themassesagainsttheclasses

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

Raising of the flag of the People’s Republic of China at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

Мы шагаем быстрее американцев! (1964)

We advance faster than Americans! (1964)

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

irony

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

i’ve discovered that if you put @dril’s name on richard dawkins tweets they actually make more sense

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

March 18, 1871: The Paris Commune begins.

Via Jornal A Nova Democracia

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

May Day poster issued by the Tudeh party in 1980.

Source

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

vickery is by far the best source to read on cambodia in that period btw and makes a marxist analysis of the rather idiosyncratic tributary regime that existed there possible.

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

to go back to the point about cambodia, the khmer rouge were not communist. but don’t take my word for it, after all, they said so enough times themselves. to quote the relevant parts of a piece i wrote on the topic:

“as late as 1977, Ieng Sary claimed openly that "We are not communists ... we are revolutionaries" who do not 'belong to the commonly accepted grouping of communist Indochina." (Vickery 1999, p.308)

It was somewhat earlier, in 1976, that the Khmer Rouge described themselves as "Marxist-Leninist" for the first time after the death of Mao Zedong. (Chandler 1983, p. 55). Nevertheless, even at this point the Khmer Rouge rarely expressed themselves in terms which actually had their origin in orthodox Marxism-Leninism. Chandler notes of the spokesman for the Khmer Rouge that "They claim that the CPK is a Marxist-Leninist Party, but say nothing about the writings of these two men." (Chandler 1983, p. 45). It was not until 1977 that the existence of the "Communist Party of Kampuchea" was even revealed, the organization having simply been known as the "Angkar" for the two years previous. (Chandler 1983, p. 37). Contrary to the principle that "The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims", as Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto, the Khmer Rouge rarely elaborated upon their ideology in any concrete way.

In this light, what came afterward is scarcely surprising. After the Vietnamese intervention and the subsequent collapse of Democratic Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge found themselves in alliance with the United States and other Western powers, eager to inflict revenge on Vietnam for the humiliating defeat of the war there. Happy to play the role of a U.S. proxy, the CPK was disbanded altogether in 1981 and replaced with the "Party of Democratic Kampuchea". While the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea declared it was in the process of constructing socialism, the Khmer Rouge now abandoned any affiliation with Marxism-Leninism, declaring their intention that they would "adopt the democratic system of government and will not construct socialism or communism". Ieng Sary was pleased by the election of Reagan in the same year and admitted that "we have given up socialism, at least for a generation, perhaps more." (Vickery 1999, p.268)”

_________________________

Chandler, D. & Kiernan, B. (1983). Revolution and Its Aftermath in Kampuchea: Eight Essays. Yale University Southeast Asia Studies

Vickery, M. (1999). Cambodia 1975-1982. Silkworm Books.

I’m just gonna ignore that you used *Wikipedia* as a valid source there, especially an article claiming the khmer rouge was communist in any way when the regime only claimed that ideology whenever hhey could gain sympathy from other states for it, declared war against the socialist state vietnam, never tried building a socialist economy & was a peasants revolution rather than a workers revolution.

the second link doesn’t even explain how the millions that died happened due to collectivization when there was a drought affecting huge regions. it was indeed made worse due to the conflicts arising from the richer peasants resisting collectivization, but the cause of these deaths were still never attributable to communism as an ideology and socialism as an economic system. i suggest you read these: https://gowans.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work/ https://gowans.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/seven-myths-about-the-ussr/

the third and fourth links not only ignore how communist revolutions are almost always started in poorer countries with worse conditions to begin with & the ridiculous amount of hardship that all currently existing socialist states had to endure in the past, but you are seriously claiming that the people’s republic of china, led by a communist party with over 85 000 000 members, with a capitalist sector divided into small firms, and a socialist sector consisting of the commanding heights and about 50% of the economy, is capitalist

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

liberals are like “i know that any change to this exploitative socioeconomic system is bad because talking animals in a book i read in grade 8 taught me so" and honestly i love that as a concept because it feels so immediately dystopian and absurd and yet i hear it literally daily

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

my god this is a trainwreck

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

communism was tried first in Russia, because it was the only country long enough for the bread waiting lines

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

Capitalism apologist: in communism you just stand in line

Me, reading this post, waiting in line under capitalism: huh

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

There appears to be an infestation of “kulaks” in the kolkhoz.

[themassesagainsttheclasses]

no y’know what if people want communism let’s let em have communism

let’s all send them to north korea! or china! let’s ship em all of to vietnam! see how fuckin quickly they change their minds ahahahaha