Patriotic Socialism

Patriotic Socialism, whose adherents are sometimes called "PatSocs" (shortened version of "Patriotic Socialists") is a third rail issue in modern American politics which rejects the historical nihilism of the anti-patriotic Synthetic Leftists.

"PatSoc" polemic

The topic of Patriotism and Socialism in America became the subject of online polemic in mid-2022, with a range of criticisms from questions around Patriotic Internationalism, to claiming that one cannot be both a socialist and a patriot in America, given it's origins as a settler-colonial venture, and it's current status as the leading imperialist power. The controversy resulted in the coining of a contentious term "PatSoc" (short for "Patriotic Socialist") to refer to the proponents of American Communism.

American Communists hold that Communism in American should take a patriotic orientation and gain a definite national form as a matter of consistency with the reality of Marxist-Leninist tradition. Bourgeois Socialists in the United States used the term PatSoc to sow contention among the American Left (as a reaction to political re-alignment) on the basis of multiple accusations:

Bourgeois Socialist arguments

"The Patriotism of the Oppressed"

A common argument among the American Left was that Socialist Patriotism could only apply to countries that were not "oppressors". Such a claim is a non-scientific and revisionist one which leaves the nation to the usurpers of the people and allows the legacy and historical reality of the masses to rot and waste. Such a view is contradictory to the true meaning of scientific socialism: the revitalization of the people while still remaining faithful to the same modernity that begs the social question to begin with.

Populism, Political Backwardness and Right Opportunism

"If we tried to go on the offensive when the masses are not yet awakened, that would be adventurism. If we insisted on leading the masses to do anything against their will, we would certainly fail. If we did not advance when the masses demand advance, that would be Right opportunism." - Mao Ze Dong, A Talk to the Editorial Staff of the Shansi-Suiyuan Daily" (April 2, I948), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 243.

One argument was that the patriotism of the American working-class was a politically-backwards one which did not strive for cultural ideals of utopian/bourgeois socialism. Such a perspective views Socialism, not as an open-ended scientific process, but as a static one seeking to impose a universal superstructural reality upon on the particular realities of the people.

"To link oneself with the masses, one must act in accordance with the needs and wishes of the masses. All work done for the masses must start from their needs and not from the desire of any individual, however well-intentioned. It often happens that objectively the masses need a certain change, but subjectively they are not yet conscious of the need, not yet willing or determined to make the change. In such cases, we should wait patiently. We should not make the change until, through our work, most of the masses have become conscious of the need and are willing and determined to carry it out. Otherwise we shall isolate ourselves from the masses. Unless they are conscious and willing, any kind of work that requires their participation will turn out to be a mere formality and will fail.... There are two principles here: one is the actual needs of the masses rather than what we fancy they need, and the other is the wishes of the masses, who must make up their own minds instead of our making up their minds for them. - Mao Ze Dong, "The United Front in Cultural Work" (October 30, 1944), Selected Works, Vol. III, pp. 236-37. *

Utopian universal internationalism

"Across the rest of the world Marxist-Leninists never advocated on behalf of an abstract supranational working class nor did they preach the destruction of their own nations to berate their own people for their ostensible backwardness on the contrary marxist limited parties were successful for the precise reason that they could connect with and give body to the strivings of a concrete and determinate people other than superimposing on them foreign and abstract doctrines" Socialist Patriotism: America vs. America" by Infrared Collective

Accusations of Chauvinism

Accusations of chauvinism against American Communists were unfounded, for example claims that PatSocs were against Indigenous sovereignty.

Outcomes of the polemic

Eventually resulted in a political re-alignment and split with the American Left.

Relevant quotes

"Can a Communist, who is an internationalist, at the same time be a patriot? We hold that he not only can be but also must be."

- Quotations from Mao Tse Tung, chapter 18. Patriotism and Internationalism

"Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle"

- Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto

"That socialism had assumed patriotic and national form is not due to the opportunism of socialists and communist parties but was part and parcel to the meaning of socialism itself"

Socialist Patriotism: America vs. America" by Infrared Collective

"This begs the question: What was the actual relationship between socialists and patriotism historically? What becomes immediately clear is that the track record of the 19th and especially 20th centuries show that socialists and communists have consistently been patriotic and deeply attuned to the national realities of the countries they held from ... It is only in america and those under the influence of its empire where those under this way of american exceptionalism remain dominant on the left that socialists imagine they can elevate themselves above national realities and speak on behalf of an abstract working class uprooted and estranged from its particular and national instantiation."

Socialist Patriotism: America vs. America" by Infrared Collective