Left strategy must refuse the false choice between Leninism and street autonomism

Evidence

Since the 1960s, the left has split into an authoritarian-nostalgic Leninism, committed to a party form and a class politics whose historical moment seems to have passed, and a supposedly “new” Left which rejects institutions and the centrality of the class struggle and puts all its faith in the capacity of the people to mobilise autonomously and to produce outside capitalist social relations. We desperately need to undo this binary. There is no way back to the old Leninist party, any more than there is a way back to Fordist capitalism. Yet naïve autonomism has shown that it has no purchase on the current moment either. Anti-capitalism and its retinue of strategies — occupations, protests — have not caused capital a moment’s serious alarm. 68 preached that structures don’t walk on the street — but if anti-capitalism has taught us anything, it is that, by itself, street activism has little effect on structures. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1909

Categorization

• XREF: Reinforces a recurring Fisher theme on networked refusal vs. organized strategy, and resonates with the ‘false choice’ critique familiar from his accelerationalist and post-capitalism writings. — connects to: Lenin’s anti-left-opportunism doctrine legitimized Communist accommodation with capitalism; Left solidarity requires heterogeneous coalition rather than unity or horizontalism — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1743; Lenin’s vanguard-party doctrine excluded opposition from within the Left (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Class politics and anti-authoritarianism are a false choice to refuse outright #exemplifies (0.88) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1910
• Left solidarity requires heterogeneous coalition rather than unity or horizontalism #expands (0.82) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1743
• Lenin’s anti-left-opportunism doctrine legitimized Communist accommodation with capitalism #complicates (0.78)
• Lenin’s vanguard-party doctrine excluded opposition from within the Left #complicates (0.76)
• Post-capitalist politics must coordinate autonomous struggles without centralizing them #complicates (0.74) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1588