By Jason Unruhe and SMG John
Introduction
The big topic the last few weeks has been this reactionary notion of “American socialist patriotism”. The White middle-class talking heads of social media have been attempting to repackage American exceptionalism for the left in their efforts to maintain their own spoils. The land they stole from First Nations people and the wealth they steal from third world people.
Recently a “debate”, which was actually more akin to an American support group meeting took place. A debate that had no opposing side. An offer was made to present that opposing view, but it was ignored. Instead, this “debate” was composed of, primarily, White middle-class people condescending to colonized people.
In this work, I will fully outline why you cannot be an “American socialist patriot” and support social justice. America is, always was, and always will be, fundamentally unjust. No person of conscience could ever be an American patriot.
What is America?
America, “the land of the free” was born out of anything but. It cannot be denied that America was born out of slavery and genocide. The last time I checked, those were bad things to do. Yet, this is the reality of America. Everything it is is built on these facts. There is no America without it. There cannot have been an America without these terrible events. There is no getting around this or denying it. America is genocide and slavery. To deny this is to be a rightest who seeks to whitewash history, as they so often attempt to do.
The Constitution, without directly saying it, is dedicated to capitalism as the founding ideology of America. When we look at what the Founding Fathers advocated and fought for, it’s basically private property and doing away with feudal notions of property ownership. The US Civil War was literally a struggle between slave-holding society and capitalist society.
Exactly what are these ‘socialist patriots’ so patriotic about? Patriotism is a ‘devotion to and vigorous support for one's country’.1 What are they devoted to? The genocide, slavery, or capitalism? You can’t nail down anything positive about what America is or ever was. Even when you ask them, they can’t actually define what they are patriotic towards. They can only point to some vague notion of “the American people.” unfortunately for them, that’s literally not what patriotism is.
If you really press these ‘socialist patriots’ on the issue, they’ll tell you that they’re loyal to groups like the Red Neck Revolt, the Black Panthers, or any other anti-capitalist movement/struggle. The problem is that these groups aren't America. For example, the Black Panthers were against the existence of America itself, the very position that these ‘socialist patriots’ are opposed to! I wonder how they deal with that blatant contradiction in their ideology? They supposedly lovingly support a movement that would label them national chauvinists and go directly against their interest in defending America!
Press them even further, they’ll describe their ideal 'socialist American’ society. The problem should be obvious: it would no longer be America. They’re loyal to an idealized fictional society. Thus, they are patriotic towards something that doesn’t exist. How is this possible? It isn’t.
Being patriotic to America is to be patriotic to what America is: slavery, genocide, land theft, and imperialism. When they are loyal to America, that’s what they’re loyal to. To be loyal to that is to be as reactionary as someone can be. If someone opposes these things, then they should oppose America. But they’re not.
Decolonization
Anyone interested in justice in America supports decolonization. It shouldn’t be necessary here to explain what decolonization is. If you’re a Marxist you should already know it. If not, I suggest you read up on some Black Panthers and the American Indian Movement.
Here’s the thing: America was born of colonization. America is colonization. America does not, and cannot exist without land theft.
First worldists, Americans as the worst manifestation of it, are a great hypocrisy. They rightfully demand an end to Israel and its colonial/occupier state. Yet, they oppose doing so at home in their own countries. Why should land be returned to Palestinians, but not First Nations people? Total hypocrisy. Why? For the same reason Israeli Zionists oppose it. It’s not in their interest.
Any ‘socialist America’ would have to deal with decolonization, which they won’t do.
There is no America with decolonization. To support ‘American patriotism’ is to oppose decolonization. You can’t have both, it’s a literal impossibility. Here we see the truth: the first worldist opposes decolonization because it’s not in their interest. They want to keep their stolen land, they want their privilege over First Nations people, they want their share of the spoils of imperialism.
To support America, to love America, to be patriotic towards America, is to support land theft. To refuse to return that land is to be reactionary. “American socialist patriotism’ is an oxymoron.
National Liberation Struggle?
Often to defend this ‘socialist patriotism’, adherents will point to the fact that other socialist movements have engaged in national liberation struggles. They point to primarily Vietnam, Russia, China, and Cuba. Many were born out of an anti-imperialist/anti-colonial struggle. The heroic efforts of the Vietnamese against the Americans and others, and the Chinese against the Japanese are legendary victories over occupation.
So how is this like the US in anyway shape or form? The US is not occupied by any country. What country projects imperialism onto the US, to manipulate its political or economic activity? None. America is itself an occupier on First Nations land. America itself is an imperialist country oppressing many others around the world.
The obvious question here is: “What country is oppressing the US that it needs to be liberated from?” Well, then the answer might confuse you. Because they will cite the capitalist class as the enemy. So basically America needs to be nationally liberated from itself?
Essentially, yes, this is what they believe. Someone with a critical eye would respond to this by reminding them that this is a class struggle, not a national liberation struggle. This obvious point was countered by claiming that the capitalist class is oppressing the country, so therefore, by fighting capitalism they’re liberating the country.
The idiocy of this argument should be obvious: They’ve gone ahead and redefined national liberation as a class struggle. The nonsense only works if you just completely redefine something in order to fit a particular narrative. This is wholly dishonest. But unsurprisingly this comes from the same people who have redefined socialism to mean the anarchy of production, billionaires, private wealth, and private property to justify China’s capitalism.
Illogical Angry Denial
One point I continually made yet was completely ignored was the fact that the US-Canada-Australia are settler/colonial countries. They were born of land theft and the genocide of the people who lived on the land. In the case of the US, the additional genocide of Africans who were used as slave labour, their numbers nearly incalculable. Despite this very obvious fact, and the fact it was made repeatedly, ignorant comments ignoring this were still thrown.
Very quickly people responded with statements like “I guess there never was a socialist country then,” in response to the settler/colonial issue. This so-called criticism would only be applicable if the current and past socialist countries were settler/colonial, which they were not. Russians were in Russia, Chinese in China, Vietnamese in Vietnam, Cubans in Cuba, Europeans in the Eastern Bloc. This oft-repeated attack literally ignores the fact that the US-Canada-Australia are on stolen land. Russia, China, Vietnam, etc. were not stolen land. This criticism has no logical basis, yet it was repeated ad nauseam as if it were a valid point.
To make such an argument is completely dishonest, or in the case of many, wholly incompetent. However, angry knee-jerk responses are common of the rightest ideologies and those with no moral basis for their position.
In fact, we see quite clearly that this type of behaviour is perfectly in line with such rightest individuals. How? Because, the reactions to opposing their ideology are not met with well thought out counter-arguments, only angry reflex comments. Allow me to give you an example: when you say “Black lives matter”, you are met with “White lives matter too” or “all lives matter.” When you speak about police killings against the black population, you’re met with “White people are killed by cops too.” It completely ignores the disproportionate killing which is the issue to begin with.
This extends even further: Americans have always seen themselves as victims, even when they were stealing land, enslaving others, and committing genocide. When a US soldier dies in a war of occupation/imperialism, they genuinely think that the killer American is the real victim. No, they are the perpetrator of violence. When a US soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan is killed, the person killing them is engaging in self-defence.
Even as first world people benefit from the misery of super-oppressive third-world labour, they still see themselves as the victim. Over the decades since the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the abundance of commodities for first world people have increased due to the use of third world labour. Yes, housing, education, and medical care have increased – but the material level of consumption has drastically increased. Commodities are more abundant today for first world people than ever before. Aside from any data I can provide,2 I have also seen this increase with my own eyes.
This has been off the backs of third world labour. This is intimately tied to efforts to stave off the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Constantly cheaper labour and resources are needed to stave off this loss. The full explanation of this Marxist concept is too long and complicated to go into here.
Self-Identified Victimization
America is born out of self-identifying as a victim, yet has spent its entire existence victimizing others. The list of countries invaded, people slaughtered, land occupied by the US alone is far too long to go into here. America and its people can be seen as one thing: privileged.
The concept of social privilege has been ruined by liberal identity politics who have morphed it into all manner of intolerable nonsense. But we see a commonality here, the best exemplification of it: when you criticize America’s people, you get the same response as white supremacists. When you point out the privileged that they have, they get angry that the privilege is being criticized. When you criticize White privilege you’re attacked as hating White people. When you criticize the privileged position of America and its people, you’re met with “you just hate Americans.” Challenging white supremacy is nearly identical to challenging first world privilege. (This should not be limited to the US, but Canada and Australia as well.) The thought of losing that unjust superior position angers them.
When you criticize White supremacy, you are attacked as being “reverse racist”. When you criticize 'American socialist patriotism’, you are attacked as being “ultra-left”. The reaction is the same, angry denial at the criticism of privilege. A refusal to see how they benefit from the enslavement of others.
Call it what it is: American perception of victimization is very much like White victimization. The thought of losing that privilege feels like oppression.
Who Supports this Patriotism?
Ask yourself who supports this “socialist patriotism”? I can tell you where you won’t find it. You won’t see First Nations people saluting the red, white, and blue, love for a country occupying their land. In the deeper lumpen sections of the Black population, you won’t see this love for an empire that used them as slaves. Even in some of the Appalachian areas, you’ll find those that are opposed to America. It seems that “American socialist patriots” forgot to actually ask revolutionary communities in America what they think. The enslaved, the colonized, and the discarded don’t seem to follow this patriotism of theirs.
Why? Because they don’t fit the middle-class white supremacist narrative pushed by these internet so-called Marxists.
I wonder if they ever asked the colonized Puerto Ricans or Hawaiians either?
Primary and Secondary Contradiction
Capitalism is made up of series of contradictions, no Marxist would ever deny this. It lies in the very basis of Marxist theory. Yet, with first worldists, particularly Americans we see an indirect denial of it. If you ask them straight out, they won’t deny contradiction, but in their theoretical stance, there is a huge gap where it should be.
As for the global class divide, we’ve won that argument. No honest person can deny a class difference between the first and third world. Materially it is overflowing with proof. Yet, first worldist theory continues to ignore it, despite their claims that they operate according to material conditions. The progenitor to this divide comes from the colonial era, taking on a new form. Hence the term, neo-colonialism as Lenin put it – imperialism.
Lenin noted that the developed capitalist countries tended away from revolution and towards reform. This was the basis of the split in the Second international which was rescued by Lenin himself.
Mao took this theory even further and noted primary and secondary contradictions. This took the form of the Japanese occupation of China. It was the duty of every revolutionary to defeat the Japanese imperialist occupation first, then battle with the Chinese nationalists.
Since the days of the Chinese Revolution, imperialism has been the primary contradiction. Even Lenin said this in a way. Both Mao and Lenin said that it was the duty of the “working class” in the advanced countries (the first world) to combat their country’s imperialism. Mao went so far as to call it the primary contradiction. This is ignored by first worldists.
Many will tell you that they’re anti-war, but their actions completely contradict this statement. The American people, especially, have a weakness for anti-war efforts – serious efforts. Ten times the effort is put into demanding a higher minimum wage. Work for a concession from the capitalist class is far greater than opposing the slaughter of the third world. Even then, a hundred times more effort by the American people goes into refusing to wear a mask and be vaccinated against COVID.
They go so far as to paint their own troops as victims in their wholesale slaughter. They won’t paint the cops as victims, to them they’re an evil force to be destroyed. They won’t oppose the military because the military kills the third world poor – but they will oppose the police because they kill the first world poor.
Why? Because it is not in their interest to abolish their privileged position over third world people. It is not in their interest to end the super-exploitation of the third world that benefits them, as was previously discussed. They don’t really care – it’s virtue signalling at best, platitude at worst.
American People Cannot Be Reached
In addition, decades of McCarthy red scare has left a scarring image on the American people that the Socialist man is the greatest boogeyman in American history books, socialism is the devil and American Capitalism is the good Christian sauce that everyone needs to have a good life.
There never at any point in history been a serious struggle among workers in American history books that have not turned into liberal defeatism. When American "Communists" went to the Soviet Union, they only complained about how terrible it was, because they realized just how good of a life they had in America, when Soviet people worked themselves to the bone to improve their life, Americans lived in a dream world were USSR must have been better, without realizing the terrible conditions that existed prior to the Russian revolution, they have an assumption, and this assumption exists even today.
American left continues to ignore or outright denounce DPRK because it's not perfect, it's not the Socialist country that THEY want it to be, which in many cases is literally utopia.
American left is so detached from reality, they cannot communicate with working people of America because most people on the American left have lived a life of privilege, the few that have actually lived a life of poverty are almost never heard, their voices are too small.
American left spends more time appealing to fringe internet cults like identity politics and other nonsensical ideologies rather than appealing to real struggling people of America, even if this would be meaningless, its still more meaningful to spend time and effort to appeal to the American people themselves, the man and woman on the street rather than people on the internet which is always going to be in a minority.
Conclusion
The American left, so far as there is any actual leftism, is nothing more than narcissistic national chauvinism. It is purely American exceptionalism repacked as leftism.
Patriotism, Merriam-Webster Dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patriotism
Americans' Ratings of Standard of Living Best in Decade. Gallup
https://news.gallup.com/poll/218981/americans-ratings-standard-living-best-decade.aspx
Well said. Do you have any more info on the "american communists went to USSR" thing?