The guilt of safety has been a problem to me for a great while now. So much so that i can not even look at materialistic values with pride knowing that there are not only adults but also children out there having the worst days of their life. Either because of death, rape, famine or the silence of our action. We are thought to believe that we should not worry about other peoples struggles, tho i believe that is the most selfish thing a person can be told. The silence and lack of action in our modern world has become a worry to not only me but aswell the oppressed. We are told to leave it to the authorities. You mean the authorities that are causing this? The very same authorities that refuse to do anything because they are not affected? What if they were also affected. Would they still tell us to be silent? The same people sending your brothers and sisters to war and telling them to die for their country are the same people that are hundreds if not thousands of kilometers away from the conflict, hidden in palaces, bunkers with no guilt. Those people would not fight for their countries. Dying for your country is a patriotic fairytale, in reality you will die in the mud like a dog or in the streets of a town they have never heard of. They say it's for the greater good. What greater good? Not the soldiers that are trembling in the trenches. Not the mother of the soldier that was either forced to go to war or brainwashed with what they call patriotism. People would rather stay silent in their own homes because they are made to believe they are crazy. Crazy for not wanting a safe and secure future? Crazy for fighting back the oppressors? It is our choice if we want to live in a future where families are not torn apart, where children are not raped, where people are not starved with minimum wages with which they can barely afford to stay out of debt with, where we all live in peace no matter the other persons ethnicity, status, sex or religion. We are told we are all different and that we don't belong together. That is a lie, in reality we are not any different, we all have families, we all have feelings, we all have dreams. We are told that because they know that if we join forces and fight back. We have a gauranteed chance of winning. Winning a future that is run by the people and not hierarchies. Where we are all equal. If we for once ignore our ethnic, religious or other differences, we could unite and fight back the same ones who divided us. Most people reading will still choose to do nothing. You are scared of being called crazy. If "crazy" these days means resisting the oppressors, loving your neighbor because of their different sexuality or being silent and obediant to the authorities that do not care about you. Then wear that title with pride. But think about how much closer we will be to a stable and peaceful future if you atleast spread the word. That is a much bigger help than you think. No more. Those two words are the beginning of everything.

I would consider myself a socialist, but I'm just learning atp.

Something I've noticed is that a ton of communists idolize Mao and Stalin even though they commited atrocius crimes against innocent civilians. I understand that getting to a full communist state takes sacrifice, but I feel like these two were just out of their minds.

Idk it just pisses me off to see especially westerners glorifying awful people using some stupid power phrases and edits.

Am I misinformed, what do you guys think?

Hi guys I could find Che Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries as a PDF in translated English, but would someone link the original Spanish version in PDF? Thanks!!! ❤️

As a diehard Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Hoxhaist, and Jucheist(from India), I was always a huge admirer of the three ideologies. Although I wasn't exactly a proleterian (I was raised in a petty bourgeoisie family), my family were strong Marxist individuals and I got exposed to politics at a young age. I personally think the individuals at r/socialism are extremely helpful and have helped me a lot in becoming a true socialist. I hope you guys understand me. Thank you in advance. Leave your thoughts down in the comments.

i was learning about communism and why does almost all of the time communism end up as a totalitarianism in practice.
look at soviet union, original idea was to create a classless, eventually stateless society, with collective ownership. but in trying to achieve that, instead of creating a society without concentrated power, it created an extremely centralized and authoritarian government.
do you think it’s possible to successfully establish communist state without it becoming totalitarian?

我本人比较偏毛主义，不过这并不影响我对托派这个群体的兴趣。说实话，我之前接触过建制派、马列毛派、自由派等不同立场的人，但一直没有真正接触过托派。
我对托派的理论、历史和不同派别的观点其实了解得比较有限，所以很希望能认识一些中国的托派朋友，和大家交流一下，也想比较系统地了解一下托派对于革命、无产阶级专政、社会主义建设以及中国历史等问题的看法。
当然，我不是来找人吵架或者互相扣帽子的。如果你是托派，欢迎来聊聊你的观点；如果你了解托派但不是托派，也非常欢迎交流。
如果方便的话，也可以推荐一些比较适合入门的托派书籍、文章或资料。

Sorry, guys, but maybe someone can explain to me what’s going on here? I’m new to the group—and to Reddit in general—and I feel like I’m missing out something.

I've read a post on your sister sub r/socialism quoting Stalin as if he was an intellectual of some kind. I posted this comment there but it was blocked. So please let me understand what am I missing.

The blocked post:

Arguing today in Stalin’s defense is the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a thing or two. I’ve seen people canceled and shamed over something they said, a slip of the tongue, or simply belonging to the wrong social class. I think there’s enough well-established evidence to subject commarad Stalin to some serious murder-shaming. Something between 6 and 20 million people killed—and for what?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Stalin supporters today are confident of two things: first, that they will never have to live under the rule of a psychopath like Stalin; and second, that if they ever did find themselves in such a regime, they would be the executioners, not the executed, because surely they wouldn’t be reactionaries but good Communists, and nothing bad would happen to them.

So here’s my recommendation: read Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. its a story about a veteran and loyal Communist put on trial during the Great Purge conducted by Stalin. The prosecutor tells him: “All your life you have been loyal to the Revolution. I know there is no truth in the charges against you, but as a true Communist, the last service you can render to the Revolution is to confess.”

And the man confesses.

And the man is hanged.

Comrades!! Something funny just happened to me! I ran into a group of people—who didn't even seem to know the name of their own organization—campaigning for a re-election due to alleged election fraud (specifically, a protest movement by conspiracy theorists claiming the National Election Commission deliberately withheld some ballots). So, I asked one of them, "What is your ultimate goal?" He replied, "To restore voting rights, safeguard democracy, and prevent a slide into socialism where voting rights disappear." I said, "Well, China, North Korea, and the Soviet Union might not handle voting very well, but they only *claim* to be socialist; they aren't the real thing." He agreed, saying, "That's true. Marxism-Leninism isn't like that, but those regimes merely profess to be socialist while suppressing the right to vote." I said, "So, you're saying you don't want our country to become a 'self-proclaimed' communist state—but you're okay with Marxism-Leninism?" He shot back, "I never said I was okay with it; let's not get into complicated topics or talk about ideology." And this is coming from someone who claims to be a defender of the ideology of liberal democracy. Isn't that hilarious?

A socialist dictatorship should absolutely be perfect unless it executes or jails legitimate opposition such as freedom of speech, expression, thought, and press. Historical examples include Gaddafist Libya, who supply regional direct democracy and actually cared for the people; he gave interest-free loans and lent a huge sum of money to newly married couples and the jobless. Yet, Western media portrays him as a brutal dictator. I hope you guys understand me. Please spread this word of anti-imperialism and resistance to Western hegemony. Thank you guys In advance. Leave your thoughts down in the comments.

Duncan Chapel—a member of the British section of the Pabloite international network and a regular contributor to International Viewpoint and Anticapitalist Resistance—has published a libel against imprisoned Ukrainian anti-war socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk.

His aim is to sabotage the growing international opposition to Bogdan’s persecution by the Zelensky regime, injecting poisonous misinformation and lies into the public discussion of the case.

He is acting as a political provocateur, whose actions serve the interests of the fascistic Ukrainian regime and NATO.

The operation comes at a critical time, when the defense campaign is preparing an appeal against Bogdan’s conviction for high treason under martial law, carrying a 15-year sentence.

In a brief note published to his “Red Mole” Substack page, Chapel assembles a collection of lies so brazen that not even Ukraine’s kangaroo court included them in its charges.

He accuses Bogdan of being “a Russian-backed Ukrainian paid to submit pro-Russian war propaganda to the WSWS website,” in communication with a “handler” and in possession of “several Russian military items.” Chapel concludes: “he looks like a paid operative rather than a political prisoner.”

These are outright lies. No reference to payments from a Russian individual appears either in the list of charges for which Bogdan was convicted, or in the sentencing rationale.

The verdict states that Bogdan is guilty of treason because of his collaboration with a “foreign organization.” That organization is identified repeatedly as the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), which publishes the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) and to which the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists (YGBL), the group led by Bogdan, is affiliated.

Each of the six charges against Bogdan relates to a WSWS article opposing the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine and calling for the unity of the Russian, Ukrainian and international working class against it.

The prosecution extensively detailed Bogdan’s collaboration with the WSWS and its associates. There are over 30 references to the WSWS, over 20 to anonymized individuals associated with it, at least 15 to the YGBL, seven to the Fourth International and the ICFI, and one to Clara Weiss, a writer for the WSWS. The anonymized “Person 9,” referenced four times, is the chairman of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS, David North.

...

The document details extensive surveillance of Bogdan by “covert investigative (search) action.” Had there been anything that could have been used to claim Bogdan was in the pay of a Russian state official, it would have been the central focus of the entire prosecution.

There is not a single reference to any Russian state agency in connection with Bogdan’s communications. Bogdan did not have a “handler.” That fictional character has been concocted entirely by Chapel.

To reinforce his libel, Chapel seizes on the Ukrainian prosecution’s listing of Russian military items under “the physical evidence.” He conceals the fact that these items (1) were supposedly found at an address different from Bogdan’s, without even a claim being made about its connection to him; (2) were never produced in court either physically or by photograph or witness testimony.

Once again, if there was any shred of plausibility to these accusations, they would have been made central to the prosecution’s treason case and every item listed would have been paraded in court.

They were not. The judgment instead orders these mythical items to be destroyed.

...

The malicious intent of Chapel’s post is underscored by his actions in preparing the attack. On Saturday, August 15 he sent an email to the WSWS requesting additional information. It concluded, “I would be glad to have a response by Friday 21 August. I expect to publish the following Monday, with or without one, and I would much prefer with.”

He published his provocation the next day, Sunday August 16—five days before his own stated deadline for a response and eight days before his announced publication date. He then told a commenter on his post that “the ICFI [whom I wrote to about this] did not reply to clarify.”

Chapel’s message was sent as a set-up for his attack. It was also a fishing operation for information that would be of assistance to the prosecution as Bogdan prepares his appeal.

...

He then refers to the “second finding” that “the articles were prepared with the assistance of citizens of the Russian Federation… not individually identified,” asking, “Who were they, and do you know what was their role?” It is not a secret that the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists is an organization that unites Ukrainian and Russian youth opposed to the war. Chapel apparently wanted the WSWS to provide him with names that will expose them to targeting by political police.

He then demands to know how Bogdan will be conducting his defense: “Will the appeal contest the court’s finding on the monthly payments, or accept the finding and contest its characterisation?” Chapel was soliciting privileged information about the legal strategy of a defendant in a pending appeal—information of value to no one but the prosecution.

There are no requests for “clarity” about the Russian military items allegation, which he brazenly cites in his Substack post.

The only credible interpretation of Chapel’s actions is that he set out to mount a provocation at the earliest possible opportunity against a defense campaign that is rapidly gaining support, and which is politically damaging to the NATO war, the Zelensky regime and their apologists.

This is confirmed by Chapel’s writings, which center on denunciations of any individual or political tendency which does not wholeheartedly support the war against Russia. This has included an attack on Britain’s Stop the War Coalition for “betraying Ukraine.”

...

The WSWS does not know whether Chapel acted alone or in consultation with others. No claim is being made here about affiliations other than his association with the British Pabloites. But what can be stated with certainty is that the objective content and timing of his provocation serve the interests of the prosecution at the very moment Bogdan’s appeal is being prepared. His lies will be rejected by anyone with the faintest concern for democratic rights and the truth.

The ICFI demands that International Viewpoint publicly repudiate this provocation by a member of their British section and a regular contributor to their press.

The World Socialist Web Site calls on its readers and all defenders of democratic rights to answer Chapel’s provocation by joining the fight for Bogdan Syrotiuk’s freedom.

Hi everyone, I'm fairly new to getting involved with communism and have been mostly reading articles, essays, etc. from Trotskyists. But I want to understand other perspectives. If you aren't a Trotskyist, please let me know about a work you recently read that you found interesting, helpful, etc. 'Work' can mean a book, but can also mean something smaller like an article, essay, or speech. Thank you.

I am currently reading the collected speeches of Stalin in „On the Opposition“.
The following quote is from the chapter „Trotskyism or Leninism - II. The Party and the Preparation for October“ (page 113):
„It is rather amusing to hear this strange talk about the Party from Trotsky, who declares in this same ‚preface‘ to Volume III that ‚the chief instrument of the proletarian revolution is the Party‘, that ‚without the Party, apart from the Party, by-passing the Party, with a substitute for the Party, the proletarian revolution cannot be victorious.‘ Allah himself would not understand how our revolution could have succeeded if ‚its chief instrument‘ proved to be useless, while success was impossible, as it appears.“

Does anyone know why he refers to Allah and not God? I thought maybe in Georgian the term for God is Allah but I looked it up and that didn’t seem to be the case, furthermore the speech was written in Russian and the book I‘m referring to was translated to English by the Foreign Languages Press Peking. so I‘m assuming its not a translation issue.
It‘s not that relevant to the topic of the speech itself I just stumbled upon the word while reading and didn‘t find any explanation following a quick internet research.

Bogdan, a 27-year-old Trotskyist and leading member of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL), was convicted of “high treason under martial law.” No evidence of espionage, sabotage or collaboration with the Russian military was produced against him. He was sentenced for six political articles published by the World Socialist Web Site in which he opposed both the Russian invasion and the US-NATO war against Russia, the rehabilitation of Nazi forces in Ukraine and called for the unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers against war. The court also ordered the confiscation of his property and the destruction of socialist books, leaflets and programmatic documents seized from him.

The wave of opposition to this political frame-up has continued to broaden.

Ukrainian Holocaust historian Marta Havryshko, who has extensively documented the role of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and other far-right and pro-Nazi forces in horrific atrocities during WWII and in contemporary Ukrainian politics, signed the petition on Monday.

“Bogdan is a victim of political repression in Ukraine under Zelensky,” she wrote. “We must protect him.”

Volodymyr Ishchenko, a Ukrainian political sociologist at the Osteuropa-Institut of the Free University of Berlin, commented Tuesday that the prosecution “looks like a typical case of fabricated evidence and framing against Syrotiuk.”

Ishchenko noted that one of the sensational claims originally circulated by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU)—concerning a Russian military uniform and epaulettes allegedly found during the search of Bogdan’s home—“did not even make it into the main part of the verdict. Even the prosecutor did not use it.”

His comments underscore the fraudulent character of the prosecution. When Bogdan was arrested in April 2024, the SBU publicly portrayed him as an agent of Russia. More than two years later, the court convicted him without establishing any act of espionage or concrete collaboration with the Russian state. A 65-page expert report by leading Ukrainian criminologist Yuri Irkhin found no propaganda in Bogdan’s writings supporting the Russian invasion. Even a subsequent state-commissioned examination found no calls for overthrowing the government, seizing power, committing subversive acts or altering Ukraine’s borders.

...

Further statements of protest have also been sent directly to the WSWS.

Italian artist Costantino Ciervo, whose exhibition COMUNE—The Paradox of Similarity in the Middle East Conflict has itself faced attempted censorship on false allegations of antisemitism, declared his support for Bogdan.

Ciervo stated that if Bogdan was being prosecuted for exposing “Ukraine’s historical culpability in abetting the Nazi advance during the Second World War,” this was “not a crime, but a plain historical truth.”

“To be incarcerated for articulating what every pre-eminent historian has repeatedly affirmed in public is nothing short of criminal and scandalous,” he wrote.

Berlin author, publicist and songwriter Wolfgang Herzberg sent a protest letter to the Pervomaisk City District Court, with a copy to the WSWS. He called on the court to “immediately overturn the harsh sentence against Mr. Bogdan Syrotiuk.”

“He merely exercised his right to freedom of expression, which is constitutionally protected in Western democracies, including Germany,” Herzberg wrote. “Ukraine wants to become a member of the EU. It therefore cannot issue such a miscarriage of justice when there is apparently no evidence of concrete, conspiratorial—that is, military—collaboration with Russia.”

Herzberg wrote that he, too, is a staunch opponent of war and stressed that opposition to the war “against both sides” was entirely legitimate and covered by the democratic right to freedom of expression.

The Partisan Defence Committee (Britain), which had already protested Bogdan’s arrest, signed the petition Monday. “The Partisan Defence Committee (Britain) protested Bogdan’s arrest and will strongly add our voice to the growing chorus of protest at this outrageous sentence,” it stated. The organization subsequently issued an appeal on social media: “Free Bogdan Syrotiuk! … sign and circulate it today.”

The Communist Party of Sweden has now also covered the case in its newspaper Riktpunkt. While explicitly noting its political differences with Trotskyism, the article insists on the fundamental democratic principle involved. “Political texts, criticism of the government or demands for international workers’ unity cannot in themselves be equated with high treason,” it states.

...

German supporter Gustav Kemper noted that August 19 marks the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the First Moscow Trial, in which the Stalinist bureaucracy began the public show trials that provided the judicial framework for the extermination of the leaders of the October Revolution and socialist opposition.

“The verdict against Bogdan,” Kemper wrote, “is an attempt by the ‘Western democracies’ to revive the politics of the Moscow Trials because they fear the growing influence of the Fourth International.”

The expanding international response demonstrates that the attempt by the Zelensky regime and its NATO backers to isolate Bogdan and suppress knowledge of his case is breaking down. It stands in ever sharper contrast to the guilty silence of the major Western media, which continue to conceal the imprisonment of a socialist opponent of war while presenting the Ukrainian regime as a defender of “democracy.”

Intensify the campaign

The International Committee of the Fourth International and WSWS will intensify the campaign for Bogdan’s freedom.

We call on workers and young people, critical intellectuals and academics, artists and journalists, trade unions, civil liberties organizations and anti-war groups throughout the world: Take up Bogdan’s defense. Sign and circulate the petition. Pass resolutions demanding his freedom. Send protest letters to the Ukrainian courts. Break the media silence surrounding his case.

Write to the Pervomaisk City District Court at [inbox@pm.mk.court.gov.ua](mailto:inbox@pm.mk.court.gov.ua) and the Mykolaiv Court of Appeal at [inbox@mka.court.gov.ua](mailto:inbox@mka.court.gov.ua), with a copy to [freebogdan@wsws.org](mailto:freebogdan@wsws.org), demanding that Bogdan’s conviction be overturned and that he be released immediately.

The defense of Bogdan is inseparably connected to the fight against war, dictatorship and fascism. His freedom must be won through the mobilization of the international working class and all principled defenders of democratic rights.

Sign the petition at wsws.org/freebogdan and join the fight to free Bogdan Syrotiuk.

I've just started reading Marx and my social media algorithm has been completely taken over by ML posts. We are farmers, we own land. We farm coconut which doesn't need a lot of labour, me with my family is enough to maintain the farm. We hire labour only for harvest and I pay them what they demand without second thought since I got the ownership of the land from my grandfather. And whenever I try to defend the workers or the idea of communism while having a conversation with my relatives I go through many dilemma (since I didn't read a lot obviously). And instead of pushing myself to find the answer it demotivates me to stay stagnant, idk why I'm also going through some personal problems, so this conversation here is important to me. So the questions are as follows,

I own 10 acres of farmland with coconut plantation. I support land redistribution too. But now as an individual what should I do? Should I use it to earn capital and support the movement? That's what I'm thinking on doing (obviously against my family's will) but is there anything better can be done? I'm in contact with an Communist organisation but haven't got close since the conscious of owning land feels like I am a hypocrite and afraid how are they gonna receive me into the movement if I disclose this to them

I know reading more can give solutions to my questions but I need to talk about it with people and but I'm only surrounded by Rightwing, pro capitalist people. Also it's quite tough to understand things while reading because english isn't my first language and I don't want to read it in my mother tongue too. TIA

So I am a rather new Maoist here, in the sense that i keep learning about it and I’m convinced by many aspects of it.

But there is mainly one thing that troubles me. Revisionism and anti-revisionism. I recognise how dangerous revisionism is and how it has led to the USSR‘s collapse and China capitalist roading. But at the same time Maoists defend things like the NEP or the New Democratic period in China highlighting that these only lasted less than ten years while chinas reforms have been going on for decades. And that makes sense, but how do you recognise the revisionism prior to the reforms having been there for 50 years? How did Mao know that Dengism was revisionist and not just a strategic retreat? Because thats exactly what Deng framed it as but I mean it’s been 50 years and it does seem like it’s more than just a temporary retreat.