asceticism as asceticism is a religious principle arising (in christianity at least, i know other religions have similar traditions) from the ritual mortification of the flesh to bring one closer to divinity. i really don't know of anything in left political thought that maps onto it. for all the ecstasy and joy of revolution, it also inevitably brings a lot of uncertainty and suffering, so marxists will occasionally assert that class consciousness only arises when the needs and desires of the proletariat aren't being met by the standing order. i think there's lots of good historical evidence to support this claim, but it become paradoxical if we vilify those same needs and desires. the central thesis of the anarchist Kropotkin's Conquest was that meeting the needs of the masses was a precondition for a successful revolution, and we can put this idea in a progression with striking American textile workers' demand for "bread and roses" in 1912. we can find the valorization of self-denial all over the postwar guerilla movements, but always for a higher purpose, never a moral end in itself.