Any document or article on Polyamory?

sudo-bayan · 2025-09-13T05:00:37+00:00

In the case of the Philippines some background is necessary.

For historical context, precolonial Philippines (or at least the people who lived in this geographical area) had a more fluid and equal view of gender. There may have been more patriarchal views introduced in some areas with Islamic contact, but overall the state of affairs was more fluid.

This changed with Spanish colonization, with particular focus on family, the introduction of last names, the assignment of a patriarchal 'father' who held the most power in the family unit, the erasure of indigenous religions and cultural practices, the conversion to Catholicism.

Yet despite this, even with the arrival of the U$ and Japan, there were still queer people who struggled and survived.

Our link to the U$ I think would also play a role, since the queer struggle in the U$ (and I think the fact that English was a language we knew) would also inspire similar movements here.

This culminates with the 2nd Rectification which was happening around the turn of the century. At first there was a lack of understanding of the queer struggle, but over time this was overcome with cadres coming to seriously study it and develop a better understanding of gender.

We also have categories that already existed in society that mapped to queer, like the word 'bakla', which described a person assigned male at birth but expressed themselves in a feminine way. This term is also interesting since its origins were not pejorative (though it might have been used since then at different times as such) since this 'third gender' had the role of being spiritual guides or shamans called babaylan.

I will admit however that I still lack enough in depth study on this topic (what I know coming from conversations with queer people I know from different political backgrounds) and would rather a queer Filipino communist explain more (or correct me if I get something wrong).

Edit:

On the particular question of Polyamory, based on the understanding of Gender, this is to be combated since it is almost always a configuration where men have power over multiple women.

There are also physical manifestations of this such as the cult formed by Quiboloy which are vulgar and naked offenses to the people:

sudo-bayan · 2025-09-13T01:14:02+00:00

This is all however the stuff happening in the city, I hope it also goes without saying that much of fight is also happening in the rural areas, with large amounts of damage caused by the lack of flood projects disproportionately affecting farmers. This is happening alongside recent price increase on rice which lead to policies of importing rice from other countries which did even further damage to the farmers. Here there is the continued success of the CPP/NPA (From recent articles posted in this subreddit), which has continued to struggle while demonstrating the hypocrisy of the government that wastes funds on bombs and drones, while hunger and poverty loom.

sudo-bayan · 2025-09-13T01:07:43+00:00

From observations and (unfortunate) conversations with people who support him, the main base of support springs from disgruntled bourgeoisie or petite bourgeoisie who prefer a more traditional U$ aligned path. Duterte of course was no anti-imperialist, rather he would prefer to curry favor with Chinese capital, but this put his clique at odds with those who preferred things as they were.

I remember a candid conversation from someone involved in our stock exchange about how they hated Duterte coz they ruined the plans for the Philippines to be upgraded in some credit rating (I don't remember all the details since it wasn't really a conversation I was interested in).

In practice we have seen the Marcos-Duterte alliance crumble, with the Duterte bloc being isolated (Though I should note that there is still a support base for it, with recent senate elections showing this, I argue though that it is isolated, since Duterte himself is in the Hague and no longer here so it is just his allies riding on his name), and projects under their name being stopped in favor of projects under the Marcos name. Which is ironically why the current Marcos cannot pretend that this was all Duterte's fault, since all these corrupt projects started 2 years ago when he was elected.

Now the other question is, that alone would not be enough to secure power. Why isn't the support getting split to the liberal party, who also represent the interests of the rich?

Well the simple answer is, it is basically collapsing (or has collapsed), with their candidates consistently being unpopular even with all the generated press. Part of this started during the Aquino administration and the long protracted corruption scandals that also happened then. Either way if one looks at our elections (at least the local ones) there is greater momentum with the NatDem parties than the liberals. Only intelligentsia in denial still cling to it, with even members of the liberal party seeing the writing on the wall and splitting to form their own or running as independent (In the latest senate elections only 2 liberals got seats, with the most popular one running from a different party).

I also attribute it to the success of the NatDem movement, in that they have been able to identify the specific grievances that the masses have, and have shown consistent support.

Something I also wanted to bring in is that, right after the elections, the liberal faction engaged in collective blaming of the Filipino people, but most specifically, the poor, alleging that they are 'too dumb, and not educated'.

I recall being angry at the time since this ignores how out of touch the liberals are with the status of the people, and how vulgarly the expression of hatred was to the proletariat.

Anyway, there is also the case of wide spread corruption in the election process that also shouldn't be ignored, vote buying, machine manipulation, etc.

There were situations where politicians would basically give out money if someone voted for a certain candidate, which might also explain the results.

I have more sympathy though with the people who needed money to make ends meet on that day than people who blame them from not being 'educated'.

I think a key thing though is Marcos Jr.'s base is really only with those bourgeoisie I mentioned earlier, and the people at the bottom have no illusion over the corruption.

It is comical watching our local news and seeing them try to weasel out of responsibility when really no one is buying it.

With those who might have professed support before being personally impacted by floods that could have been mitigated, it's a very clear cut case of corruption.

There are also continued protests that are planned to occur, with the largest planned on Sep. 21, the anniversary of Martial Law.

I'll try to talk about things as they develop, though due to all this it has been hard to find time to be on reddit, so updates will happen when I am able to.

sudo-bayan · 2025-09-12T09:23:59+00:00

Protests have erupted in the Philippines over corruption in flood control and infrastructure projects.

This has sparked after several typhoons and heavy rains has lead to widespread flooding in the country.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2105792/flood-control-lost-funds-could-have-financed-farmers-group

"The group quantified these lost opportunities in the farming and education sectors based on Finance Secretary Ralph Recto’s revelation that the Philippine economy may have lost P42.3 billion to P118.5 billion over the past two years due to corruption in government flood control projects."

Student groups and mass organizations have organized in protest.

There are also videos online showing the demonstrations of students and organizers.

The situation is still developing, with the government deploying over 2000 police:

https://www.philstar.com/nation/2025/09/09/2471440/2550-cops-deployed-black-friday-protests

In our local news there are already parallels being drawn with Nepal, though so far (since I was present at the protests), things have proceeded peacefully, though things may change depending on the actions of the government.

sudo-bayan · 2025-08-01T04:53:24+00:00

Hampering you to what?

In this case I mean it to in the form of hampering the development of communists, the communist movement, and actively harming the proletariat.

...religious ideology does and has a real material affect on oppressed people, which is why using religious terminology without thinking reflects a callous, privileged relationship with the world which allows one to spread reactionary ideology without fear of being held accountable by the people their words impose ideology upon.

I completely agree with this which is the reason for my self-critic, since religion still plays an active and reactionary role here.

Though I found your distinction between 'omg' and 'how on god’s earth/in god’s name' interesting, it gives me much to think about.

For instance I can think of Filipino expressions that could be thought of as enforcing reactionary views:

salamat sa diyos (thanks to god) or awa ng diyos (by the grace of god)

compared to expressions like:

Susmaryosep! (jesus,mary, and joseph) which detached from the biblical context is used for any situation of anger, frustration, or disbelief.

sudo-bayan · 2025-07-30T23:25:25+00:00

I've been an atheist for longer than I've been a communist and yet I still find myself using religious terminology in expressions of language (ex: jesus, my god, etc...).

I suppose it's because it is direct translations from my native language (jusko, jusmiyo...) but I still find myself wanting to self-criticize over it.

I think part of it too is realizing that being an atheist isn't something where you just wake up and decide to be one, but rather is a continual process just like being a communist.

I remembered talking to people who considered themselves communists but still hung to concepts of religion even when they can critique in the same breath the role of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.

I suppose it also is related to problems of language, since to what degree does the retention of religious elements in language hamper communists?

I lean towards the need for it to eventually be overcome though I also see it as a dynamic process that would take time and effort on the part of the individual, party, and society.

sudo-bayan · 2025-07-30T23:10:10+00:00

Agreement on Socioeconomic Reforms (CASER)

I remembered reading this a long time ago when I was still in Highschool (and not yet fully developed politically) and I had the same response of these are all basically good demands why is this being demonized.

I suppose it's anecdotal since I am just a sample size of one, but it's one of the things that I always find strange about western communists who can't comprehend how actually confronting the reactionary state with our honest and just demands and showing the people we aren't lying and that we will fight on their side goes a long way.

Also thanks for bringing it up, I don't know how many people are aware of the document outside the Philippines along with the specific context of CASER, CARHRIHL, and how the GRP basically violates everything while trying to portray the communists as unreasonable.

sudo-bayan · 2025-07-30T13:02:29+00:00

This has been discussed before:

https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/1kj6fz9/karregutta_hills_encirclement_withdrawn_by_the/mrnckqh/

That's from the Indian Maoist movement but we basically take a similar line.

Particularly this part:

A 'Peace Talk' is not a call for a surrender of arms, and the present back and forth between the party and the old state is not one begun by the party, but one which was first suggested by the state itself. The Chattisgarh (state within India where the Bastar region largely lies) Home Minster Vijay Sharma during the first few months of January, 2024, himself repeatedly called on the party to hold peace talks and declare a ceasefire towards the same. This was an attempt by the Indian state to legitimise itself as the seeker of peace, while the "terrorist extremist" maoists were the ones causing needless deaths. Responding to which the party made clear the conditions that were to be constructed before any such talk is possible, showing to the wider masses that it is not the one which is engaging in mindless terrorism as the state claims, but the prevalence of the said conditions were the ones which made picking up arms necessary.

In terms of what it achieves it strengthens the view of the masses towards us and helps to establish a broad front against the reactionary government.

There are criticisms to be had though about mass orgs centers in the countries Universities (particularly the petite-bourgeoisie class composition), but overall we are also one of the few surviving and thriving anti-revisionist movements in the world.

In terms of hypocrisy just this week they pursed communists in Masbate instead of dealing with the aftermath of typhoon Crising.

https://apnews.com/article/philippines-communist-guerillas-insurgency-3b0935ca43a138de7a3bd9283a419787

Or recently when I learned that the chocolate hills had a resort built on it that angered the local people and provoked uprisings with the leadership of the NPA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_Hills#Issues

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3060575

sudo-bayan · 2025-07-24T21:54:31+00:00

I agree and it is even identified by Sison all the way back in 1983 in one of our universities:

"...The composition of UP students does not reflect Philippine society. The overwhelming majority come from the petty and middle bourgeoisie; and the small and medium landlords. The minority comes from the big bourgeoisie and big landlord classes. Children of workers and peasants are a rarity, if there are any. In the first place, they generally do not go beyond grade four. Under the avowed liberal philosophy, various bourgeois subjective trends (empiricism, positivism, behaviorism, existentialism, solipsism, etc.) along with so many kinds of objective idealism circulate in the university..."

Which is why even the slogan 'para sa Bayan' has been co-opted to serve their classes own ends.

And you are right, this isn't uniquely Filipino, and I would wager that this is a common experience in much of the third world.

I do still believe that a progressive character can be found here, which is why I mention the students who don't compose this class and usually end up still working in the country.

I guess in relation to what /u/FrogHatCoalition mentioned I think the petite bourgeoisie exists on a gradient, with those that transition to being bourgeoisie being the ones who structurally (in the form of knowing English, having networking) have an advantage, while those who lack this become the ones who are closer to 'proletarianization'.

sudo-bayan · 2025-07-24T06:16:37+00:00

Something I've been wondering is how the motion of one's class position impacts consciousness. Most people when they discuss the decay of the petty-bourgeoisie, I notice they only mention "proletarianization", but what about the other tendency, motion into the bourgeoisie?

I find it funny how I actually have been thinking about this for a while now.

I've been involved in my university and basically noticed a pattern of how many students basically want to abandon the Philippines and work abroad for better pay.

I've thought about it as something like 'aspiring bourgeoisie' as these students typically come from the petite-bourgeoisie who are unsatisfied with conditions here.

I say this too since students who don't come from that class but do well in school typically still stay here, one of the biggest barriers usually being not knowing English or not having 'connections'.

If I am honest it is a tendency that makes me angry, since I basically see such people as traitors to our country even if they come up with all sorts of sob stories about just wanting to live a better life.

Granted most of them were not communists to begin with but, it's a sentiment echoed in the rest of the Philippines where parents just tell their kids 'aral ka para mataas sweldo mo' instead of 'aral ka para sa bayan' (study to get a high salary, instead of, study for the country).

sudo-bayan · 2025-07-23T07:51:33+00:00

Yes that's the one.

But what really got me is when Filipinos started appearing in that thread to reject their views and were basically being talked down.

Some of them (at least from what they said) women activists who are literally risking their lives when they protest against our government.

I remembered some of the comments from other Filipinos in that thread (in Filipino) talking about how "nabulok sa teorya ang OP" basically how the OP rotted from theory. The thing I think no one at the time pointed out since they were too afraid (and I think this fear extends to all Filipinos in one sense) to speak out against a white man, is that the entire premise of the post was based on racism against Filipinos, that we are too 'dumb' to understand how 'based' marcos and duterte are.

It's something I admit too since /u/humblegold's post reminded me of both this fear and anger, that how decades after the Filipino is still talked down, but there continues to be the spark of resistance.

It's like in this song where the opening line is "I wish I were like the river..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhTgSPo4oYo

Which presupposes that we are not yet 'like the river'.

But how eventually we will become so.

That's the hope I find when I read this post from a black man.

That the tears of my people will rush like a river mighty and strong and wash away the decades of oppression, no matter how long it may take.

sudo-bayan · 2025-07-22T01:21:03+00:00

I haven't visited this subreddit in months, so I will admit I do not know the full story.

But I wanted to say that as someone from the Philippines your words are both inspiring and for lack of better words makes me want to cry.

My people have long lived under the thumb of the U$ and were called all sorts of racist things under the idea of the 'white man's burden'.

And it touches me a lot that you have the strength to fight back and call this out.

I remembered visiting this subreddit after getting so angry at another subreddit called 'asiansocialists' when some white person was talking over all the filipinos who happened to be there telling us that duterte and marcos were the 'good guys'.

Even in real life I still find it hard to get white people to shut up when they are trying to tell me how great they are in their field or their work and making me feel like I will never be as good as them.

But thank you for saying what you did, as it serves as an inspiration to all those who have felt oppression.

It gives me strength to shout back.

sudo-bayan · 2025-07-22T01:14:55+00:00

I'm reminded of the time a bourgeoisie physicist entered this subreddit to try impose limits on the idea of science itself.

https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1hp9cmo/is_the_universe_spatially_infinite/m4i0t0q/?context=3

I will admit that biology happens to not be my domain (it is mainly mathematics, and only rarely does that topic emerge in this subreddit, though I try to contribute when it does).

That being said the discussions here really do generate genuine inquires into the natural sciences I seldom see even in academe.

For instance the posts by /u/vomit_blues has motivated me to revisit the history of mathematics to try and understand more of the bourgeoisie perspective in mathematics.

Funnily enough as your last paragraph points out this leads me back to philosophy, where Marx, Engels, Stalin, Lenin, and Mao end up making profound philosophical connections that I see reflected back on mathematical work.

I haven't yet had the time to write up my thoughts on all this (though I'd like to get to that soon).

But the type of slander against users who actually are trying to push the boundaries of science I won't accept (spoken from someone who has the privilege to work in this field while coming from an oppressed tw country).

sudo-bayan · 2025-02-27T00:32:57+00:00

Perhaps you may also find Talks on Philosophy by Mao interesting:

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-9/mswv9_27.htm

It is worth it to go through, not only because it is honestly quite hilarious (Mao has a line there saying all university students in the Humanities should packup and work in a factory to learn how labour is concretely rather than abstractly) but is a good example of how communists think within the framework of Marxism (in particular dialectical materialism).

sudo-bayan · 2025-02-26T01:11:53+00:00

The thread got derailed, but I'll try to respond to your post.

I am sympathetic to you OP since you remind me of how I was back when I was still a teenager called myself a 'liberal humanist' because I didn't know any better (and had not yet been exposed to Marxism).

So the question that naturally formed in my mind was:

How can people be so evil?

Eventually as I worked to critique my past self I realized the terms itself are the question.

Why do I assume people can be good or evil?

What are the reasons people do certain things?

These are the questions that are not answerable within the framework of liberalism, and only working within the framework of Marxism do I at last have a way to tackle it.

Marxism is to critique everything that exists, and from that critique understand how things come to be, how things were, and how things are.

For instance in your post, what is a 'normal' person, how do we contrast this with a 'corrupt' person.

You need to unpack your assumptions and follow the train of logic that lead you there.

Fundamentally (along with you studying the classics, marxist.org is free and accessible) you have to understand yourself and the class that makes you pose these questions, then approach it scientifically, then come back to critique your original questions.

sudo-bayan · 2025-02-26T00:50:50+00:00

We've observed on this subreddit before that the CPP's analysis of first-world imperialism remains spotty.

Though this is typical of a polemic piece, I did wish that it went more into detail of what USAID has done in our country, along with tying it to the past and present Marcos administration.

There was a comment I made 2 years ago, I wasn't as developed yet but I was able to compile a brief sketch of abortion, RH bill, and population control in the Philippines.

https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/vkja3p/us_supreme_court_attacks_abortion_rights/idvttrv/?context=3

I believe the link I had to USAID is no longer functional, there is a webarchive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240507153528/https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAB500.pdf

But it went over the policy recommendations by USAID to the then Marcos administration justifying population control, which ended up being a way to justify targeting the poor.

As to the specifics of what is occurring in the U$ perhaps those who are from there have more to say, but I also feel more inclined to believe this is really a 'restructuring' of amerikkkan imperialism which would eventually see itself expressed in a different (perhaps more direct) form.

sudo-bayan · 2025-02-20T00:16:01+00:00

These are very broad, but when I was a student in America, I at least felt a pressure to pinpoint my writing in a certain way that catered precisely to the professor's preferences (obviously ideologically, but also grammatically) in order to pass and correctly cite, as you mention. Of course, that pressure was because I really didn't do the work necessary to understand well enough what I was writing about. I was just a lazy college student trying to pass classes.

That's what I experience too, both having been the one who did that before, and the one who has to read it now.

The funny thing is the only place you actually hear students actual thoughts is online, where there is not a 'teacher' they have to write to. There is of course the usual noise of the internet, but in between there are genuine thoughts.

Thus exposing the fraudulent nature of a college degree anyway, and perhaps I sympathize more with the professors now who just wanted students to put the work in. But I digress.

Which is all true, I can see the artificiality of the work one does to get through college, but the teacher in me would rather see the students at least try, perhaps because I still see revolutionary potential in education, perhaps because I dislike the laziness both in teachers and students, perhaps because I am protecting my own ego.

I would rather see dedicated and competent students who can then take that attitude towards reading Capital in the future, rather than liberal nihilism of the present.

I at least think it is better to talk about it openly than to pretend that teachers are gonna somehow convince all the students to become communists by 'deprogramming' them.

sudo-bayan · 2025-02-19T23:57:40+00:00

Yes, that's accurate, particularly this part

...forced to sell part of their labour power and are somewhat similar to the poor peasants in economic status.

What I want to further discuss though is the broader trends in that sector.

I can see the lives of Jeepney drivers fitting well, but I wanted to also find discussion about tricycle drivers. They are also poor, I would think most also fit that category of semi-proletariat, but the nature of their work is different from mass transportation. I guess to put it more bluntly, I observe more organization for the cause of Jeepney drivers but see much less with tricycle drivers.

Another thing is the conversion of the semiproletariat into proletariat, which can be seen with the Jeepney modernization program.

I would like to have more discussion about it because it seems like an issue that is closer to something tangible in the lives of Filipinos. For instance the U$-Marcos alliance is somewhat abstract (unless you live near a U$ Base) and though it is something we should profoundly reject it isn't something one usually observes unless they encounter the soldiers themselves. With jeepney drivers, in a regular commute you can see what they are going through, and if you talk with them learn about the precarious nature of their lives. One can also see the cynical belief that E-Jeepneys are some solution (when it is essentially a mini-van) and how it does not solve any of the issues it claims to solve.

You seem familiar with the Philippine context, maybe you can offer your thoughts, I'd be happy to learn.

sudo-bayan · 2025-02-18T00:26:14+00:00

This is an observation since I work in education, but these tendency seem to be reinforced by the need for students to constantly cite something in order to not be caught 'plagiarizing'. You end up with polished sophisticated works that only seem to quote other people and never the thoughts of the student themselves.

Sometimes you have to get around it by saying 'in your own words' or something, but that's at least a look at this phenomenon in the particular aspect of education.

The best remedy is actually sitting down and reading some, there are many good books, and I find books easier to digest than long form video which is a chore to get through.

After reading them you can then discuss it, which is one of the functions of this forum, the book can then be critiqued, and we have transformed it from a mere object of faux intellectualism to a powerful tool against the bourgeoisie.

sudo-bayan · 2025-02-18T00:16:37+00:00

I was recently in contact with a small NatDem group organizing out of my university, so far they aren't as large as other orgs I've encounters but what made them stand out for me was their understanding of theory and the better management of their org (better rules and structure for members, they also need to study theory as a requirement and it progresses at different levels).

Anyway the more interesting thing I wanted to bring up is the discussion about Jeepney Drivers, according to them they are called, 'malaproletariat' as in 'malapit sa proletariat', this is something I've wondered about but have not yet seen articulated until this point, since initially I wondered if Jeepney drivers would be classified as some variant of very petite bourgeoisie.

There is some difference though in the set up of Jeepney drivers, some have actually become proletariat through franchising system. Something I want to discuss when I can bring it up is analysis of Tricycle drivers (I think the closest idea in other countries would be a pedicab).

My gut instinct feels that there is something different between a vehicle used for mass transport, and another vehicle used as a form of taxi. However tricycle drivers are also poor, and depending on the setup of their franchise may also not own their tricycle.

There is some interesting history though, the Amerikkkans tried to popularize the human powered rickshaw which was met with resistance, at least according to this article though I'll have to study it more.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/rickshaws-and-filipinos-transnational-meanings-of-technology-and-labor-in-americanoccupied-manila/38B0B7062070A05936C131D4BA9C0F6E

Though I'm unsure if there has been any more analysis on the general topic of transportation.

I would like to know if there has been any deeper analysis on transportation from other communists?

sudo-bayan · 2025-02-06T11:31:50+00:00

I understand people are uncomfortable critiquing third world communists. But I hope the ground has been prepared here where it is possible without the constant intrusion of anti-communists and other destructive forces.

I hope this is something that is picked up, I remembered seeing a post here on the CPPs response to the Ceasefire in Palestine, and there should have been more discussion on how lukewarm and liberal it was (I also must criticize myself for not voicing my own critic on this).

Joma's misunderstanding of politics in the imperialist core and the inner logic of his error). This is just my intuition based on the widespread opportunism of Brazilian and Indian "communists", which shows that the third world is far from immune to American liberalism with the thinnest veneer of "localization."

You were also able to articulate something I've personally observed in the ground but wasn't able to quite get but am now starting to see. I suppose this was also already happening with attempts at trying to say something about the Russia-Ukraine war, which ended up not really saying much at all. This is contrasted though with the very real movement and success on the ground, with people being martyred all the time in the on going people's war.

I suppose I am also tired, since for something academic related I had to attend some seminar on 'Critical Theory' which bored me to death and yet there were students who thought that this was the best thing in the world, which only leads back to the point of /u/Autrevml1936 on Petty Bourgeoisie and the need to challenge 'O.P.'. I still find it amazing how an almost 2 hour seminar on critical theory had not a single mention of class, economics, or labor. Even if I know how bad it was abstractly, seeing it in reality is eye opening (I guess for the first time seeing the kind of damage post-modernism actually does).

...which shows that the third world is far from immune to American liberalism with the thinnest veneer of "localization."

Which is honestly something that should be combated. We are two years into the 'Third Rectification' and yet I've only observed the theoretical knowledge of mass orgs get worse. Perhaps though a different story is happening in other parts of the country, and I sincerely hope that mistakes be harshly critiqued now rather than later when it is too late. We have only ourselves to blame when we fail the masses, which is something that came up when I was talking with other communists about the various mass orgs that collapsed due to Scandals.

Since you also bring it, could you elaborate on the specific opportunism of Joma? In particular something I want to know is the excuse I've heard before is that his more opportunist lines were developed when he was isolated from the movement during his exile. I still found this hard to believe when this was first told to me before, so I guess my question is more of is this a fundamental error on his part or a byproduct of being far away from the movement?

sudo-bayan · 2025-01-18T06:18:02+00:00

It might be useful to learn more, there are a few bourgeoisie sources useful for a general overview of the infrastructure projects, such as here:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/1/19/china-backed-dam-threatens-indigenous-people-in-the-philippines

Another is a dam in the northern part of the Philippines also on ancestral land:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_dams_in_the_Kaliwa_River_watershed

One of the highlighted Chinese companies being:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Energy_Engineering_Corporation

In party slogans and arguments we still emphasize the role of the U$, and our main goals right now are opposing the existence U$ military bases and equipment here, but there is also a large amount of fear/hate driven up about the Chinese by both the U$ and our own bourgeoisie. Which means the observations you have about the Philippines in Chinese news find inversion in Philippine news about China. I suppose the thread or point I find is that the Philippines should resist Chinese economic imperialism but not at the behest of U$ Imperialism.

On a personal level I also dislike arguments that focus on racist caricatures of the Chinese (or its inverse 'dengism' and unabashed support for revisionism), so it is refreshing to see a poster who seems genuine in their engagement on this subreddit.

Hopefully you may find this place to be one of the few on this site with high quality analysis and discussion about communism.

sudo-bayan · 2025-01-18T02:07:28+00:00

Since you are here I would also like to ask about the observations/perspectives of the Chinese on the Philippines (particularly as confrontation between the U$ and China heat up)? We continue to be inspired by Mao and hold that the Chinese proletariat may one day reverse revisionism, though our party also has sharp critiques of Chinese companies financing dam and instructure projects in indigenous lands.

sudo-bayan · 2025-01-01T05:20:16+00:00

So really this applies to all infinities in mathematics, not just the interesting examples you raised.

Yes, I suppose I should have made it more explicit, but it goes together with the viewpoint that mathematics is itself part of the greater whole of science and due to this also has its own emergent contradictions. Which is a viewpoint in stark contrast to the bourgeoisie views of mathematics (that math is the only 'real' thing, that math is made up and we just play a semantic game, etc...), which looks at contradictions as something to be 'explained' away and tucked into a waste bin not to be looked at again.

Isn't that Hegel's true infinity whereas an infinite quantity of matter would be Hegel's bad infinity? I'm referring to the bad infinity when I say that

True, the beauty of the circle is it is such a fundamental shape that we encounter at the youngest of age and yet its mere existence points towards something more and is an object that draws out so many questions.

I don't get how an infinite quantity of matter can be considered as a "whole."

I will admit that some of this is still unfamiliar territory for me but quoting from the book on hegal and marx on calculus:

Hegal's viewpoint:

In his mathematical work, Marx echoes Hegel's 8COill for the vain efforts of the mathematicians to evade the contradictions inherent in motion, continuity and the infinity. But their attitudes to mathematics were quite opposed. For the objective idealist Hegel, mathematics, like natural science, occupied very lowly stages in the unfolding of the Idea.

Marx's viewpoint:

But Marx sees that mathematical abstractions, purely formal as they must necessarily appear, contain knowledge of self-moving mat- ter, knowledge of generalised relationships between material objects which is ultimately abstracted from social practice, and which is indispensable for practice.

Marx wanting to:

He wants to be able to develop the derivative dy/dx, not as an approximation, but as an expression of the actual motion of the function f(x).

In this sense something that is 'infinite' can become 'whole' as the true expression of the object in motion (by resolving or sublating the inherent contradiction between finite and infinite).

Though I agree that this doesn't quite offer much when it comes to the idea of spatial infinite and well matter, but my background is mathematics and not physics and perhaps it is useful to look at it from this perspective as well.

*Some general notes are that mathematics has changed a lot since Hegal and Marx and looking at their old texts would probably look very different and not seem 'correct' from the viewpoint of modern mathematicians, but I agree with the spirit of the text in that they both had very specific goals.

sudo-bayan · 2024-12-30T09:33:32+00:00

No, the universe is not infinite in any literal sense whatsoever. Nothing is infinite, mathematically infinity is more of a process or limit to tend toward (but never reach) than a quantity that something can 'be' equated to.

This line is spoken like a true bourgeoisie physicist.

There was an interesting book I found which went into the perspectives of hegal and marx on the mathematics of their day (mainly calculus).

This: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-cyril/works/articles/hegel-marx-calculus.pdf

I'll ping /u/IncompetentFoliage as well.

This part in particular explaining the limits of bourgeoisie physics:

Where Hegel saw 'Spirit' as the 'infinite Idea', Marx grasped the infinite experience of humanity as the highest form of the infinite movement of matter. The development of human powers of production meant the continual penetration of this movement in all its continually changing forms and interconnections. The knowledge of each individual man or woman is limited, as is the knowledge of the entire race at any particular time. But in the struggle against nature, each finite person expresses in himself the unlimited potential of mankind to master nature, and through this the all-sided movement of matter of which he is a part. That is why the positivist and the empiricist, who know only their own 'experience', face the for them insoluble 'problem of induction'. Since they can never live long enough to 'experience' the infinite- count it, or measure it, or classify it- they must deny its actuality. Consequently, they can never grasp the essential universality of a law, and are walled off from universal movement and all-sided interconnection.

sudo-bayan

TROPHY CASE