Why I dislike being called “comrade”

I know how sacred this is for many leftists, but I don’t like it and have talked with a few people, mostly women, who have expressed discontent with the word as well. But first, let me make this clear: I’m not going to be mad or offended any time someone refers to me/others as comrade, I just don’t like it.

Why? Let me first say that it’s not because I think it has a toxic or militaristic vibe, but I’ve known plenty of women throughout the years who do. The reason I don’t like the term is because I don’t like it in general when leftist/progressive groups use relics and customs from the past to describe or illustrate ourselves and ideology. I don’t like it because I think we should be progressing, moving forward, not trying to imitate anything from the past. While I see value in honoring and respecting past socialist and in general, anti-capitalist endeavors in the USSR, Latin America, Asia, Europe, US and elsewhere; it’s not something I think we should focus on in our current movements. Keep the focus on the here and now.

It is my opinion that what we want has never happened before on a large-scale in a sustainable way (clearly). What we want is something different, something new. We call it socialism, but that’s just a good word for it. The socialism we want now is different than what socialists in X place in X year wanted. We want something safer, healthier, and better than what we have now. I’m not afraid of the words socialism, anarchism, Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism, or communism. But some people are, and we have to accept that to move forward. We all know this; a lot of ordinary people agree with us: there should be public healthcare, public education, public transportation, public housing, among other social services. And I truly believe we need to connect with them and meet them where they are at. And one of the reasons I like DSA is because I think we do that. We have to accept the world we live in before we can try to change it peacefully. I’m not saying we can’t be sad or angry, but acceptance is key and can help us personally and collectively.

Call me compañera, amiga, friend, by my names or nicknames, comadre, folk, sister/sibling…

Or call me comrade, but just know I’m not that into it. With love, E