In my opinion, the people like Maupin, Jackson Hinkle, and especially the Infrared YouTube channel (people like Haz) have not engaged in the debate in good faith AT ALL.
But moreover, I do believe that patriotism, certainly “American patriotism”, has no place in the ML movement. I believe in the working-class, but I wouldn’t want to muddy the waters with cheap appeals to what would essentially be working-class conservatism and chauvinism. I won’t say much more than the fact that my comrades and I have been talking about this extensively and all agree: decolonization comes first and foremost. Landback is a must and many people, of all races and ethnicities, have been hurt by colonialism and neo-colonialism as well as imperialism both within and outside the United States, the original indigenous inhabitants being a prime example.
I hope I haven’t said anything to offend anyone, but I support Landback and decolonialism. I even originally became an ML in part due to Berta Caceres’s murder in Central America. In the CPUSA, Browder was very controversial and was fought against as he became more and more unpopular (until he was finally ousted, in huge part because of his “Americanism”). SO even then: the issue of “American patriotism” was suspect. I think that we live in a much more radical and interesting time where decolonization must take center stage now more than ever before.
That Haz would say that “indigenous peoples” or Native Americans have no place in the ML movement is folly; we should be doing more to not only comfort them but make us more available to them as a movement, not decry them or anything.
Anyways, enough Twitter drama. I took a break from most social media and I feel much better now. But I think Maupin/Haz (Infrared)/Jackson Hinkle have belittled and side-stepped the issues at stake, from what I’ve seen of their content.
It does the wider communist movement a disservice when people claiming to be CPUSA members (who obviously aren’t or can’t be traced back to in the databases) and people who certainly are CPUSA members (albeit, from what we can tell, a minority so far in the organization) try to appeal to right-wingers and sometimes even believe in their nonsense. Well, I can’t say much more about the organization other than what’s on display on Twitter, but I do think that one should be open about all this.
Welp, that’s all I have for now.
I think everyone should ignore personal drama. Also, it should be cleared up that Haz of Infrared is not a member of CPUSA and has never claimed to be. He has never said that indigenous peoples have no place in the ML movement. He’s said that he’s in favor of giving land back to indigenous peoples, but he is opposed to “land back” as a slogan, as he sees it as meaningless. Basically, like the anarchist slogan “defund the police”, it has a wide range of interpretations, from expanding autonomous areas of the US, to transferring all us public land into indigenous hands. I’ve even seen discourse online among communists who want to deport all white and african american people back to Europe and Africa. It was joked that these people should be deported to the ocean, if it was logistically impossible to resettle them.
Anyway, the issue of American patriotism comes back to the American state. There is a sort of anarchist line of thought that sees America as ideally evil and that it needs to be abolished immediately. Realistically, this isn’t going to happen. Instead, the state will be transformed into a dictatorship of the proletariat with the goal of building socialism in one state. How can any of this be accomplished if the people have no love of country?