Midwestern Marx is a US-based socialist educational online publishing house. Its content includes online articles, book series, academic journals[1] (ISSN 2769-1055), and online videos. The organization erroneously pushes patriotic socialism, and thus supports U.S. imperialism.[2][3]
Staff
The staff consists of 6 members of the editorial board, more than 30 writers, and 3 Spanish-English translators. Additionally, there are more than a dozen writers for the Youth League.[4]
Editorial board
- Thomas Riggins: Chief Editorial Counselor, retired philosophy teacher, and 1960s-era activist and writer
- Carlos L. Garrido: Cuban philosophy graduate student focused on Marxism, Hegel, and early 19th century US socialism
- Edward (Eddie) L. Smith: Director, US political scientist.
- Mitchell K. Jones
- Calla Winchell
- Noah Khrachvik
Other members
- Alex Zambito
Chauvinistic and reactionary behavior
Midwestern Marx agreed with Jackson Hinkle, a notorious patriotic socialist and Revisionist, that Marxism-Leninism was compatible with loyalty to the United States.[5] A number of members have been noted for having a history of bullying.[6]
One of its directors, Eddie Liger, frequently engages in tailist and class collaborationist tactics by defending association and partnership with open fascists akin to the Black Hundreds, rather than trying to win over misguided proletarians away from their leadership.[7]
Eddie deliberately misrepresents Marxism. For example, in a February 3 Twitter post, he said that "[he] had 10 farmers on [his] college wrestling team, and they all f**** love Trump".[8] User @bidetmarxman replied to this post, nothing there is a difference between farm owners and farm workers that Eddie didn't make, and that "farmers" usually refers to farm owners specifically. Owners are a "petty bourgeois reactionary group", while workers are "are much more numerous and are proletariat, thus forming part of the revolutionary subject". They go on to explain that Eddie, being a director of Midwestern Marx, should or would not be making such a basic mistake if he were not being disingenuous on purpose to cater to the reactionary tendencies of his audience.[9]
Ideology
Midwestern Marx generally supports patriotic socialism and is against the decolonisation of the United States.[10] It accuses the opponents of patriotic socialism of being American exceptionalists[2] even though they also oppose patriotism in other imperialist countries.[11][better source needed] It also incorrectly defines nationalism as loyalty to the state and patriotism as loyalty to the people and absurdly claimed the Statesian settler state is not a product of genocide.[2]
Censorship
In 2020, after the CIA-connected company Oracle bought TikTok, it banned Midwestern Marx's account that had 375,000 followers.[12] In 2022, the video sharing platform TikTok banned Midwestern Marx's second account,[13][14] and it has banned five more accounts since then.[12]
Content
Midwestern Marx covers many different topics. They have discussed how the CIA was involved in promoting the Frankfurt School's Critical Theory ideology.[15]
Links
- YouTube
- LinkTree (Their curated list of links)
- @EddieLigerSmith on TikTok (censored)
References
- ↑ Journal of American Socialist Studies (JASS)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “Put simply, the United States, as every country, is not a product of genocide and slavery, nor is it a product of freedom and liberty, it is a product of class antagonisms and struggle, in this regard it is not exceptional.”
Kayla Popuchet (2021-12-05). "In Defense of U.S. Proletarian Patriotism: A comradely response to Danny Haiphong’s “Marxist” Polemic on Patriotic Socialism." Midwestern Marx. Archived from the original on 2023-06-02. - ↑ Roderic Day (2023-06-06). "Untitled Twitter Thread" Twitter.
- ↑ Midwestern Marx (2024-01-23). "Midwestern Marx Staff" Midwestern Marx. Archived from the original on 2024-01-23. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
- ↑ @MidwesternMarx (2021-09-06). "The ultra-left reactions to this tweet show they’ve never read any Marx, Engels, or Lenin - and perhaps worst, they’ve never met a working class American in their life." Archived from the original on 2024-1-10. Retrieved 2024-1-10.
- ↑ Comrade Confucius (27-01-2024). "The Social Chauvinists of America are now Marxists (don't laugh)". YouTube.
- ↑ “If Modern day Western communists lived in Russia they would have tweeted pictures of the Bolsheviks reaching out to the black hundreds and demanded that people cancel them for it.”
@EdbieLigerSmith. "If Modern day Western communists lived in Russia" Archived from the original on 26 Jun 2023. - ↑ @EdbieLigerSmith (2024-). "This person does not live in Iowa lol. I think I had 10 farmers on my college wrestling team alone 😂" Twitter.
- ↑ ““Farmers” is typically short hand for farm *owners* (or in Eddie’s case the sons of farm owners). They’re a petit bourgeois and reactionary group. Farm *workers*, otoh, are much more numerous and are proletariat, thus forming part of the revolutionary subject.
Confusing the two is a very basic error that you might expect from someone first grappling with Marxist concepts of class and relations of production. But not from someone positioning themselves as the director of an org teaching Marxist theory.”
Professional hog groomer (2024-02-04). "“Farmers” is typically short hand for farm *owners* (or in Eddie’s case the sons of farm owners)" Twitter. Retrieved 2024-02-05. - ↑ “That is because the mass of the direct producers in the USA are not from the indigenous population. Under these circumstances where [sic] they to acquire ownership of all land[,] they would inevitably become and [sic] exploiting minority.”
Paul Cockshott (2021-10-03). "Marxism and the Nationalisation of Land" Midwestern Marx. Archived from the original on 2023-06-06. - ↑ “The specific content of patriotism is determined by historical conditions. There is the "patriotism" of the Japanese aggressors and of Hitler, and there is our patriotism. Communists must resolutely oppose the "patriotism" of the Japanese aggressors and of Hitler. The Communists of Japan and Germany are defeatists with regard to the wars being waged by their countries. To bring about the defeat of the Japanese aggressors and of Hitler by every possible means is in the interests of the Japanese and the German people, and the more complete the defeat the better...For the wars launched by the Japanese aggressors and Hitler are harming the people at home as well as the people of the world. China's case, however, is different, because she is the victim of aggression.”
Mao Zedong (1966). Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung: 'Patriotism and Internationalism'. [PDF] Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. [MIA] - ↑ 12.0 12.1 Carlos L Garrido (2023-06-02). "The U.S. censors Dissenting Voices: On the attacks against the Midwestern Marx Institute" Monthly Review. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
- ↑ Eddie Smith (2022-03-03). "Tik Tok BANNED us. Freedom of Speech under Capitalism."
- ↑ @MarxMidwest on Twitter: "Tik tok banned our second account today. They are completely silencing us. Not letting us have any kind of voice on their platform. Creating a neoliberal echo chamber." (Archived)
- ↑ "The Frankfurt School and the CIA - Interview W/ Gabriel Rockhill". Midwestern Marx.