Yet Another Demagogic Performance from Slavoj Žižek

by Raymond Lotta

April 13, 2020 | revcom.us

A Slavoj Žižek performance circulating on the internet needs a brief comment and rebuttal. Žižek combines demagogy with dishonesty to attack communism, Bob Avakian’s new communism.

At a meeting at which Žižek spoke, an Iranian revolutionary who identified herself as a supporter of Bob Avakian’s new communism spoke from the floor. She referenced the necessity and importance of a debate I was to have with Žižek on this and the history and prospects for communist revolution in today’s world—which Žižek postponed for health reasons, but has since declined to reschedule.

In the ensuing exchange, the woman is heard calling for a real communist revolution in Iran guided by the new communism, in contrast to a “more democratic open regime.” Žižek then whines arrogantly and dismissively, “... it’s too abstract for me ... Will you socialize production, self-management ... what will you do? No, don’t tell me we want a real revolution. Give me a minimal hint. Will you abolish the state? What? What?”

Here was Žižek in his grandstanding, disingenuous mode. If—as he professed in this very exchange—to “know” Bob Avakian’s work and having debated the “Avakian people,” then Žižek would have an embarrassment of evidence and actual works with substance to answer these and other questions. He could have directed people to these works, and welcomed debate over the substance.

To start with: The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (CNSRNA) authored by Bob Avakian (BA) sets forth the guiding principles, key policies, and the institutional mechanisms by which the new state, its society and economy would function after the overthrow of the old system. And the Constitution written by comrades of the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) is modeled on the Constitution authored by BA, but applies the same basic principles to the particularity of Iran.

In fact, in the CNSRNA, Article IV: The Economy and Economic Development in the New Socialist Republic in North America (including its Section 5: The System of Public-State Ownership is the Foundation of the New Socialist Economy), in laying forth guiding principles and policies, concretely answers these precise questions. This Constitution is a concrete and visionary blueprint for a radically different society as a transition to world communism.

The woman righteously directs the audience’s attention to this and other works, but Žižek would have little of it. What irks Žižek is not the “abstraction,” but rather the viable alternative to this world of horrors—with real communist revolution. Instead, while pretending to be “radical,” Žižek in this exchange upholds Bernie Sanders, while simultaneously characterizing him as “not even a social democrat,” for having more effectively “moved and mobilized people”... fudging and eliding the question “for what” and “to what end,” and its advocacy of changes within the capitalist-imperialist system, and its current political process.

Slavoj Žižek has long prided himself for critical engagement with communism as an upholder of radical ideas, but in reality, he is a cynical anticommunist dressed in radical garb, some of which is evident in this exchange. He is always at the ready—as a sheep in wolf’s clothing—to accommodate imperialism. I’ve written about this before, including his endorsement of the fascist Trump in 2016 as a disrupter to the establishment.