My guest is a 16 year old communist. For several years this account was a potent micro-influencer, prolific essay writer, and agenda setter for young online communities. He was also a notorious troll whose antics acculmulated a highly dedicated following. Soon after, many of these users made contact with a real world organization on the internationalist left. We will explore this in an upcoming episode of: My Political Journey.
Bordigist_Com
age 16
Bay Area, USA
Instagram, Discord, Twitter
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How would you describe your politics or ideology?
Marxist, communist (the communist left), taking heritage from 1st, 2nd and 3rd international. We prefer not to use the term ideology. Our movement is a synthesis between the Italian communist left & French communist left.
Who are your biggest influences?
Amadeo Bordiga, Karl Marx, Frederich Engles, Vladimir Lenin, ICC (International Communist Current)
When did you first learn about or start visiting online political communities?
In 2016. I was 13.
What was your ideology before entering these spaces?
Or how have your views evolved since you started participating?
Uninvolved, whatever my parents thought, apolitical.
What changes do you think we are likely to see in the next 10 years?
Further atomization of the workforce, especially in global centers of capital (America, Europe, Russia, China, more). Expansion of the “gig economy”. Workers will have no contact with other workers. We will begin to see the real effects of the climate crisis, more fires, more hurricanes, more extreme weather, and the increased extinction rate of many groups within the ecosystem, biodiversity is on the way out, 100 species die every day.
What changes do you think we are likely to see in the next 40 years?
Further breakdown of the market as a result of resource depletion. The Rise of populism (more so than we have now). Suicide rates will continue to rise. Capitalism is in a state of decomposition. It doesn’t have much time. Its not only my generation that is going to be faced with the crisis. The crisis will effect us but also everyone after, so long as capitalism continues.
What changes do you want to see in the next 10 years?
As soon as possible I would like to see the proletariat seize power internationally. It is a difficult struggle but it is necessity. This will need to be realized in all parts of society. If they seize power, there will be massive changes in architecture, art, transportation, everything that is glossed over or taken for granted as a “natural” part of capitalist life. This includes the repurposing of urban centers. I would reference the history of practical architecture, the Bauhaus and constructivism. Little of real value is produced in urban centers. Most of what is produced is only for exchange value. In an international socialist society, we would only produce for use value; for the benefit and development of humanity. Practicality in everything. During the transitionary period; nothing will be produced which we haven’t already figured out what to do with it. Gigantic buildings towering above the centers of capital will be repurposed for vertical hydroponic agriculture. Banks and insurance companies are out. We will reuse those floors for hydroponics. Agriculture has poisoned the soil through crop rotation. Soil was never meant to to sustain agriculture for this many hundreds of years and so it has become acidified. Homelessness ends as the towers of finance capital are repurposed into housing. On transportation, we need to maintain what is already existing. Bridges, roads, cargo ships and more. We will immediately take resources out of urban centers and put them into where they need to go, back into the exploited regions: Africa, India and the peripheries. Back into the peasantry. Education will change. We will not train people to exploit. In short; the repurposing of everything.
What changes do you want to see in the next 40 years?
In Russia, the revolution lasted only from 1917-1921 and it was the greatest development of the working class ever in history. In forty years time I would like to see even more class barriers break down and a further break down of the apparatus of the state.
What tools, technologies or tactics are most important to achieve this?
Solidarity. The only tactic for working class is solidarity. Capital has everything at its disposal, money, power, arms. And they have the superstructure as a whole. We need a full regroup of the communist movement as a whole, a workers movement.
What are the most common jobs in this future society?
Work will be abolished. Waged labor will be abolished. The proletarian dictatorship is still under capitalism but it is the transition out of it. Waged labor will still exist but be continually diminished. Many will labor on the development of infrastructure into the peripheries. Then there is there process of proletarianization, taking peasants and the lumpen proletariat and bringing them towards a more beneficial role in society.
Where do most people live?
There is a gradual migration out of the cities. Centers of capital (aka urban centers) are not needed any longer. Because labor follows capital there is now no reason to live in areas so condensed. Development would continue everywhere else in the world outside of urban centers.
What modes of transportation do people use?
We would likely build whatever does the least environmental damage. Obviously, no coal, no oil.
How are goods produced?
We’re going to see less necessity for smart phones and computers. A lot of the reason we use it today is for work. Social media is a parasite of the mind. I sound like a boomer but its true. In general there will be less tech. And this is one way to help combat resource extraction. For less complicated things like textiles, many will become somewhat self sufficient or rely on people in the immediate area. We would have a move local production. Over production happens because of the law of value. Under capitalism, production is done according to the law of value, for exchange not use. Today, technocrats cry out for AI, and they lampoon themselves by advocating for central planning! We will move simple production away from peripheries and produce locally.
How is food produced?
Production is owned and managed by the society. The towers of finance capital will be repurposed into vertical hydroponic farms. People tend to ask; “if everything is collectively owned, won’t people take more than they need?” Twenty years ago scientists decoded the human genome and they found nothing about greediness. Greediness is product of scarcity and under scarcity it is rewarded. Its at the core of capitalism. When produced for use, there is no reason to take more than you need.
How do these goods and food reach consumers?
Local distribution
How much leisure time do people have?
Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, there is a gradual turn toward leisure. Work will not be abolished overnight. In the communist society there will be no difference between labor and leisure. Now, labor is alienated. We’re trying to abolish alienation.
What kind of energy does this society use?
This can be debated.
Where is this society located?
Internationally, everywhere
Who are *you* in this society?
No preference as to where or what kind of work.
What items do you have in your future home?
Garden, grow some of my own food, be somewhat self-sufficient. Some books but they would not be as useful as now.
Where are most people in this society from?
Everywhere.
Does this society run up against any natural limits?
Industrialization has to be avoided. But with strength and solidarity it can be avoided. There may be some process of muddying or polluting before everything turns more visibly clean. The big question is how to stop climate crisis. On this we can turn to statistics: 77% of carbon emissions are produced by just 100 companies. Liquidate the companies. See what they produce (according to usefulness not exchange value) and cut whats unnecessary.
What language do people speak?
The general trend is toward English in a capitalist society, Chinese is an ancient language and difficult to learn even for native speakers. English would likely become an international language.
What are the biggest religious or spiritual organizations, if any?
This is debatable. I would probably go with the traditional answer and say in a communist society there will be no need for religion.
What state is nature in compared to today?
Far worse but would be on the road to recovery
Were there any key historical events that led to this society?
The conditions will lead to it. But I’m not an accelerations to any degree.
I'm impressed that this person has only aged three years in the last seven