Comrade:Itsraining

Hello! I am a Greek Marxist-Leninist who is still studying theory. I have a lot of reading to do yet, so I appreciate any feedback and constructive criticism.

You can call me Comrade Rain. I am itsraining on Lemmygrad and @itsraining:matrix.org on Matrix.

My answers to registration questions Original punctuation preserved (sorry for the typos!)

Note: When I refer to Maoism, I actually mean Mao Zedong Thought.

FIRST SET

1. I found about it when I first joined Lemmygrad. I have since then browsed and read it to familiarize myself with topics related to Marxism-Leninism, Maoism etc. as well as to fact-check for myself some Wikipedia articles. I thought that I might be able to contribute to ProleWiki in some way. Being a native speaker and taking into account that there seem to be other editors that might know the language, I'm interested in creating a Greek edition of ProleWiki. Besides that, of course, I might make some minor improvements to existing articles, seeing that I am still studying Marxism-Leninism.

2. I consider myself a Marxist-Leninist, and plan to study Maoism more thoroughly in the future. I am still reading Das Kapital at present, but I have gained somewhat spherical knowledge from the Dessalines FAQ, marxists.org and Lemmygrad.

3. I have read the principles. I totally agree with the idea supporting countried of existing socialism, and I have no opinion yet about most of the list of bourgeoisie dictatorships (someone has reading to do...)

4. Gender is a social construct which is different from biological sex. People are not just biological but also societal beings, so rejecting gender for the sake of biology is incorrect and unscientific. Gender is non-binary by definition. LGBTQIA+ people deserve total support, despite what some revisionist and electoralist communist parties might be saying (like the CP of Greece).

5. Those people had a revolution to uphold, which is not an easy task by all means. Even though the measures they had to take could be considered drastic, the liberal propaganda, so characteristic of the Western media, blows everything out of proportion. Their actions should always be interpreted within the historical context, and taking into account the need for preventing a bourgeois counter-revolution.

6. All of these countries are socialist, or at least on the path towards socialism. Cuba upholds its revolutionary gains despite the embargo and external pressure from US. DPRK is the legitimate socialist government of the Korean peninsula. I critically support China, despite the widespread belief popularised by the CP of my country that it has a state capitalist economy. About Vietnam and Laos, unfortunately, I know very little at present, only that their governments are considered socialist.

7. Settler-colonialism is another topic that I have to do much more reading... I know for sure that the Zionist entity fits the description. It tries to take and settle land which historically belongs to Palestinian people, in this way oppressing them. War-loving entities like this deserve no support. The people can decide for themselves how to co-exist, preventing needless bloodshed. Minorities, like ethnic groups and immigrants deserve support like any other social group on the basis of being human. The govrernment in my country should augment social expenditure, ensure equal rights and income, improve working conditions and improve public services so that every social group can equally benefit from these.

8. The situation in Palestine, following many years of dliberate oppression by the Zionist entity and several revolts, has come to yet another liberation attempt. While I don't 100% trust Hamas, I still approve this new Intifada and the just struggle of Palestinians for liberation. Unfortunately, the outlook looks grim nowadays.

SECOND SET

1. Materialism is the philosophical approach which considers material existence to be the basis for all analysis, in contrast with Idealism, which is based upon the notion of ideas. Dialectic is a method, by which multiple facets of an object or situation can be revealed. Dialectic has its roots in ancient Greek philosophers' discource. Marxist dialectic was based on Hegelian dialectic, upon which it greatly improved. Marxist dialectic materialism considers things to be in a constant state of change. Multiple contradictory facets can exist in such a state of things. Rich and poor, bourgeoisie and proletariat. This contradiction is the vehicle for history and inevitably advances human societies through its different phases (feudal, capitalist, socialist, communist).

2. National liberation should stem from the people's will. Self-determination is an important right of peoples (including indigenous peoples), as is the right to form unions and federations. Still, caution is needed when, under the pretense of national liberation, an external power is actually trying to perform a "color revolution" in order to subjugate a country to its own imperialist interests. The US has been known to use national liberation as a pretense to take power by installing loyal dictators in countries around the world.

4. Yes. Nuclear family is a concept that emerged from economical relations in capiralism. As such, it should be abolished in a socialist/communkst society. People should not determine who to live with based on economical relations, as such a view is deeply flawed. Families as social constructs are another and much wider notion which can continue to exist as any other social determination, that is, as long as a group of people want to self-determinate as a family.

5. Right now there is a major agricultural crisis, with farmers not being able to sustain themselves due to the catastrophical floods that happened some months ago. Another principal topic is the safety of transportation, esp. the railways, a topic which was brought up constantly in railroad syndicats but only made into the news after the Tempi train crash. The CP of Greece supports tax deductions and increased social spending to suppprt the farmers and was probably the only party to insist that the Tempi incident was, at least partly, a by-product of the state railway company privatization, which I accept. Still, another "hot" topic was the decision of the governing party to pass a bill to legalize LGBTQIA+ marriages (in order to make their conservative party seem progressive), and the CP of Greece was the only party (along with 2 or 3 right-wing parties) to condemn the bill on a unscientific and non-dialectic basis, with easily refutable arguments. Other communist parties, like Antarsya (no parliament representation) had much more reasonable takes in support of the bill.

6. Marxism is realistic, based on extensive theory and actually proven to work. Other currents are too idealistic and actually help the bourgeoisie stay in power.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

1. The application process is good. It might have taken me long to write down the answers, but it actually helped me a little to consolidate my views. I am still a learner, I emphasize that, and this is the first time that I express my views in such length and detail, and I hope to improve, in part due to participating in this project.

2. I have experience with PHP, HTML, CSS, JS and Python, have used Wikitext and have created Wiki templates before. No experience with modifying MediaWiki or writing extensions, though.