I am personally for radical direct democracy, nothing less, nothing more, because I view the political as trumping the economic, feel free to purge me once the revolution is there but I am interested if there are other “alternative” takes
I am personally for radical direct democracy, nothing less, nothing more, because I view the political as trumping the economic, feel free to purge me once the revolution is there but I am interested if there are other “alternative” takes
I prefer to label myself as a Marxist. If there was a more concrete movement in my country that aligned with my views I would go for that but until then I think fringe left political labels only alienate people who have ingrained knee jerk reactions to words like “anarchist” and “communist.” Labels are dumb anyway but until I find an actual revolutionary group to join what is even the point of calling myself anything else?
I hate that the term communist was so thoroughly propagandized. It's actually less sectarian than even Marxist as being communist only implies your end goals and stays nothing about how you plan to get there.
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:thinkin-lenin:
The thing for me is that Marxism is a worldview or analytical method for understanding what the hell is going on. The way I see it, it's intertwined with, but not necessarily congruent with your political views. It's conceivable to be a Marxist who understands class conflict, historical materialism, contradictions inherent to the capitalist mode of production etc etc... and still be a capitalist in political/economic ideology (arguably a more effective one), though you'd still be a bastard of course.
Obviously Marxist Leninism, Maoism (and so on) are applications of Marxism (and its derivatives) to the political sphere, with the goal of overthrowing oppressor classes and liberating all people. Each of these were suited to the conditions of the geographic/economic/political landscapes of their respective times and places, and while we have a ton to learn from them, I don't think it's necessary to latch on to any of these particular labels. What we should be working toward is socialism with American/European/Chilean characteristics (whichever applies). These socialisms may be revisionist from the start (cough cough American) or they might be fairly badass (Venezuela/Chile/Bolivia/Peru pink wave), but they'll be suited for whatever is going on over there. As Marxists, we need to be alert for opportunities to use whatever resources are available to improve life for the working class. In 2016 USA that might be critical support for soc-dem grandpa, but in the future I certainly hope that we can do more to improve the lives of workers of the global South outside of what Bernie Sanders can offer (which is simply a better redistribution of the ill-gotten gains of the American Empire).