it and its benefits. If they prefer not to, every foundational belief conveyed by the words "Socialist People's Republic" compels us to allow them their free choice. If we insist upon ruling a people who do not desire our rule, then we are no "people's party" at all.

As wildly anti-state as I am, the Africa issue means I'll have to vote this time for the National Communists. Hopefully next time around the Anarchists can find a coherent vision of our state and our world.

p.s. only the bloodthirsty Trotskyists could find fault with an administration of unprecedented peace and prosperity; kick the bums out!
 
I'm with Keynes, too long I have voted for political expediency, but it is time the Party knows that the National Communists are a real force here to stay. Our vision of socialism may be different, but we are not grand illusionists, our policies are a legitimate path to communism and the future.

Peoples and Unions, Freedom and Struggle.
 
Bah, dissolve the Soviets and return to Central Planning. Real Communism for Real Men. It's time for Trotsky to lead us into victorious war again. Why should we be at peace longer than necessary? We have recovered from the last Glorious Revolutionary War when we liberated Europe. It's time to liberate London, Manchester and Glasgow! We're a revolution, war should be second nature for us! long Live Trotsky! Dissolve the Assembly and arrest Goldstein and Drexler!!
 
As for Socialist Slavery, it's simple enough. Cologne makes the calls and the good little Africans are expected to fall in line for a government they have no real say in. How many African politicians can you name?

No real say? They have exactly the same input as the worker in Cologne, or Brussels, or Warsaw does. And while it may be true there are few African politicians who have made a name for themselves, it is early days yet. No doubt that, with the massive industry in Africa now, there may soon be one of our comrades from Africa within the central committee. And really, how much of the populace wish for independence? I am willing to bet it is a minority by a significant margin.
 
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