Figured I could get the best recommendations here since most "breadtubers" seem to be fundamentally liberal, milquetoast socdem types. Especially interested in theory, etc. topics like that. The longer the video the better.
JohnTheDuncan, FinnishBolshevik, Yugopnik, Marxist project, Bes D Marx, Second Thought, First Thought, Hakim, Geopolitical Economy Report, Balkan Odyssey
It's good to add these disclaimers so people aren't blindsided finding this out from other sources. I would still say this is a case where we need to separate the work from the personal life of the author as there really is nothing else like his content out there, not on the topics he covers and not in that kind of depth which unfortunately makes this content an invaluable learning resource. I wish more channels would make those kinds of videos. Hakim used to but lately his videos have gotten more shallow/general and less academic/historical, which is not necessarily a bad thing, he's just trying to reach a different target audience, one that is less well versed in Marxist theory and history. And that is important too, we need to build mass appeal, but for those of us who have already been studying Marxism-Leninism for some time it's sort of preaching to the choir... i miss the historical deep dives.
Being able to look past these things is good. I don't like mentioning this whenever his channel is suggested but I would have wanted others to do the same
the link should have led to a specific section (
#others-1), but you can just search "finnish"The reddit post is deleted but I'm assuming it was an upload of the chat?
Oh wow, that's some horrible shit. Unfortunately, his channel is still pretty good for Marxist content and analysis of Marxist literature. But I'm not so sure about recommending him anymore. Do we know if that is indeed him?
Balkan Odyssey is a weird (weird in the idk what to think about them sense) one imo. They've got some good videos but I remember watching their "What do we do with former socialism" video and they had some bad opinions. The one I remember off the top of my head was that they said
“Marxists-Leninists, or Stalinists, for the lack of a better term […]”
His channel is a documentation of his development from lib nationalist to communist, generally pretty good.
Vijay Prashad, David Harvey, lectures and talks at the People's Forum
Marxist theory
Socialism For All ☭ Intensify Class Struggle
Current events/life in AES countries
History
Environement
Some of my favorites:
Fellow traveler
Paul cockshott
Elliot sang
Lily alexandre
Socialism for all
Please don't advertise Paul Cockshott, he hates sex workers (CW):
spoiler
Why should we ‘listen to the sex workers’? Why are we to be so solicitous of the commercial interests of brothel keepers and wh**es?
Source: https://paulcockshott.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/socialists-can-never-support-prostitution/
He's a TERF and believes there's simply no such thing as gender, only biological sex:
https://paulcockshott.wordpress.com/2017/12/12/genders-or-sex-stereotypes-part-1/
https://paulcockshott.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/genders-or-sex-stereotypes-part-2/
https://paulcockshott.wordpress.com/2017/12/23/genders-or-sex-stereotypes-part-3/
He doesn't agree with unequal exchange theory, which in turn leads him to conclude that Western workers are subjected to a higher rate of exploitation than workers in the Global South (which is a necessary conclusion without accounting for unequal exchange):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNIUK7d8bRM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT5C_8QZG9I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frk2s_ggzt8
Source: https://paulcockshott.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/socialists-can-never-support-prostitution/
I dont hate the arguement here, 'eleminating' essentially means removing the material reasons why people are coerced into the sex trade. There are strong femminist arguements against this that boil down to the reason it even has value to begin with is the male gaze/patriarchy and liberal conceptions of the 'pornography industry'.
Some of his later arguements are a bit nonsensical regarding productive/non-productive labour though.
However yeah its disapointing to see him fall for the TERF idpolitics or abandon the ideas around primative accumlation and unequal exchange.
Cockshott uses the W word completely unironically there, he just openly hates victimised women, which is truly appalling behaviour that should get him booted from any communist party.
Disclaimer: I don't support prostitution although for different reasons, pasting below my comment about it from another thread:
I used to think this is simply, "sex workers are the ones carrying all the risk and harm, so only their opinion matters. sex worker organisations call for full decriminalisation. /thread"
Until I learned decriminalisation of sex work in the first world leads to increased human trafficking from the Global South: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X12001453#s0045
To put it bluntly, brown women who would otherwise lead their normal lives, are kindapped and smuggled to beremovedd by white men, in large numbers, whenever a first world country decriminalises prostitution.
This works both ways - criminalising prostitution reduces human trafficking, as shown above in the case study.
People trafficked from the Global South are completely marginalised and poweless, they don't have a voice. The voices we hear, calling for decriminalisation, are mostly from self employed Westerners. And while I genuinely do care about their right to safer work conditions, for me it doesn't trump the right of brown women to not be kidnapped andremovedd by white men.
I feel the exact same way as you regarding sex work.
Yeah I agree the way he frames it and talks about betrays his actual reactionary feelings of disgust at sex workers (as well as trans people) which is why hes clearly a right-devionanist
He might have made some good contributions to breaking myths related to the USSR, but sometimes assholes make one good point, its important to be critical of everyone and not fall victim to cults of personality.
No one is worshipping cockshott. “Cults of personality” are a liberal concept. What matters is ruthless criticism of all that exists, ie evaluating all claims of any individual or organization critically. I’m not even a cockshott fan, I just heard he was decent and saw a couple decent videos. I have yet to do my own critical evaluation.
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
Link 3:
Not to start this struggle session again, but his prostitution take isn’t that bad. Under capitalism prostitution is a sorry means of survival or petty bourgeois lifestyle. “Sex work” under socialism is an absurdity. People can fuck whomever and still get the minimums for life, but it doesn’t make sense to pour money into an unproductive industry. If anything - as cockshott implies - stay at home parents are worthy of monetary compensation for their contribution to society.
I was aware of the terf stuff and unequal exchange stuff, but didn’t have much exposure to it. I will look into those links.
He literally calls sex workers "wh*r*s" in the piece I linked which is supposed to be serious Marxist economic theory.
I don't support prostitution (I also never use the term swerf because it draws completely incorrect parallels between sex work legalisation and trans liberation) but this is deplorable.
Obviously I'm not the first person to notice it and he kept it like that on his blog for years so it's exactly what he meant to say, too.
Nobody mentioned Prolekult yet. Sure they focus on economics a lot (like Michael Roberts, but their videos have good production value and are good to share with people who might be new to communism/Marxism.
They made a full length documentary that hasn't gotten many views (I think the length turns people off) but I remember it being decent.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
