/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

>>1679143 (me)
Bumping my own thread one more time: anyone here read either of the Eleanor Marx biographies? I'm especially interested in reading about her role in political activism, particularly the 1885 Socialist League / Social Democratic Federation split.

>>1679167
Che Guevara A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson

>>1679626 (me again)
Thought I'd add in a bit more:

<August Bebel: Social Democracy and the Founding of the Labour Movement, by Jurgen Schmidt, 2020
Once again a super disappointing biography of Bebel. The author is openly disdainful of Bebel's politics and it shows. There's some interesting factual information here for English readers but the narrative in general is very dull.

There's yet another biography of Bebel, I think Shadow Emperor of the German Workers from 1980. It's unscanned and I haven't read it, but talking to someone who has, it has the exact same problems as the Schmidt bio except possibly worse. A communist really needs to step up to the plate and give us the Bebel bio we deserve.

And more on Eleanor Marx: I realized that I could just pirate the two and compare them myself. My takeaway is that Holmes is a better prose writer, while Kapp has a closer eye on the political side of things (as you might expect). Both however have very little to say on the 1885 split - a real shame, because from reading Engels' letters it seems to me like he repeated his advice surrounding the Gotha unification congress, but was actually followed this time to disastrous results. Unfortunately it does appear that all the major planning for the split took place off the record at Engels' house, so we'll never know for sure exactly what the situation was.

So Kapp seems better, but I'm still split on which one to buy. Holmes' bio was sold at Barnes and Noble so you can get used hardcovers for a fourth of the price of Kapp's book.

>>1679143
Here you go.
>there are an absolute fuckton now on Karl Marx for example, most (!) of which were written by libs or reactionaries. What's the best choice to start with?
John Lewis the CPGB philosopher most well known to his debate with Althusser, wrote by far the best Marx Biography in 1960s I highly recommend its a great place to start as it explains both his life and thought and is around 300 pages so not too long a read (its the first epub).

>>1679167
>Mao
I can't say that I've read many Mao biographies, but I still strongly recommend Mao Zedong Thought by Wang Fanxi. It's a critical intellectual study of Mao Zedong's thought, both his real tactics in the moment and the mythologized cult built around him later. There's a great deal of biographical information supporting Wang's argument, including stuff the Maoist state wouldn't want you to know - such as the fact that Mao was in his late twenties by the time he was won to communism, and in his early forties when he finally made a serious study of Marxism.

Wang knew all this stuff because he was a major Trotskyist activist from 1920-1949 and wrote his study in exile. The book is much better than most Trotskyist writing on Maoism however, Wang is shockingly charitable to the man who locked up some of his closest friends in prison for decades. Most Mao stuff I've seen has either been state-published GLORIOUS RED SUN IN THE SKY CHAIRMAN MAO or reactionary MAO KILLED BILLIONS tripe, so an even-handed critical account like Wang's is refreshing.

[1] Lacenaire and Castaing were famous 19th century European serial killers.

newly released hezbollah video (footage from the 17th)

there seem to be quiet a few israelis calling for a hostage exchange and end of the war.

>>>/leftypol/1681152
>>>/leftypol/1681152
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new thread

>>1681143
"You're in pretty good shape for being dead for years Grandma"

>>1681057
I can't believe Planned Parenthood would sink to this level of antisemitism

It's probably not as important as you think it is. I would be more concerned about the number of people on prescription drugs if you are American.

>>1680930
Completely outdated analysis, most of the "pill mills" handing out Oxycontin and Xanax were shut down during Obama's second term. It's all st impossible to get perscribed an opiate now even if you have debilitating chronic pain (where opiates would actually be appropriate). Most of those addicts didn't recover so they went to the street where fentanyl and mystery powders are plentiful, cheap, and far more powerful and addictive than their prescriptions were. About the same number of people are dying everyday from overdose as they are from COVID.

>>1680964
*all but impossible

>>1678279
Yet streets drugs remain affordable, more proof that markets work commie :^)

>>1680928
Would we have socialism yet if they weren’t?

Has ANYONE achieved socialism by 2050?

>>1672216
Is reviving dead people real?

I hope you guys try to dig up max stirners grave but then find out there was Engel's body inside.

Jokes aside, i hope the struggle is won. If not do not give up, revolution will always previal.

>>1672675
hold me bros

>>1673168
because
>Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.

>Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

>The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.

What is the general quality of life like now?
Has the socialist revolution come yet?
Do you enjoy life?
Have you guys fixed climate change?
Has korea been reunified?, was it under the DPRK or no?
Has american imperialism finally died off?
Also do you guys like red army ushankas, they’re my favorite type of hat

>>1663450
live footage

Why all th freemason's talk?

>>1679874
ᴉuᴉlossnW was arguing that fascist opposition to freemasonry proved that they were the true representatives of working class will, but Gramsci was arguing that fascists were just burning masonic lodges to look cool and had no long term interest in opposing the bourgeoisie.

American politics in the 1800s was similarly obsessed with freemasons. There was even an anti-masonic party back then.

>>1679881
Fun fact: Farinacci, Acerbo, Balbo and many, many more fascists were masons.
Masonic lodges were just cool clubs for cool (often middle class) kids that attracted attention for their opposition to the church.

>>1663311
I think it was a variety of things; both the ambient nationalism of WWI as well as the failure of established Socialist parties to launch a truly international revolt played into it. I believe he saw Socialism as fundamentally retreating from what people originally conceived it as and saw Fascism as a kind of revisionist socialism.

Lenin was a gamer.

It's interesting how these anecdotes contradict what I usually heard about Lenin which is that he was a tireless workaholic who stayed up all night writing, wrote more pages in his collected works than days he was alive, could speak at least semi-fluently in 11 languages, was always going to meetings and rallies, never took a break, and died in his 50s of a stroke

For example, Gorky said Lenin was screaming in this picture because he lost at chess, and not yawning.

Why did Armenians leave Nagorno karabakh once they lost?
I mean can you really accuse Azeris of genocide/ethnic cleansing when your population left on their own without a single violent outburst from Azerbaijan that might intimidate civilians?
I know it sounds weird but at least Palestinians stood their ground and showcased that Israel truly is an apartheid colonial state, but when it comes to Azerbaijan the fact that Armenians left before they did anything just leaves them with the result of the ethnic cleansing except with a clear conscience & clean hands

>>1681024
because azerbaijan did intentionally kill civilians during their offensives. I don't have it saved but you can find webms of azeri soldiers beheading old people in armenian villages, also when your government rewards people like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramil_Safarov it's better not to stick around and wait for the inevitable.

>>1681024
Armenians could take refuge in Armenia, Palestinians had nowhere else to go, it's easy to assume that muslim arabs are all the same but in reality they don't see themselves as such unlike Armenians.
if there was some remote Palestinian state to which Palestinians could flee to they definitely would've by now.

>>1681007
Azerbaijan's closest ally is NATO member Turkey, which speaks of this relationship as being "two states, one nation". Of course, don't tell that to the Turkey fantards ITT. I wonder what they'll be saying when pan-Turkism is weaponized against China and Russia and becomes the new Wahabbiism.

How is this thread still up?

>>1628958
>but you win the hearts and minds of the people with action and results not marketing
I feel our movement is not large enough to exactly be expecting the main draw of it to be the "results" of action - in which I think you mean to say the direct implementation of our ideology, or else then what separates your conception of "action" from propaganda.

Revolutionary action comes later, our numbers are low, and every "action" we take must essentially be one of propaganda. How is real change produced but by the work of many, and how are a multitude of activists that would undertake such an endeavor produced but by the work of propaganda?

>unlike you ofc anon who will change so much
Only by the collective actions of the movement can something be changed, and I hope that what I say will be heeded and that I will be a part in the coming change

Look into chaos magick, hyper sigils, you'll see

Read Manufacturing Consent, OP, you fool.

>>1628633
Anarchism was never mass appealing, sorry.

>>1628633
>extremist right ideologies, have continuously outclassed leftists when it comes to propaganda.
Hi /pol/.
Sad to inform you your gambit failed.
Feel free to pick another flag and try again.

Big Three Autoworkers Approve Contracts After UAW Strike
As voting wrapped up on Friday, United Auto Workers members at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis were all on track to approve contracts finalized during a six-week UAW strike demanding improved pay, benefits, and working conditions from the "Big Three." The union's online trackers had the ratification vote results as 68.2% to 31.8% at Ford, 54.7% to 45.3% at GM, and 69.6% to 30.4% at Stellantis as of press time. The UAW and companies have not yet commented on the results.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/uaw-contract-2023

LexisNexis Sold Powerful Spy Tools to U.S. Customs and Border Protection
The popular data broker LexisNexis began selling face recognition services and personal location data to U.S. Customs and Border Protection late last year, according to contract documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. According to the documents, obtained by the advocacy group Just Futures Law and shared with The Intercept, LexisNexis Risk Solutions began selling surveillance tools to the border enforcement agency in December 2022. The $15.9 million contract includes a broad menu of powerful tools for locating individuals throughout the United States using a vast array of personal data, much of it obtained and used without judicial oversight.
https://theintercept.com/2023/11/16/lexisnexis-cbp-surveillance-border/

US industry disposed of at least 60m pounds of PFAS waste in last five years
US industry disposed of at least 60m pounds of PFAS “forever chemical” waste over the last five years, and did so with processes that probably pollute the environment around disposal sites, a new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data finds.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/17/epa-pfas-forever-chemicals-waste-pollution-unregulated

Judge rules former President Donald Trump is eligible for Colorado's primary ballot
Colorado Secretary of StatePost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Revisiting the Smash EDO Campaign
In response to the genocide unfolding in Gaza, some activists have set out to target weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems and Raytheon. Palestine Action has permanently shut down two of Elbit’s UK locations; in the United States, a similar campaign is underway to target Elbit facilities around the country. As these campaigns gain momentum, it may be instructive to look to previous such efforts for inspiration and ideas. Two decades ago in the UK, a campaign known as Smash EDO set out to shut down an arms factory in Brighton. Over the course of a years-long struggle, they experimented with a range of strategies. In one case, activists broke into the facility and did hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage to it—and then were declared innocent by a jury at trial. Here, we review that movement from its inception to its high point in 2010. An earlier version of the following text appeared in the ninth issue of our print journal, Rolling Thunder, in spring 2010.
https://crimethinc.com/2023/11/17/revisiting-the-smash-edo-campaign-a-pressure-campaign-targeting-an-arms-manufacturer-1

Albania’s Resistance Movement Achieved a Unique Victory in the Struggle Against Nazism
After the Russian Revolution of October 1917, there were very few places in Europe where the local communist parties explicitly stated that they did not expect a socialist transformation to be possible. Albania was one of those places. Yet it ended up experiencing a socialist revolution during World War II, despite not even having a communist party of its own until 1941. The small groups of scattered organizers in the country managed to work quickly under conditions of occupation and establish an effective resistance movement. Together with the Yugoslav partisans who served as their self-imposed tutors, they were the only two political forces in Eastern Europe to achieve liberation relatively independently of the Red Army. This made it possible for the postwar governments in Belgrade and Tirana alike to defy the USSR in the decades that followed. Under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, Albania went on to follow a unique path during the Cold War, breaking with Moscow during the 1960s to ally with Maoist China, befoPost too long. Click here to view the full text.