By social-chauvinism we mean acceptance of the idea of the defence of the fatherland in the present imperialist war, justification of an alliance between socialists and the bourgeoisie and the governments of their “own” countries in this war, a refusal to propagate and support proletarian revolutionary action against one’s “own” bourgeoisie, etc. It is perfectly obvious that social-chauvinism’s basic ideological and political content fully coincides with the foundations of opportunism. It is one and the same tendency. In the condilions of the war of 1914-15, opportunism leads to social-chauvinism. The idea of class collaboration is opportunism’s main feature. The war has brought this idea to its logical conclusion, and has augmented its usual factors and stimuli with a number of extraordinary ones; through the operation of special threats and coercion it has compelled the philistine and disunited masses to collaborate with the bourgeoisie. This circumstance has naturally multiplied adherents of opportunism and fully explains why many radicals of yesterday have deserted to that camp.
V. I. Lenin
The Collapse of the Second International
@Communism
Portrait of Lenin with a book of Pushkin, Kuzma Sergeyevich Petrov-Vodkin, USSR 1934
V. I. Lenin
The Collapse of the Second International
#Lenin
@Communism
Portrait of Lenin with a book of Pushkin, Kuzma Sergeyevich Petrov-Vodkin, USSR 1934
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Lenin statue in Košice,1988
If a definite level of culture is required for the building of socialism (although nobody can say just what that definite ‘level of culture’ is, for it differs in every Western European country), why cannot we began by first achieving the prerequisites for that definite level of culture in a revolutionary way, and then, with the aid of the workers’ and peasants’ government and Soviet system, proceed to overtake the other nations?
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Our Revolution
@Communism
If a definite level of culture is required for the building of socialism (although nobody can say just what that definite ‘level of culture’ is, for it differs in every Western European country), why cannot we began by first achieving the prerequisites for that definite level of culture in a revolutionary way, and then, with the aid of the workers’ and peasants’ government and Soviet system, proceed to overtake the other nations?
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Our Revolution
@Communism
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'All hope for you, Red Army soldier!' (Russian #poster by Viktor Ivanov and Olga Burova/ Iskusstvo, Moscow-Leningrad. Soviet Union, 1943).
@Communism
@Communism
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When feudalism was overthrown and “free” capitalist society appeared in the world, it at once became apparent that this freedom meant a new system of oppression and exploitation of the working people. Various socialist doctrines immediately emerged as a reflection of and protest against this oppression. Early socialism, however, was utopian socialism. It criticised capitalist society, it condemned and damned it, it dreamed of its destruction, it had visions of a better order and endeavoured to convince the rich of the immorality of exploitation.
But utopian socialism could not indicate the real solution. It could not explain the real nature of wage-slavery under capitalism, it could not reveal the laws of capitalist development, or show what social force is capable of becoming the creator of a new society.
Meanwhile, the stormy revolutions which everywhere in Europe, and especially in France, accompanied the fall of feudalism, of serfdom, more and more clearly revealed the struggle of classes as the basis and the driving force of all development.
Not a single victory of political freedom over the feudal class was won except against desperate resistance. Not a single capitalist country evolved on a more or less free and democratic basis except by a life-and-death struggle between the various classes of capitalist society.
The genius of Marx lies in his having been the first to deduce from this the lesson world history teaches and to apply that lesson consistently. The deduction he made is the doctrine of the class struggle.
People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. Champions of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realise that every old institution, how ever barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is kept going by the forces of certain ruling classes. And there is only one way of smashing the resistance of those classes, and that is to find, in the very society which surrounds us, the forces which can—and, owing to their social position, must—constitute the power capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new, and to enlighten and organise those forces for the struggle.
Marx’s philosophical materialism alone has shown the proletariat the way out of the spiritual slavery in which all oppressed classes have hitherto languished. Marx’s economic theory alone has explained the true position of the proletariat in the general system of capitalism.
Independent organisations of the proletariat are multi plying all over the world, from America to Japan and from Sweden to South Africa. The proletariat is becoming enlightened and educated by waging its class struggle; it is ridding itself of the prejudices of bourgeois society; it is rallying its ranks ever more closely and is learning to gauge the measure of its successes; it is steeling its forces and is growing irresistibly.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism
@Communism
'Lenin 1870-1980' (Russian poster by unknown artist/ Izdatel'stvo Plakat, Moscow. Soviet Union, 1981).
But utopian socialism could not indicate the real solution. It could not explain the real nature of wage-slavery under capitalism, it could not reveal the laws of capitalist development, or show what social force is capable of becoming the creator of a new society.
Meanwhile, the stormy revolutions which everywhere in Europe, and especially in France, accompanied the fall of feudalism, of serfdom, more and more clearly revealed the struggle of classes as the basis and the driving force of all development.
Not a single victory of political freedom over the feudal class was won except against desperate resistance. Not a single capitalist country evolved on a more or less free and democratic basis except by a life-and-death struggle between the various classes of capitalist society.
The genius of Marx lies in his having been the first to deduce from this the lesson world history teaches and to apply that lesson consistently. The deduction he made is the doctrine of the class struggle.
People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. Champions of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realise that every old institution, how ever barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is kept going by the forces of certain ruling classes. And there is only one way of smashing the resistance of those classes, and that is to find, in the very society which surrounds us, the forces which can—and, owing to their social position, must—constitute the power capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new, and to enlighten and organise those forces for the struggle.
Marx’s philosophical materialism alone has shown the proletariat the way out of the spiritual slavery in which all oppressed classes have hitherto languished. Marx’s economic theory alone has explained the true position of the proletariat in the general system of capitalism.
Independent organisations of the proletariat are multi plying all over the world, from America to Japan and from Sweden to South Africa. The proletariat is becoming enlightened and educated by waging its class struggle; it is ridding itself of the prejudices of bourgeois society; it is rallying its ranks ever more closely and is learning to gauge the measure of its successes; it is steeling its forces and is growing irresistibly.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism
#Lenin
@Communism
'Lenin 1870-1980' (Russian poster by unknown artist/ Izdatel'stvo Plakat, Moscow. Soviet Union, 1981).
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The immediate task is, while combating "ultra-Left" deviations, resolutely to combat the danger from the Right with the aim of altogether isolating and completely eliminating the Rights. To unite all the genuine revolutionary elements in the Party for the purpose of completely eliminating the Right groups — such is the Party's task, such is the way out of the crisis. Unless this is done it is useless even to think of Bolshevising the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
That, of course, does not mean that all the Rights must necessarily be expelled. Expulsion is not the decisive weapon in the struggle against the Rights. The main thing is to give the Right groups a drubbing, ideologically and morally, in the course of a struggle based on principle and to draw the mass of the Party membership into this struggle. That is one of the chief and most important means of educating the Party in the spirit of Bolshevism. Expulsion must come, if it is really necessary, as a natural result of the ideological rout of the enemy. In this respect, the Lefts in Czechoslovakia committed a grave mistake in hastening to expel Bubnik. Instead of utilising the Bubnik "case" to the utmost and linking it with the principles underlying the stand taken by the Rights on the question of mass action, revealing their true countenance, the Lefts hastened with the expulsion, and cut off the road to further attack against the Rights on this ground.
J. V. Stalin
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
@Communism
That, of course, does not mean that all the Rights must necessarily be expelled. Expulsion is not the decisive weapon in the struggle against the Rights. The main thing is to give the Right groups a drubbing, ideologically and morally, in the course of a struggle based on principle and to draw the mass of the Party membership into this struggle. That is one of the chief and most important means of educating the Party in the spirit of Bolshevism. Expulsion must come, if it is really necessary, as a natural result of the ideological rout of the enemy. In this respect, the Lefts in Czechoslovakia committed a grave mistake in hastening to expel Bubnik. Instead of utilising the Bubnik "case" to the utmost and linking it with the principles underlying the stand taken by the Rights on the question of mass action, revealing their true countenance, the Lefts hastened with the expulsion, and cut off the road to further attack against the Rights on this ground.
J. V. Stalin
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
#Stalin
@Communism
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🔴 No Woman is Free: Stopping Gender Based Violence
✍🏻 Deirbhle Sheppard
The far-right have no hunger for women’s liberation. The way that they frame refugees and people of colour as dangerous criminals is an age-old racist trope. It comes from the colonial tactic which depicted indigenous people as ‘primitive’ and ‘violent’, and which dehumanised them to justify the discrimination and abuse to which they are subjected.
By spreading racialised myths about sexual and misogynistic violence on social media, they are selectively drawing attention to allegations against immigrants. It is a smoke and mirrors attempt to whip up fear within communities. If someone only cares about women’s rights and safety when the perpetrator is not Irish, then they do not care about women rights; they care about villainising ethnic minorities and people of colour. It distracts from the real issues of capitalism and gender oppression that creates and maintains conditions for violence against women and other marginalised groups, including refugees themselves. The dehumanisation of refugees by the far-right conceals the reality that these people are often fleeing traumatic situations: human rights violations, climate collapse, famine, poverty, and global inequalities fuelled by imperialism and war.
Read more
✍🏻 Deirbhle Sheppard
The far-right have no hunger for women’s liberation. The way that they frame refugees and people of colour as dangerous criminals is an age-old racist trope. It comes from the colonial tactic which depicted indigenous people as ‘primitive’ and ‘violent’, and which dehumanised them to justify the discrimination and abuse to which they are subjected.
By spreading racialised myths about sexual and misogynistic violence on social media, they are selectively drawing attention to allegations against immigrants. It is a smoke and mirrors attempt to whip up fear within communities. If someone only cares about women’s rights and safety when the perpetrator is not Irish, then they do not care about women rights; they care about villainising ethnic minorities and people of colour. It distracts from the real issues of capitalism and gender oppression that creates and maintains conditions for violence against women and other marginalised groups, including refugees themselves. The dehumanisation of refugees by the far-right conceals the reality that these people are often fleeing traumatic situations: human rights violations, climate collapse, famine, poverty, and global inequalities fuelled by imperialism and war.
Read more
#Culture #Feminism #HumanRights #Inequality #Europe #Ireland
REBEL
No Woman is Free: Stopping Gender Based Violence - REBEL
Deirbhle Sheppard highlights the shocking and persistent extent of sexual violence in…
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Autonomy does not imply letting each area designated for self-rule “do its own thing.” The working class and its party will have a general program in education, culture, economic development, etc. “The proletarian cause must come first, we say, because it not only protects the lasting and fundamental interests of labor and of humanity but also those of democracy.”
Principles of Marxism-Leninism on the National Question
@Communism
Principles of Marxism-Leninism on the National Question
#Lenin
@Communism
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🔴 Theses On #Feuerbach
✍🏻 Written: by Marx in the Spring of 1845, but slightly edited by Engels
I
The chief defect of all hitherto existing materialism – that of Feuerbach included – is that the thing, reality, sensuousness, is conceived only in the form of the object or of contemplation, but not as sensuous human activity, practice, not subjectively. Hence, in contradistinction to materialism, the active side was developed abstractly by idealism – which, of course, does not know real, sensuous activity as such.
Feuerbach wants sensuous objects, really distinct from the thought objects, but he does not conceive human activity itself as objective activity. Hence, in The Essence of Christianity, he regards the theoretical attitude as the only genuinely human attitude, while practice is conceived and fixed only in its dirty-judaical manifestation. Hence he does not grasp the significance of “revolutionary”, of “practical-critical”, activity.
II
The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question. Man must prove the truth — i.e. the reality and power, the this-sidedness of his thinking in practice. The dispute over the reality or non-reality of thinking that is isolated from practice is a purely scholastic question.
III
The materialist doctrine concerning the changing of circumstances and upbringing forgets that circumstances are changed by men and that it is essential to educate the educator himself. This doctrine must, therefore, divide society into two parts, one of which is superior to society.
The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-changing can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice.
IV
Feuerbach starts out from the fact of religious self-alienation, of the duplication of the world into a religious world and a secular one. His work consists in resolving the religious world into its secular basis.
But that the secular basis detaches itself from itself and establishes itself as an independent realm in the clouds can only be explained by the cleavages and self-contradictions within this secular basis. The latter must, therefore, in itself be both understood in its contradiction and revolutionized in practice. Thus, for instance, after the earthly family is discovered to be the secret of the holy family, the former must then itself be destroyed in theory and in practice.
V
Feuerbach, not satisfied with abstract thinking, wants contemplation; but he does not conceive sensuousness as practical, human-sensuous activity.
VI
Feuerbach resolves the religious essence into the human essence. But the human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual.
In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations.
Feuerbach, who does not enter upon a criticism of this real essence, is consequently compelled:
To abstract from the historical process and to fix the religious sentiment as something by itself and to presuppose an abstract – isolated – human individual.
Essence, therefore, can be comprehended only as “genus”, as an internal, dumb generality which naturally unites the many individuals.
VII
Feuerbach, consequently, does not see that the “religious sentiment” is itself a social product, and that the abstract individual whom he analyses belongs to a particular form of society.
VIII
All social life is essentially practical. All mysteries which lead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of this practice.
IX
The highest point reached by contemplative materialism, that is, materialism which does not comprehend sensuousness as practical activity, is contemplation of single individuals and of civil society.
X
The standpoint of the old materialism is civil society; the standpoint of the new is human society, or social humanity.
XI
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.
@Communism
✍🏻 Written: by Marx in the Spring of 1845, but slightly edited by Engels
I
The chief defect of all hitherto existing materialism – that of Feuerbach included – is that the thing, reality, sensuousness, is conceived only in the form of the object or of contemplation, but not as sensuous human activity, practice, not subjectively. Hence, in contradistinction to materialism, the active side was developed abstractly by idealism – which, of course, does not know real, sensuous activity as such.
Feuerbach wants sensuous objects, really distinct from the thought objects, but he does not conceive human activity itself as objective activity. Hence, in The Essence of Christianity, he regards the theoretical attitude as the only genuinely human attitude, while practice is conceived and fixed only in its dirty-judaical manifestation. Hence he does not grasp the significance of “revolutionary”, of “practical-critical”, activity.
II
The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question. Man must prove the truth — i.e. the reality and power, the this-sidedness of his thinking in practice. The dispute over the reality or non-reality of thinking that is isolated from practice is a purely scholastic question.
III
The materialist doctrine concerning the changing of circumstances and upbringing forgets that circumstances are changed by men and that it is essential to educate the educator himself. This doctrine must, therefore, divide society into two parts, one of which is superior to society.
The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-changing can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice.
IV
Feuerbach starts out from the fact of religious self-alienation, of the duplication of the world into a religious world and a secular one. His work consists in resolving the religious world into its secular basis.
But that the secular basis detaches itself from itself and establishes itself as an independent realm in the clouds can only be explained by the cleavages and self-contradictions within this secular basis. The latter must, therefore, in itself be both understood in its contradiction and revolutionized in practice. Thus, for instance, after the earthly family is discovered to be the secret of the holy family, the former must then itself be destroyed in theory and in practice.
V
Feuerbach, not satisfied with abstract thinking, wants contemplation; but he does not conceive sensuousness as practical, human-sensuous activity.
VI
Feuerbach resolves the religious essence into the human essence. But the human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual.
In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations.
Feuerbach, who does not enter upon a criticism of this real essence, is consequently compelled:
To abstract from the historical process and to fix the religious sentiment as something by itself and to presuppose an abstract – isolated – human individual.
Essence, therefore, can be comprehended only as “genus”, as an internal, dumb generality which naturally unites the many individuals.
VII
Feuerbach, consequently, does not see that the “religious sentiment” is itself a social product, and that the abstract individual whom he analyses belongs to a particular form of society.
VIII
All social life is essentially practical. All mysteries which lead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of this practice.
IX
The highest point reached by contemplative materialism, that is, materialism which does not comprehend sensuousness as practical activity, is contemplation of single individuals and of civil society.
X
The standpoint of the old materialism is civil society; the standpoint of the new is human society, or social humanity.
XI
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.
@Communism
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The EZLN, one of the world's most prominent social movements, was founded 41 years ago today. The guerrilla movement brought new optimism to the international left at a time when many socialist projects were being defeated.
Founded in 1983 by a group of Mexican intellectuals inspired by the Cuban Revolution, the Zapatistas took root in the struggles of various Maya peoples in the southern state of Chiapas. Their name pays homage to Emiliano Zapata, the legendary Mexican revolutionary.
The armed uprising, however, didn’t begin until January 1, 1994. On that day, thousands of indigenous supporters of the EZLN seized towns and villages across Chiapas. Their aim: to oppose the newly enacted NAFTA, which they see as a sellout of their land.
12 days of intense clashes followed, ended in a ceasefire. The Zapatistas retreated into the dense Lacandon Jungle near the Guatemalan border. From there, they forged a bold experiment in resistance: a de facto autonomous zone in eastern Chiapas.
theredstream
Founded in 1983 by a group of Mexican intellectuals inspired by the Cuban Revolution, the Zapatistas took root in the struggles of various Maya peoples in the southern state of Chiapas. Their name pays homage to Emiliano Zapata, the legendary Mexican revolutionary.
The armed uprising, however, didn’t begin until January 1, 1994. On that day, thousands of indigenous supporters of the EZLN seized towns and villages across Chiapas. Their aim: to oppose the newly enacted NAFTA, which they see as a sellout of their land.
12 days of intense clashes followed, ended in a ceasefire. The Zapatistas retreated into the dense Lacandon Jungle near the Guatemalan border. From there, they forged a bold experiment in resistance: a de facto autonomous zone in eastern Chiapas.
theredstream
#Zapata
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Media
On this day, 17 November 1982, 50 sex workers, members of the English Collective of Prostitutes, occupied the Holy Cross Church in King's Cross, London, in protest against police harassment, violence and racism. They made six demands: an end to illegal arrests of sex workers; an end to police blackmail, harassment and racism; an end to the taking of sex workers' children; an end to arrests of boyfriends and male relatives (especially Black ones) as "pimps"; welfare and housing for women who wish to leave the sex industry; and finally for arrests to be made of rapists and pimps instead. The occupation was inspired by a similar one undertaken by women in Lyon, France in 1975. Over the course of the 12 days of occupation, more sex workers would join the occupation. While Camden council made promises to the women to monitor illegal police arrests, they did not follow through on them after the occupation ended. However the incident helped catalyse feminist sex worker organising in England.
Working Class History
On this day, 17 November 1982, 50 sex workers, members of the English Collective of Prostitutes, occupied the Holy Cross Church in King's Cross, London, in protest against police harassment, violence and racism. They made six demands: an end to illegal arrests of sex workers; an end to police blackmail, harassment and racism; an end to the taking of sex workers' children; an end to arrests of boyfriends and male relatives (especially Black ones) as "pimps"; welfare and housing for women who wish to leave the sex industry; and finally for arrests to be made of rapists and pimps instead. The occupation was inspired by a similar one undertaken by women in Lyon, France in 1975. Over the course of the 12 days of occupation, more sex workers would join the occupation. While Camden council made promises to the women to monitor illegal police arrests, they did not follow through on them after the occupation ended. However the incident helped catalyse feminist sex worker organising in England.
Working Class History
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On this day, 17 November 1915, thousands of housewives and other workers of Glasgow marched on the sheriff's court in support of 20,000 rent strikers. The strike ultimately lead to the introduction of rent controls throughout the UK. One observer, Willie Gallacher, wrote: "From early morning the women were marching to the centre of the city where the sheriff's court is situated. Mrs. Barbour's army was on the march. But even as they marched, mighty reinforcement were coming from the workshops and the yards. From far away Dalmuir in the West, from Parkhead in the East, from Cathcart in the South and Hydepark in the North, the dungareed army of the proletariat invaded the centre of the city."
Working Class History
@Communism
Working Class History
#RentStrike #WorkersUnite #Proletariat #Glasgow1915 #ClassStruggle #HousingRights #WorkersHistory #OnThisDay
@Communism
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The Revolution of 1905 undermined the tsarist autocracy. Out of a mob of muzhiks repressed by feudal slavery of accursed memory, this revolution created, for the first time in Russia, a people beginning to understand its rights, beginning to realise its strength, For the first time, the Revolution of 1905 showed the tsarist government, the Russian landowners and the Russian bourgeoisie that mil lions and tens of millions of people were becoming citizens, were becoming fighters who would no longer permit anyone to treat them like cattle, treat them as a mob. The real emancipation of the masses from oppression and tyranny has nowhere in the world ever been effected by any other means than the independent, heroic, conscious struggle of the masses themselves.
Vladimir Lenin
The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Fall of Serfdom
@Communism
Vladimir Lenin
The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Fall of Serfdom
#Lenin
@Communism
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The epoch of the latest stage of capitalism shows us that certain relations between capitalist associations grow up, based on the economic division of the world; while parallel to and in connection with it, certain relations grow up between political alliances, between states, on the basis of the territorial division of the world, of the struggle for colonies, of the “struggle for spheres of influence.
Vladimir Lenin
Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism
@Communism
Vladimir Lenin
Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism
#Lenin
@Communism
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Presidents of the G20 countries are met with anti-imperialist protests in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Social movements expressed their solidarity with Palestine and all struggles against racism and oppression.
theredstream
theredstream
#AntiImperialist #AntiCapitalist #AntiRacist
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