I call myself a Marxist and not an ML only because I've never gotten around to reading any Lenin. I'd probably agree with him, but feels weird to call myself an ML if I don't actually know what Lenin added.
Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism is a banger, Lenin cites mail statistics to show clear evidence of capital's tendency toward monopoly. I consider it a "must read" and a good jumping off point into ML theory because it uses hard evidence like that. I'll warn you though. The run-on sentences can be entire paragraphs. My man really liked commas.
Oh and one of the banks he rails against? Deutsche Bank. It's pretty astounding how much doesn't change.
People talk about State & Revolution and I'm sure it's great, but Imperialism really speaks to my soul, I think.
State and Revolution was fun for dunking on Soc Dems. Imperialism blew my mind with a lot of the analysis of financial capital and WW1.
Reading Imperialism and seeing how many major companies Lenin calls out by name and seeing them still exist today was absolutely a mind fuck.
Totally. It was especially salient because I read it when the Trump/Deutsche Bank scandal was at its peak in the liberal press.
Given the history of socialism in the 20th century, it’d be hard not to be imo. Although I like there are ultra left folks who essentially say that all those attempted revolutions and socialist states were revisionist and therefore don’t negate the analysis
Say the line :hoxha-turt: :
The modern revisionists and reactionaries call us Stalinists, thinking that they insult us and, in fact, that is what they have in mind. But, on the contrary, they glorify us with this epithet; it is an honor for us to be Stalinists for while we maintain such a stand the enemy cannot and will never force us to our knees.
Hoxha line outta the way:
Tbh, I dislike the term Stalinism. I don't think Stalin's contributions rise to the level of being an -ism, which irrc was an opinion shared by the man himself. If need be, it might be better to use something like "Joseph Stalin Thought" or "Joseph Stalin Path", analogous to MZT or Prachanda Path.
