One of the most common questions we get is whether or not we should “hide our power level” when it comes to our political positions. In this video, we look at the words and practice of Karl Marx, Fred Hampton, Vladimir Lenin, Fidel Castro, and Harvey Milk to tackle the question: should we hide our true positions as we build our movement?
The common true answer to these kinds of thoughts is always, “it depends”. Wanting simple and fast rules helps to frame questions, discussions, and solutions, but you would be incorrect to just say yes or no.
If a cop is harassing you, do you just call yourself a communist because you reject “hiding your power level”? Won’t that just pointlessly make them go after you harder? Will any observers understand or care what it means for the cop to arbitrarily detain and arrest you after sharing this fact?
If you are tabling and are cagey about your associations, won’t they, correctly, distrust you? Aren’t you missing out on opportunities to spread consciousness and recruit?
This is actually a propaganda question, and for propaganda just about your very first thought should be about identifying your intended audience(s), what you want them to think or do after your interaction with them, and what threats might exist and how you will mitigate them. That should determine how open you are about communism. For example, if you are in the US at a party and calk yourself a communist to a stranger, they will probably not even understand what you mean by that. You will fail to communicate if you rely on this alone. You’d need to explain it shortly in a way that speaks to things familiar to them, like working a job and imperialism. If you lead with “communist” they may end up leaving before your explanation. Better to explain first and label later. On the other hand if you’re giving a speech for a communist party.
Overall I think it is best to explain yourself as best you can to be understood when it comes to non-enemies. Sometimes that looks like hiding your power level and sometimes it doesn’t.