“Patriotic Socialism”: A Fascist Wrecking Tendency
From the bowels of the internet, which can be accurately described as where Marxism goes to die, has come a new conglomeration of bargain basement eclecticism that has labeled itself “patriotic socialism”. The ideological underpinning of this trend is an ahistorical rewriting of the history of the United States and other countries which is used to attempt to appeal/open dialogue with supporters of Donald Trump and other reactionaries, and thereby turn them into “Marxists”, or at the very least “anti-imperialists” aka modern revisionists. This trend has made bedfellows from the fascist Alexander Dugin to the CPUSA liberals. Patriotic socialists, true to their name, tend to have conservative-reactionary social views, opposing such things as abortion and LGBTQI+ rights and identity. Many of them also embrace the reactionary elements of the Catholic Church and various Protestant sects. The odd thing is that the MAGAts and religious reactionaries reject anything to do with Communism, no matter how much the patsocs try to dress themselves up in their garb.
“Patriotic socialism” revolves around a myriad of strange characters, most notably the disgraced revisionist Caleb Maupin, who cut his teeth in the ancient Marcyite-revisionist Worker’s World Party, before his massive ego led him to seek media appearances on Russia Today and Iranian state television. He then went on to found the “Center for Political Innovation”, which can more accurately be described as the “Center for Modern Revisionism”. This organization is noted for its recent conference held in Austin, TX, where a LARP display of USSR, American, and Russian “Z” symbols was on display. After this conference, Caleb Maupin was outed as a sexual abuser in embarrassing fashion and will undoubtedly fade into obscurity. Other former members of this group include Keaten Mansfield, who has become a Republican and has eschewed Communism.
On the international field, patsocs make common cause with Chinese social-imperialism and Russian imperialism, loudly beating the war drums against the people of Ukraine and spitting on the Marxist tradition of opposition to imperialist war. Lenin admonished us to avoid taking sides in imperialist wars, and to support the struggle of the people against foreign aggression and invasion. Mao taught the importance of recognizing and struggling against social imperialism. The patsocs ignore both lessons, choosing instead the naked chauvinism of the Earl Browder school. Patsocs admire Browder and in many instances join the crumbling ruins of his old formation, the CPUSA. During Browder’s period the line of the CPUSA was that “Communism is Twentieth Century Americanism”, and made use of the images of the slaveowner Washington and the racist Lincoln in party pamphlets, at rallies, and in periodicals. Browder was a reformist, collaborating with the FDR Administration and politely asking for mild salves and sops for the working class instead of building a Party for combat, able to take advantage of contradictions and seize state power. The patsocs march in this same parade, embracing as political praxis electoral politics and labeling Communists who actually do Communist things as “ultras” and “LARPERS”.
Patsocs are dangerous, as they still remain tied to the bullshit American ideal. During periods of civil conflict, they will undoubtedly serve as handmaidens of reaction as the Freikorps did during the fighting years in Germany. Anything and anyone who is tied to this crumbling Empire and speaks of it positively is a declared enemy to real Communists and others who seek a better order. It is no accident that they engage with reactionaries and have attempted to warp Marxism to serve reaction — they themselves are reactionaries wrapped in red. Communism has such prestige that vultures, snakes and rats of all types, old and new, dabble in its words and in charlatan fashion proclaim themselves adherents of its ideology. This trend can be combated and destroyed through collective mastery of Communist works to assist in discerning real from fake, along with deep and thorough social practice.
