1. I like answering questions and hanging out when I have time in Marxist discord servers. I was recommended to join this by awesomesheep48. I've also used this wiki a few times to find sources and have enjoyed watching the quality of the articles expand and the encyclopedia get larger.
2. I draw mostly from Marxism-Leninism and Irish Republicanism. I like to engage in other schools of thought but I don't really put much stock in them, mostly just fun to discuss with comrades of other tendencies.
3. These principles seem like a no-brainer. I appreciate including LaRouche in the opressive ideologies list.
4. Gender is an expression of oneself whereby individuals navigate and perform socially constructed expectations associated with it.
Marxists everywhere should absolutely support working-class LGBT+ people. Sexual oppression is a class-based issue, and it should be approached as such. This is further supported by the theory of intersectionality -- a working-class straight person, for example, is going to face more oppression in their lifetime than a bourgeois individual in the LGBT community; somebody who is working-class, LGBT, non-White, is going to experience a lot of oppression and we should fight as a class to liberate each other, whether gay, straight or trans.
5. Stalin and Mao both set their countries up for unprecedented industrial and economic growth, in a sense both of their administrations ushered in their own respective revolutions. Stalin's directives, the collective efforts of the Communist Party, and of course the Red Army also saved Europe from outright fascism in the 30s right through to the 50s where they were still urging for de-Nazification programs and re-education, at a time when Europe was even bracing elements of Fascism and learning from them. Mao, on the other hand, of course led the Chinese Revolution against the Qing Dynasty and the massively overfunded KMT, seeing an end to the century of humiliation. The initiatives of Mao and the Communist Party, such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, sought to mobilize the masses and completely reshape China forever. Despite facing significant challenges, they brought about significant changes in China's socio-economic landscape, including agricultural collectivization and the establishment of a far less feudal society, and a far more equitable society that we saw during the Qing dynasty. Mao's leadership also played a crucial role in the Chinese resistance against the Japanese Imperialist Army and in promoting anti-colonial movements around the world.
6. I've visited Cuba, I've lived in China for over a year, and I plan to visit the north of Korea for the Pyongyang International Film Festival this year with a few friends! I can squarely say that even from a microscopic level, the everyday life experienced in these countries is far different from not only the western imperialist countries, but also their capitalist neighbours. The Communist Party of China maintains significant controls over POEs, and the rest is State owned. Worker ownership is far higher in China than in any other country in history, and as a country who are quickly becoming a manufacturing and industrial powerhouse, they are a significant ally and light in the dark for developing nations everywhere, especially socialist nations such as Cuba, Laos, Venezuela, Vietnam, north Korea. Cuba and north Korea have made remarkable advancements in healthcare, education and social welfare despite facing unprecedented economic hardship; both nations are also deeply committed to global humanitarian causes such as climate change and vaccination access in their respective regions!
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1. Dialectical Materialism is a mode of analysis that we as Marxists use to draw conclusions about how things develop and change over time. It recognizes that society and nature are in a constant state of motion and that all phenomena are interconnected. Through this lens, we understand that the world is shaped by contradictions inherent in social and economic relations. It allows us to analyze the underlying economic forces at play, the class struggle, the transformative potential of the working-class and revolutionary movements.
2. I constantly run into small tidbits of information, often from verifiable, academic sources, that I think would be useful to insert here or there, as well as strengthen citations of existing articles. I don't think I'll be able to contribute much due to the little free time I have these days, but I think my research skills would be useful to a co-operative such as this. I would say my standard for sources is very high, so you don't have to worry about me using some backwater blog site from the 90s to verify claims.
6. I live in Ireland. The number 1 mission for Marxists here is to combat Irish, British, European and US imperialism. It is important to help folks understand the reality of the world, so that they may better understand imperialism at home. The strong influence from anti-Imperialist and Marxist parties here were instrumental in ensuring that Ireland send only humanitarian aid to Ukraine, to ease the devastating effects to the working class in Ukraine that stem from NATO's proxy war on Russia, more weapons are not the solution. We must also tackle the growing threat of Fascism in Europe, not only in Ireland. Currently, the EU is promoting a xenophobic agenda that involves the killing of thousands of African immigrants, which is only increasing the popularity of 'Defense of Europe' type parties such as the FdI in Italy and the Irish Freedom Party here.
The perpetual mission for Marxists anywhere, of course, is to build a mass movement and spread class consciousness, as it will only increase our bargaining power within these imperialist superpowers.
7. The primary difference is that Marxism rejects idealism entirely. It is entirely rooted in the material reality of the world. Marxism is the objectively correct stance to take for anyone who is not benefitting from capitalism at any scale. Anarchism, Syndicalism, Eco-socialism, Democratic socialism, Georgism, are all ideologies which embrace elements of idealist thinking, they have established 'principles' in the same way that early utopian socialism did, if there were any scientific basis to these principles it was analysed on a very miniscule level. For the most part, people do not come to these ideologies naturally like one might encounter Marxism, rather they often arrive at these schools of thought due to their perceived issues with Marxism, which almost always comes from a misunderstanding of Marxism brought on by decades of propaganda globally.
8. Israel still exists today purely because it is beneficial to the US to have a puppet in the region. No nation that must constantly kill and genocide another nation to protect their existance ought to exist. Historically, a Jewish state was not even supported by Zionists (who are now called anti-Zionists), as it was a bad strategy destined for corruption. Moreover, no such Jewish state could exist without displacing other established communities and colonization. At the time it was deeply unpopular, and has only become more unpopular as they continue to oppress Palestinian people and carry out the foreign policy of the United States in the region. Today, occupied Palestine/'Israel' have completely abandoned the original principles upon which they were founded. If they are not already appalled at the institutionalised poor and genocidal treatment of Palestenians in the region, they should be appalled at this! Zionism is a cancer, merely a variant of Fascism.
Not much of an analysis, more of a rant. I don't think I could say anything that hasn't already been said.