Revolutionary Defeatism

The Fate of American Imperialism on the Eve of the Presidential Election

Welcome back! It’s been a full month since I’ve posted and I thoroughly enjoyed my break. However, with the U.S. election looming I wanted to make a quick post about my position in this all in the context of what Lenin called “Revolutionary Defeatism.” In particular, I thought it was appropriate to provide a longer response to a criticism I received on social media regarding my support for the BRICS economic forum. Some commenters pointed out that one didn’t have to support ‘autocratic’ governments to express anti-American imperialism. I disagree, but let’s talk about it in the context of the election…

Obviously, we are not in the midst of a world war or fighting an autocratic state, as was the case in Lenin’s time. However, Lenin’s concept of revolutionary defeatism applied not just to active war and conflict, but to the tenor of class warfare. He wrote that “during a reactionary war a revolutionary class cannot but desire the defeat of its government.”