Your top five most influential revolutionaries. since 1900

[Bloody Armalite]

The revolutionaries most influential to me are.


George Orwell- even though he was not a communist, i admire him for his novels and the messages of the abuse of power which we would do well to remember when we are ready for revolution and his heroics in spain fighting fascism.

Camilo Cienfuegos- a commondante in the july movement, and one of the first revolutionaries in the movement, he was known for being a great leader and the only one to make fun of Ernesto, who named his son after Camilo, there is also a city in cuba named after him.
He was said to be socialist and opposed to castros idea of communism, but he was still held in high regard by fidel.

George Jackson- a robber turned political revolutionary, he opened my eyes to the racism within the system and how the US gov use the drugs and guns to get the young black males to wipe each other out sparking a whole people to lose their identity and make them fight each other rather than the system.

Bobby sands- writer, soldier, theorist, british MP among many other things.
Showed how if you are totally determined to stand up for your belief you can never be defeated.
He was politically aware in his early childhood, having been burnt out of hi house by the RUC and loyalist terrorists.
During the 1981 hungerstrike, sands was the first man to die and was elected to parliment while on hungerstrike.
His death was a huge boost to the IRA and created a massive surge in recruitment.

seamus Costello- Founder of the INLA, dedicated socialist who fought british teariny and helped to spread the words of connolly and spoke of an ireland free of sectarianism, but united in their fight to be free from british rule and unite in a socialist republic.
He was a leader in the official IRA at 16 but left due to their ceasefire in 1970s.

[red cat]

Five would make the list quite incomplete. So I will go for the top ten:

1) Mao Dze Dong

2) Lenin

3) Stalin

4) Che Guevara

5) Charu Mazumdar: Founder of one of the two revolutionary communist movements of India. Advocated seizure of political power through peasants' and workers' insurrection as opposed to the parliamentary line put forward by the old communist parties.

6) Kanhai Chatterjee: Founder of the other revolutionary communist movement of India. Advocated prolonged guerrilla warfare under a clandestine communist party.

7) Jose Maria Sison: Founder of the revolutionary communist movement of the Philippines in 1968. Developed Mao's theory of people's war practically for an archipelago. He was captured in 1977 and survived prolonged water torture. Currently he is exiled in the Netherlands.

8) Ibrahim Kayapakkaya: Founder of the revolutionary communist movement of Turkey. Martyred in 1973, when he was only 24, a year after he founded the TKPML. Recognized Kurdistan as a different country being oppressed by Turkey.

9) Gonzalo: Founder of the revolutionary communist movement of Peru. Captured in 1992.

10) Ho Chi Minh

[Yunus]

The classics of course -

Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hoxha..

But also our anti-revisionist leaders here -

Deniz Gezmiş -

Deniz Gezmiş was a Marxist-Leninist and political activist in the Republic of Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the founding members of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THKO).

Hanged for his revolutionary activity.


Mahir Çayan -

Founder of the Peoples Liberation Party - Front of Turkey. Murdered at Kızıldere in confrontation with the state.

[h0m0revolutionary]

In terms of contributions to my politics. Very easy to list:

1) Emma Goldman
2) Errico Malatesta
3) Alexandra Kollontai
4) Rosa Luxemburg
5) Alexander Berkman

[Incendiarism]

Peter Kropotkin
Vladimir Lenin
Leon Trotsky
Rosa Luxemburg
Che Guevara

[professorchaos]

1. Peter Kropotkin
2. Murray Bookchin
3. Emma Goldman
4. Alexander Berkman
5. Daniel Guérin

[Eat the Rich]

Lenin- Leader of the October Revolution, worked on establishing the third International, contributed to the theory of Marxism with his work on imperialism and also his work regarding Party organization and tactics.

Trotsky- Second only to Lenin in the October Revolution. Established the third international and following its degeneration the Fourth International. He described the class character of the USSR after its bureaucratic degeneration and fought vehemently against the counter-revolutionary bureaucracy.

Ted Grant- Following the dissolution of the Fourth Internation after the difficult post WW2 conditions, he was the one to create a new international, the CWI. He was the thread that connected modern revolutionaries to Bolshevism. He described the class character of deformed workers states. Once the CWI degenerated in the 1990s, following the collapse of the USSR, he created a new International the IMT (CMI as it was called back then).

Che Guevara- Everyone knows about Che and his work.

Aris Velouhiotis- Leader of the Greek partisans against the Nazis and subsequently the Right Wing. When the Stalinists of the KKE (CP) sold out in Varkiza and Lebanon, he continued to advocate armed resistance and against the sell-out. He was expelled from the KKE as a "traitor" by the real traitors, who tried to make a deal with imperialism in order to get seats in the cabinet. He continued his fight until he commited suicide when he was trapped by Fascists in cooperation with Stalinists. His head was cut off and decorated the square of Trikala.

[Rakhmetov]

1. Lenin

2. Che

3. Castro

4. Noam Chomsky

5. Michael Parenti

[Pirate turtle the 11th]

1. Adolf Hitler
2. Franco
3. Pinochet
4. Custer
5. Anyone who is a leader in the lord's resistance army.

[Pirate Utopian]

1. Barrack Obama
2. Al Gore
3. Bill Clinton
4. Hillary Clinton
5. George Clooney

[willdw79]

The top five most infleuential on me are:

Winfred Wilkins
Audreanna Davison
Harry Goldstein
Willie Gilbrandt
Michael Fuchini

These are people who I know who have given me a back and forth about revolution and their revolutionary struglles. Often it is in the context of the people named in other posts, but they are the ones who reccomended what to read. They are the ones amongst others who helped me to crystalize my revolutionary thoughts.

No heroes.

[spiltteeth]

In dialectical fashion :
1)Lenin
2)Mao
3)Lenin
4)Mao
5)Zizek

[Panda Tse Tung]

Well, the question remains who is a revolutionary or not, but Zizek and Parenti are on it. So i'll just assume any commie is a revolutionary.

So the most influential revolutionaries after 1900 to me are:

1. Michael Parenti
2. Mao Zedong
3. Ludo Martens
4. Molotov (might sound weird, but it's true)
5. Bob Avakian (i dont like the RCP, but i like his works)
6. Che Guevara (i know, no 6th, but meeh. felt he was worth mentioning)

[Sam_b]

I don't see why so-called revolutionaries still maintain they can list and rank their favourite theorists. Its ridiculous.

[Wanted Man]

I'm not sure, but Bloody Armalite will have to feature in it somewhere.

[h0m0revolutionary]

I don't see why so-called revolutionaries still maintain they can list and rank their favourite theorists. Its ridiculous.


Oh come off it, your analysis owes alot to theorists. The party you're in will have shaped you as will your friends and the understanding of theorists they have grasped.

You're telling me that Cliff, Trotsky and Lenin have had no influence on your political outlook and understanding of society?

[Sam_b]

Tell me where I have said that. The point is you cannot 'rank' who has made the best and most complete contributions to the movement. Its as absurd as the 'what are your top five revolutions' thread of old, with people ranking which was 'better'. Its a nonsense, and lazy politics.

[h0m0revolutionary]

oh get off your peddlestool sam.

everyone of us here as far as i can tell are talking in a personal capacity about the revolutionaries who have made the biggest impact personally on our politics.

So we're not ranking them in order of what they've contributed to the movement, only our own politics.

[Misanthrope]

1. Lenin

2. Che

3. Castro

4. Noam Chomsky

5. Michael Parenti

You know Chomsky opposes Lenin right?

[Sam_b]

What is the movement without people?

[Il Medico]

What is the movement without people?
A hallow thing.


Anyways top five most important revolutionaries?
1. Sam_B :p
2. All of them
3. All of them
4. All of them
5 All of them


Note: All of them does not include Stalin. After all, you did say revolutionaries.

[StalinFanboy]

Malatesta
Bonanno
Bakunin
Marx

or something

[cyu]

What is the movement without people?


Very well said. So I'm going to put the previous 5 people in my list:

1. Godstomper
2. The Doctor
3. Sam_b
4. Wolves of Paris
5. h0m0revolutionary

[RedAnarchist]

Closed as OP is banned.