Marxism Leninism Today (Ft. Donald Parkinson)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
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In this episode of the 1Dime Radio podcast, I am joined by Donald Parkinson, co-host of the Cosmopod podcast and , editor and chief of Cosmonaut Magazine, a non-sectarian Marxist magazine that analyzes revolutionary strategy and encourages open-minded dialogue between communist factions.
Being in the center between ultraleftism and rightist communism, Donald does not fit into the categories of the classic leftist factions and their associated tropes. Avoiding dogmatism while still being an unapologetic revolutionary Marxist, Donald offers a good-faith critique of Marxism Leninism today that MLs and all leftists could learn from.
This podcast serves as a friendly critique of Marxism-Leninism today and the ideology of "anti-revisionism." In particular, we critique ways in which Marxist Leninists and Maoists approach history and questions surrounding the Soviet Union, China, and "Actually Existing Socialism." We critique Marxist-Leninist historiography by critiquing Grover Furr, a writer who is frequently cited by MLs as to why Stalin "did nothing wrong" or that all of the atrocities in the USSR did not happen or were inevitable.
While it is easily to dismiss the rising popularity of Stalinism as just a bunch of online "Tankies" (A term which has been bastardized by liberals), we believe it is important to take Stalinist trends on the left seriously and study history in a way that does not regress into binary thinking.
Check out Cosmonaut Magazine: cosmonautmag.com/
Check out Cosmopod on Spotify: open.spotify.c...
Donald's Twitter: / donaldp1917
Support 1Dime on Patreon: / onedime
We should always keep in mind the successes stemmed from the first socialist revolution that happened in Russia. Countries were able to impact their own societies, using the ML model as an example. If you're confronting edgy, testosterone-driven kids online that haven't yet developed a nuanced opinion, you're going to get things you've discussed. They don't represent the opinions of all Marxist-Leninists.
Fidel Castro and Che Guevara didn't use the revisionists two stages theory or Maos New Democracy which was just a new excuse for class collaboration. .
I got to be honest. I think this video had a fundimentally flaw that causes it to heavily misrepresent anti-revisionism.
And that is: People aren't revisionist or anti-revisonist, Ideas are.
Excellent discussion. On the "hauntology" of Soviet/20th Century iconography I tend to agree with Donald though - we should own our past with all its contradictions.
22:30
The United States ambassador to the USSR - Joseph E Davies attended the 1938 Moscow Trials and he maintained a position that the trials were genuine and legitimate.
Joseph E Davies was a also a professional lawyer.
Don't know how well Donald (Cosmonaut) studied the 1930s USSR Party Purges and also don't know if either Donald or Tony (1Dime) have a law degree.
Maybe Joseph E Davies was simply a time traveling Grover Furr ?
I feel like this podcast have a strange interpretation of Marxism Leninism, it seems to pretty much be a tool to justify the Soviet party rule, whereas I think its much more than that. I would have like a more in-depth analysis of how/why the idea of the Bolshevik with the leadership of Lenin leads to the problem of the Soviet system. Also on the justification of the renew popularity of ML, I'm not sure if it’s really about the USSR, in my opinion, it’s more about Lenin writing and actually striving in a serious organize manner toward revolution. I feel that this podcast also has a great man of history vibe, and has a tendency of picking the lowest/most dishonest propagandistic argument/interpretation of ML (I don't think many ML want to recreate the exact USSR system or Stalinism nor I think anyone think it's possible with the current level of society). Nonetheless I like the podcast and at time it want contrary to my criticism.
To had to my comment the concept of imperialism is also a big Lenin advancement on Marxist theory and we can see very clearly its effect today which is probably a great appeal toward ML particularly in the third world or children of emmigrant.
@@constraintautomaton9547 Marxism Leninism does not = Leninism.
Marxism Leninism was coined by Stalin. Leninism is a much broader tendency shared by non ML tendencies also (Trotskyists, Bukharinists, Titoists, Revisionist MLs, anti revisionist MLs, Maoists, etc)
@@Theorychad99 maybe but to be honest I never really understand the substancial difference between ML and leninism (except the liking or not of Stalin), and I'm pretty sure that most Marxist parties that follow predominantly Lenin thought called themselve Marxist Leninist regardless of there their opinion on Stalin, but I might be wrong.
No this is really not a strange interpretation of Marxism Leninism. “Marxism Leninism” is quite explicitly tied to the USSR and Stalin’s synthesis of Leninism. What you are describing is Leninism. Leninism is broader and embraced by all sorts of Marxist tendencies. Marxism-Leninism on the other hand was the official state ideology of the USSR and it’s allied socialist states. Marxism Leninism is usually split into two camps. Anti-Revisionist MLs (those who consider USSR after Stalin, Cuba, and and Post-Mao China to be revisionist) and revisionist MLs (those who consider Demgist China, Brezhnev era USSR, and most actually existing “socialist” states run by “Marxist-Leninist” parties to be socialist).
I don’t think we were too harsh on MLs, If anything, this podcast is more sympathetic to Leninism and charitable to MLs compared to any critique of “tankies” you will see in most leftist circles
@@1DimeRadio I guess I might be wrong didn't knew ML was explicitly tie to Stalin and "official communism".
Marxism-Leninism today (painting all modern MLs as brutal, uncritical stalinists and talking about only Stalin for 2hours)
Its a criticism of the flaws of the approach that MLs take when it comes to historical narratives. Both of us are Leninists adjacent, so it's not a complete dismissal of ML, obviously.
No, if you were a bit braver you would have invited actual ML to discuss... just saying@@1DimeRadio
Brilliant discussion. Modern Marxist groups and movements must learn from their history but not become reliant on it. Leninism was made for Russia in 1917, not modern-day Europe and America. New ideas inspired by old experiences is what we need!
One of the best discussions on this topic I've heard. Good times!
Always wonderful discussions here!
Saw this already on patreon. good episode
1:46:30 Socialism is an economic state, in the material world. Marx was a materialist. And an atheist. I mention that because I don't think it's useful to refer to Achieving Socialism. It makes it sound like you're reaching a sort of transcendent state. You're dealing with people. If Socialism is Achieved, people won't change by magic and always do the right thing.
As far as not being allowed to leave, thats fair... However how would you combat braindrain and bribing of high skilled professionals? Kinda a rock and a hard place on that perticular policy
This is probably the best convo of marxists talking about ML ive ever heard. At least as a critique. I think you should have started out by talking about the definition or what the facets of it are though. A lot of people "define" it by telling you to read foundations of leninism which literally says almost nothing about what leninism is when you actually read it which makes me think a lot of the people who tell you to read it either havent done it or thats part of the point (almost like theyre trying to be the stalin pepe from the thumnail). It took me literally a few years of heavy reading to understand what democratic centralism actually is because real demcent is actually based and i think could be really useful. Especially the way its used by a lot of maoist groups.
Jokingly implying that China and Vietnam are not guided by socialist policies is interesting…
Tankie is an insult, I know, I know. Also it is though a term that might be useful if not abused.
For me this conversation touches nicely on a border between tankies and wider communism. Like you don't have to see Stalin as a cartoon monster to also have serious critique of how he acted. Much needed nuance, so sadly I expect it will cause push back.
Considering this was a slur by British Labour Party about Soviet intervention on Eastern Europe which had sent tanks to Iraq for George Bushes war.
@@kimobrien. And? Seems like your post misses at least one sentence...
@@daPawlak People yelling tankie are usually Social Democratic Imperialists.
@@kimobrien. yeah guilt by association bullshit
@@daPawlak Like I said it's a British Labour Party thing and Tony Blair of the British Labour Party joined the US Coalition invading Iraq with tanks as did the British Labour Party join with the US intervention of Korea.
This is interesting. But, around 33:30 - if the best example of an idea is Albania then that idea is not a good one. Yes?
For all the Grover Furr dismissal, I have a hard time finding 2+ hour debunking of the guy... just saying. Maybe you can prove me wrong
about the discussion on pluralism (around the 1:05:00 mark), check out the video on consensus democracy by andrewism
interesting video, made me revisit a lot of my knowledge about the great purge and archives, especially grover furr. still think that the trotskyists messed with the moscow trial material though.
thanks for the content!
I wonder if it'd be worth doing one of these on different tendencies of communism and their shortcomings as a whole.
loved this discussion
You can't have a multiparty system in Socialism. Because in a Capitalist country where you have many capitalist parties in an election against only one Communist party is very difficult that this Communist party wins and brings a Communist system to that country. But in a Communist country, where you have only one communist party running in an election against maybe dozens of Capitalist parties... It's very possible that Communism will only survive one or two elections in that country...
why can't you ban all capitalist parties and allow only communist parties
I agree with much of what ive on history this podcast but aside from that 1/3rd of the way atm. It feels like a big strawman against ML's. At least the online kind. Within communist orgs theres usually plenty of nuance.
Great discussion
Is this dude a liberal?
AMEN.
Two Trots.
Great talk, but I think if you're going to discuss Marxism-Leninism you should have engaged with Domenico Losurdo's work. Cheers
I have a podcast on Domenico Losurdo's "Liberalism: A Counter History"
Domenico Absurdo is not a ML, he is revisionist a hell
There is this bizzare intellectual cult around Losurdo
Who cares
Great discussion. Learned alot.
for some reason i see the frog on the right as the voice of the host, and the stalin frog as donald.
Also I personally think something to the effects of the great purge was necessary but it was mismanaged and the Soviet state was simply too small for the largest country ever and then problems of creating a socialist political economic culture in the USSR snd for the first time in history.
i appreciate these discussions that emphasize anti-sectarianism from you, i just dont think this guest was the best, anyone affiliated with DSA/pushing electoralism is just wasting people's time, and at the end is just a liberal
How is the PSL any better
@@Theorychad99 PSL, CPUSA, and green party are also a waste of time, all of electoralism here in the US is
Lol all that talk and nothing heard. Silly guilt by association habits prevail.
This attitude is why left is divided into milion tiny cliques and why in particular communists have it worst (hyper hypenated anarchists at least are fine with mixing and matching their tiny ideological puzzles).
I can gather from this comment that you know little about the internal mechanisms of the DSA, nor the differences between major chapters. DSA deserves ample critique, which the guest provides along with his comrades, but it is also the most public and broad organization for rallying support for Marxist ideas both among underdeveloped socialists and the large amounts of workers that they collaborate with. Personally, I consider ultraleftist sectarians to be a waste of time, but I still engage with them!
Also, read “Left-Wing” Communism ;)
One of the biggest mistakes of the USSR was centralization of the ideology. Any modern party should embrace and discuss sectarian divides healthily.
They were being starved literally by NATO. All the other Russian leaders were too scared to lead Russia. So ultimately the party protected itself rather than even daring to extend power out from the center. Because NATO was constantly running clandestine operations to undermine the USSR. Any show of weakness would allow a Western sponsored coup in the USSR.
2:24:00
🤠💜
I always worry about people calling for "Left Unity" because I've seen tankies ban people for expressing an alternative opinions, claiming that sectarianism is bad and left unity is enforced. Left unity needs to be structured on respect not fear.
This whole discussion reeks of larp
I think it is a mistake to call Deng revisionist.
Everyone revises shit, you have to revise shit to make theory relevant to the world as it changes. Why do you care about revisionism in the year 2023?
Just found 1Dime from his appearance on Macro n Cheese. This is the first episode I listened to.
Unfortunately, it's the last episode I'll listen to, as he and his guest dis Caleb Maupin. I have immense respect for Caleb. It is ludicrous to dismiss him the way these two guys do, it is so intellectually dishonest, that I can't seriously consider them as sources for good information.
If one of you are reading this, shame on you.
LMFAO
his old partner, ben norton, makes much better stuff of a similar vein
Nah, we don't need to hear anything from MLs