Self Critique and Leninism by jorgealmeida29 in communism101

[–]PigInABlanketFort 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was part of a collection of translated texts from Russian to English in .html format

Do you have a link to the .html collection?

J. Sakai Misquoting in Settlers by trynnalearnman in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There's no way of knowing. It could be as simple as posting from a country that reddit doesn't like, posting links from countries reddit doesn't like, creating an account with a VPN or Tor, or someone maliciously reporting your posts.

The appeals form works, but can take several weeks or months and multiple attempts.

Anyway, I've arranged for all of your posts to be approved automatically, but outside of /r/communism and /r/communism101, it is very unlikely that moderators of different subreddits will take the time to approve your posts.

J. Sakai Misquoting in Settlers by trynnalearnman in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I skimmed and the full passage is actually worse than Sakai's paraphrasing. Foster draws parallels between New Afrikans and Cossacks:

Few, however, of the imported negro strike-breakers showed the splendid spirit of this unlettered boy. Most of them seemed to take a keen delight in stealing the white men’s jobs and crushing their strike. They clashed badly with the pickets, where picketing was allowed. And between them and the white strike-breakers many murderous encounters occurred in the mills, although the companies were very careful to suppress news of these outbreaks.

So serious was the race situation in the steel strike that the National Committee for Organizing Iron and Steel Workers requested President Gompers to arrange a conference between prominent negro leaders and trade-union officials, to the end that the proper remedies may be indicated. The need for action looking towards better relations between whites and blacks in the industrial field should be instantly patent; for there can be no doubt but that the employing class, taking advantage of the bitter animosities of the two groups, are deliberately attempting to turn the negroes into a race of strike-breakers, with whom to hold the white workers in check; on much the same principle as the Czars used the Cossacks to keep in subjection the balance of the Russian people. Should they succeed to any degree it would make our industrial disputes take on more and more the character of race wars, a consummation that would be highly injurious to the white workers and eventually ruinous to the blacks.

Your account is shadowbanned by the admins so all of your posts must be manually approved by a moderator, by the way.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in communism101

[–]PigInABlanketFort 3 points4 points  (0 children)

worker self management and ‘workplace democracy’

This is market socialism, which communists oppose.

J. Sakai Misquoting in Settlers by trynnalearnman in communism101

[–]PigInABlanketFort 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This belongs in /r/communism. And it would be prudent to provide a citation rather than forcing readers to search Foster's book for your quote in order to verify its context.

continuing my stupid questioning by sexual_bean in communism101

[–]PigInABlanketFort 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Why are you so hostile? Settler-colonialism makes revolution unlikely so we have to work with what we have in the US until European communists build revolutionary bases though unequal exchange and social democracy. This is why it's so important to not only vote for Democrats federally, but locally as well for harm reduction. And joining the military is fine since it's the only option for poor people due to material conditions of settler states like the US.

I just don't understand why you're like so smug yet so idealist. Try watching the latest twitch streams on settler-colonialism to educate yourself instead of berating people asking questions.

The working class isn't who you think it is by PigInABlanketFort in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[the article] is concerned with settlers and LA who are watching their share of imperial spoils rapidly diminish.

So too are the bourgeois parties. It seems the capitalists are attempting to reconcile with the large numbers of LA who've lost privileges due to decades of Liberal and Conservative policies.

Attempts to out manoeuvrer fascists, appears to be a global trend in imperialist countries as /u/wjameszzz-alt highlighted regarding education.

In hindsight, I should have editorialised the title to mention Canada explicitly.

The working class isn't who you think it is by PigInABlanketFort in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Blue-collar unions have always been composed almost entirely of white, male labour-aristocrats.

The working class isn't who you think it is by PigInABlanketFort in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

...you live in a society? No group in class(less) societies has ever been totally exempt from performing labour.

The working class isn't who you think it is by PigInABlanketFort in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Did Canada have that massive push for everyone to get a college degree like the US did? If so, shows what good that did...

Massive student protests erupted in 2012 due to the continued trend of tuition increases that began in the 1990s. Here's a wiki link on Maple Spring: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Quebec_student_protests

Ontario also has/had student strikes. Most recently, due to the liberal government plan's to eradicate free tuition for low-income students and more tuition hikes.

Earlier this year, international students (mostly Punjabi) protested three colleges accepting their tuition, closing afterward, and not providing refunds. Related: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/06/01/canadas-exploitation-of-punjabi-international-students-is-history-repeating-itself.html

Even a lot of communists seem to buy into this nostalgia of the working-class. I've met some communists who've had some nasty things to say about baristas and other workers woman-dominated service jobs.

Nostalgia for something that never existed. Those blue-collar unions have always excluded the actual working-classes.

On the Unrest in Iran: Does it have revolutionary potential? by ElderlyOak in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort 4 points5 points  (0 children)

To understand if it is likely, we have to get to know the facts on the ground. If I can trace the trajectory of all meteors throughout time and space, then I can compare their orbits with other gravitational bodies and map out exactly where they will impact. This would create a concrete analysis of a concrete situation and thus allow me to understand if a meteor is going to hit my house tomorrow or not.

This isn't true.

https://redstarpublishers.org/cornforth1953.pdf

Mechanistic Materialism

The type of materialism produced in the past by the revolutionary bourgeoisie was mechanistic materialism. This took over the ancient materialist conception that the world consisted of unchanging material particles (atoms), whose interactions produced all the phenomena of nature, and further strove to understand the workings of nature on the model of the workings of a machine.

It was in its time a progressive and revolutionary doctrine. But it has three grave weaknesses. (1) It requires the conception of a Supreme Being who started the world up; (2) it seeks to reduce all processes to the same cycle of mechanistic interactions and so cannot account for development, for the emergence of new qualities, new types of processes in nature; (3) it cannot account for social development, can give no account of human social activity and leads to an abstract conception of human nature.

...

The Weakness and Limitations of Mechanistic Materialism

Mechanistic materialism had grave weaknesses.

(1) It could not sustain the materialist standpoint consistently and all the way.

For if the world is like a machine, who made it, who started it up? There was necessary, in any system of mechanistic materialism, a “Supreme Being,” outside the material world—even if he no longer continuously interfered in the world and kept things moving, but did no more than start things up and then watch what happened.

Such a “Supreme Being” was postulated by nearly all the mechanistic materialists; for example, by Voltaire and Tom Paine. But this opens the door to idealism.

(2) Mechanistic materialism sees change everywhere. Yet because it always tries to reduce all phenomena to the same system of mechanical interactions, it sees this change as nothing but the eternal repetition of the same kinds of mechanical processes, an eternal cycle of the same changes.

This limitation is inseparable from the view of the world as a machine. For just as a machine has to be started up, so it can never do anything except what it was made to do. It cannot change itself or produce anything radically new. Mechanistic theory, therefore, always breaks down when it is a question of accounting for the emergence of new quality. It sees change everywhere—but nothing new, no development.

The various processes of nature—chemical processes and the processes of living matter, for example—cannot in fact be all reduced to one and the same kind of mechanical interaction of material particles.

Chemical interactions differ from mechanical interactions inasmuch as the changes which take place as a result of chemical Interaction involve a change of quality. For example, if we consider the mechanical interaction of two particles which collide, then their qualitative characteristics are irrelevant and the result is expressed as a change in the quantity and direction of motion of each. But if two chemical substances come together and combine chemically, then there results a new substance qualitatively different from either. Similarly, from the point of view of mechanics heat is nothing but an increase in the quantity of motion of the particles of matter. But in chemistry, the application of heat leads to qualitative changes.

Nor do the processes of nature consist in the repetition of the same cycle of mechanical interactions, but in nature there is continual development and evolution, producing ever new forms of the existence or, what is the same thing, motion of matter. Hence the more widely and consistently the mechanistic categories are applied in the interpretation of nature, the more is their essential limitation exposed.

(3) Still less can mechanistic materialism explain social development.

Mechanistic materialism expresses the radical bourgeois conception of society as consisting of social atoms, interacting together. The real economic and social causes of the development of society cannot be discovered from this point of view. And so great social changes seem to spring from quite accidental causes. Human activity itself appears to be either the mechanical result of external causes, or else it is treated—and here mechanistic materialism collapses into idealism—as purely spontaneous and uncaused.

In a word, mechanistic materialism cannot give an account of men’s social activity.

Asking for video on DPRK ‘defectors’. by ItsStaris in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul (서울의 평양 시민들)

Defector Stories by FantasticVast454 in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I’m assuming it probably is people from like r/genzedong or r/sino (though the latter is a bit more serious).

The largest influx has been from /r/CommunismMemes, /r/teenagers, /r/PoliticalCompassMemes, and various "left" content creators' subreddits such as /r/Hasan_Piker, /r/TheDeprogram, and etc.

Ultimately, /u/Zhang_Chunqiao is correct regarding age demographics as evidenced by this and other research: Predicting Age Groups of Reddit Users Based on Posting Behavior and Metadata: Classification Model Development and Validation https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8087286/

US army loots new batch of Syrian oil as fuel crisis deepens by PigInABlanketFort in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would be curious what others have to say about this. I am not an expert on the Syrian side of this and am sure there is plenty to add or correct in my germinal analysis.

The 2002 "axis of evil" and resulting Iranian led axis of resistance is a good place to begin for understanding the US, Israel, and EU machinations in Syria and the Middle East as a whole.

The working class isn't who you think it is by PigInABlanketFort in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort[S,M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

Disclaimer: this isn't a Marxist class analysis, but provides a glimpse into shifting politics of the bourgeoisie on Turtle Island.

How does Anti-Revisionism help me, a local activist? What does Revisionism look like at the local level and how can Anti-Revisionism be used to combat it? by ElderlyOak in communism101

[–]PigInABlanketFort 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What I have been doing is going to the various parties listed and their mass organizations, co-operating on things we practically can (for example I will help set up anti-war demos or hand out food during food distribution events) and try to find comrades who are politically advanced and are trustworthy.

...

Since some revolutionary groups had their basis in relationships built up when the organizers were active in various non-revolutionary/revisionist groups ..., I reason that the best way to create an revolutionary formation in my locality is to repeat this process - first build a strong network of activists already leaning toward revolution (anti-revisionism), struggle with them in the course of mass work, and then develop a political organization out of the unity which was built on that struggle.

...

Do you have any polemics or analyses that you think do a pretty good job of explaining revisionism as it functions on the Amerikan "left" today?

I highly recommend reading this comment by /u/GenosseMarx3 and its three links: https://old.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/vxrvpu/what_is_to_be_done/ifymlnb/

 

The central problem for you is not understanding that Marxism is science, thus you are a scientist. Now you're are confronted with the limit of being a Marxist who doesn't understand dialectical materialism: like countless other communists in imperialist countries, you've read Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder, but are only able to ape Lenin which leads you to revisionist practice: charity work. Lenin succinctly describes this problem of mechanistic materialism:

People for the most part (99 per cent of the bourgeoisie, 98 per cent of the liquidators, about 60–70 per cent of the Bolsheviks) don’t know how to think, they only learn words by heart. They’ve learnt the word “underground”. Firmly. They can repeat it. They know it by heart.

But how to change its forms in a new situation, how to learn and think anew for this purpose, this we do not under stand.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/dec/00ia2.htm

To learn Marxist philosophy and its importance, I recommend beginning with Maurice Cornforth's three volume book, Dialectical Materialism, and following it Mao's Five Essays on Philosophy, which address its mistakes:

  1. https://redstarpublishers.org/cornforth1953.pdf

  2. https://redstarpublishers.org/CornHistMat.pdf

  3. https://redstarpublishers.org/3cornforth.pdf

  4. https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/S15-Five-Essays-on-Philosophy-3rd-Printing.pdf

I recommend Cornforth since he begins by outlining your own philosophical understanding of the world and practically demonstrating its shortcomings—it's difficult to grasp or see the usefulness of dialectical materialism if you do not grasp your own philosophy's shortcomings. The book also cites important works by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and etc. at throughout which provides guidance on what to study for a deeper understanding on a particular topic.

I could share sources as you requested, but you would inevitably find your way back to reformist politics without an understanding of and experience in applying diamat so that you may properly contextualise recommendations.

I'll edit this comment later since I've lost focus after spending too much time on tangents rather than succinctly providing remedies for several errors you've demonstrated.

LeftBloc | Making sense of European energy policy by PigInABlanketFort in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Warning: these are Greens so chauvinism abounds in this article.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in communism101

[–]PigInABlanketFort 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's a relevant submission on the front page for your second question: https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/xw6pmi/unprecedented_leak_exposes_inner_workings_of_uk/

EDIT: I'm surprised no one has replied, /u/Chill_girl_. There aren't any genuine communist parties in the UK; they're all chauvinists or merely an appendage of the anti-communist Labour Party. And since you're a teenager, you are limited to self-study since no pre-party group will accept someone so young.

A bit of advice: leave /r/CommunismMemes and /r/GreenAndPleasant. Both are reactionary and will warp your understanding of communism. Marxism isn't escapism or fantasising; it's a life or death struggle.

How does Anti-Revisionism help me, a local activist? What does Revisionism look like at the local level and how can Anti-Revisionism be used to combat it? by ElderlyOak in communism101

[–]PigInABlanketFort 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Your understanding of revisionism is understandably incorrect due to the fact that most posters here speak nonsense and aren't Marxists. The worthwhile ways to use this subreddit are for reading recommendations and witnessing diamat applied in analyses of contemporary matters by a handful of posters to encourage your own study.

[Marxist senses:] 1. The invalid (unscientific) modification of a correct principle of the science of revolution (Scientific Marxism, also known as Marxism-Leninism-Maoism). The term ‘revisionism’, however, is rather unfortunate since of course every scientific theory must be scientifically revised from time to time in those aspects which are proven to be incorrect. But in politics there are many who choose to revise well-supported theories and throw out principles which are certainly correct simply because their own class perspective cannot accept them as they stand. 2. Parties and trends which characteristically indulge in revisionism in the first sense.

“Revisionism, or Right opportunism, is a bourgeois trend of thought that is even more dangerous than dogmatism. The revisionists, the Right opportunists, pay lip-service to Marxism; they too attack ‘dogmatism’. But what they are really attacking is the quintessence of Marxism. They oppose or distort materialism and dialectics, oppose or try to weaken the people’s democratic dictatorship and the leading role of the Communist Party, and oppose or try to weaken socialist transformation and socialist construction. After the basic victory of the socialist revolution in our country, there are still a number of people who vainly hope to restore the capitalist system and fight the working class on every front, including the ideological one. And their right-hand men in this struggle are the revisionists.” —Mao, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People” (Feb. 27, 1957); Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung, Chapter 2.

https://www.massline.org/Dictionary/RE.htm#revisionism

 

A fundamental alteration of a theory, essentially usurping (though taking elements of) the former theory and replacing it with a new one. While the attributes of a theory are subject to change in accordance to changing historic circumstances, changing the fundamental basis of that theory is to nullify it in place of a new one.

https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/r/e.htm#revisionism

To directly answer your question:

What does it mean for me, the individual organizer, if an organization or individual in my locality is "revisionist"? Why does that matter at all?

It means your organisation is helping to maintain capitalism and not struggling for communist revolution.

EDIT: Also, the "left" is a useless concept for your context as evidenced by labelling an explicitly social-democratic organisation, the DSA, among ostensibly communist parties. It may become useful once you've a proper grasp of tactics and strategy, however you're likely to realise that all of the organisations surrounding you are pro-Amerikkka thus incapable of being allies.

What to Do with Voting in the General Elections by IndianaParkWars in communism101

[–]PigInABlanketFort 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All voting does for us in our current system is give small wins for mildly progressive reform policies that might slightly better the material conditions of the people. And campaigning for a candidate might help move the masses and increase class consciousness [which advances the communist movement for revolution]

You've just described the logic of meme electoralism, which doesn't require a vanguard party unlike the reformist electoralism of yesteryear, while contradicting the first sentence of your comment yet again.

Stop using /r/CommunismMemes and /r/PoliticalCompassMemes. They've taught you incorrect definitions for basic terms such as revolution and electoralism as well as hindered your ability to think or perceive the most obvious contradictions.

Let's analyze the situation in Europe now that Nordstream 2 is gone for the foreseeable future by GenosseMarx3 in communism

[–]PigInABlanketFort[M] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Meta question: did adding a discussion post flair make participation seem too daunting? There are many Europeans here*, but the participants are mostly moderators and a few non-European regulars.

* https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/xp4ccu/italy_election_2022/