FIRST SET (please answer all 8 questions):
1. Where did you find ProleWiki from? How familiar are you with it? Comment what made you want to join ProleWiki and what areas you are interested in contributing to. From lemmygrad. Read a few articles. They're pretty good. I don't have much talent in research or writing so I would be working on the mediawiki software.
2. What current of Marxist thought do you uphold? Describe as thoroughly as needed your path towards your current political perspective. I'm a Marxist Leninist. The path to my firm belief in Marxist Leninist principles come interacting with various leftist subreddits and watching youtubers and reading the articles written by historical and modern thinkers and learning the history of peoples presented and exposed to me therefrom.
3. Have you read our principles? Comment your agreements or objections to their points. Yes. Agree to all.
4. What is your understanding of gender? Should Marxists support the LGBT community? Not much. Gender is complicated. Support.
5. What is your position on Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong? How would you describe their historical role? Share any comments or critiques you have regarding them. Stalin helped save Europe from European fascists and Mao helped built the foundations for modern China.
6. What are your thoughts on China, Vietnam, Cuba, DPRK and Laos? Do you believe any of these countries is socialist? Why or why not? China, Cuba, DPRK arae socialist because the principal mode of production is owned by the public. Not sure about the others but probably the same.
7. What is settler-colonialism, are there any countries that still fit that description and what should be done regarding them? Further, what is to be done about the decolonization and liberation of indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and immigrant groups in your country? Settler-colonialism is the process where one group of people arrives in an inhabitated place and displaces the original inhabitants. It's an ongoing process happening in many parts of the world and they go home. To combat this, we should start by organizing all people can be organized and educate all that are willing to learn.
8. What is your analysis of the situation in Palestine? What do you think of the 2023 October 7 events and the groups involved from both sides of the conflict? Israel is one of the entities currently engaged in settler-colonialism and Palestine is fighting back. Not sure about October 7th, too soon to tell if anything good will come of it.
SECOND SET (choose 5 questions to answer):
1. In your own words, how would you describe dialectical materialism?
Dialectical materialism is a metaphysical position.
First, regarding the fundamental problem of metaphysics, on the nature of reality, materialism holds that the essence of reality is matter. This position exists in opposition to idealism which holds that the essence of reality is consciousness. In the materialist view, consciousness is determined by material things is a form of highly developed manifestation of matter. Which is all to say matter precedes consciousness in all aspects.
Second, dialetics is a metaphysical and epistemological view but we will focus on the metaphysical. In Hegelian dialectics, reality is seen as a dynamic process characterized by the interplay of opposing forces or contradictions. Through the dialectical method which Marx calls the triple of thesis antithesis and synthesis, these contradictions are resolved or synthesized at a higher level, leading to the development of new concepts or states of being. In Hegelian dialetics, the movement of contradictions to synthesis is initiated by the mind and the whole of reality is engendered by this dialetical movement. Thus Hegelian dialetics is an idealist position.
Materialism is a rebelion against all forms of idealism which were (and still are) mainstream in philosophy and religion which all posit some form of hinterwelt, e.g. world of noumena in Kantian transcendental idealism and heaven of Christianity.
Specifically this rebelion is directed towards Hegel's idealism which claimed that finite world (material reality) is a reflection of the mind (same thing as consciousness) which alone is real. This consciousness preceding matter thinking strategy leads Hegel to apply this idealist position to epistemology and his analysis of history where he claims "the absolute spirit unfolds itself as history, which encompasses all natural, social, historical events and phenomena." In Marx's rebelion, he inverts the cause and effect of Hegelian dialetics, thus dialetics are movements initiated by economic and thus material conditions rather than spirits unfolding unto the former.
In summary dialetical materialism is a metaphysical position on the essence of reality (material) and how reality changes (by the dialetical method), ie being and becoming.
2. What are your thoughts on national liberation or the concept of land back (either one)?
National liberation is the only path to self determination and the end of unfair resource drain of imperialized countries by various forms of unequal exchange. Land back is a different movement originating in the imperial core with similar themes to national liberation but different background. Land back also seeks self determination of imperialized peoples.
3. Have you read anything on Marxist feminism? What are your perspectives on it? Yes I've read The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Engels. I find it interesting and just that women should have higher status in the family social structure if not for the importance of private property.
4. Do you think abolishing the nuclear family should be a goal of the communist movement? If so, how would it be abolished? I'm not sure. While there are many ways the nuclear family harms society, e.g. strict and unequal gender roles, propagation of private property, propagation of gender roles, etc. It also provides social cohesion, stability and harmony. If abolition is overly disruptive to social harmony then abolition would go against the goals of improving material conditions of public. If it were to be abolished, the approach should be dialetical and should agree with the needs of the public.
5. What do you think is the most pressing issue for communists in your country? What is your opinion of communist parties there? No idea. I don't go outside very much. Skipping.
6. What do you believe is the main difference between Marxism and other anti-capitalist movements? The main difference is that Marxist movements are the only movements that have produced lasting results. There are worker coops in the world but they seem to be well integrated with the capitalist system and I'm not too familiar with them. They appear to give better quality of life to their workers but I'm not sure.