FIRST SET 1- I first heard about it on the Proletarian People's Republic Discord server. I then joined the ProleWiki Discord server. I have been using the website to educate myself and others for a while now. I would like to contribute by editing articles on topics I am knowledgeable about. I am fluent in both English and French. 2- I'm a Marxist-Leninist. When I first got interested in politics I quickly realized capitalism needed to be overthrown and became an anarchist. Then I read some Marx and Engels and realized anarchism is unscientific, which made me become a left communist. Then I started researching Soviet history and realized the USSR was actually socialist, so I became a Maoist. Then I started researching China and realized it was socialist too, so I became a Marxist-Leninist. 3- I have read the principles and agree with them in their entirety. 4- Gender has both a material and a societal component. Material insofar as it is correlated with, although different from, biological sex. Societal because it is a way of categorizing people which was ultimately invented by the society's members, and it differs from society to society. For example, I believe many Native American tribes had three genders: man, woman and two-spirit. Western society traditionally had two genders, though many people felt they did not fall into either. These people, called non-binary people, have since come up with many more genders, in order to better suit people who fall outside of the gender binary. Some people are assigned a certain gender at birth, but later realize that they belong to a different gender. They may experience gender dysphoria. These people are called transgender, and evidence suggests they have existed throughout all civilizations in human history. With gender typically come gender norms and expectations, which may be oppressive for even cisgender women and men. Marxists should support the LGBT+ community in its fight against oppression and queerphobic ideology, which is promoted and upheld by the bourgeoisie in order to divide the proletariat and preserve the capitalist nuclear family. 5- I uphold both Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong for their contributions to Marxist-Leninist theory as well as their actions as leaders of their respective countries and communist parties. Both were leaders in the fight against fascism and Nazi/Japanese colonialism respectively. Both tremendously improved the living conditions of their citizens. Both played a crucial role in industrializing their countries and building socialism. I do have one major criticism of Mao. Despite Khrushchev's revisionism, I think he was wrong in claiming the USSR was social-imperialist, and this led to erroneous foreign policy decisions. 6- China, Vietnam, Cuba and Laos are all socialist countries, because they are ruled by communist parties which follow Marxist-Leninist doctrine. Dogmatists claim these countries have revised Marxism-Leninism by implementing market reforms, when in fact they are simply adapting Marxism-Leninism to their national material conditions. The DPRK is also a socialist country. I chose to treat it separately because it is slightly different. Dogmatists will attack it for officially upholding Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism rather than Marxism-Leninism. But scientific socialism has many great scientists, including Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, both of whom have read Marx and Lenin extensively. (Just for clarity's sake, I am defining "socialist country" as a dictatorship of the proletariat that is transitioning towards communism). 7- Settler colonialism is a form a colonialism whereby a population of settlers move to an inhabited region in order to build a new society there, while displacing, eradicating or assimilating the indigenous inhabitants. Many countries still fit this description, including the USA and Israel. These countries should give land back to the indigenous peoples according to their demands, or be forcefully dismantled if they refuse to do so. My country, France, still has colonies. One of them is New Caledonia, were the indigenous kanak population overwhelming favor independence, while the slight majority settler population opposes it. The government has recently sent the army there in order to oppress the protesting indigenous population. All troops should be pulled out and Kanaky should be given independence. The same goes for other colonies: we should ask the indigenous peoples what they want and respect their decision, be it independence or decolonization within France. As for ethnic minorities, they should be allowed to practice their culture and religion within France. Immigrants should be welcomed and undocumented immigrants should be regularized. Racism, xenophobia and islamophobia should be cracked down on. 8- Israel is committing a genocide in Palestine. I critically support every organization involved in the Palestinian resistance. The events of October 7th 2023 were not a terrorist attack but a justified uprising.
SECOND SET 1- Dialectical materialism is the core postulate of Marxist philosophy. It states that the world is made of matter, which is in constant motion due to internal contradictions within it. A contradiction is when two things are diametrically opposed to one another and one cannot exist without the other. Dialectical materialism contains several laws, such as the transformation of quantity into quality. 2- National liberation is a core Marxist-Leninist principle. It is necessary to uphold the right of nations to self-determination as part of the struggle against imperialism. However, as Stalin pointed out, communists should not support every national struggle. For example, independentists in Tibet and Xinjiang are reactionary. They are backed by imperialists in order to balkanize China and establish theocraties in place of the current socialist government. 5. The most pressing issue in France currently is to leave the EU-NATO bloc that is leading us towards a third world (likely nuclear) war with Russia and China. As a country in the imperial core, it is crucial for us to hold a firmly anti-imperialist line. My take on the different communist organizations here: PCF - The leadership are full-on liberals. They support the EU, NATO and Ukraine. Used to be the vanguard of the French proletariat but became revisionist in the 1970s. LO/NPA - Trotskyists. NPA is utter garbage when it comes to Ukraine. Both pro-EU. PRCF - most relevant Marxist-Leninist party with an actual anti-imperialist line. PCOF/PCRF - ultras. Follow Hoxhaism and the KKE model respectively. 6- I believe what sets Marxism appart is its scientific approach, based on dialectal materialism. While other tendencies tend to rely on utopian ideas which may not work in the real world, Marxism is based on a scientific analysis of the real world. It is constantly evolving as capitalism changes forms and new discoveries are made, and adapts to the specific material conditions of each country. 7- Imperialism is capitalism of the era of monopolies and cartels. On top of exploiting workers at home, the imperialist bourgeoisie super-exploits countries in the Third World, keeping them impoverished and underdeveloped. Nowadays, this mainly happens trough unequal exchange. When countries try to resist this and use their ressources for their own people, the imperialists often resort to war and/or inhumane sanctions as a punishment. The IMF and World Bank are imperialist organizations that trap developing nations into unpayable debt and force them to adopt neoliberal economic policies. The Belt and Road Initiative increases cooperation between Third World nations, allows them to build infrastructure thanks to Chinese aid, and reduces US influence globally. It is therefore anti-imperialist.
OPTIONAL QUESTIONS 2. I used to study computer science. I am familiar with several programming languages.