I'm a boring plain jane marxist, not an ML. I started out as an anarchist though when I was a kid. My reasoning for being a Marxist and not an anarchist or an ML is the following:

• Anarchism (which is essentially late stage socialism) is ultimately the end goal of Marxism of any kind

• Marxism-Leninism and Maoism as forms of struggle seem to be most successful in war torn regions and areas outside the Imperial Core.

• Even France had a sizeable Communist Party at one point, due to the Nazi occupation, reaching 40% of the population's support. However, due to its position in the Imperial Core, this Communist Party did not achieve anything noteworthy. A similar tale happened in Weimar Germany, however they faced the blackest reaction to date.

• The lack of success of Communist Parties in the Imperial Core means we are either going about the process wrong, or we simply cannot achieve anything due to the material conditions of the majority of the population. This means we need to change our approach or wait.

• The successes of anarchists within the imperial core are even more fraught, mostly amounting to supply line delays or assassinations.

• Orthodox Marxist-Leninist states have an issue of developing technology fast enough, mostly due to a lack of cooperation from capitalist countries and being forced to develop things in parallel with no technological advantage. This forces those countries into reformism or stagnation. With the lack of success in the Imperial Core and the current ML states being forced into a period of reformism, we are not currently capable of knowing if our current tech is capable of forcing socialism just yet. Even if conditions within the Imperial Core are not enough to create long term, dedicated socialist movements spontaneously, how do we expect countries like China to hold non-reformist Marxist-Leninist views? They need to find a way to exist in the interim, and the only way that is going to happen is if they develop their countries in the fastest way possible while holding on to an anti-imperialist, but not necessarily a hardline socialist, stance.

• Given this, I can see any anarchist society having these issues, but perhaps even more internal struggles due to capitalist encirclement. Again, this is more an issue of technology and conditions, not ideology. We just haven't seen the conditions yet for an anarchist society to thrive.

• Ultimately, your ideology doesnt matter at all, in the future some sort of calamity will occur and that will dictate what sort of socialist movement is created. An individuals ideology will have zero say on what form this movement takes.

Don't bother with stupid dogmatic differences. They fall by the wayside when people are actually committed to activism.

I'm an anarchist, but if anything is gonna convince you to go full tankie, it'll be looking into the absurd propaganda by western powers against marxist-leaning groups, like the governments of the PRC and DPRK. If you still believe in uyghur genocide or crazy rocket man kim jong-un, then of course you'll be opposed to marxists. But you gotta realize it's all bullshit. And once that layer of bullshit is removed, you might find that you actually lean further toward that side of things than you thought.

Or you might not. I'm still an anarchist despite mostly understanding the propaganda now. But I'm happy to work with marxists of any variety as long as they're willing to work with me.

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Anarchism is good and we all want it. Become a tankie to help bring it about for our descendants.

Has there been a successful anarchist revolution?

MLM (yes- read some Maoists. Understanding mass line organizing is maybe the most important thing in the US right now imo) theory gives you a very solid philosophical framework and an outline of how a revolution can be done. It also deeply analyzes class and imperialism in a way that anarchism doesn't. My feeling is that in the US especially, the left needs way more discipline, way more strategic planning, an actual program that we can work towards and refine. I don't see anarchism doing any of this.

One of the things that finally pushed me over was the realization that some of the more successful anarchist projects (ie. revolutionary Catalonia under the cnt/fai) were basically just mlism with a black flag. Like the fact that they had full blown labor camps and purged the shit out of the church for being reactionary doesn’t really sound very libertarian to me lmao

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As usual Parenti continues to be prescient. :parenti:

How do you plan to keep the capitalist encirclement at bay?

This cannot be done without understanding your critique of Marxism-Leninism

Why though? Serious question (from someone ML-leaning).

Are you doubting the validity of your own theory? If so, based on what criteria? Are you simply trying to learn more about other tendencies? If so, there's no need for "convincing" as such.

Do you see an inherent benefit in going "full tankie" (please don't actually use that term, it's meaningless) over refining your own grasp of theory within anarchism or as a successfull movement overall?

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Where should we start?

What are your hangups on MLism? Why do you prefer anarchism more right now, that is, what does Anarchism have ideologically that appeals to you more? What is the driving force behind your radicalization and belief systems? What are your personal and your regions' material conditions like? What are your personal/familial connections to either ideologies? What is the track record of each ideologies where you live? Whats the track record in places with different material conditions? What do you want out of either ideology and what are you willing to do to get what you want?

Sorry for the barrage of questions (oh and btw make sure not to doxx yourself answering), but i think its a good way to get this kind of discussion going, i feel like it will help me and everyone to see were you are coming from instead of jumping straight to the usual "name one succesful anarchist revolution" circlejerk and/or diving into random topics and comparisons between the ideologies. Im excited tbh, this is a pretty interesting topic/good question!

You’re white

I end my case there

If this doesn't convince you, I don't know what will...