Forward, comrade!

“The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses.”

  • 254 Posts
  • 594 Comments
Joined 3Y ago
cake
Cake day: Jan 07, 2020

help-circle
rss

Didn’t notice that. I used a low polygon Earth model I found on the internet, no idea why the person who created it hates your people


I created a bone for every branch, and the result was already satisfactory, but I could’ve created more bones for each leaf and make the animation a little more complex, but all things considered it wasn’t needed that much.

The scaling and animation of branches already did wonders


I eventually followed your approach, comrade. Here are the results: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/569783


Thanks to [@Aria@lemmygrad.ml](https://lemmygrad.ml/u/Aria) for the tips, using bones was the best approach indeed
fedilink

I think that did it, comrade! I was finally able to make the video work. Thank you very much


I think it’ll probably work. Make sure the origin of each stalk is where the stem is, so they grow in the right direction. You could consider rigging them with two bones to add some bounce and jiggle to them,

Wonderful suggestion, comrade, I’ll look into rigging thanks to you. I can already see how to do give it some life through that approach. Any idea on how I would create the effect of the leaves growing from the stems? The shape of the wheat would have to grow different rates in different areas


I used ffmpeg to convert a sequence of PNG images (sized 1080x2400) to mp4, having a lot of trouble with compatibility. I had trouble uploading the video everywhere. I tried many things, and later I used these options:

ffmpeg -framerate 30 -i %04d.png -c:v libx264 out.mp4

The input part is because I have a sequence of 0000.png, 0001.png, etc.

Unfortunately, Handbrake doesn’t deal with image sequences as far as I looked.


You can keyframe any value in your node graph and then use that for animation.

So you recommend that I animate it by altering its shape through keyframes?

You need to describe in more detail what you want and what you can’t figure out.

The idea is to make the stalks grow in this direction. Animating the scale of each individual stalk could be a good idea, but I’m looking for a more elegant look to it, and I’m not sure scaling them would do the trick… The fact is, I’m extremely ignorant in Blender, and I’m probably having a hard time to even explain what I’m trying to accomplish, so sorry about that. But I think you got the idea of what I’m trying to do


This is what I currently have. Selected is a 2D mesh converted from a curve imported from an SVG.

I haven’t done anything related to Geometry Nodes, but I have the impression that it’s possible to create an animation through it. But no matter how many tutorials and documentation I go through, I can’t even think of where to begin

Edit: the geometry of the stalk is a bit irregular


I've been playing with Blender, and I managed to create an animation for ProleWiki (shown in the link) My question is, if anyone happens to use Blender, how to use Geometry Nodes or anything similar to make the wheat stalks look like they're growing?
fedilink

Very nice descriptions of party organs, but their justification of the Reform is honestly bad and all over the place lol




Just try not to fuel the ideological discourse to ban TikTok because this serves the interest of US monopolies on social media, who directly benefit from the banning of TikTok and regain monopoly on discourse and public opinion. More like opposition to banning but a demand to regulate TikTok, is a much better discourse. In fact, a regulation on social media in general.


Yes, TikTok is a nightmare and pushes ideology, softcore pornography, mindless dopamine hits and affects children of several countries. The Chinese company takes the opportunity that there are no legislation to regulate the content of these social media, so they push the most addictive content possible, in hopes to profit from marketing.

China has a regulation of social media, hence why the Chinese TikTok (Douyin) does not push this kind of content in the country.


“You see, both Russia and China are authoritarian great powers who each wish to disrupt the status quo in Eurasia to their benefit” (direct quote, 1:50)

I was about to drop a few R-Rated words about you posting this comrade, but then I saw where this was posted


There’s no right answer to this, only the concrete conditions of each people in each epoch can tell. For instance, the main contradictions of the Soviet Union in 1922 were quite different from the main contradictions of the Soviet Union in 1953, yet you can argue they were both socialism if your understanding of socialism means the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Even if the Soviet Union abolished (for some time) the existence of exploitative classes after the collectivization of their rural economy, they still had a class contradiction between the imperialist class of the worldwide economy. Class contradictions would only cease after a worldwide victory of socialism over capitalism.

So, taking into consideration that this is a guessing game, like @PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml said, and that each people will face different contradictions based on their historical development, I would say the main contradiction after a worldwide victory of socialism would probably to reduce the impact of climate change and research methods to revert them if possible. In fact, I would argue that the changing climate conditions are a major contradiction of our times right now, of course, subordinate to the class contradiction.

Under communism? No point in delving over something that far from now, we can’t tell what things will be like in a hundred years. The main focus of study of communists is not “communism,” but the current historical conditions of our times.


Puedes publicar contenidos como este en la comunidad Leftsthetics, camrada. Puesto que sólo son imágenes


It’s Poland. We have probably the most tight information bubble i ever saw, even in murica propaganda isn’t that uniform. Finding any alternate worldviews to our information oligopy is possible only in the internet.

When I went to Poland, news related to Ukraine and war was omnipresent. Every place with a TV was flashing news about Ukraine, NATO and the war there. From the airport to the hotel, that was the only subject it was talked about.

Your country is beautiful, nonetheless, a shame it was made a vassal anticommunist state


To attract more members and have more influence especially in student movements


It’s so sad because apart from their shitty views on gender, CPGB-ML has so much potential


I wish I was joking, but yes, they use their members to romantically involve with sympathizers so they could attract more members. It’s so prevalent it’s hard to believe their members are not instructed to do so


There was a protest against Jair Bolsonaro where UJS came with a huge speaker and because of that basically took direction of the protest and kept chanting extremely cringe and pathetic things over and over (it was repeating “o tsunami da educação!” over a funk track and rhythm), basically making the protesters look ridiculous


In Brazil it would have to be Partido Liberal (PL) or Partido Comunista do Brasil (PCdoB) depending on what’s more disgusting to you: a party which represents bourgeois interests so well it’s full of fascists or a party which disguises itself as a communist but it’s run by capital and electoralism and has a disgrace of a youth wing. PCdoB’s youth wing is known for using Tática 2 (attracting members through pragmatic romantic seduction) and for frauding student elections in universities.



That could be considered true if you were saying that like 5-10 years ago. Fascist discourse became very mainstream, especially because of 4chan. But in recent years, we’ve been seeing the opposite trend, Marxism is becoming more and more mainstream.

Sometimes I wonder what’s the point. As in, should I just back off and not say anything? It doesn’t seem like saying anything makes a difference anyway.

You should definitely criticize fascists publicly, because not all readers are fascists, and they can be convinced, however, it depends where you do that. I’d say if you wished to push communist discourse in 4chan or some Twitch streams it would be useless, but on social media, such as Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc., it makes more sense. You should never try to convince fascists, you are only debating a fascist because others will see it.

Fascism is also on the rise, unfortunately. It’s become natural in some spaces, so to give up criticizing is to let it rise further. It’s easier for fascists because fascist discourse is promoted by bourgeois means of communication, from TV to internet social media, but self-defeat only makes it stronger, so yes, there is a point indeed in criticizing these people.


I think so too. Thank you for making this post, comrade. Let’s wait for the opinion of others before we act on it, but it should be very evident the outcome of this.


If you are able to help open a new language for ProleWiki, the administration (in this case me) will support you in opening it, you’d just need to translate some interface messages and some documents (such as our principles), etc. Honestly, even if you do not have the technical experience, the effort to translate stuff is a bit of work, but if you’re into that, please, contact us in any way and we can arrange opening it in your language


Can you let us know what was your main account and why you can’t access it? What error does it give you when you try logging in?


The majority of people use Discord, so that’s a major reason why we won’t focus solely on Matrix, but we’re open to it, that’s why we have a chatroom there. However, we focus on Discord, but I respond to messages in Matrix whenever I see them. Since the overwhelming majority of editors and sympathizers of ProleWiki are on Discord, it’s reasonable that we prioritize developing our community there instead of on Matrix.

Ideally, we could have a Matrix server for us and an account associated with Matrix. ProleWiki could also have its own Lemmy, can you imagine that? Editors would be given an account where they could interact with others, share links, request and discuss articles, about 20 to 50 editors from all over the world interacting and discussing in public view.

We can dream very high, but we are lacking in numbers for such organization. We only have 2 managers at the moment, me and Critical, and there is just so much we can do. There are some editors specializing in certain tasks, such as Clover and Deogeo on agitprop, let’s hope we’ll have someone associated with ProleWiki interested in developing things like this in the future.


Absolutely, unfortunately Discord is still more convenient than Matrix (roles, custom emojis, integration with MediaWiki, and few other things, especially bots)


I understand your restrictions with Discord. I myself have much restrictions with it, but why do you think Jitsi would be better for everyone?


It was initially something restricted to ProleWiki’s Discord server but the editors decided to open it

I reject that I do any hard work for ProleWiki, in fact I wish I could spend more time working on it. I have no dreams about ProleWiki, I’ll try my best to help make it an useful tool for revolutionary education


Follow-up post about ProleWiki’s book club
The first ProleWiki book club happened 12th February at 8PM UTC, and it was conceived and led by RedCustodian, with [@CriticalResist](https://lemmygrad.ml/u/CriticalResist8) helping set it up, and Clover helping with the reading. ![](https://lemmygrad.ml/pictrs/image/fdd89ead-90af-42ba-ad06-c8d1e13790ce.png) It was a great success and signs that ProleWiki is starting to become an organic entity, because this is perhaps the first time that a major decision was made without my contribution to it, because I was not directly involved in the conceiving to the execution of the book club. More than 2 years ago, when ProleWiki was merely 2 months old, I made [some comments](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/9198) (some very idealist) on the direction of social ownership of ProleWiki: > *We hope that in about a year or so, ProleWiki is able to exist without me individually and becomes a valuable resource to revolutionaries from all over the world, socially owned by all contributors.* It took way more than a year, but we finally have an expression of this goal, which is a somewhat big decision being taken without my contribution. I think this is pretty symbolic of the direction of our organization, which is slowly, but steadily growing. Even though some big decisions are still directly in the hands of [CriticalResist](https://lemmygrad.ml/u/CriticalResist8) and myself, especially administrative ones, ProleWiki couldn't have maintained an unity among its editors without some level of democracy inside our server. Editorial decisions about the content of our wiki is no longer a decision solely made by the administration, and the administration promotes a culture of consultative democracy in most of the bigger decisions of our project. As an important disclaimer, I should add that the administration does not hold up democratic values merely because we hold up an ideal and we are noble defenders of democratic centralism. Democratic centralism works, and it gives integrity to an organization. When decisions are discussed previously, sometimes exhaustively, the chances of disagreements are close to a minimal, and only in a free criticism environment can discussions happen until their exhaustion.
fedilink

Yes, I always found the most obscure shit ever on soulseek. Whenever I can’t find any album/artist on thepiratebay, rutracker or similar, I always resort to soulseek, and it never disappoints.

My grandmother once asked me if I could make her a CD because a specific CD stopped working and it was a 1974 compilation of Chico Buarque songs, so I downloaded up to 3 torrents of Chico Buarque’s discography (between 50 and 70 albums each), and it was in none of them. I could only find them in Soulseek and I made my grandmother smile that afternoon.

If you can’t find it in soulseek, it probably never existed


COVID was lab-produced by the United States and the Pentagon. The US has historically used bioweapons both through wars (Korean War) and covertly (Cuba dengue epidemic) [those are just two examples].

In its desperate drive to compete against a fast rising China, the United States (DoS + Pentagon + CIA) preferred to sabotage world economy and hurt the two countries through a global pandemic than to let China outlast them very quickly. They could be seeking for more time to react to the rise of China.

The Foreign Ministry of China called in 2021 for investigations in the United States biological weapon facility Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina, to which the United States never gave a response.

From January to August 2019, a few months before the pandemic, the United States ran a joint exercise called Crimson Contagion to test the capacity of the federal government to respond to a pandemic from China. It described the virus as a “respiratory virus [that] began in China”. The Times of Israel reported that the CIA alerted Israeli and NATO officials of a pandemic in China in November 2019, a month before China fist detected the virus and sent the information to the WHO (end of December 2019).


But isn’t trans then much more a reaffirmation of whatever dominant historical gender-expression/-definition?

If they were really a reaffirmation of traditional gender expression, then why would they be so attacked by the most conservative and reactionary sectors of bourgeois society?

Trans people will exist irrespective of what we argue here. It’s not a reaffirmation, but it’s certainly a reflection of the historical gender expression. Trans people are in fact a subversion of the dominant historical gender-expression by making it more apparent that gender is not a biological thing. What is perceived as feminine is much of a fiction as being trans, because what makes a child have interest for pink colors, a baby doll, a kitchen set and make up at childhood is much more related to bourgeois ideology and production than an inherent biological predisposition. The dominant bourgeois historical understanding of gender was that women were those who were born with a uterus, and man with a penis. But neither biology is that simple, much less social life. Trans people through their mere existence frees gender from its arbitrary (pseudo)biological prison.

This doesn’t prevent gender from being reproduced historically through the family institution. Because of the traditional family, people born with an uterus are raised as women precisely because of their genitalia. This is how womanhood reproduces itself. They will be given baby dolls to take care of, they will be given a kitchen set to role-play with, they will be closer to their mothers doing housework with them. This is the traditional gender norms, which still survives in the family. The struggles of trans people have pushed society to re-evaluate traditional gender norms and what is expected of people based on their gender. This newer generation will be more and more open to share housework, to share work raising children, because that will be no longer something expected solely of a particular gender of people.


Gender expressions not associated with genitalia have existed since the beginning of history. One concrete example is the Sumerian gala priests which had a penis but were not associated with males, and were considered either “genderless” or feminine. West African societies had up to 5 different gender expressions, and the same can be said for some Native peoples of North America.

Gender expression is a social-historical construct and what is perceived as being associated with one gender changes over time. In some epochs, women were expected to be talkative, in others, to be silent and subservient, the same for men in different epochs. Gender may have biological predispositions, but it’s largely determined by historical conditions.

For some time, gender was socially associated with genitalia, an assumption which overlooked manifestations of transgender behavior in every period, such as transvestites, and instead were severely repressed them throughout Western history to conform to behavior expected of the gender assigned to them at birth. Heliogabalus, a Roman emperor was a transvestite, regularly used makeup and wigs and preferred to be called a lady. There wasn’t a term for trans people in the Roman empire, but it doesn’t mean there weren’t already trans people at that time.

Trans people existed throughout history, and it’s a social phenomenon which only had prominence in Western countries in the modern era after the struggles of LGBT people to be recognized, beginning in the late 60’s


I’m so sorry for your situation, comrade. It sounds really disappointing to know that you suffer from a poorly understood condition with no easy treatment available. Can you describe the pain you feel? I have no idea what generalized pain feels like. Is it pain like a burning, a needle, a cut, or blunt trauma? Also, have you always felt this pain in your life?

I know this may sound really odd, but have you tried smoking cannabis (or even better, ingesting edibles)? Cannabis has long been used by humans for treatments related to pain and diseases related to nervous system, and it’s known to have anti-inflammatory properties. There is preliminary research claiming it has positive effects on reducing pain on patients suffering from fibromyalgia, such as this one:

While the current evidence is still limited, emerging data do suggest a positive effect of cannabis in fibromyalgia. Cannabis use is not without risks, including psychiatric, cognitive, and developmental as well as the risks of addiction. As such, clinical judgment is warranted to weigh these risks and prescribe to patients who are more likely to benefit from this treatment. Further research is required to define appropriate patient selection and treatment regimens.

Edible cannabis products are preferred because it doesn’t hurt your lungs and it’s the safest option, but the “high” is usually stronger.

An important disclaimer: cannabis is not for everyone and people may have awful experiences with it. The drug can also be addictive (despite what your dopehead friends say) and can trigger some psychiatric disorders for some people, especially those with history in their families. Long-term and chronic use can be especially detrimental to your cognitive development, too. Like all substances, it should be used with moderation.



When you reply to others on the internet, your reply is most probably going to be seen by other people. When you engage with liberals in honesty, showing the limits of their thinking, you are inviting those who are just reading to critically evaluate their arguments as well, even if you do not directly convince the liberal you are talking with.

So I think it’s useful to respond to arguments from liberals in public forums and such sometimes


In this line, we have “xereca” in Portuguese, which is exactly how you describe. What is top notch disgusting for me is using “cuzinho” (diminutive slang for anus) non-satirically. Either you say “cu” or just be quiet, but “cuzinho” is ridiculous


I’ve seen Russian state media openly state something like “Wagner Group was essential in the liberation of Soledar” in their news media (RIA Novosti, Sputnik and TASS), so I think they are very real indeed


On strange individuals, trolls, borderline spammers and such
If you see around any individual interacting with others through strange antics, displaying weird or troll-like behavior, bot behavior, or similar, either on Lemmygrad or Lemmy, feel free to publish a people's court case about them if you think they are negatively affecting the Lemmygrad community as a whole. The usual best way to fight trolls is indifference. So if you think someone is constantly annoying, please block them, and if possible, publicly express your dissatisfaction, so that everyone is aware. Some trolls like Wisconcom can cause a major disruption in our community, and that's when we usually step in debating about the issue publicly. You are free to do so in People's Court as well, it's the place to collectively solve perceived problems within our community. You are also free to criticize the *actions* of the administrators,[^1] under public scrutiny. [^1]: criticize our actions, not our political positions. This would be perhaps more appropriate in [Leftist Infighting](https://lemmygrad.ml/c/leftistinfighting)
fedilink

Looks nothing like him lmao, but that's the best I got. I tried numerous times for a result like this. Parameters used: `Mao Tse-tung, cyberpunk, hyper realistic, neon --q 2 --v 4` I had to use "Mao Tse-tung" because "Zedong" was banned by Midjourney. Funny stuff
fedilink

Using the parameters `Fidel Castro, cyberpunk, hyper realistic, neon --q 2 --v 4`
fedilink

Done using Midjourney with the parameters `Che Guevara, cyber punk, neon, hyper realistic --q 2 --v 4` Alternative: ![](https://lemmygrad.ml/pictrs/image/d8488f3c-b429-45be-8d59-ebbb109b3216.png)
fedilink

Made with Midjourney using the parameters `Vladimir Lenin, cyber punk, neon, hyper realistic --q 2 --v 4`
fedilink

Made with Midjourney using the parameters `Karl Marx, cyber punk, neon, hyper realistic --q 2 --v 4`
fedilink

Made with Midjourney using the parameters `Joseph Stalin, cyberpunk, hyper realistic, neon --q 2 --v 4`
fedilink

Deng Xiaoping interview with Mike Wallace
> *There can be no communism with pauperism, or socialism with pauperism. So to get rich is no sin. However, what we mean by getting rich is different from what you mean. Wealth in a socialist society belongs to the people. To get rich in a socialist society means prosperity for the entire people. The principles of socialism are: first, development of production and second, common prosperity. We permit some people and some regions to become prosperous first, for the purpose of achieving common prosperity faster. That is why our policy will not lead to polarization, to a situation where the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. To be frank, we shall not permit the emergence of a new bourgeoisie.* Though it can be argued that in China there is no bourgeoisie because the bourgeois elements are not organized as a class, there is no doubt about the polarization and inequality. The rich have indeed gotten richer, while the poor have not gotten much poorer, but compared to the rich, they are still very poor. The consequences of this inequality can be seen in the increasing number of "mass incidents" from 2010s forward. Class struggle still exists in China, and it's getting increasingly intense. The latest Congress in China, establishing full employment as a goal, will definitely be an improvement in the direction of socialism. China will finally overcome the Deng Xiaoping era, and enter into a new era of socialism.
fedilink

What’s your opinion on conspiracy theories regarding George Soros?
If you happen to come across right-wing media, propaganda and discourse, you'll notice here and then a mention of George Soros as an evil mastermind behind geopolitical events, "globalist agenda" and such. Why do you think there's a focus on George Soros? We are aware of Soros' interference in global affairs through his funding of color revolutions worldwide, but why would the extreme right-wing have an aversion to Soros? This discourse regarding Soros can be found in the Brazilian extreme-right as well.
fedilink



Xi Jinping sent a letter to comrade Kim Jong-un
"I hope that you will make fresh and greater successes in accomplishing the cause of socialist construction in the DPRK by leading the Korean party and people."
fedilink

![](https://lemmygrad.ml/pictrs/image/c6b623ef-31cb-462f-909c-c3608f020922.png) Most of the edits were made by Wisconcom himself. Observe how Wisconcom will pander to imperialist propaganda (claiming Tiananmen Square was an "atrocity" to "own the revisionists" 👌👌👌), and even call us "tankies" in the article. This should illustrate Wisconcom's opportunism very clearly. He engages in chauvinistic propaganda just to portray a project he was banned from in a bad light, even if it means being anti-communist.
fedilink


Lenin on his language acquisition method
Lenin spoke, besides Russian, French, German, learned basic English on his own and also knew a bit of Italian from his wife Krupskaya. He was able to read Italian newspapers. He also possibly knew Polish, Swedish and Czech at a very basic level. In his biographies, some count up to 11 languages Lenin was acquainted with, and three languages spoken fluently besides Russian. > "I have just written a letter to Mark in which I described in exceptional detail how best to establish a “regime”; as regards mental work, I particularly recommended translations, especially both ways—first do a written translation from the foreign language into Russian, then translate it back from Russian into the foreign language. My own experience has taught me that this is the most rational way of learning a language." (Letter to his sister Maria Ulyanova, from Munich to Moscow dated 19 May, 1901, Collected Works, vol. 37)
fedilink



"The farther the virus spreads geographically, the more stretched the already-sparse resources will become, Kobinger says. And some are concerned that the virus could easily find new footholds: **the outbreak encompasses regions in Uganda that contain gold mines that attract many people, as well as a busy road that leads to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo,** Braka says." Look how Western media is preemptively providing an explanation for occupying the gold mines of the country.
fedilink

Comrades, we are presenting the first ProleWiki session to decide a focus of the editing work in ProleWiki In the comments, please present the subject(s) you think ProleWiki should focus on, taking into consideration its relevance in the education of revolutionary theory and practice, or whatever other criteria you may find relevant. This thread is not decisive, the subjects and themes suggested here will later be chosen by the editors themselves. However, we will take into consideration the most voted suggestions on our decision process, so the most requested themes will be likely chosen. Try to stick to one comment per subject/theme, as it helps voting to be consistent, so if you want to comment on the suggestions, try to do so in the replies
fedilink

Jucheguevara has been removed from administrative positions
As of today (Sep. 27 2022), ProleWiki administrator Jucheguevara has been forcibly removed from his functions by unanimous decision, and subsequently banned from ProleWiki and all affiliated accounts and projects. It had come to our attention that Jucheguevara was active in the Infrared community and asked them to create accounts under false pretenses on ProleWiki so as to covertly push their patriotic socialist/"MAGAcommunism" agenda on our pages. Not only is this a petty attempt at sabotage, it also undermines our project and everything we have built thus far. Furthermore, as a fellow administrator, we never expected Jucheguevara would not only entertain the idea of going behind our backs, but actually follow through with it. We regret that it had to come to this, but clearly he has made his friends and enemies known and we cannot trust him any longer. The Infrared community has long been known to try and infiltrate projects so as to sabotage them from the inside. Unable to build their own movement, they would rather hijack others. As of today also, anyone harbouring patsoc (specifically the USA kind) sentiments or sympathies will follow jucheguevara's example and be banned from our project. The ProleWiki administration team.
fedilink

Kim Jong-un, policy speech at the Supreme People’s Assembly
>*The higher the stage of socialist construction for achieving the independence of the masses reaches, the greater the challenge and resistance by the imperialists become. \ \ As long as imperialism, whose inherent nature and means of existence is aggression and plunder, exists, the source of war cannot be rooted out, and antagonism and struggle between socialism, which aspires after independence and peace, and imperialism is unavoidable in the development of history. \ \ Therefore, it is a crucial and vital requirement in achieving a steady development and prosperity of socialism that conditions and an environment that allow no aggressive threat be created; to this end, we should possess an absolute strength with which we can definitely overwhelm the enemy. \ \ Our Republic, as a citadel of the anti-imperialist struggle and a fortress of socialism, resolutely promoted the construction of a self-reliant national defence capability according to its own timetable in the face of intervention and pressures by the hostile forces of all hues. By doing so, it put an end to the era when the US imperialists unilaterally imposed nuclear threat.*
fedilink



A big thanks to comrade [Alice Margatroid](https://lemmygrad.ml/u/arisu_magatoroido) for the work in translations and editing! If you speak a language which is not included in ProleWiki and you wish to help add one, feel free to contact us anytime!
fedilink

James Klugmann’s story on the anti-communist character of Trotskyism
From James Klugmann's 1951 book *From Trotsky to Tito*, pages 81-82 ([available in Library Genesis](https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=98CDDDCE4AE3750A101819BE8C65CC8A)) > *The Trotskyites, too, pretended that they were the true Communists, the real Marxists, whilst the “Stalinites” had “betrayed Marxism- Leninism”. The Trotskyite doctrine, this “real Communism” as the. forerunners of Zilliacus called it, also found favour with the great trusts and monopolies.* \ \ *In Mussolini’s Italy of the nineteen-thirties, when it meant long terms of imprisonment, and perhaps torture or even death, to be in any way connected with the Communist Party, and when not only all the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, but the works of all Italian and foreign democrats and progressives were strictly banned from Italian libraries and bookshops, the works of Trotsky, on the “new kind of Communism” were “freely” and widely translated and distributed. I remember vividly how in 1938, passing through Italy on the way to meet the anti-fascist and Communist students of Belgrade University, and spending a few hours in Mussolini’s Milan, the word “communism” caught my eye on a number of books prominently displayed in a bookshop window. They were newly translated works of Trotsky.* \ \ *In Hitler’s Germany, when to be a Communist or Socialist or militant – trade unionist or liberal or democrat – meant arrest, the concentration camp, and often death and torture, when there was instituted one of the most thoroughgoing “purges” of literature and burning of books that the world has ever known, when Schiller’s Don Carlos, the poems of Heine and the novels of Thomas Mann were banned or burned as “subversive”, the writings of Trotsky were widely translated and distributed.* \ \ *Trotsky’s writings and those of his followers were freely published in the middle and late thirties by the Hearst Press in America. His works on his “new kind of Communism”were published by the - Franco press at Salamanca and Burgos. The secret police of the Polish dictatorship were specially educated in Trotskyism in order to facilitate their work of espionage and disruption inside the Polish working-class movement.*
fedilink

I am very proud to announce that ProleWiki now has a Russian language version. Thanks to comrade Chayleaf for the effort in translating the site and adding content. Спасибо, товарищ Chayleaf!
fedilink



The inspiring corporate music on the background is honestly really offensive and extremely insensitive It seems to me like scare propaganda
fedilink

The most coherent analysis on CPUSA I have seen so far
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/309348 > A comrade (that wished to remain anonymous) made an extraordinary analysis on CPUSA's ideological tendencies. I think this piece of text is extremely important for CPUSA members to begin discussing the future of their organization and strategies to fight against the visibly liquidationist tendency inside the party. > > We decided to share this article on ProleWiki because of their relevance for Marxists-Leninists inside the USA.
fedilink

The most coherent analysis on CPUSA I have seen so far
A comrade (that wished to remain anonymous) made an extraordinary analysis on CPUSA's ideological tendencies. I think this piece of text is extremely important for CPUSA members to begin discussing the future of their organization and strategies to fight against the visibly liquidationist tendency inside the party. We decided to share this article on ProleWiki because of their relevance for Marxists-Leninists inside the USA.
fedilink

Recently, the YouTube creator Viki1999 published a video called ["Why (I think) the labour theory of value is dead!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OAQepN4Q7o) and exposing her arguments, which you can check by watching the video. I have written a criticism in the comments of her video, and I will adapt them here to publish here. Viki1999's main argument is that the so-called labor theory of value (LTV) may not be useful to agitate workers towards revolution. In the middle of her arguments, she distances herself from her point to bash the LTV altogether, in what sounds like a liberal deviation from Marxism. I argue that she is blinded by imperialism. She claims: > *"Most Western nations have service economies. Huge part of the economy are people who serve people in diners. Quantifying the value of a service job is close to impossible. The same is true for haircuts. The value of a haircut is very hard to quantify."* First of all, this argument ignores that capitalism is a world-market, a service economy (or consumer market) can only function if there is production elsewhere. This argument is from a viewpoint of someone living in the imperialist core, ignoring the reality of the productive sphere of the world-market, mainly restricted to the periphery countries where all the cheap labor is available to be exploited. For a service economy to exist, there needs to be hundreds of millions of workers in poverty producing the goods for the consumers in the "service economy". Still, there is a measure to "quantify" the labor related to service sector: time. Serving people in diners and cutting hair both have this measure. The work someone does needs to earn them enough value so that the worker can reproduce their lives, especially by eating and resting. If a work does not earn them enough value, i.e., if they cannot sustain themselves with their work, they cannot continue working otherwise. The question then becomes, how come big employers have enough value to maintain thousands of service workers? The answer: imperialism. The value extracted from the proletariat in the periphery countries of the Global South is what maintains the the wages of service workers and the international labor aristocracy. By being a worker living in an imperialist country, you are certainly exploited, but not by the degree of exploitation which workers in the South face. Exploitation for a labor aristocrat is much less *apparent*, to the point some of them deny it altogether, like Viki1999. > *"Raising children is not compensated by the economy at all"* It's true. But does that mean raising children is not work? Or, rather, that it does not create value? Raising children creates workers, which create value. It's reproductive work that makes productive work exist in the first place. It follows that we should fight for it to be compensated fairly. Mostly women are exploited by this circumstance, and the LTV actually helps understand this condition so that the inherent exploitation becomes apparent. Later in the video, she gives the old liberal example of "bucket of water in a desert" which supposedly would determine a high price for water based on its need, and that value is therefore subjective, a common liberal argument. But then she contradicts herself mentioning the example of unskilled workers, how the average working time and skill affects the value of the work and the commodities produced by work. The same goes for a bucket of water in a desert. A bucket of water in a desert can be overpriced by someone selling to another in great need, but this would be only an isolated exchange not at all representative of the value of extracting and transporting water, and of water as a commodity. Exploitation exists in the Western imperialist countries including in the productive sphere, especially in the United States where it's more apparent (even on the skin color). One common example is Amazon and the exploitation of workers inside its factories. Another example is the production line of the packaging of many food industries, which harshly exploits cheap and even uncompensated prison labor (quick reminder that slavery in the US is constitutionally permitted in the case of punishment for crimes). And later in the video, Viki1999 even claims "there are plenty of reasons to get rid of capitalists even if they don't take surplus-value," insinuating that capitalists do not exploit surplus-value from workers. This outrageous claim ignores the obvious reality that billionaires continue to enrich themselves while the mass of the workers in the whole world continue to live in poverty conditions more and more extreme (search for the Oxfam studies on global inequality). This enriching of capitalists and impoverishment of workers CANNOT be attributed to anything else except exploitation of workers on a global scale. For a handful of capitalists to be criminally rich, there needs to be hundreds of millions of workers criminally poor. Conclusion: While I respect Viki1999's work, I have noticed that the content of her videos has been tending towards a liberal perspective and sometimes even anti-communist and opportunist tone. The fact that she thinks the LTV is not a good argument to use for workers living in imperialist countries such as herself does not mean that the LTV is false or incorrect. The fact that the LTV, up to this day, still correctly predicts certain phenomena of capitalism means it shouldn't be discarded, only updated to our material conditions, such as explaining how a service economy can maintain itself (e.g.: through imperialism). At some points in the video she even considers that "value is subjective" using a common liberal argument and she even claims that capitalists "don't take surplus-value." One thing is to argue that exploitation is not a good argument to convince workers to organize a revolution in the imperialist core, the other thing is to argue that exploitation does not exist, which is an anti-Marxist, anti-worker claim, coming from someone living in the imperial core. Either her understanding of Marxism is lacking in its theoretical basis, or she is purposefully deceiving her viewers to discard some nonnegotiable principles of Marxism and adopting a liberal worldview. I rather think that it is her lack of study, not an arrogant attempt at falsifying the only theoretical concise explanation for exploitation from the point of view of the working class.
fedilink

It comes with competent generals and fully planned socialist transition
fedilink

Mostly a reflection of our [Twitter](https://twitter.com/prolewiki). Our most active Twitter editor is from the United States, and so he tends to speak about Statesian trends, events, etc. The fact that we achieved more users by doing that shows that it's an approach that's giving us more readers than doing nothing. **EDIT:** This map is generated from data produced between 16 and 23 June
fedilink



cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/282917 > Our viewership is somewhat restricted to the capitalist-imperialist countries, probably because ProleWiki is mostly only offered in the English language Had to post this here as well lmao
fedilink