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1. On a discord server. Decided to join after talking with a few of the editors. 2. I uphold Marxism-Leninism. I came here through the urban-walkable-city design pipeline. I have also always had an interest in politics, sociology and history which meshed well with exploring the “how’s” and “why’s” of the circumstances I currently live in. Due to the rather short time it took for me to go from “apolitical” to ML (1 year), I am still in the process of reading some of the more elementary theory. My current aim is to fix this issue. 3. I have read the principles and find no objection. 4. My understanding is that gender is “lifestyle” you identify with. It is separate from sex. I am however, a cis straight male who grew up in a post-socialist country so I tend to refer to my LGBT comrades whenever a more in-depth conversation arises. I am currently fixing this issue. Marxists must support the LGBT community as their rights are the rights of workers, the rights of the exploited and oppressed. 5. A) Stalin; He was a great leader who did the best he could in the circumstances he found himself in. He correctly predicted WW2 and took appropriate measures to raise the young USSR into a world power capable of defeating Hitler. My criticism of Stalin would be his pos-ww2 foreign politics. By this, I mean the Tito-Stalin split and also sowing the seeds that would later sprout the way for the Sino-Soviet split. He was also too wishy-washy in the “purges” which allowed for abuse of authority.
B) Mao; I have to preface this that I know substantially less about him that on Stalin. I find him interesting since he pioneered the “people’s war”. I find Mao to be a much more of a genius of combat and ideology, compared to Stalin who was more of a leader of industry. My criticism would be on the many failings that happened during the “great leap forward” that were completely unnecessary (the infamous sparrows).
6. Thoughts on:
a.China; It is an emerging socialist world-power. Headed by the CPC, which enjoys massive popular support, it is using western investing to develop its own means of production. China has also been instrumental in raising the global standard of living and easing international cooperation through its “silk road” and “poverty-reduction” projects.
b.Vietnam; A neighbour of China. Whilst it has flirted a lot more with western powers, it still adheres to its socialist principles and strives to develop.
c.Cuba; An island nation located in the US backyard. Cuba has expended massive efforts to diversify its economy to ease the sanctions imposed upon it. Cuba has also led the forefront on social issues of all currently existing socialist countries, culminating in the world-shattering 2022 referendum on Cuban Family Code, the most progressive of its kind in the world.
d.DPRK; The “hermit Kingdom”. From what I understood, as information is rather scarce, it is a third world country with many typical problems. It seems however, that Korea has recently started to invest much more into its civilian infrastructure with the most recent high profile example being a celebration for 10,000 newly built homes.
e.Laos; I have almost no impressions on Laos. I know China is building railways and that it was bombed heavily by the US. I will expand my knowledge on the topic when I have more time.
Secondary questions:
1. Dialectical materialism is a set of tools we can use to look at past and present and form hypothesis of the future. It is a scientific instrument, meaning it clearly defines its parameters in order to extrapolate data into a usable form.
2. I would like to contribute on the topics concerning Yugoslavia and post-socialist countries at large. I am also more than willing to comb text in order to fix grammar mistakes.
5. Abolishing the family is not the end goal of a communist movement. Expanding its definition could be though. Even the liberal definition of family is no longer reduced to only blood ties, with close friends often being counted as part of it. We should take this approach and expand it even further to encompass as many as humanly possible.
6. I live in Croatia. Here, the most pressing matter for communists is to expand support among the young population and to remove the collective PTSD imposed upon our peoples by the fall of Yugoslavia and subsequent privatisation. I am already an active member of a party and working to fix this.
7. The main difference between Marxism and other anti-capitalist movements is that Marxism dares to imagine a society that should be formed after its defeat. Marxism doesn’t limit itself to the liberal lexicon of analysis and uses its own to shape the possible future.
P.S; This is the second time.