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All I do is try to hold people to their stated principles, like ACAB or prison abolitionism, because I thought we fucking meant that shit when we said it.
We do, but we have our own house to clean and we do no favors to anyone by wasting energy on other countries. Anarchism is a thing that can only begin locally, the people that are protesting the Cuban government aren’t anarchists, they are demanding US intervention.
And then I talk to the people who are nominally on my side, and it turns out they just want to slap a coat of red paint on all the terrible things capitalist states do. They start repeating conservative talking points without a hint of irony. They’re perfectly willing to justify anything a socialist state does under the reasoning that America is worse. Red Scare in reverse.
Cuba isn’t a “capitalist state” it’s one of the most besieged nations on earth alongside Palestine and DPRK.
If your “socialism” has police, prisons, billionaires, or re-education, I want nothing to do with it, and that’s a hill I will die on.
You’re thinking of communism, the end goal of socialism AND anarchism, also Cuba does not have any billionaires that I am aware of.
Isn’t a better world supposed to be the point of all this? Or is it just about winning?
No it’s about supporting our comrades around the world and not doing things that advance imperial interests. There are tiers of hierarchy, the top being US imperialist hegemony, first we must unconditionally oppose that (this does not mean uncritical support for anti-imperialist states, for example Syria certainly deserves less praise than Cuba).
We’re anarchists, why would we tie ourselves to Lenin’s definition of socialism? If a worker goes to work the grow capital they’ll never themselves use. Whether that’s for the state or an employer, that’s capitalism.
We should oppose US intervention, but there’s no point making apologies for Cuba or any other state.
Capital is power, and capital concentrated into the hands of a state that serves its people is much different than capital/power concentrated in the hands of private entities or states that serve private capital.
In the perspective of world systems theory, capitalism used as power to fend off imperialism is much more beneficial for the working people of the world than capital used as power BY imperialists. It’s as simple as that.
I agree, it is more humane capitalism. Russia challenges western hegemony and Norway does capitalism more humanly. Both are capitalist states and I don’t see a point in using a different name for them.
It is better that Cuba exists as a communist controlled state than as a capitalist controlled state.
That’s not the core of my argument. It’s that we should be against bad things, even when they’re for the greater good.
