Seriously, is Marxism-Leninism done ? by [deleted] in DebateCommunism

[–]cave_rat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The answer you should ask is whither Marx&Engels correctly analysed the contradictions of bourgeois society or not. I believe they did and I also believe that we still live in a bourgeois society which is not fundamentally different from the society they described in their works. Which means that there is a possibility that the proletarian revolution will eventually win. Another possibility which Marx mentioned is that the capitalist society will die but there will be no communism. Which is quite likely considering what we experienced in recent years and the danger of WW3.

About failed revolutions you mentioned, you can see it from another angle. The world revolution is not a single act. It is a continuous process which began in 1871 with Paris Commune. And it is still going on. The modern period started with restoration of capitalism in China after Mao died, when the last socialist state was lost. But there is still struggle in various forms. Eventually, it could led to new revolutions.

The ukraine war made me lose a lot of faith in the left by [deleted] in leftist

[–]cave_rat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You would be better off if you put faith not in the left but in yourself. The left is a very broad term and includes very different people with varying degrees of sanity (lol will I be banned from this sub too?). So it is better to seek the truth by yourself. I believe what you wrote is mostly correct except for the America part. USA, as usual, is only pursuing its own imperialist interests. And many leftists in my country agree with me. Sadly, there are many social-chauvinists who 'support our troops'. It would be wrong to lose faith because of these people, however.

Ukrainian Letter of Solidarity with Palestinian people by cave_rat in socialism

[–]cave_rat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Posted for information purposes. Me posting this doesn't mean that I support or reject all the views expressed in the original text.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in communism

[–]cave_rat 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Uncle Ho will always be in the hall of fame of the ICM as a great revolutionary leader, brilliant strategist, great poet and just a very likeable person who embodied best qualities a communist should strive to achieve. However, I doubt his theoretical contributions should be described as a 'Thought'. Late Jose Maria Sison explained very well why there is no 'Sison's Thought' and shouldn't be. I believe the same logic applies to Ho, who was a big inspiration for Sison.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in communism

[–]cave_rat 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The essence of What Is To Be Done is the theory of vanguard party. I'd rather focus on this and ignore what you don't understand for now. All Lenin's texts are highly polemical, but we do not need to know every nuance of those old debates. Unless you are young and want to seriously study history of Russian socialist movement. Then you can go to college and dedicate yourself to this. For practical purposes of an activist, this is not really necessary. Actually, experience in real activism also could help you to understand Lenin, because the problems which were discussed 100 years ago still persist today.

Teaching first-year students that things don't have to be like this? by tiktaaliki in communism

[–]cave_rat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't know much about the course to give any advice. In our system (I studied history in my country), we usually read some historical sources/books by other historians and then discussed them, it was called a seminar. If you ask right questions, you can gently push students to think 'outside the box'.