true meaning of marxism?

[Joshua Purcell]

Isn't Utopianism nicer than Marxism? We shoudn't be as our worst enemies. Real communism is not possible to practice, but it's really beautiful to believe in it. I don't want to get off the right way and become a Bolshevik. I don't believe in unity of Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, but at least we should seek peace. I just don't want to fight with other communists. We are not supposed to be apart, are we? Our aim is peace and liberty - some of us believe in communism as politics and some of us believe in the ideology. That's the main difference.
You can say you succeeded, but on what? Only on being brutal? Or something more? You can't say the USSR was a real socialistic state - Marx himself said communism has two stages - dictatorship of proletariat and state of no authority and no classes. Bolsheviks never reached that 2nd level.

And thank you for asking, but I know what am I talking about -.-

Paula reflects something that is both good and bad about the the leftist movement in general... good in that it is a truly unique approach to leftist ideology that has been formed and expressed out in the open for everyone to see and debate. Bad, in that it is such an absolutely absurd idea to think that it could ever be used as any basis for political (or real) change, and in the process of this it tends to undermine the concept of communism/socialism/Marxism for those who don't feel the need (or desire) to do anything but take her word for it.

[Paula Marx]

Isn't Utopianism nicer than Marxism? We shoudn't be as our worst enemies. Real communism is not possible to practice, but it's really beautiful to believe in it. I don't want to get off the right way and become a Bolshevik. I don't believe in unity of Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, but at least we should seek peace. I just don't want to fight with other communists. We are not supposed to be apart, are we? Our aim is peace and liberty - some of us believe in communism as politics and some of us believe in the ideology. That's the main difference.
You can say you succeeded, but on what? Only on being brutal? Or something more? You can't say the USSR was a real socialistic state - Marx himself said communism has two stages - dictatorship of proletariat and state of no authority and no classes. Bolsheviks never reached that 2nd level.

And thank you for asking, but I know what am I talking about -.-

Paula reflects something that is both good and bad about the the leftist movement in general... good in that it is a truly unique approach to leftist ideology that has been formed and expressed out in the open for everyone to see and debate. Bad, in that it is such an absolutely absurd idea to think that it could ever be used as any basis for political (or real) change, and in the process of this it tends to undermine the concept of communism/socialism/Marxism for those who don't feel the need (or desire) to do anything but take her word for it.

Thank you, comrade.

[Sithembewena]

Hasta siempre la comrades!

My name is Sithembewena Tsembeyi, hailing from South Africa, a member of the YCLSA and SACP, I live in a country were strange material conditions have manipulated the toxic sense of humanity and preferably I would be subjected to correction, by firstly stating that "it is not ones consciousness that determines the environment but, it is the environment that determines ones consciousness,

In the instance of my Country it is formidably comfort of some that the country is currently in a bourgeois democracy, and the interpretation of communist in the country of the National democratic Revolution as a direct part to socialism, I am of the view that Marxism is not common sense neither is it dogma, but should be the simplest interrogation of humans existence in aspiration of directing the dictatorship of the proletariat and by the simplest meaning the fight against class oppression by capital and feudalism by the emancipation of the working class trough a revolution against Capitalism.

[keichan]

Is that really true?? Hmm...I wonder that myself...

[bridgewater]

=Underdog=

Hello

I'm new to this board and My name is Peter, I found this thread in the google search engine, while searching something and I found this community and sounds  interesting.


Hopefully I can contribute something to the community though.

Keeping denying = marxism that would result to worst things

[marklesley]

Hi there! for me the real meaning of marxism would be acquiring only what is REALLY needed and not those things for luxury...

[roxannpark]

I do not think that anyone would fault you for having prized possessions (A favorite necklace given to you by a lover or loved one, or something of that nature) or for occasionally drinking your favorite soda for example, but if you were to walk around covered in gold and jewels, just to make yourself feel better than others, that is when you would be viewed as a hypocrite.

[roxannpark]

This is where it hits the fan for many leftists. Where and when did the Bolsheviks, or the revolution in which the Bolsheviks took the lead go too far? Did it start with Lenin, or earlier (as Bakunin predicted)? Is the concept of a vanguard acceptable? These and other questions are why you have so many various groups within the leftist tendency.

Based on what I've understood from reading as much as I can given my limited time and fairly recent interest in the subject (when compared to my whole life), Bolshevism wasn't inherently bad or evil. There is no denying the fact that Lenin and the Bolsheviks had a large part to play in creating the 'machine' that led to Stalinism, but I don't believe for one minute this what they intended or wanted, and I don't think you can lay the blame squarely with the Bolsheviks for the evils of Stalinism. As for a vanguard, I have a very loose definition for this term: the vanguard is the people who work towards waking up the working class. Even people who may have a problem with the term vanguard (as I believe Chomsky does based on what I've read) would be considered part of it given this definition. I don't look at the vanguard as being an upper crust leadership-type group who is in many ways separate from the people who they are leading.... I see the vanguard as inseparable from the working class, and only distinguishable by their level of recognition of the class system and willingness to do something about it.

[Paula Marx]

This is where it hits the fan for many leftists. Where and when did the Bolsheviks, or the revolution in which the Bolsheviks took the lead go too far? Did it start with Lenin, or earlier (as Bakunin predicted)? Is the concept of a vanguard acceptable? These and other questions are why you have so many various groups within the leftist tendency.

Based on what I've understood from reading as much as I can given my limited time and fairly recent interest in the subject (when compared to my whole life), Bolshevism wasn't inherently bad or evil. There is no denying the fact that Lenin and the Bolsheviks had a large part to play in creating the 'machine' that led to Stalinism, but I don't believe for one minute this what they intended or wanted, and I don't think you can lay the blame squarely with the Bolsheviks for the evils of Stalinism. As for a vanguard, I have a very loose definition for this term: the vanguard is the people who work towards waking up the working class. Even people who may have a problem with the term vanguard (as I believe Chomsky does based on what I've read) would be considered part of it given this definition. I don't look at the vanguard as being an upper crust leadership-type group who is in many ways separate from the people who they are leading.... I see the vanguard as inseparable from the working class, and only distinguishable by their level of recognition of the class system and willingness to do something about it.

Vanguard in art - futurism - was one of the most awful theories about future ever.
When we come to the vanguard of Bolsheviks, I don't find it better - the most wonderful idea ever, communism, became one of biggest mistakes in history, because the result is - we will maybe never prove people what real communism - an ideology - stands up for. Lenin maybe didn't do anything that bad as Stalin did, but that means just the practical communism got worse - George Orwell wrote about his perception of USSR "communism" in 1984 and I agree with him. The point is, practical Bolshevism wasn't getting worse and worse - it's still getting worse. It's more than its opposition. When Neobolsheviks, whose perception of communism would be Stalinism, get the power in any country, it would become even harder for real communists.