A Diagnosis of My Peers

Cover of the 2015 edition of “Flood!” (1992) by Eric Drooker

I am of the generation of USAmericans who grew up in the world of post-9/11, post-”globalization,” post-American unipolarity, and post-digital consumerism. I find the obsession with generational categories to be inaccurate and typically a practice of drawing arbitrary lines in the sand. Yet, there are certain distinct tendencies I’ve noticed among my age group.

I am not always the most sociable person. Although I’m usually alone and silent while in public, I spend that time observing my peers. Having spent years as a part of this generation, wavering between engaging people and observing them from afar, between trying to teach…

Tomorowo Taguchi (left) as the Salaryman, Shinya Tsukamoto (right) as the Metal Fetishist. From Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), dir. Shinya Tsukamoto.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), directed by Shinya Tsukamoto, is a cult classic film in the West. Blending genres, employing elements of cyberpunk, body horror, and experimental film, it stands out as a thoroughly unique film. Although it is more obscure today, it played a major part in reviving the Japanese film industry by pioneering a new approach to cinema.¹

The film entails fantastical, grotesque transformations wreaking havoc on a regular man’s life. One day, he wakes up with metal growing out of his cheek. From there, the growth only spreads, eventually turning him into a literal iron man. …

Amauta, vol. 4, no. 26 cover design, by José Sabogal. From Mariátegui Archive in Lima, Perú.

“We have to give life to Indo-American socialism with our own reality, in our own language. Here is a mission worthy of a new generation.”

— José Carlos Mariátegui, “Anniversary and Balance,” José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology¹

While the turn towards analyzing ongoing settler-colonialism has finally reached the mainstream of North American political discussions, there is still a lack of popular understanding of the issues involved. Settler-colonialism is, ironically, understood within the framework of the ways of thinking brought by the European ruling classes to the Americas. By extension, the conceptions of decolonization are similarly limited. …

Karl Marx rubber duckies produced by Trier Tourism. Photo by Harald Tittel/Getty

The idea that socialism could be made into a brand or marketing demographic seems ridiculous. Socialism is, after all, usually defined by its advocacy for the end of capitalism and establishment of a system that makes as its basic goal fulfilling the needs of people. And yet, here we are. Socialismis now a reality.

Today, expressions of opposition to the system have themselves become a part of it. Socialism becomes something to identify with through the medium of commodities: merchandise, streamers, influencers, and so on. …

Source: https://radiozapatista.org/?attachment_id=33310

“Para todos todo, para nosotros nada”

The Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), or Zapatistas, are well-known in the United States, but rarely understood. USAmericans are very familiar with the aesthetics of the EZLN, in particular their signature ski masks, as well as with the fact that they are a primarily Indigenous movement. However, they have inaccurate understandings of the ideology and orientation of the EZLN, owing in large part to an ignorance of Mexican history.

The EZLN has been used as a vehicle for many Western leftists to project their political agendas onto. They are presented as anarchists, “postmodern…

Long live Marxism-Leninism! (1980) by P. Bendel

Book worship is not my style, given that I am a Marxist. Marxism is not a checklist, a superstructure, but a living, dynamic method. However, some communists have taken to book worship in the place of historical analysis. Since these communists cannot get their noses out of their books, it is necessary to give them something that challenges their dogmatic, liturgical views on their own front.

If they wish to dismiss real projects of building socialism on the basis of holy books, I will show how the books which they grant the status of Divine Law themselves disagree with their…

An Embassy advertisement for cigarettes from 1949

How does one know if they are free? Most people in the US would probably respond that freedom is when you are able to do what you want. After all, Thomas Jefferson, one of our Founding Fathers, said that Americans have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But how is this freedom of choice conceived? Usually, it is considered to be a freedom to do what one wants, as long as one doesn’t harm others. This is a textbook liberal idea, being Article 4 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man from the French…

Photo by Julius Drost on Unsplash

Every revolution finds itself confronting the question of identity. How is a people to define themselves after having changed the old and started to build something new? Who are we, and what is it we are building?

This is a question revolutionary socialists grapple with over how the society that is today known as the United States of America might be reconstituted. Can it still be the United States, or must it be something totally distinct? We cannot build anything out of thin air. In history, all things are a process.

There are evolutions and revolutions in that process, but…

Portrait of the Bourgeoisie (1939) by David Alfaro Siqueiros

The aftermath of the United States 2020 Presidential election has come to be about as tense as anyone expected, if not more. Although Joe Biden has won the majority of electoral votes, and has been recognized as the victory by the national and international mainstream media, Donald Trump and his supporters are strongly contesting the election results.

Trump’s claim to illegitimacy are based on a false narrative of wide-scale voter fraud and conspiracy against him which he has been cultivating during the months preceding the election. This year’s election has taken place during the global COVID-19 pandemic, leading many states…

Police take security measures near the White House during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after being pinned down by a white police officer, in Washington, DC, on June 1, 2020. Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The promises Americanism claims to represent are of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are the fundamental assumptions of the American system, and are usually pointed toward as proof of American exceptionalism. Apparently, the rights of citizenship established in the US are superior to that of citizenship anywhere in the world, making the United States unique as “the greatest country on earth.” …


I’m influenced by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought and social reproduction theory. Follow Line Struggle Collective linestruggle.medium.com

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