/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

​"True, the productive forces, practice and the economic base generally play the principal and decisive role; whoever denies this is not a materialist. But it must also be admitted that in certain conditions, such aspects as the relations of production, theory and the superstructure in turn manifest themselves in the principal and decisive role."
​Mao Zedong, "On Contradiction" (August 1937)

​"This means that, on the basis of the existing productive forces and within their limits, it is the relations of production that play the decisive role. The whole of Capital, and all the works of Lenin and Mao Zedong, serve as a commentary on this thesis, which has never been recognized by Marxists."
​Louis Althusser, "On the Reproduction of Capital" / "On the Relations of Production" (written 1969-1973, published posthumously).

​"The changes and development of production always begin with changes and development of the productive forces, and in the first place, with changes and development of the instruments of production. Productive forces are therefore the most mobile and revolutionary element of production. First the productive forces of society change and develop, and then, depending on these changes and in conformity with them, men's relations of production, their economic relations, change.
​Relations of production develop depending on the development of the productive forces, but they, in their turn, react upon the development of productive forces, accelerating or retarding it. And it must be noted that the relations of production cannot postpone lagging behind the growth of the productive forces and being in contradiction to them for too long, for the productive forces can develop to the full only when the relations of production correspond to the nature and state of the productive forces and allow full scope for their development."
​Joseph Stalin, "Dialectical and Historical Materialism" (September 1938)

well well well…