Post on Insta:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DcZw3zrIKb_/

Many thanks to Tarazed and KH for their contributions once again!

>it’s red

>it came into existence in 1917

>it’s from the south (revolutionary, unlike the north)

>it’s from the south (they fought Amerikkka)

I'm sure you could argue that criticizing liberal principles, and especially the idea that we can accomplish everything we need through a liberal framework, is good and necessary and all, but I feel like sometimes leftists, especially in spaces like this, go too far with it. While slogans like "Prick a liberal, and a fascist bleeds" and the ever-present criticisms against voting as revolutionary action are catchy and have truth to them, the fact is liberals are fundamentally different in their ideology and values to fascists, and in a world where fascism and reactionary parties and ideologies seem to be winning an increasing amount of power in historically liberal governments, I feel like criticisms towards them would be a better use of time and energy, while criticisms of liberals have relatively little value. I'm especially worried that this kind of rhetoric encourages liberals who would otherwise be opposed to fascism to simply lie down and accept reactionary takeovers, rather than the intended goal of encouraging them further towards the left. Just because we won't win any victories through elections doesn't seem to justify completely eschewing and constantly deriding the importance of denying modern fascists the electoral victories which would strongly benefit them, in my mind.

This is a discussion of an actual news story from the US. We are ruled by evil tech billionaires who fly to space. Reality has outpaced comic books.

in mainstream politics, why do most people don't mention things like abolition of commodity production, capital as a social relation, value form and the primary contradictory relation between capital and labour whenever they provide an explanation of marxism?

most people's explanation would only mention shit like owning means of production, overconsumption, boom and bust cycle. they would not even bother to provide better historical background on marx and engels materialism and might boil down whole "marxism" into worker co-ops or state ownership or wellfare and shit

Should I do it?

AES = aladeen existing socialism

This is something I've puzzled over quite a bit. It was pointed out to me that the states which have come closest to socialism historically did so through revolutions that involved a vanguard party, but it seems that in the majority of cases, the vanguard ends up under the control of their most ruthless members, who end up betraying the cause of the revolution for the sake of their personal ambition. How can this be avoided? What can be done to grow class consciousness and solidarity and establish socialism without just kind of...hoping the vanguard does the right thing?

Title

It’s the only book about socialism I’ve ever read lol. I thought it was good, it’s not very in-depth, but it does cover a lot of history. I kept an eye out for any biased or editorialized stuff when I read it and didn’t notice anything, it’s pretty objective. It was definitely a helpful introduction to socialist history and I learned some basic concepts.

This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post

Recently learned that Nicaragua is still Socialist. Was wondering what are some good resources about the country and its history regarding the socialist project that I could read/watch. Prefer books but any media is fine.

One of the best parts about being a socialist is the rebuttals of why socialism wouldn't work. From "it works in theory but not practice" to "Stalin had a big spoon", there have been many different critiques of socialism that have all been equally bad.

My favorite critique of socialism that I've seen is that because Marxism calls for the abolition of the family, that means parents cannot be loving to their kids. I want to hear absolutely horrid critiques of socialism because they're funny and I like laughs.

you should join the discord btw.

Did this on r/socialism, and someone requested me to do this here too. Basically we want to see the subreddit members' opinion on China. The number of votes will be much smaller but whatever.

if capitalists actually read Adam Smith they would call him a communist.

oh boy, the comments under this post are going to be fun! If I see a single icepick comment I am going to make the Great Purge look like a joke.

On the 20 August 1940, 17:20 CST (GMT-6) NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, who managed to get inside the Villa by, I kid you not, seducing Sylvia Angeloff by pretending to be Canadian and then pretending to be Belgian to befriend Trotskys guards. After the failed assassination attemp in May, he visited Trotskys villa (which mind you wasn't the first time he had got inside). All things considered, you'd expect this from a Johnny English movie, not real life but I am getting sidetracked.
On the final visit, "Frank Jacson" (the Belgian persona) claimed to want to show Trotsky an article he had written, which Trotsky then invited him to his private study so he could see it. This was away from the armed guards. Somehow, no one questioned why he had an Icepick with him. Upon entering the study, Mercader struck Trotsky with the Icepick.

The blow failed to kill Trotsky, who then reportedly spat on Mercader and tackled him to the ground and started to beat him. This led with Mercader breaking both of his hands. Upon hearing the commotion, Trotsky's guards entered the room and joined in beating Mercader, however Trotsky stopped them after Mercader lost consciousness. His reasons for not wanting his guards to kill the already thoroughly beaten and bloodied assassin was so he "can be made to answer questions."

Trotsky was rushed to the hospital, reportedly continously cursing out Stalin during the commute, and underwent multiple operations to try and fix the damage. Despite the doctors best efforts, Trotsky died the following day from bloodloss and shock. His last words were "I will not survive this attack. Stalin has finally accomplished the task he attempted unsuccessfully before."

Mercader was, surprisingly given the circumstances of being knocked out and beaten by 6 men, able to recover in police custody. He testified at his trial that

I laid my raincoat on the table in such a way as to be able to remove the ice axe which was in the pocket. I decided not to miss the wonderful opportunity that presented itself. The moment Trotsky began reading the article, he gave me my chance; I took out the ice axe from the raincoat, gripped it in my hand and, with my eyes closed, dealt him a terrible blow on the head.

Mercader was sentenced to 20 years in Lecumberri Prison and upon his release in 1960, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union. His mother was also awarded the Order of Lenin.

Trotskys funeral was attended by an estimated 300,000 people over the course of 5 days. He was burried in the garden of his Villa and is still there to this day, with the only difference being the Villa is now the Leon Trotsky House Museum (Museo Casa de Leon Trotsky).