Electoral Theory and Strategy of Marx and Lenin w: August Nimtz

Oct 15, 2021
In this episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on Professor August Nimtz to talk about his book, The Ballot, The Streets, or Both? From Marx and Engels to Lenin and the October Revolution. This book takes a look at the theoretical and strategic groundings and evolution of electoralism via the writings of Marx/Engels and Lenin. A conversation that will add a lot of historical nuance to the debates that we have every election season in the "western democratic" countries!
August Nimtz professor of political science and African American and African studies at the University of Minnesota. His book The Ballot, The Streets, or Both? is available from Haymarket Books: www.haymarketb.... His other books include Marx and Engels: Their Contribution to the Democratic Breakthrough (SUNY Press), Marx, Tocqueville, and Race in America: The 'Absolute Democracy' or 'Defiled Republic' (Lexington Books), and Marxism versus Liberalism: Comparative Real-Time Political Analysis (Palgrave Macmillan).
Guerrilla History is the podcast that acts as a reconnaissance report of global proletarian history, and aims to use the lessons of history to analyze the present. If you have any questions or guest/topic suggestions, email them to us at [e-mail].
Your hosts are immunobiologist Henry Hakamaki, Professor Adnan Husain, historian and Director of the School of Religion at Queens University, and Revolutionary Left Radio's Breht O'Shea.
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To follow the hosts, Henry can be found on twitter @huck1995, and also has a patreon to help support himself through the pandemic where he breaks down science and public health research and news at / huck1995 . Adnan can be followed on twitter @adnanahusain, and also runs The Majlis Podcast, which can be found at anchor.fm/the-..., and the Muslim Societies-Global Perspectives group at Queens University, / msgpqu . Breht is the host of Revolutionary Left Radio, which can be followed on twitter @RevLeftRadio and cohost of The Red Menace Podcast, which can be followed on twitter @Red_Menace_Pod. Follow and support these shows on patreon, and find them at www.revolution....
Thanks to Ryan Hakamaki, who designed and created the podcast's artwork, and Kevin MacLeod, who creates royalty-free music.

[@KP-uc1ez]

Such an important conversation for the 21st century.
Especially for those of us in the imperial core.
I must say, the evolution of my knowledge and left perspectives has been quite disorienting. From RadLib SocDem debate bros (you already know) to sectarian dogmatists and Revisionists alike, Marxist in name only, it's been quite the ordeal sifting thru the competing perspectives and arguments on the left.
The Electoral Question discussed here is particularly pertinent, I think, because the most pervasive conflict I've experienced on the left is in relation to this question.
The insistence on "progress" or "safety" requiring concessions from the Left to the Democratic Party only serves, in the last analysis, to tone down, coopt, distort and render ineffectual the more genuine desires of the masses. BLM, Occupy, anti-war movements regarding Iraq, etc.
That's the objective result. We have plenty of historical material at this point. The request they're making of us is that we sacrifice ideals, compromise goals and concede our correct-in-theory and grounded-in-practice positions, for the reason that "if you do not compromise with US, the Other will be much worse". I'm shaking in my boots, I swear.
Meanwhile, we got Trump out of office and the genocide of Palestinians continues. The r*pe of the Congo continues. Big Oil lobbying efforts increase. As mentioned here, Biden is even more hardline on Cuba than Trump was.
Voting fetishism is ultimately born of selfishness and fear, as well as ignorance of the historical development and daily functions of our political-economy. And perhaps arrogance.
It's simply a matter of observation to note that concessions from the Left are only effective as a strictly conditional strategy, not as a rule of thumb - if the goal is indeed to advance agreed-upon, overarching Leftist goals of overcoming exploitation and fostering fairly-distrubuted prosperity.
If one claims that the line is to ignore elections no matter what, or to engage in elections no matter what, they're talking out of their ass and they're prioritizing dogma, feeling righteous, over the actual success of class struggle.