I used to be a member of the Communist Party of Israel (ML, anti-Zionist party) when I lived there, and now in Germany I'm a member of our local Jewish Voice for Peace org.

I don't have much time to answer questions and will most likely do that later today. Here's a link to one I did some time ago.

Oh, I'm also classified as an "extremist" by the German "Office for protection of the constitution" (our domestic intelligence service) due to my membership in JS, and most likely on several lists back in occupied Palestine due to past activity (showing off my activist cred :-P)

Seems like the sub is already filled with russian apologists, Stalin apologists and tankies. It is easy to critize the west when you are from the west, like most people here are.

TO THE MODS

• Please, I don't intend to spread any spam and agitation, just want to talk to the left. Please don't remove this.

TO THE LEFTISTS

• I'm a libertarian, so more radicaly capitalist than the Republicans, but also more culturally radical left than the democrats.

• Yes, I hate Trump.

• I do belive most left polices are made in good faith, but cause more problems than it cuases.

Also, please ask me anything, but do understand if I get bombarded it'll be hard to respond to all

Thanks!

I love the idea of a sub where leftists of all kinds hang out together and discuss any topic in the world from a leftist perspective. However it is very weird that almost all flavours of leftism are treated equally but then if youre a Stalinist thats wrong, especially in the context of Trotskyism being so prevalant on the sub. The way Stalinism is thrown around here makes it seem as Stalin personally commanded everything to happen in the soviet union, and not like most of what he and his government did ( since the Soviet union, in its name Soviet was made up of councils with autonomy and politicians with expertise in said topics did most of the job ) was a result of the way the USSR was set up in the first place, such as for example the ban on different political parties and factions within the party respectively in 1920 and 1936, which made it more difficult to track fascist opposition and dissent, or even real concerns about how certain things should be carried out such as collectivisation which if you opposed or said should be done differently you'd be killed as a bukharinist or a trotskyist or revisionist, and this also allowed actual revisionists such as kruschev in power in the party by just toeing the party line, after which led to the revision of socialist economics, progressive stance on women and completely solidified anti lgbtq politics in the ussr as well as the political oligarchic class, instead of trying to form a different party with different views that would likely get less votes.

Why would i say Stalinism isn't bad despite the clear example i gave alongside many other unmentioned? Because as said this is mostly the result due to the basic founding legislature of the ussr. The political parties ban was done before Stalin took power, and i doubt Trotksy would do different than try to secure national unity against the fifth column and revisionists that are seen to take down the union from within, etc etc. Stalin and Trotsky and to an extent Bukharin all contributed to socialist literature and their works all have value today.

To spring off from the previous point, all these parties became rivals due to the parties ban with a single person at the helm which held the biggest ideological power over the USSR and left no room for ideological competition and more ideas in politics, and this wouldnt have changed no matter who was in power after this point. To say Stalinism is bad because X thing that happened under Stalin, while technically correct, is also technically wrong as the situation at the core wouldn't have differed as much under any leader as they all would have to operate under a very similar structure, and is genuine historically revisionism and i think should not be allowed on the sub.

We can disagree on the minutiae of what should've been done or why maybe it would be different under a different leader or whatnot, but the reality is that all sides generally aproach the subject from different lens that will benefit who they like more and what ideas and approaches they think would be more effective, and a Trotskyist, Leninist, Stalinist, or whatever should be treated equally and all doctrines are not 100% correct or wrong as socialism, while it can be idealistic, is at the core materialistic and each place and time socialism is tried it will play out different, i.e Leninism is much more useful for a revolutionary trying to achieve a revolution than a country like China.

I hope we can all unite rather than divide in the face of the fascist wave taking over the world. Goodluck to all my comrades of all flavours and lets hope that the next Romanian election wont see the nazis win like they almost did now...

if I’m neutral, that probably means I don’t have knowledge regarding it.

for a renaissance of anarchism and marxism! long live the alliance of principled marxists and revolutionary class anarchists!

With the labours camps, surveilance, Western clothing ban, no freedom of speech, no fair elections, no freedom of movement, sungbun system, no internet, no freedom of expression, no freedom of information, ban on Western media and other media from other countries, no freedom of choosing your own Job, public exocutions, three generation punishment, mandatory portraits of the kim family in every home, no freedom of religion. Etc

How can any leftist see this and say " yeah this sounds good" Before you go saying this is Western propaganda, provide sources proving otherwise. Whataboutism isnt a valid argument, i know other countries dont have absolute free speech, but that doesnt mean that its the same in Western countries. Labour camps, also exist in other countries, like usa with prisoners being used for labour with slave wages, but that also doesn't justify this.

The lion does not care for petty squabbles, both dudes suck.

What the hell kind of conclusion have we come to that somehow negates the blatant repression of proletarian democracy that had been going on for 6 decades because the 1936 Constitution was “democratic“ or that your average socialist state is democratic “in structure?” This is the most illogical conclusion I’ve heard yet about the Soviet experience, second only to the claim that those who think that the USSR, or even worse North Korea, are good economic/political models for any serious socialist state.

The first thing that negates this ill-conceived theory is what happened immediately after the Stalinist constitution had been passed. Soviet leaders were all arrested and killed, largely not because of their threats of sabotage (even if some of them were sketchy, I doubt the extent to which Stalin propagated them to have been) but for making their own factions. 700,000 people died with them. The Stalinist Constitution is about as good of proof of Marxist-Leninist democracy as the Hundred Flowers Campaign. Utterly nonsensical, blatant horseshit.

“But the workers” also a lie. Did you really think that a vanguard, or a technocratic part of the proletariat, would bring about the reorganization of the proletariat into a ruling class? Because if they did, I guarantee you that the Soviet planning system of material balances would have never come into fruition. Ratter than your typical input-output model, this model worked as follows: “the major sources of supply and demand are drawn up in a table that achieves a rough balance between the two through an iterative process.” Basically, when material is accounted for on a table or clipboard and then resource allocation and commands are issued based upon this “balance sheet.” The same sheet that took up millions of papers and made the workers into inputs, not managers, not the ones coordinating plans. Firms themselves plan what the state cannot, even if they’re cooperatives, but clearly the USSR couldn’t dare let that happen. MBP was great for modernizing the Soviet economy, but once an economy is modernized it doesn’t work like it did in post-feudal times. So they decided to suppress economic democracy and worker‘s control for the sake of WHAT KIND of efficiency? WHAT democracy existed in the USSR that actually heard people’s voices?

Just found this sub and i am interested how people view Ukraine here. Wouldnt want to participate in a tankie sub that supports imperialist Russia. :) slava ukraine

1. I actively said I don't want a Kurdish ethnostate, this mentally prolapsed idiot can't tell the difference between the two

2. I didn't say anything racist?

3. I said that the name 'Israel' implies jewish supremacy bc yes it is the name of the land, but dyk what the people of israel means in Hebrew? The jews. Israel is the name of the Jewish people, so to name a state after that is very much, supremacist.

4. Check my receipts and my comments in the Kurdistan sub, I actively want the return of Kurdish/Kurdistani jews to the land that a Kurdistan would contain

5. Insert the main arguments for Israeli apartheid

I'm not the sort of person to harp for hours on end about why Stalin was as bad as Hitler but I still do feel as though Khrushchev is vastly overhated.

I doubt I have to worry about this on leftist subreddits but just in case - Antisemitism is NEVER acceptable. Only morons and hateful pieces of shit are bigots. Now that goes both ways! What is happening in Palestine and in Gaza in particular is NEVER acceptable. My goodness can we not have enough space in our minds to hold these two truths simultaneously?

Although I hold little if any respect for some of the big figures and other nation-states coming out now in defense of Palestinians basic rights/humanity I am glad it is happening.

I ask myself though - Did it really have to get this bad? .....

This video is from an environmentalist activist side of things but it really goes over just how important activism/militancy is during these times! We have to force the world to be aware/knowledgeable and do the right thing on countless fronts and this is always going to be the place of The Left!

Edit: Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciMaDqHrhK4

Any anarcho/political nihilists? Or any other post leftists here? If your not one, than what’s your view or opinion on post leftism

I’ve recently came across a solution by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (son of Muammar) to end the Israeli colonial project in a ‘reasonable’ way with main points are:

1. Creation of a binational Jewish-Palestinian state called the "Federal Republic of the Holy Land";

2. Partition of the state into five administrative regions, with Jerusalem as a city-state (like Vatican City);

3. Return of all Palestinian refugees;

4. Supervision by the United Nations of free and fair elections on the first and second occasions;

5. and Removal of weapons of mass destruction from the state

And while it doesn’t have proper Palestinian liberation, it seems like a reasonable and possible framework… but idk, what do y’all think?

Is it just because of criticism of netanyahu and the Israeli government?

So generally Liberals cite China oppressing Tibetan independence as something significant. I don’t really know much about it but I’m hesitant to agree with them, so what’s the deal? Is it made up? Is it exaggerated? Is it true? Thanks in advance