Are you active?

[Daymare17]

I am wondering about how many on this forum really deserve to be called "comrade". I have a suspicion that some people have only read Marxist works think Marxism is a great ideology and consider themselves Marxists, but are not members of any organization and do no work at all.

An armchair "Marxist" who does not work to build the party is only a 9/10 Marxist in my opinion. And that is the worst you can be. An ounce of experience is worth a ton of theory, this goes for the individual revolutionist as well as for the working class.

I am not as active as I would like, because our organisation here is in a total mess and I am isolated.

Every honest nonpartisan Marxist here, immediately join with your nearest revolutionary organisation and get some collective work done please.

[mir]

Well, I'm not very active because of my age.  I do what I can to teach people about marxism or give them links to good sites, but I'm not active as in building a revolutionary party.  I'm considering the party I want to join, probably the RKP BiH, but I've yet to read their program...

[Dasher]

Rune all I can say is you made me laugh.

[P.O.U.M]

im waitng till i get out of school before i started working with a party. would make my life easier that way.

[Daymare17]

Originally posted by Dasher
Rune all I can say is you made me laugh.

What's so funny?

[Volkov]

I am not a member of any organization, for no one else around me is interested in listening to one talk about Marxism (they will just either point to Stalin or call it a good idea that can never be attained).  I also don't know of any oranizations in my area.  I also live in the USA, i.e. perhaps the most reactionary nation in the West.  

We must also look very closely at organizations, for many of them, particularly the so-called Socialist and Communist parties that run in elections, are not Marxist at all, and they do nothing more than to divide the Left.

[proletarianrevo]

I've been politically active since the age of 14 (I'm currently 18 years old), when I got involved in the socialist movement in Denmark. In the beginning I didn't read a lot of theory, but did a lot of practical work with the organizing of protests, campaigns, etc. It was only after a serious struggle against the stalinists in the movement, that I needed to get a coherent analysis of the phenomena. Trorskyism was the only ideology to offer that, and the IDOM tendency was the only sincere trotskyists.
I have been doing a lot of different things in organizing students' protests against the cut-downs at my secondary school, and even students' strikes against the war in Iraq. I am a member of Socialistisk Standpunkt (Danish IDOM-supporters) and SUF (Socialist Youth Front). Usually I go to two or three meetings every week... This summer I will graduate from school and begin to work full time to build the forces of Marxism in the Danish labour movement.

What are all you doing, i'm curious to hear how comrades are intervening all over the world. This thread may turn out to be exciting.

comradely,
Andreas

[Miestermatt]

In this countyWill (Illionos Untied states) I am the only member of the revolution so i do it all my self.  I am connectede to the groups that have staions in Cook county chicago land area.  I also get knocked about a bit but lifew is same old same old.  P.S i live in a town of bush lving republicans.

[Monster]

I started to get interested when the present bourgeois government in Denmark came into office(2001). After half a year of reading and discussing, I became a Marxist (mainly due to this guy at my school who convinced me), and joined Socialistisk Standpunkt (like proletarianrevo, and at least 3 others on this forum) when I was 16 (18 now). Now I attend 2-3 meetings every week, read marxist litterature, and organize public meetings (like tomorrow, about Venezuela, and tuesday, about the EU). I also translate some marxist texts from Swedish and english to danish, and write an occasional article to our newspaper Socialistisk Standpunkt. I'm a member of SUF too, like Andreas.

I'm also active in my "union" - the secondary school students union of Denmark, DGS.

All this work takes time, but is also necessary for the revolution. You wont get anywhere sitting at home!

As to the comrades who feels isolated... I felt so too, until I got up and started a local section of SUF in Hobro - it took more work, but now (after only 1 year) we're 7 active, having meetings every week about socialism, organizing protests and so on.

As to the american comrades, who thinks nobody will listen. I know it's hard for you guys, the media being really much against you, as well as the general political agenda. But here's a little story to cheer you up: When I visited the states this spring, I went to high school in NC for 2 weeks. I attended different classes, including Civics. Now civics isn't exactly the most progressive place, or interesting that is, so I asked if they'd like to hear about Denmark. They would very much like that, so I told them about our political system and other details. When I reached the point about the danish taxation system, that has higher taxes for rich than for poor, and the danish educational system that subsidises you for going to college, university or whatevere, not ripping you off. They all went "WOW! - can we live there too?". This isn't socialism, but it's a lot more progressive than your tax and educational system, and they loved it. Just give them some concrete examples to start out with, and they just might listen.

[Frederik]

Hi, I think this thread can be very intersting. It is good to hear how the comrades are doing work all over the world.

I have been active since I was 15 (now I'm 23). Like Andreas, I didn't read a lot of theory first. But I was active in a stalinist-dominated youth organisation back then, and it was in struggle against the stalinists that I came in contact with genuine marxism-leninism (trotskyism) and later I joined the Danish section of CMI.

I am active in the local branch of Socialistisk Standpunkt (the Danish marxist tendency), and (as Andreas) I also do work in SUF.
I am not really active in my trade union, the Danish Union of Journalists. There are almost no people active where I am - and the leadership are quite right-wing.

I'm looking forward to hear from all of the comrades.

[igor_r]

I'm active, since i was 15. Usually i go to 1 demonstration in two weeks (depends of situation, sometimes everyday). But to speak honestly, our group is very isolated. All demo's are activist only.

[styrken]

hello comrades,

im 18 years old and been calling myself socialist since i was 14 when i became active in a reformist youth organisation in denmark. i quitted after some discussions about reformism/revolution and i turned quite ultra-left. in 2 years i wasnt active except from reading different material from different directions on the leftwing, but i gues i couldnt be much active, since i was placed on a kind of boarding school (the same as klaus), which isnt an upper-class thing in denmark.

i joined the forces of marxism some years ago and now i attend different meatings (students council, SUF, socialistisk standpunkt, differet broad-left thing) more than i ever dreamed about when i was isolated on the boarding-school :D

it will be interesting to hear from all you people what you are doing in the real world, and i definetly agree with rune that an ounce practical work is worth a ton of theory, but a ton of theory makes the practical work more usefull.

[turnoviseous]

What does nonpartisan mean?

Anyway, I´m active, but I believe things should anyway improove in this respect.

[Dasher]

Rune, I smiled at your keen attitude.  And that's good.

Now look at the good thread you started!

Comradely, Dasher.

[Daymare17]

Originally posted by mir
I'm considering the party I want to join, probably the RKP BiH, but I've yet to read their program...

I read part of their program and it seems like they reject internationalism in favour of Yugoslav nationalism...