Communism101

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This is a community for those who are new to or unfamiliar with communist, socialist or simply leftist philosophy. Ask basic questions here and learn about what we stand for!

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Thanks

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Who you agree with more? Kollontai's Glass of Water theory or Zalkind's Twelve Sexual Commandments of the Revolutionary Proletariat? Were they good for 1920s-1930s Soviet Union? What about current implementations, which one would you lean closer to and why?

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cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/556716

If I am to believe my school textbooks (which are not to be trusted more than half the time on recent history), Yugoslavia made use of the Marshall Plan, and if I'm to trust another book, related to that history period, but released when we still had socialism in Poland, the Marshall Plan was used by the USA to manipulate politics of the plan's beneficinaries to their likes.

How did this affect the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, if at all?

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I've heard conflicting things about their political orientation.

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I was gonna ask "Are Mestizos settlers?" but I quickly realized that the answer to this question probably isn't black and white. If the answer to this isn't just "Yes" or "No" then what determines whether or not a Mestizo person is a settler?

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Do you guy have any good materials about Estonia after the fall os the USSR?

How is their economy doing, how is the wealth distribution, the populations access to basic needs etc

this kind of i formation

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It is my understanding that class conflict is seen as the primary contradiction at least in this epoch of history. My question is, what are the new contradictions that formed under socialism thus far and what would be the theorized contradictions under communism? What was the primary contradiction during primitive communism? Or perhaps my questions show a fundamental misunderstanding, which if so I would like corrected. Thank you!

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I'm still baffled with how China's economic system works.

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I only know about Hoxha bc like a year ago I was reading Espresso Stalinist and they mentioned Hoxha. I don’t know much about him besides that he made bunkers, liked Stalin a lot and he called people Revisionist. This gives me no actual insight into whether he had good ideas or not. I know for a fucking fact that looking him up on YT will mislead me and I’ll be left more confused than I started. What is Hoxhaism and how does it differentiate from Marxism-Leninism generally? Is it an offshoot, what are your general opinions on Hoxha and the modern Hoxha community(if there even exist more than 200 of them worldwide)

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I have the Marx-Engels reader which has a LOT of Marx and plenty of Engel’s essential texts. I also have the Essential works of Lenin and a few others by him, I have 3 Stalin books(Anarch or Soc, Marxism & Natl. Question, Foundations of Leninism). I’m wondering who is another important Marxist to collect works of? My main thought is probably Rosa Luxembourg but I don’t know which collection to get. Any other good collections of works would be appreciated

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Though I've read and watched a lot about the BPP, I realize there's a lot that has never crossed my path. I assume this is true for a lot of comrades here as well. So, please use this post to share sources and theory surrounding the Panthers and ask questions about them.

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I've listened to this episode of a podcast and would love to know more. Books preferred but I'm ok with more podcasts and ig youtube

Sorry if I chose the wrong community to post in!

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Okay so I was talking with my therapist today about anxiety stuff, specifically with the war; I voiced my disdain for NATO, fascist sentiment on the rise, and the xenophobia towards Eastern Europeans (specifically Russians and allies). I must have mentioned something that brought up a memory he had when he visited Yugoslavia as a kid. He told me he remembered that there were soldiers at the border with machine guns. He’s mentioned this a few times and now I finally remembered to ask:

What the hell was going on that required machine guns at the border? Military at borders aren’t that shocking, but considering Yugoslavia doesn’t exist anymore I figured something must’ve been going on. He didn’t mention a time frame or his age, at the time, either.

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From what I gather, Dialectical analysis is the opposite of metaphysical analysis. I also know Idealism is the other side of materialism. So I feel like Idealism and Metaphysics go hand in hand. They are ways of thinking that fundamentally go against the way the world works in a DialMat perspective. I’m mainly confused because I basically see DialMat as one in the same when I know they aren’t. Can you give me an example of what a Metaphysical Materialist would look like? Or what a Dialectical understanding Idealist would look like as opposed to the former? I should probably brush up on Anarchism or Socialism by Stalin just to make sure but any input is appreciated comrades.

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I know it sounds like I’m feeding into some Doomer vibe, or like I’m giving up. I’m not, I will absolutely continue going to food drives and joining the occasional protest if I can, but my serious question I’ve been kinda struggling with is whether registration for voting is even worth it? I mean in my area there aren’t really 3rd parties, just a bunch of Jackass Democrats and Greedy Republicans yelling about how they’re more American. I suppose there are some referendums, but nothing that really helps people especially. I remember in 2016(I was a lib) I had told a friend that not voting creates a more dangerous situation for POC and LGBTQIA people that we know personally. The fucked up thing about what I said is that it kinda ignores the sad reality that Democrats often toss aside these groups as sacrifices for a few more votes. So Idk how to proceed. My potential vote for a Dem governor will make me feel worse than when I voted for Biden bc I know better. I can tell myself that I genuinely didn’t know better when I voted for Biden, I was a Dem who was willing to do anything to beat the Far Right, and I got what I wanted, just not what I expected. Sorry for the long Body Text, but as a USA comrade in a strongly Blue State, is voting worth anything? Thank you.

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Text Mirror:

What does decolonization of Hawaii, and the US look like? From one Native Hawaiian's perspective (me)

The US military is destroying our islands along with the 12 million tourists under foreign billionaire-owned tourism. Too many Americans are buying up our lands forcing us out by jacking home prices to $1.5 million etc.

But the solution in places like Hawaii, North America is not as simple as everyone who is white or non-indigenous simply leaving.

If the people in Hawaii & North America could repair the inequities with the indigenous people there, respect treaties, allow indigenous and ethnic minorities to exist as equal yet different - the way Vietnam, China have 50+ ethnic minorities who co-exist, allow them to speak languages, don't mass-arrest imjpoverish, etc - then everyone would not need to leave.

If the colonizer-mindset people in Hawaii leave and go to N America, that pushes the problem to Native Americans. If they go to Europe, at least you don't have re-settler colonialism.

When the French colonizers were defeated and kicked out of Vietnam, they were < 5% of the population, had clearly delineated 'us and them' lines, and so decolonization was more straightforward. Most French chose to leave Vietnam, because they were there to extract resources and labor from their 'coolies' and when they couldn't anymore, they went back to Europe.

At the same time, all people of French/white heritage were not required to leave Vietnam after the dismantling of colonial yt supremacist rule.

As an example, my Vietnamese friend Luna Oi has a white American husband in Vietnam, and he is not required to 'go back to America' because he's white. He simply has to follow the rules of Vietnam, its socialist anti-imperialist country, and co-exist peacefully, and it is fine. Vietnam is 98% indigenous.

Bolivia is ~60% identifying as indigenous, with a unique history, but they have had great successes with their indigenous-led socialist plurinational - meaning many language, many peoples, coexisting within one state - in the Western sense.

They do not require the 40% white/non-indigenous identifying people to leave Bolivia and go back to Spain, Europe, US, etc. but over time, they will need to learn to co-exist in actual equality with the indigenous.

The US is 98% identifying non-indigenous, with ~20-30% non-white identifying.

The US is the worlds' largest European settler colony by far with 330 million people, and the worlds' capitalist superpower that dwarfs and puppeteers its parent Europe itself.

The process of undoing colonization, and healing the broken people and ways (including indigenous and non-white people who have had our ways and languages severely harmed by colonization) will not look identifical to either Bolivia or Vietnam, and will be unprecedented in human history - but we can learn from each of these struggles.

Education, listening to the marginalized, indigenous etc. and implementing that education in concrete ways is certainly an important part of the process. Which is why the US is banning CRT, anything that makes white people 'uncomfortable' from schools. Because it would indeed be the undoing of the US over time.

Long story short - it will be a long story and there is no easy shortcut out of it, lol.

If you appreciated this thread, consider helping this Native Hawaiian and family keep doing this educational / decolonizational work with ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/silverspook Or consider becoming a Patreon patron! https://www.patreon.com/neofeud

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What did you think of it? Is it worth reading?

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Before I start: I have not read Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. I have the book, but I’m reading “Anarchism or Socialism?” By Stalin now to brush up on DialMat(every now an then I confuse Idealism and Metaphysics). I was wondering is this definition of Imperialism and the facts they use to back used in good faith and not just a “Yea they totally aren’t imperialist don’t worry” take on Russia? Sorry if that was worded weird, lmk thanks

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So, since Socialism is the dictatorship of the proletariat, I assume a traditional representative democratic system is not viable, as it overrepresents other classes and their desires. So what other forms of governance have been used?

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I’ve been watching the Documentary that’s on Netflix “Cuba and the Cameraman” and there’s some great footage, I think it portrays Cuba and its struggles accurately, and also Fidel is an absolute Chad in the doc. I’d like to read about Communist-led Cuba primarily, but anything related to Martí or other prior class struggles are interesting to me also. Thank you in advance, I love Cuba so much for their medical help around the world, I wanna know more about them.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/365083

Did people create their own businesses within the USSR? How did they have to work inside the planned economy?

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Correct me if I'm wrong. The vanguard party theory states that evidently, not every single proletarian will have class consciousness at the point of the revolution, therefore the class-conscious proletarians should lead it, no matter if it's a relatively small group, right?

There are so many radlibs despite worsening material conditions that sometimes I wonder if these people will ever be able to gain class consciousness. As far as I understand, the whole point of a vanguard party is that we can do without these people on our side, right?

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