This post will probably piss people (especially Americans) off. Here, I talk only about supporting socialist revolution in the USA, and do not care much for the morality or treatment of Americans in order to get there.
The US’s position as the dominant capitalist power founded on settler colonialism means it will be the one of the last countries in the world to have a communist revolution. For the sake of all people of the world, it is also the most important country to have one in. The US would need to first lose its empire and have all Americans live as semi-feudal cyberpunk slaves before the possibility of communist revolution. Even then, Native Americans will probably still be treated like shit.
Because of this, revolutionary socialist parties have a difficult dilemma in the USA. They must fight for reforms that make life better for Americans in order to build public support, but because reforms are ultimately compromises by ruling capitalists, doing so makes US bourgeois ‘democracy’ appear responsive to worker demands and delays the future date of revolution.
Are there ways we can support revolution while circumventing this dilemma?
I think socialist-sympathetic petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie can fill such a role by playing the ‘bad cop’ to socialist parties’ ‘good cop’ role.
In the USA, power as an individual depends almost solely on money. Thus the most effective way for any person to shape US policy is to found a startup to get rich, then use it to bribe politicians to do shit. Of course, this approach is fundamentally not socialist, and anyone who gets rich enough to do so probably won’t hold socialist views anymore. For the sake of discussion, let’s say one of us socialists founds a company and gets rich.
The more ruthless a capitalist you are, the more successful your business will be.[1] Businesses run by ‘softies’ with morals always lose market share to (and are ultimately bought out by) competing businesses with none. This means there is a natural pressure under capitalism to make life worse. If a socialist starts a business with the goal of providing an alternative to this, they are fighting a losing battle which ensures future irrelevance.
In this US capitalist environment, should socialist-sympathetic businesses accelerate the revolution by instead deliberately making Americans’ lives worse? Doing so would produce more profit, which would ensure their continued existence and allow them to expand market share to make even more Americans’ lives worse, thereby accelerating the revolution further. Of course, said businesses should also funnel a portion of profits to covertly supporting socialist parties.
Of course, this approach walks a fine line. Socialist founders must be vigilant that their business strategy ultimately helps revolution rather than just becoming another part of the capitalist system. Founders must also be extremely careful not to get found out, as that would jeopardise both their business’s attractiveness to capitalist investors, and look very hypocritical to the public.
Can I push back on the idea that the US is the most important country to have a socialist revolution in? I’d argue it’s more important to have socialist revolutions where the global proletariat are. Where is that; Where do you find slave and semi-slavery conditions forced up hundreds of millions of women and children? Places that you don’t hear about in the news (e.g. large parts of Africa, parts of Asia, etc). These are the workers that run the global economy and generate the profits.
By comparison, many white Westerners are highly overpaid compared to the work they contribute. This is why capital can so easily import foreign workers at a fraction of the cost. The US is already busy changing. It’s got a cultural war between one faction that wants to rebuild the white settler nation (e.g. by limiting access to birth control, importing white “refugees”, creating “trad”-wives, etc) and another that wants to reduce the privileged white sub-nation and build an alternative “privileged” class (special males, in specially male-gendered industries that pay well but contribute little to society – cars, weapons, computers) and that can police a new underclass (women and children, worldwide, working in low pay situations in socially-vital but very under-payed jobs designated for them). The capitalist class is happy to let these two sides duke it out, but either way, I think the US and its allies are busy, occupied with trends that will eventually make them more fertile ground for revolution.
I also think it’s worth considering that if you want to organize and build alliances you’ll have to show up for friends and their causes (by this I mean good causes, and I’ll assume you’re weighed the benefits vs risks) – being an accelerationist is going to often position you against these allies. I’d worry that being an accelerationist combined with the strategy you’ve proposed is going to look very much like being a regular capitalist (at least until the very last moment). I’m reminded of “effective-altruism”, which I don’t believe has a good track record of successes.