A week or so ago, I was in Vancouver, visiting my Comrades involved in Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO).
I stayed with them in one of their homes, and attended some of their demonstrations and events. All in all, I will admit to being somewhat impressed with parts of their organizing method, specifically their resolve and their commitment, as well as their wealth of equipment and attempts at professionalism.
On the other hand, in general, I saw a lot of the same problems that plague most organizations of the left, and set the genuine Marxist-Leninist organizations apart from the mainstream.
The first day I was there, they held a demonstration, presumably to coincide with an international day of action, but while they claimed that the demo was held with the intent of pulling troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the only thing I saw at the demonstration was blatant and shameless self promotion. From atop their pulpit of the steps of the Vancouver art gallery, the MAWO comrades basically resorted to pseudo religious “fire and brimstone” scare tactics, the likes of which I have heard so many times before: “There is a war in Iraq! There is a war in Afghanistan! The police are arresting protesters!” From these incidents, they put forward their solution “That is why you should join MAWO!”
Eh? I think I missed something. Come again? Joining MAWO is the solution to the wars of aggression in the middle east? How so?
What ,exactly, is MAWO doing that sets them apart from every other anti-imperialist/anti-war coalitions out there? As near as I can see, like so many others, they are publishing their magazine and holding demonstrations. Now, this in itself is not the problem ( I understand all too well how the actions of an organization often depend on their numbers,); many, if not most organizations in Canada are at this level of organization right now. The problem, the one point which renders their entire organization completely impotent in the short and long term is that which is so important to any revolutionary organization: Their political line.
The line of MAWO is not advocating socialist revolution. None of the member organizations or individuals within MAWO are advocating socialist revolution. Because of this, basically despite all aspirations, and despite their commited membership and wealth of equipment and literature, they have no chance of meeting their goals.
In their desire to be “relevant” and “appealing” to the Canadian masses, they have relegated Marx and Lenin to the closet, in favour of a more sanitary “anti-imperialist” image and line, and this in itself causes complications. I would be interested in knowing how they plan to achieve even one of the goals of their organization. While I have broached the subject with some of their membership, the answers have mostly revolved around vague “uniting” and building MAWO. This does not answer my question.
See, whether MAWO has 1 member or a 1 million members, it makes no difference if their line is flawed. If they are not calling for socialist revolution, then how can they possibly accomplish any of their stated objectives to end wars of imperialism abroad? How can they possibly offer solidarity in anything other than words to the peoples of nations beleaguered by imperialism, without assuming state power?
The more I discuss it with their membership, the more erroneous their line becomes. Membership defended their closet-Leninist, closet-socialist approach to the world situation, and on the subject of their lack of support for socialist revolution, the asserted that such a call and such tactics were archaic and out dated. On the subject of propagating socialism and revolution, they believe that just by upholding the example of socialism in Cuba, they will start to spread the desire for revolution among Canadians.
Once again, I can not agree with this approach. Cheer-leading has never advanced socialism in any nation, and even the most shining examples of workers states have provided inspiration for revolutions in other countries, but not necessity. You can not import a revolution, and while Cuban socialism may provide inspiration for a revolution, it is not going to give life to revolution in Canada. While many members of MAWO claim to be adherents to Leninism (secretly, of course,), they don’t seem to be preparing for revolution, building a revolutionary party capable of acting as Vanguard, or trying to lead the workers to seize state power (without which , none of their stated objectives can be accomplished.). Also, they make no analysis of the Canadian situation, apart from aboriginal struggles, and self promotion of their own objectives.
In fact, it took nothing less than the arrest of one of their members for them to turn their attention to the Canadian situation. And yet, even this event was not enough to jar them into proclaiming the fascist, monopoly capitalist nature of the Canadian state, or suggesting any alternatives to our present system.
No, MAWO is doomed. They hide their more “scandalous” vestiges of Leninism to try and gather more membership, but in all honesty, what are they gathering these members for? They want the various imperialist powers to immediately cease their wars of aggression abroad, but how do they plan to exert influence on said powers without wielding state power themselves (or at least, building up to seize it.)? How do they plan to end Canada’s imperialist wars overseas, without overthrowing our current government (and subsequently withdrawing troops from foreign wars)? Magic spells, I presume? At this point, if they plan to halt imperialist wars with demonstrations and petition campaigns, they might as well look into sorcery; they will accomplish just as much.
The impotent nature of their cheer-leading and organizing techniques can even bloom into absolute opportunism, unintentional as it may be. By drawing the youth and progressive forces into their work, they are leading them away from tangible, practical modes of struggle, and consuming them with abstract battles and meaningless cheer-leading. In the end, the members of this organization will either leave for other groups (either more revolutionary, or more reformist,), become disillusioned and abandon politics, or simply go down with the ship when MAWO disintegrates. MAWO, and all entities connected with it will soon be faced with the ultimatum of taking up revolution as it’s central priority, or dissolving into stagnation and eventual nothingness within the next few years.
I hope they take up the former rather than the latter.
Ravens Nest 
Hello there Ravenblade. I remembered your blog and decided to look at it due to Revolutionary Left seemingly being down at the moment.
As for your blog post, I don’t think it is surprising that I agree.
On an unrelated note, how is that move you’re making?
Mr.Die,
the movie is coming along.. still much to do (a little bit less than half.).
So, how are things with your organizing, comrade?
I’ve been busy. However, I did talk to two guys about my beliefs a few days ago in my workplace and got them to understand dialectical materialism, etc. So even though they certainly aren’t Marxist-Leninist’s (or even your run of the mill generic pseudo-Communist), at least they know the basics of Communism and understand it, so they’re more open to the whole idea.
The most annoying thing about anti-Communism is that just about all of the people against it (at least workers and such as the bourgeois know it’s against their interest) know just about nothing concerning it whether it be basic beliefs, theory, materialism, etc. Ergo I would say by far the most important thing is teaching the basics. Historical materialism for example is supported by some non-Communists because it certainly isn’t some far-out viewpoint. A few of these types are even calling for a “post-Marxist” version of it.
Yes, this is the carefully cultivated situation in most of the world.
Here in Canada, I have found that while books ABOUT communism are readily available, books that teach communism are incredibly scarce, rare political oddities. the best any persyn can do is purchase a copy of the “Manifesto of the Communist party” by Marx and Engels at one of the big chain bookstores, and even those versions contain 55 pages of the original text, and 70 pages of foreward by some college prof, explaining why Marx was “brilliant, but misguided”, and why the USSR was a perversion of Marxism from birth to the hearse. It is damn near impossible to get even a scrap of communist literature in this country without at least half of the pages constituting capitalist commentary.
I have been quite fortunate to find a wealth of communist literature on Vancouver Island (I don’t know why.), and I purchase it often. I have picked up several volumes of Lenin, including all of the important titles, Several Stalin , some Marx and even some Engels (not to mention a few red books and other miscellaneous literature). As far as Hoxha is concerned, I have to import his shit directly from Albania, and I’ve found that the punctuation is just as un-satisfactory, as the Albanians confuse paranthesis with these: . For example, instead of saying John said “Hi”, they would say John said .
Anyways, I’ve found trying to convince the petty-bourgeoise about Socialism is mostly a fruitless effort. If you want to be succesful in it, you have to use their psychology against them. what I mean by that is, most people are anti-communist because it is the social norm. when people say “I’m against communism” they usually mean, “everyone else is against communism, and I have sacrificed my independent thought for social acceptance”. That is why it is unproductive to ever approach cappies and try to convert them alone, especially if they are in a group. Instead, approach them with other communists, at least a 5 to 1 commie to cappie ratio, and then use their social conformance against them. I’ve performed this feat and had guys who previously told me to shut up and laughed me, sit quietly and attentively as me and my Comrades went on about Marxist theory.
See, most people are not one thing or the other in the western world. In most of the undeveloped world, from what I can see, people are quite political=, often radically so,
but in tjhe western world, this is not a trait that is encouraged, and the political are often alienated from their peers for taking a definate stance on issues. Most people just want to fit in, and that’s why the same people who were in favour of the wars in afghanistan and Iraq intially are the same people who are calling for the withdrawl of troops now and calling Bush and idiot. Most people bend which ever way the political winds are blowing, so take that into account to rell them in, then start buildin gthe foundation for Marxism-Leniniosm to take root in their heads.
Take car,
Raven