im rly struggling not so much with reading ml theory as i am comprehending how it applies to current + everyday situations, and making connections. do you have any advice for actually understanding and applying theory? either way, have a great day!!
Oooh, this is an excellent question! It's something I struggled with a lot early on, and I suspect a lot of other people as well—even if we don't talk about it a lot.
Off the top of my head, I can think of three(ish) steps you can take to start overcoming this hurdle
1. Understand the context in which works were written
Works of theory will often sound like they're making general and (relatively) timeless arguments, when really they are almost always trying to convince specific people to take specific actions. For example, I would personally argue that it's difficult to truly understand . . .
The Principles of Communism and The Communist Manifesto without understanding 19th c. European anarchism and the revolutionary wave of 1848.
What Is to Be Done? without understanding the fracturing of Russian socialist circles after 1898 and the growth of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany, which Lenin was so inspired by.
On Contradiction without understanding the debate between urban vs. agrarian revolutionary organizing, which characterized the Communist Party of China's formative years.
Just to name a few examples of works often recommended as "timeless."
Two further qualifications should be made on this point:
You do not need to become an expert on this history! Even a surface level concept of surrounding historical events will help you dig much deeper into a text. You can read accompanying history books, articles on the text or author, or even just a wikkkipedia page. Anything to help ground you in the world a text was written in. For popular, foundational texts, the old Progress Publishers, International Publishers, and Foreign Language Press* editions usually have extensive footnotes on historical context, which I have found invaluable in my own studies. These are so helpful that, when possible, I would honestly recommend looking for pdf scans of these editions over the Marxist Internet Archive html editions for digital reading!
The point is not to say that these texts don't contain general and timeless lessons; it is to understand how formative theorists have used such lessons to intervene in the political movements of their time. Seeing how theory has guided the practical activities of the revolutions which inspire us will help us understand how to apply it in our own historical moment 😉
1.5. Understand how works were written
This is related to point one, but I'm bracketing it out just because it's a bit more of an intermediate step that I don't want people to feel bad for struggling with.
Basically, the point here is that once you understand the basic methodology of dialectical and historical materialism, you should look for how it's applied in every piece of Marxist theory you read. I don't have anything like instructions on how to do this, but I'll say that the article Continuing the Revolution is Not a Dinner Party by Mick Kelly really helped me take this step, just because he uses the jargon from On Contradiction to apply the general kind of methodology pioneered by Marx. (I personally happened to reread this piece around the same time I was rereading The 18th Brumaire, and it suddenly made everything click where I could see how Marx was charting the development of contradictions much more clearly than when I first read the text!)
2. Study theory directly about modern issues
It turns out that one of the best ways to learn how to apply theory to the current situation is . . . to study theory applied to the current situation. This is a bit harder to know where to start with just because there isn't a consensus around the important journals to read right now in the same way that there's consensus about the most important that were published 100 years ago—but there are journals out there, for you to explore.
In addition to whatever random articles from random outlets people send me, I try to keep up with The Monthly Review, and listen to lectures/interviews/podcasts with contemporary theorists. (Some good youtube channels for these are, The Red Nation, Geopolitical Economy Hour, Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective, and the Critical Theory Workshop—I have disagreements with each of these, but still find their intellectual output quite stimulating.)
Another way you can go about this is identifying parties or orgs whose work you appreciate, and looking at the theoretical works they publish. For example, my own org keeps a dedicated theory page on our website, with an assortment of articles blending historical interpretation with contemporary strategy and tactics. Of these, I continue to particularly recommend the article Some Points on the Mass Line, which I believe is one of the best pieces wrt demonstrating how we can actually apply foundational M-L theory to everyday political organizing in the modern world!
3. Get organized!
I cannot emphasize just how much talking regularly with actual Communists about actual political work will teach you about theory! I don't think it makes sense for me to give, like, instructions on this here, but you can read my potted posts on organizing in Amerikkka under my #get organized tag. Remember, after all, that "the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it"!
*FLP Peking (Beijing), that is. FLP Paris is frustratingly lacking in this regard
