Peace and Socialism

Marxist-Leninist, Marxist Feminist theory and history blog, quotes, notes and curated resources I encounter through my study. She/Her, bi, chicana, communist.

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Ask me theory/communism related questions!

I’m bored.

[peaceandsocialism]

Marxism-Leninism has always attached importance to the struggle for democracy. In countries where the bourgeois-democratic revolution has not yet been accomplished, the proletariat must mobilize the masses, make every effort to lead the bourgeois-democratic revolution and fight for its victory. In countries where bourgeois democracy exists, the proletariat should utilize the democratic rights already won to fight for more democratic rights in order to educate, arouse and organize the masses to fight the bourgeois system of exploitation and violence. After the seizure of power, the proletariat should solidify and strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat and at the same time give effect to widespread democracy under highly centralized guidance. In other words, it must enforce dictatorship over the enemy and practise people's democracy within the ranks of the people in order to ensure the successful building of socialism and communism. Democracy invariably has a class character. Marxist-Leninists have always treated the problem of democracy in its historical context and have never talked about "democracy in the abstract" or "democracy in general".

Leninism and Modern Revisionism, Editorial in Hongqi (Red Flag), Chinese Socialist Periodical, 1964

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Without the state, and its threat of force, how is a society supposed to stay predictable and sure of itself?

The state is a given societies instrument of class rule, its tools of oppressing other social classes for the benefit of itself and its own goals. In the process of the development of socialism into communism and the undoing of class society, when there are no longer social classes, there will no longer be a state. There will be nobody with which to use force against. Nobody to suppress. There will be no oppression to either uphold (reactionary) or stamp out (progressive). That doesn't mean society would be necessarily totally decentralized or unorganized or that there would not be planning and governance, no manner of hierarchy and no manner of accountability. Decisions would still be made, debates would still be had, plans would be drawn up and followed. The state and governance/politics are often equated but they're not the same thing. The details we can't even pretend to predict but higher stages of communism will, certainly, share the planned, organized nature of the lower stages (which we call socialism; that part of communism where things like the state still exist [at the beck and call of the working class] but society is, for the first time, ruled by and organized by and for the benefit of the people, for society as a whole).

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“Socialism will definitively remain the only real hope of peace and survival of our species... Each people must adapt their strategy and revolutionary objectives to the concrete conditions of their own country; there are not two absolutely equal socialist revolutionary processes. From each of them, you can take the best experiences and learn from each of their most serious mistakes.” - Fidel Castro

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The Soviet Union has several world-historic achievements to its name. In the Soviet period, the peoples of the territories of the Soviet Union experienced an unprecedented improvement in living standards. Feudal property relations and backwardness were wiped out, and the Soviet Union emerged as a superpower – the second biggest economy in the world, at the cutting edge of several branches of science and technology. For the first time in Russian history, the curse of famine was overcome. European fascism was defeated in large part through the efforts, sacrifices, heroism and creative brilliance of the Soviet people. Soviet people built and enjoyed the world’s first comprehensive welfare state. Nobody that was willing and able to work went without work. Education and healthcare were comprehensive and free. Housing was often cramped, but universal and inexpensive. For the first time in history, the political and cultural supremacy of the working class was established: the government derived its credibility on the basis of how well it served the masses, not the wealthy. With the aid of the Soviet people, liberation movements around the world were able to break free from the shackles of colonialism and imperialism.

Carlos Martinez, The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet collapse

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Lenin on  the tasks of intellectuals in the socialist struggle

“The “economic struggle of the workers against the employers and the government”, about which you make as much fuss as if you had discovered a new America, is being waged in all parts of Russia, even the most remote, by the workers themselves who have heard about strikes, but who have heard almost nothing about socialism. The “activity” you want to stimulate among us workers, by advancing concrete demands that promise palpable results, we are already displaying and in our everyday, limited trade union work we put forward these concrete demands, very often without any assistance whatever from the intellectuals. But such activity is not enough for us; we are not children to be fed on the thin gruel of “economic” politics alone; we want to know everything that others know, we want to learn the details of all aspects of political life and to take part actively in every single political event. In order that we may do this, the intellectuals must talk to us less of what we already know, and tell us more about what we do not yet know and what we can never learn from our factory and “economic” experience, namely, political knowledge. You intellectuals can acquire this knowledge, and it is your duty to bring it to us in a hundred- and a thousand-fold greater measure than you have done up to now; and you must bring it to us, not only in the form of discussions, pamphlets, and articles (which very often — pardon our frankness — are rather dull), but precisely in the form of vivid exposures of what our government and our governing classes are doing at this very moment in all spheres of life. Devote more zeal to carrying out this duty and talk less about “raising the activity of the working masses”. We are far more active than you think, and we are quite able to support, by open street fighting, even demands that do not promise any “palpable results” whatever. It is not for you to “raise” our activity, because activity is precisely the thing you yourselves lack. Bow less in subservience to spontaneity, and think more about raising your own activity, gentlemen!” - Lenin, What Is To Be Done

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“We, the older generation, did not yet understand, as most men do and as young women are learning today, that work and the longing for love can be harmoniously combined so that work remains as the main goal of existence. Our mistake was that each time we succumbed to the belief that we had finally found the one and only in the man we loved, the person with whom we believed we could blend our soul, one who was ready fully to recognize us as a spiritual-physical force. But over and over again things turned out differently, since the man always tried to impose his ego upon us and adapt us fully to his purposes.”  - Alexandra Kollontai, The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman

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“Communist society considers the social education of the rising generation to be one of the fundamental aspects of the new life. The old family, narrow and petty, where the parents quarrel and are only interested in their own offspring, is not capable of educating the “new person”. The playgrounds, gardens, homes and other amenities where the child will spend the greater part of the day under the supervision of qualified educators will, on the other hand, offer an environment in which the child can grow up a conscious communist who recognises the need for solidarity, comradeship, mutual help and loyalty to the collective. What responsibilities are left to the parents, when they no longer have to take charge of upbringing and education? The very small baby, you might answer, while it is still learning to walk and clinging to its mother’s skirt, still needs her attention. Here again the communist state hastens to the aid of the working mother. No longer will there be any women who are alone. The workers’ state aims to support every mother, married or unmarried, while she is suckling her child, and to establish maternity homes, day nurseries and other such facilities in every city and village, in order to give women the opportunity to combine work in society with maternity.“ - Alexandra Kollontai, Communism and the Family

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Nazis in Ukraine: Seeing through the fog of the information war –...

There is indeed a deep and expansive history of fascism in Ukraine, which has been aided and abetted by the US government #antifascism #antiimperialism #ukraine

In the fog of war propaganda it can be difficult to find ones bearings on the issue of Ukrainian fascism and how it relates to the present war in Europe. This piece deftly cuts through the fog. That fascism is a real, existent force in Ukraine is undeniable. That it is supported by US and NATO imperialism is undeniable. These facts do not imply support for the Russian invasion of the country, which has seen tremendous suffering of innocent workers, inflamed nationalist enmity and hatred, united the imperialist bloc, and has seen Ukraine be turned into a training ground for incoming fascist militants who will then spread their poison around the world. Diplomacy is what we need, not support to fascist forces, not escalation, not sanctions, not more war!

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What makes you say Russia isn't imperialist? I'm pretty confident their relationship with Central Asia is imperialist, and their actions in Ukraine could be constituted as such, as well. Not to the same degree as the West, but I would consider it accurate to characterize the conflict in Ukraine as an inter-imperialist one, even if a Russian victory is likely more preferable to anti-imperialists in the global south than a Russian loss.

Russia primarily exports natural resources, ie: commodities, not capital. In fields of finance capital and its investment Russia is profoundly wanting in comparison with the likes of the US, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the like. Russia has only one bank in the top 100 global banks (at 66).

Russia primarily exports commodities, and its capital export (mostly in the form of capital flight) is minute in comparison to the previously mentioned powers and doesn't, as a mechanistic consequence of such export, compel Russian foreign policy to engage in the conquest of new markets and the financial subjugation of other countries in the same manner that imperialism does. Note that this does not mean Russia always engages in a fair and equal manner with other countries, just that it is not, on a systemic level, compelled to oppress and exploit other countries and force re-divisions of the world. This is why Russia is, despite being itself a capitalist, reactionary power, able to engage with socialist and anti-imperialist governments in a peaceable, more equal way in a manner that imperialism cannot.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine also, which we can and must criticize and condemn, isn't based on the same sort of logic of wealth seizure and the relentless drive for new markets and access to raw materials and the like that characterize imperialist wars on oppressed countries, nor is it a war to force a "re-division" of the world in a way more favorable to its own capitalist class, with more markets and resources to export to. The war has really, had the opposite effect of that last point. It is instead based on the desire to ensure Russian national sovereignty and the continued independent rule of its own capitalist class, which is under existential threat by NATO and US imperialism, the primary creators of this conflict. That fact also shouldn't be construed as an endorsement of the actual decision to invade, which has caused tremendous suffering to Ukrainian workers, united the imperialist bloc (that had been fragmenting), and helped turn Ukraine into an engine for cranking out Nazi soldiers.

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"russia is not an imperialist state"

wrong. it is & it always was. u clearly have no understanding of what s actually happening rn in both ukraine & russia. i live here & im tired of hearing shit like that

Imperialism means something, it's a word with a meaning, in Marxism, that isn't simply "naughty things countries do". Russia is not an imperialist country. That doesn't imply an endorsement of the invasion, nor is it to any degree a moral statement on the leadership of the Russian Federation. Russia is a capitalist, non-imperialist country. Imperialism is a system, not a policy choice. It is the system of modern, moribund, finance capital. Super capitalism, a point where a country cannot but conquer/break open new markets for capital export, cannot but oppress and exploit other countries. Only a few countries are imperialist in their own right (the US, Britian, France, Germany, Japan and the like). Most countries are, presently, capitalist, non-imperialist countries! We socialists still certainly wish and fight for their revolutionary replacement with workers governments dedicated to constructing socialism and communism! But it is not an imperialist country. It does not behave as an imperialist country. It does not function as an imperialist country. It is a medium-level, major regional capitalist power (think Mexico or Brazil) that happens to have a tremendously powerful military and nuclear arsenal that it inherited from the socialist Soviet Union. This is why Russia can act relatively independently of the present system of US-led world imperialism. And when under attack by imperialism, yes socialists can and will defend Russia, even as a bourgeois, capitalist country with a repressive and reactionary government. Even Trotsky understood this. "In Brazil there now reigns a semifascist regime that every revolutionary can only view with hatred. Let us assume, however, that on the morrow England enters into a military conflict with Brazil. I ask you on whose side of the conflict will the working class be? I will answer for myself personally—in this case I will be on the side of “fascist” Brazil against “democratic” Great Britain. Why? Because in the conflict between them it will not be a question of democracy or fascism. If England should be victorious, she will put another fascist in Rio de Janeiro and will place double chains on Brazil. If Brazil on the contrary should be victorious, it will give a mighty impulse to national and democratic consciousness of the country and will lead to the overthrow of the Vargas dictatorship. The defeat of England will at the same time deliver a blow to British imperialism and will give an impulse to the revolutionary movement of the British proletariat. Truly, one must have an empty head to reduce world antagonisms and military conflicts to the struggle between fascism and democracy. Under all masks one must know how to distinguish exploiters, slave-owners, and robbers!" This does not mean we like Putin's capitalist, oppressive and reactionary government, or the continued rule of brutal, oligarchic, nationalist capitalism in the country. That doesn’t mean we support the Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine. There must be another October. And there will be, in time.

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We are living not merely in a State but in a system of States, and it is inconceivable that the Soviet Republic should continue to coexist for a long period side by side with imperialist States. Ultimately one or other must conquer. Meanwhile, a number of terrible clashes between the Soviet Republic and the bourgeois States is inevitable. This means that if the proletariat, as the ruling class, wants to and will rule, it must prove this also by military organization.

Lenin, Eighth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.) March 18-23, 1919

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Happening now; nuclear war looms! No “No Fly Zone!” No war on Russia! No World War III!

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NO 'NO FLY ZONE’! ABOLISH NATO!

It is very sad and also scary how the imperialist bourgeoisie has been able to channel and weaponize people's sense of justice and care for oppressed and hurting people into the drive for more war, death and destruction. People care about suffering people, but they don't know that NATO is the cause of the suffering because all they get in the media are an unceasing barrage of 24/7, 365, war propaganda. It is GOOD that people care for those suffering in Ukraine! That compassion is the basis of internationalism! But we must show people that imperialism and NATO are the primary causes behind those peoples suffering and that more war and its extension and escalation won't help Ukrainians or anyone else beyond the billionaires and millionaires in the ruling class. A "no fly zone" won't help Ukrainians. Funneling arms to the Ukrainian Army and fascist paramilitaries won't help Ukrainians. Starving Russians won't help Ukrainians. Peace will help Ukrainians. That is what the anti-war movement is for. PEACE! Not more imperialist war in the guise of "peace"! We must show how one can NEVER trust, for the briefest moment, US and NATO imperialism to act in the interests of oppressed people. Imperialism is the worlds greatest engine of oppression. ABOLISH NATO! NO SANCTIONS! NO MILITARY "AID"! NO WAR ON RUSSIA! SOLIDARITY WITH THE SUFFERING WORKERS AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE OF UKRAINE, RUSSIA AND THE WORLD! 

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"I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian revolutionist. I do not belong to the regular army of the plutocracy, but to the irregular army of the people. I refuse to obey any command to fight from the ruling class, but I will not wait to be commanded to fight for the working class." - Eugene Debs, Socialist, before the US entered the First World War.

Debs was sentenced on November 18, 1918 to ten years in prison for opposing the draft.

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𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 - 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘗𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳 [Pan translates as a land owner,a landlord, or a master in Ukrainian]

poster by Vladimir Mayakovsky, RSFSR, 1920

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The anthem of the Soviet Union; the first ever socialist society in the history of human civilization. The first time the working class and the oppressed took and held onto power and wielded it in their interest. Today the Soviet Union is gone, and we witness the tragic consequences, as the world has every day for the past thirty years.  We all must join and form revolutionary workers organizations in our own countries. The inevitable demise of capitalism has never been more starkly illustrated than it is today. Capitalism is doomed; that isn’t in question. It is our job, as the conscious working class, to ensure that it doesn’t take us all with it when it does, which is why we must raise the consciousness of our class and organize for socialist revolution.  Socialism and communism are the only solutions to the manifold crises and existential threats that face our civilization today.  The working class will win. Communism will win.