Which parts of MLism do you find lacking or outdated in the 21st century?
Which parts of MLism do you find lacking or outdated in the 21st century?
Spicy question maybe, but I'm interested in your takes.
Personally, I think there's some major issues with at least the terminology of the 2 phase model of lower/higher stage communism or socialism/communism as the terms are used in classical theory. Specifically the 'lower stage' or 'socialism' term is problematic.
In the age of revision and after the success of counterrevolution it has become clear that there is in fact a transitional phase leading up to the classical transitional phase. Societies did not jump from developed capitalism to socialism immediately and even the states that arguably did were forced to roll back some of the core tenets of 'socialism' as it is described in Marx, Engels and Lenin. Namely no private ownership of the means of production and no exploitation of man by man.
To ultras this just means countries following this path aren't socialist. So then China isn't, Cuba isn't, no country still is really and those of us claiming they are then have to be revisionists. And to be fair, if you're dogmatic you can make that point going from the source material. China itself recognizes this inconsistency, thus not seeing itself at the stage of socialism. Yet it's a socialist state. But then what do we actually mean by 'socialism' when we use the term like this? Just a dictatorship of the proletariat? Any country in the process of building socialism?
That question comes up all the time and confuses the fuck out of people, because the term is either not applied consistently or as it's defined is lacking. I think discourse in the communist movement and about AES would profit immensely if we had a more consistent definition or usage of the term or a better defined concept of what that transition to socialism is and how we should call it.
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Actually just be an human peeve rather than a theory one, but I feel like a lot of MLs haven't moved on from the fall of the Soviet Union and place disproportional emphasis on remembering a state that no longer exists compared to the support of current AES (except for China) and socialist movements. It's very rare to see any discussion of either Cuba or new socialist movements in America or Africa for instance, and when they pop up it's only when the Eye of the Washington Post sets its gaze upon them. In a sense, I think a lot of MLs (not educated enough to call myself one of them yet) fall a lot into the trap of talking about things libs care about more than what we should actually care about.
I believe that it is somewhat useful to focus on the USSR, since they had a lot of valuable praxis and theory which a Marxist should learn, but I agree that one should expand their knowledge to other countries of actually existing socialism, and even other non-imperialist (yet not communist) countries
Oh yeah, I don't think we should ever disregard the USSR and all the theory and practice from there, but right now they occupy a different space for me of "history" rather than "current events" and I think it'd be cool if we focused more on movements out there that may also be trying to put that theory and practice to use right now and we might not even be aware of.
Understandable, that is useful too
or new socialist movements in America or Africa for instance
Out of curiosity, what new Socialist movements should we be paying attention to, in your opinion?
I'm a bit of a "baby Marxist" as some might call it and I wouldn't even dare to opine on African matters from my position of ignorance, but from my budding understanding there are some interesting struggles in the Caribbean happening right now that could use some attention. For instance, it has settled down a bit but the FRG9 in Haiti has some explicitly Marxist tendencies and advocates for a Haiti independent from foreign capitalist meddling and the expropriation of the bourgeois-owned land. Sadly it's hard to get info on them as the press pays little attention, many don't speak English, and them getting banned off of the popular social media like facebook or twitter. Also due to racism. So you often get a lot of "people talking about them" and no "them talking about themselves". Additionally Peru's Marxist-adjacent president is currently in jail after some really hard to parse political crisis. There are probably many more, and there may be many diverging opinions here about those, but those are the ones that came to mind. I'd say the Caribbean is really important geopolitically as uncontested US hegemony there could provide a even more hardship to Cuba.
I'd also love it if more people replied with their pet revolutionary movements, local or worldwide, or elaborating on the ones I mentioned if they know more about them.