Who are your Hero's or the people you've looked up to?

[The Vegan Marxist]

I don't know if a similar thread has been created, & if so then I'm sorry, but I feel that this is an important discussion needing to be taken, because for who we are today it was transformed that way because of the people we've looked up to as hero's. It can be a short list of people, or it can be a long list of people that you've looked up through history, & still today. My list is long enough to keep a person busy in trying to find out more on who these people are, if you've not known of them before I pointed them out. So let's show history, Comrades:



John Lennon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon)
Che Guevara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara)
Leonard Peltier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peltier)
Martin Luther King Jr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.)
Mumia Abu-Jamal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal)
Thích Quảng Đức (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c)
Mikhail Bakunin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin)
Victor Jara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADctor_Jara)
Subcomandante Marcos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subcomandante_Marcos)
Emma Goldman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman)
Frederick Douglass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass)
Mohandas K. Gandhi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi)
Harriet Tubman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman)
Huey P. Newton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_P._Newton)
Joe Hill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill)
Malcolm X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X)
Bob Marley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley)
César Chávez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Ch%C3%A1vez)
Michael Jackson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson)
François-Noël Babeuf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-No%C3%ABl_Babeuf)
Emiliano Zapata (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emiliano_Zapata)
Pancho Villa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Villa)
Augusto César Sandino (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_C%C3%A9sar_Sandino)
José Carlos Mariátegui (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Carlos_Mari%C3%A1tegui)
Marcus Garvey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey)
Túpac Amaru II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BApac_Amaru_II)
W. E. B. Du Bois (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois)
Noam Chomsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky)
George Orwell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell)
Howard Zinn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn)
Buenaventura Durruti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenaventura_Durruti)
Jiddu Krishnamurti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurti)
Peter Kropotkin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin)
Lydia Guevara (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/19/lydia-guevara-ches-grandd_n_218336.html)
Tamara Bunke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamara_Bunke)
Carlo Giuliani (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Carlo_Giuliani)
Alexandros Grigoropoulos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Greek_riots)
Robin D. G. Kelley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_D.G._Kelley)
Jean-Paul Sartre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre)
Jacque Fresco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacque_Fresco)
Bob Black (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Black)
Karl Marx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx)

Also, if you'd like to show who your favorite revolutionary groups or political organizations were, then, by all means, do so:



The Zhenotdel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhenotdel)
Unified Communist Party of Nepal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Communist_Party_of_Nepal_%28Maoist%29)
The EZLN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation)
M.E.N.D. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_for_the_Emancipation_of_the_Niger_Delta)
Sendero Luminoso (http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-5174039229883453382) (Since wikipedia has decided to give out a false image of the Sendero Luminoso, whether half truths or no truths, I decided to instead give out a documentary about them)
American Indian Movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Movement)
Bash Back! (http://bashbacknews.wordpress.com/about/)

[Drace]

That's a long list!
No Marx until #42? :(

[ls]

Absolutely amazing that you place John Lennon first, despite the fact he never did anything.

[Socialist Warrior]

Saul Alinksy

[The Vegan Marxist]

First of all, the list consisted the best for last :thumbup1: And, John Lennon, in my opinion, did a lot when it came to heightening the number of people to waking up & to stand up for peace & social justice. He was a true representer of communism in his time. And really, he got me into the idea of there being no countries, no possessions, no religion. So I thank him for that.

[professorchaos]

And he wrote a good song, or two...or a hundred

[Nwoye]

don't follow leaders, watch your parking meters. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan)

[Sasha]

:blink: sendero luminoso?

od choice for an anarchist, even most maoist dont touch that one (rightly so, i might add) with an 10 feet pole.

[Drace]

And, John Lennon, in my opinion, did a lot when it came to heightening the number of people to waking up & to stand up for peace & social justice. He was a true representer of communism in his time. And really, he got me into the idea of there being no countries, no possessions, no religion. So I thank him for that.

...And made lot of money off it. His songs were still amazing though

[The Vegan Marxist]

:blink: sendero luminoso?

od choice for an anarchist, even most maoist dont touch that one with an 10 feet pole.

The Sendero Luminoso are a misunderstood, & very controversial group of revolutionaries. Many lies have been put on them, even though they did admit to killing a group of people at one time, but that was an attack against the anti-rebel peasants that were trained by the Peruvian military to go out & kill a bunch of the shining path's comrades, which took place before they led an attack against the anti-rebels. So, it was a revolutionary retaliation. I'd recommend you to watch the documentary provided by link & then make an open-minded opinion on it.

[Tablo]

I look up to Emma Goldman and Che Guevara.

[Sasha]

@ vegan anarchokiddie: no thanks, i met (very leftist) comrades from peru, and they told me (and showed the scars that belonged with them) all the stories i needed to know.
shining path where/are an crazy cult and if they would ever got into power they would have ended up as the kmehr rouge.

they butchered revolutionairy comrades, natives and union people .

[RedStarOverChina]

Let's be honest here. Not all of our important influences are ideologically "pure-bred" leftist revolutionaries.

I'm willing to admit that my biggest influence was my Confucian paternal grandpa.

He was a detective in the PRC, and was famous for his wits in his circles. He used to be a devoted communist, but grew cynical after the Culture Revolution, and returned to his Confucian up-bringing.

What strikes me about him even today, besides his devotion to the Confucian family-clan, is his intense hatred for injustice---Not necessarily always social injustice, but everything he considers "immoral"---from bullying to cheating or lying.

I lived with him for much of my childhood. Not everything he taught me was right, in hindsight. But I think overall it was a positive upbringing. I don't know if I would have became a communist if it weren't for some of the values he instilled in me, ironically.

Now, moving on to my other important influences:

#2. Karl Marx (And Fred Engels)
What can I say. He is, and probably will always be the Paramount thinker among all the other intellectual giants I have ever known.

#3. Zhou Enlai
The Communist Party calls him a committed revolutionary. But even from a Confucian perspective there are a lot of good things to say about this man. Probably that's why his popularity exceeds that of Mao Zedong in China. He has the prefect blend of a zealous, fearless (even ruthless) revolutionary and a refined intellectual. He was my role model, if there ever was one.

#3. Mao Zedong
He is many things to many people. To me, he symbolized defiance. Defiance towards his (and my) powerful tradition; defiance towards KMT's colossal army; and defiance towards the might of foreign imperialism. His defiance is impossible to imitate, but never-the-less extremely inspiring.

#4. Che Guevara
I did not know of him until after I have decided to call myself a communist. But when I did discover him, I was impressed, to say the least.

[The Vegan Marxist]

@ vegan anarchokiddie: no thanks, i met (very leftist) comrades from peru, and they told me (and showed the scars that belonged with them) all the stories i needed to know.
shining path where/are an crazy cult and if they would ever got into power they would have ended up as the kmehr rouge.

they butchered revolutionairy comrades, natives and union people .

A lot of that started happening after they started splitting up in different branches. They originally were on the people's side, & there are still those that remain loyal, but a lot them have gone their own paths & are betraying the very ideology that they were fighting for. I have met comrades from Peru as well, & I've been given different stories about them many times, some for them, & others against them.

Also, I'd like to point out that those that have remained loyal to the ideology have called out for a truce with the Peruvian government to end the violence & to allow them to continue their party, within peaceful activities that is. Comrade Artemio was one of the first people to ask for this, yet the government has not replied, which deaths will now be on their hands for their lack of showing truce like the PCP have shown.

[The Something]

Fred Hampton.

[Che Guevara]

1.) Tommy Douglas (Voted the most famous Canadian in 2004, fought for Universal health care in Canada, and established the first social democratic government in North America).
2.) Rosa Luxemburg
3.) Vladmir Lenin
4) Fidel Castro

Karl Marx is at #42??

[RadioRaheem84]

Karl Marx, Chomsky, Durruti, Italian Partisans, Zapata, Rosa Luxembourg

[The Vegan Marxist]

1.) Tommy Douglas (Voted the most famous Canadian in 2004, fought for Universal health care in Canada, and established the first social democratic government in North America).
2.) Rosa Luxemburg
3.) Vladmir Lenin
4) Fidel Castro

Karl Marx is at #42??

Got to save the best for last my friend :D

[the last donut of the night]

Why did you put Mohandas Gandhi?

That's an odd choice; he did say that oppressed people chose to be oppressed.

[Sam_b]

In an ideology which is supposed to attain to no leaders exept that of the mass working class, why are you listing and ranking people (all men, no less) as somehow 'better' than others?

[The Vegan Marxist]

You guys really not like to take jokes. I don't put people in a specific order. It wouldn't matter if Karl Marx was last or not, for he's equal to everyone that I've looked up to in my life. And I don't list all men in it either if you actually look at the list. Yes, there are more men on the list, but that doesn't mean I'm against women revolutionaries at all. I'm proud of women revolutionaries, & I'm sure I've missed some that I can't think of right now, same goes for men as well.

[RadioRaheem84]

I don't think Vegan intended to rank the men. He's listed some good revolutionary thinkers. I don't know about Ghandi though.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Gandhi showed courage against oppressors, & he did so without showing violence. I feel this is a revolutionary act that most people can't, or refuse to endure. There are things that Gandhi have done that I can't do anything but support.

[RadioRaheem84]

Was he not a Hindu fundamentalist that believed the caste system was a good thing for India?
Isn't there someone else you can add instead?

[The Vegan Marxist]

Was he not a Hindu fundamentalist that believed the caste system was a good thing for India?
Isn't there someone else you can add instead?

Just because he represented a single belief I did not support, doesn't mean I can't support other ideas that he brought forth. I hate the idea of disclosing a person of the entirety due to a single belief. I guess it's just me, but I've shown support for far more revolutionary people, as you can see, & groups as well.

[Niccolò Rossi]

I look up to Emma Goldman and Che Guevara.

That's quite a challenge

[Invincible Summer]

Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels
Clara Zetkin
Emma Goldman
Mao Zedong
V.I. Lenin
Che Guevara
Subcomandante Marcos
Victor Jara
Pancho Villa

[bcbm]

http://bermudaradical.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/bash-back.jpg

http://www.kalamu.com/bol/wp-content/content/images/wu%20tang%20clan%2001.jpg

[Panda Tse Tung]

Ok, here's mah list (i'll just list people who changed my thinking in the right direction, in random order):

Engels
Marx
Lenin
Stalin
Mao
Ludo Martens
Michael Parenti
William Blum
Howard Zinn
Malcolm X
Marc Vanderpitte
Paul de Groot
Marcus Bakker
Thomas Sankara
Bob Avakian
Michael Moore
Nelson Mandela
Fidel Castro
Che
Henk Gortzak
Rosa Luxemburg

Groups:

NCPN/CJB
PSL
FRSO (fight back)
PvdA+
Communist party of the Phillipines
UCPN (M)
CPC
CPSU (defunct)
CPN (defunct)

[Leo]

Ever since I was a little kid, my ma has been my revolutionary hero.


Absolutely amazing that you place John Lennon first, despite the fact he never did anything.

I think the absolutely amazing thing is that he calls himself an anarchist.

[*Viva La Revolucion*]

Miep Gies and everyone who helped to hide/assist Jewish families during the holocaust. Also, everyone in the resistance movements, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Edelweiss Pirates, The White Rose members Hans and Sophie Scholl etc. And authors such as Elie Weisel and Primo Levi.

There are others such as Karl Marx (of course), but I'll post about them later when I've got more time.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I think the absolutely amazing thing is that he calls himself an anarchist.

Are all the moderators on this forum straight-up anarchists? Well, I'm an anarcho-communist, to where I find communist & anarchist ideologies not different at the least bit, & are only made different by the people who put themselves out to be pure anarchist & against communism, or vice versa. We need to start finding common ground, either that or we'll both fail at bringing down the capitalist system.

[Pirate Utopian]

Gandhi showed courage against oppressors, & he did so without showing violence. I feel this is a revolutionary act that most people can't, or refuse to endure. There are things that Gandhi have done that I can't do anything but support.
Ninja, please.

Gandhi didnt do shit, he got a bunch of people killed and beaten up who accepted it under the nauseating banner of pacifism.
The more militant indepdence fighters drove Britain from India.

Watch the Penn & Teller episode Holier Than Thou.

Some of the revolutionaries I look up to the most:
Marx & Engels
Huey Newton
Fred Hampton
Che Guevara
Frantz Fanon
Malcolm X
Lenin

[ls]

Are all the moderators on this forum straight-up anarchists? Well, I'm an anarcho-communist, to where I find communist & anarchist ideologies not different at the least bit, & are only made different by the people who put themselves out to be pure anarchist & against communism, or vice versa. We need to start finding common ground, either that or we'll both fail at bringing down the capitalist system.

Most left-communists and anarchists on this forum have similar positions, the pro-nationalist anarchists and communists on this forum also have similar positions with each other, so essentially there is common ground except it's not how you think it is.

[Jolly Red Giant]

My list is very short - just one on it - my hero -

Winnie the Pooh

[Red Saxon]

- Marx&Engles (introduced the theoretical framework by which I adhere to)
- Che (tried to live out that ideology)
- Noam Chomsky (
-

[cyu]

My heroes are the next three people to post in this thread. If they have not done great things yet, they will in the years soon to come (hopefully).

[Crux]

Dead old men, mostly with beards, and Rosa Luxemburg.

Oh and thanks, cyu. See you on the barricades.

[RadioRaheem84]

Huey Newton



This could probably well be COINTELPRO propaganda but wasn't Newton involved in a drug trade that cost him his life?

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I respect the body of thought that originated from Marx and Engels, quite obviously, although it would stretch a bit far to call them 'heroes'.

Those who I look up to more as being heroic are Fidel, Che and those involved in both the 1953 uprising and the later revolution.

As Viva La Revolucion said, all those groups who have viciously resisted Fascism, even in the face of the most dire consequences, deserve utmost respect. Indeed, it may be the unkown names behind groups such as the Edelweiss Pirates and White Rose movement who are the more heroic among us.

[bcbm]

i forgot to mention carrie feldman and scott demuth (http://davenportgrandjury.wordpress.com/), who are currently resisting a grand jury in davenport, ia. support these folks!

[Joe_Germinal]

Like DemSoc I don't consider most of my intellectual influences to have been "heroic," so I'll leave aside the long list of Marxist theorists. My two greatest heroes since childhood have been Dolores Ibárruri and Paul Robeson.

[Weezer]

First of all, the list consisted the best for last :thumbup1: And, John Lennon, in my opinion, did a lot when it came to heightening the number of people to waking up & to stand up for peace & social justice. He was a true representer of communism in his time. And really, he got me into the idea of there being no countries, no possessions, no religion. So I thank him for that.

Not gonna happen.

Private Property is one thing, but personal property will never disappear.

I like Malcolm X, Marx, Engels, The May 1968-ers, Luxemburg, and the Nepal Maoists.

[bcbm]

Private Property is one thing, but personal property will never disappear.

says who?

[Weezer]

says who?

Do I have to share my toaster in communism? :(

[bcbm]

why would you hoard a toaster?:confused:

[Weezer]

why would you hoard a toaster?:confused:

But I thought in communism only private property would be abolished, not all concepts of property.

[gorillafuck]

why would you hoard a toaster?:confused:
Because going to the communal toaster building every time you wanted to make toast would fucking suck.

[bcbm]

But I thought in communism only private property would be abolished, not all concepts of property.

i think its silly to talk about what will happen "in communism," but i'm for the communisation of almost all property.


Because going to the communal toaster building every time you wanted to make toast would fucking suck.

what?

[Robocommie]

what?

It's like a toothbrush or an alarm clock. What's the point of collectivizing those things which are defined almost entirely by the most personal of uses?

[Cooler Reds Will Prevail]

My heroes are the people when they come together and rise up against oppression and exploitation.


This could probably well be COINTELPRO propaganda but wasn't Newton involved in a drug trade that cost him his life?

Probably, yes. Some people doubt it and claim he was assassinated by the government but as a bit of a fan of Huey P. myself I don't buy it. He even acknowledged that toward the end of his life he was committing "reactionary suicide" through his drug and alcohol abuse. Interestingly enough, the guy that apparently shot and killed him in the drug deal benefitted from the Panthers' Free Breakfast Program in Oakland as a child.

[OCMO]

People that I admire:

Álvaro Cunhal (communst leader of the Portuguese Communist Party for several years)
Salgueiro Maia, Otelo and the others capitans that end fascism in Portugal with a bloodless coup.
Agostinho Neto (leader of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola)
Amílcar Cabral (leader of the African Party for the independence of Guinea and Cape Verde)
Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Cienfuegos and other revolutionaries in Cuba.
Marx and Engels
Lenin
Socrates and other Corinthians football players who dified the military dictatorship in Brazil.
Salvador Allende
Zeca Afonso, portuguese intervention singer.
António Aleixo and Ary dos Santos, portuguese intervention poets.
Theology of Liberation priests and Pope John Paul I for fight corruption within the Catholic Church and the aid and support for revolutionaries.
St. Pauli and Celtics fans.
Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, portuguese caricaturist who showed in several comics the struggle of the little guy against explotation.

And at the moment, i'm very impressed with the riots that happened on Grecce. Nice way of showing how crappy the greek government is.

Probably i'm still missing a few people.

[*Viva La Revolucion*]

all those groups who have viciously resisted Fascism, even in the face of the most dire consequences, deserve utmost respect. Indeed, it may be the unkown names behind groups such as the Edelweiss Pirates and White Rose movement who are the more heroic among us.

Exactly. I'm not saying the other people listed aren't worthy of respect and admiration, but I'd always choose someone almost unknown over a leader like Mao (sorry maoists ;)),

That said, I'd like to add:

Charles Darwin for obvious reasons. An absolute genius.
Noam Chomsky for his intelligence and contributions to both linguistics and politics.
Peter Tatchell even though everyone here is bound to hate him - he's been beaten up numerous times, has had death threats and yet he still carries on.
Emma Goldman for holding very progressive beliefs at a time when it was very hard to do so.
The Stonewall Rioters - again, obvious reasons.
Denis Mukwege - Hero. Congolese gynecologist. Wikipedia says: ''Mukwege has probably become the world's leading expert on how to repair the internal physical damage caused by gang rape.He has treated 21,000 women during the Congo's 12-year war, some of them more than once, performing up to 10 surgeries a day during his 18-hour working days.'' Every day he also faces the prospect that he could be killed, but he carries on helping victims.
Rosa Parks and the others who refused to give up their places on buses - she wasn't the first one to do this.
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B Du Bois - Don't agree with everything, but he deserves respect.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos - bold statement at the 1068 Olympics.
Jesse Owens - He disagreed with the black power salute, strangely enough. But the fact that he came out on top in Hitler's ceremony to prove the superiority of the Aryan Race - fantastic!
Tolpuddle Martyrs
Denis Avey - he was a British soldier who smuggled himself into Auschwitz twice. He swapped places with a prisoner and he tried to get him things that would be of use inside.
Some nurses - a few of them are incompetent and useless, I'm sure. But they don't get paid a lot, they never get recognition, a lot of doctors don't respect them because they're ''just'' nurses, they often have to work long hours at night. When I was in hospital, the nurses there were all extremely kind and patient.
Many of the Suffragettes - thank you, I appreciate being able to vote. Now all I need is a party worth voting for!

I could go on forever like this but I'll stop now. :lol:

[The Ungovernable Farce]

How come no-one's noticed Michael Jackson on the OP's list? Sure, John Lennon wasn't a revolutionary, but he came out with a lot of leftish-sounding talk, so it's possible to see why someone would list him; Michael Jackson just fiddled with children and walked backwards. I don't really see the heroism here.

Are all the moderators on this forum straight-up anarchists?
No (http://www.revleft.com/vb/showgroups.php). There are anarchist, Trotskyist, left communist and Marxist-Leninist mods. Maybe more.

Well, I'm an anarcho-communist, to where I find communist & anarchist ideologies not different at the least bit, & are only made different by the people who put themselves out to be pure anarchist & against communism, or vice versa. We need to start finding common ground, either that or we'll both fail at bringing down the capitalist system.
I'm an anarcho-communist as well. I think anarchism is only possible through communism and vice versa. But that doesn't mean I support the Shining Path or the Nepalese Maoists, because I can't for the life of me see what either group has to do with either anarchism or communism.

[The Vegan Marxist]

How come no-one's noticed Michael Jackson on the OP's list? Sure, John Lennon wasn't a revolutionary, but he came out with a lot of leftish-sounding talk, so it's possible to see why someone would list him; Michael Jackson just fiddled with children and walked backwards. I don't really see the heroism here.


Everything else you said is personal opinion, so I won't judge you on it, but I see Michael Jackson as a hero towards his continued path of singing for peace & social justice. Despite what people believe in, & whether you believe in the b.s. that was brought on Michael in the unproven theory of him molesting kids, he was very political, & his song 'They Don't Care About Us' really represented his political belief more than any other song he had ever written.

[RED DAVE]

Pete Seeger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger): still truckin' at 90.

RED DAVE

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Oh, forgot to add my actual heroes: the Paris Commune, all workers' councils from the Petrograd Soviet to the Iranian shoras, and the French working class, especially in 1968 but also just in general.

[verlongrimes]

Miep Gies and everyone who helped to hide/assist Jewish families during the holocaust. Also, everyone in the resistance movements, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Edelweiss Pirates, The White Rose members Hans and Sophie Scholl etc. And authors such as Elie Weisel and Primo Levi.

There are others such as Karl Marx (of course), but I'll post about them later when I've got more time.

Elie Wiesel?! That must be a joke. The other names are suspect too. I take it that no Palestineans wouldn make your hero list...

[Dimentio]

Bill Hicks, Jacque Fresco.

Didn't expect the Vegan Marxist to appreciate Hicks. ^^

[Wakizashi the Bolshevik]

Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Ernst Thälmann, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Vyacheslav Molotov, Felix Dzherzhinsky, Ludo Martens, Jean-Paul Marat, Grachus Babeuf, Erich Honecker, ....

[Uppercut]

Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hoxha, Molotov, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro to name a few.

[Zanthorus]

As has already been said I don't really regard my intellectual influences as "heroes".

Come to think of it, I don't really have many heroes. I guess I'll just give in to the cliche answers and say Mahkno and Durruti.

[OldMoney]

Karl Marx, Frederich Engles, Ernesto Che Guevera, Iliach vladimir lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Raul Castro, Huey P Newton, and Timmothy Leary, A few off the top of my head.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Luxemburg, Orwell, Trotsky (pre 1917), Marx and Engels, Chomsky, Zinn, Che, James Connoly

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Elie Wiesel?! That must be a joke. The other names are suspect too. I take it that no Palestineans wouldn make your hero list...
By "suspect", do you mean "Jewish"? What do you have against the Warsaw Ghetto uprising? Or Primo Levi, the Edelweiss Pirates, or Karl Marx?

[GatesofLenin]

My Dad and V.I Lenin. :D

[southernmissfan]

Karl Marx, Frederich Engles, Ernesto Che Guevera, Iliach vladimir lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Raul Castro, Huey P Newton, and Timmothy Leary, A few off the top of my head.

It's like that old question on standardized tests, which of these does not fit?

[black magick hustla]

my dad

[Gabbanoche]

1.Che Guevara
2. SubComandant Marcos
3.Lenin
4.Karl Marx

[danyboy27]

i dont have any leader or revolutionary heroes.

sad isnt? not even a god.

[Robocommie]

my dad

I agree, maldoror's dad is my hero too.

[which doctor]

What a bunch of really nutty lists. But what's unfortunately clear from this thread is that people who are attracted to the left usually do so out of a fetishization of resistance, and not out of any sort of intellectual commitment to overcoming capitalism.

[Spawn of Stalin]

I like Stalin but my hero is probably anyone who left or was kicked out of the party after Khrushchev's "secret speech"

[Barry Lyndon]

My heroes are(in no particular order):

Thomas Sankara, Josip Broz Tito, Carlo Tresca, Salvador Allende, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Evo Morales, Ho Chi Minh, Rosa Luxemburg, Meena Kamal, Vladimir Lenin, Che Guevara, Leon Trotsky, Amilcar Cabral, John Brown, Lucy Parsons, Baghat Singh, Big Bill Haywood, Harry Bridges, Frederick Douglass, Eugene V. Debs, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Karl Marx, Frederich Engels, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Sophie Scholl, Thomas Paine, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Alexandra Kollontai, Paul Robeson, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Mother Jones, The Gracchi brothers, Subcommandante Marcos, James Connolly, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Arundhati Roy, Sacco and Vanzetti, Ida B. Wells, Mordechai Anielewicz, Leila Khaled, Carla Zetkin, Spartacus, Thomas Muntzer, Assata Shakur.........

Groups:

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
Black Panther Party
American Indian Movement
Zapatistas
Naxalites
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Vietcong
FLN(Algeria)
CNT-FAI
The Oaxaca commune
The Paris commune

[x371322]

I can't really think of anyone that hasn't already been mentioned. Marx of course. Lenin. Debs.

[Proletarian Ultra]

THIS guy:

http://sanaei.com/photos/economist_nasrallah_wins_the_war.jpg

(just for you, which doctor)

[scarletghoul]

(in no order, and narrowed down a lot)

Paul Robeson - greatest singer of all time with a huge deep powerful voice. Son of a runaway slave, Robeson went on to fight for freedom for all oppressed people, and became a staunch supporter of the world communist movement.
Mao Zedong - Leader of the Chinese Revolution. Like RSOC said, he symbolises defience, and an irrepressable will to fight for liberation. Very inspiring. "nothing is hard in this world, if you dare to scale the heights"
Huey P Newton - leader of the panthers and someone who i can relate to a lot on a personal level. Iconic hero of black amerika and people of every colour stuck in this urban capitalist shithole.
Guy Fawkes - tried to blow up parliament
Leonard Cohen - excellent poet and musician.. "there is a crack in everything, thats how the light gets in"
Karl Marx - you know him "let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution"
George Jackson - Prison leader and theoretician, member of the BPP. Blood In My Eye is a great book you should all read
Fumiko Kaneko - Japanese Anarchist. Cool memoirs.
Lucifer - not exactly real, but he is still inspiring as a fictional character. A fallen angel who rebelled against God. I can relate to him.. The son of the morning, bringer of light, Lucifer will always have a place in my heart.
Josef Stalin - poet, gangster, revolutionary. Went on to lead the USSR to become a world superpower and defeated fascism.
Bakunin - Anarchist and although I think he was strategically incorrect, he had a lot of truth and I cannot help but admire him as an individual. He was uncompromisingly revolutionary in persuit of human freedom. His writing is very inspiring and poetic, kinda like a Mao that doesn't understand the state. "the creative urge is also a destructive urge"
Richey James Edwards - Lyricist for Manic Street Preachers. Probably many of you wouldnt get him.. "I am purity; they call me perverted"
Lin Biao - Military genius and a leader of the cultural revolution
Osamu Dazai - japanese communst novelist obsessed with suicide.

Groups-
Naxalites
Japanese Red Army
Black Panther Party
Bolshevik Party
Communist Party of China (back in the day)
Manic street preachers
AFI
BALZAC (the band)

probably loads more i missed out ..

[Crux]

Emperor Norton.

[anticap]

All those nameless people of the future who will finally witness global communism, having finished the job of bringing it about. Imagine the looks on their faces, once they realize that they are finally free, and once the unbridled excitement has abated. I see serene faces, like space explorers who've landed on a new world and are ready to face the future with confidence and build it with purpose, under their own guidance.

[gorillafuck]

My mom and John Brown

[Os Cangaceiros]

I suppose my parents as well, especially since my mother was a hardcore advocate for labor who organized strikes and told me at a young age about all of the people who died in the U.S. trying to achieve worker's rights (she wasn't a socialist, though). I only really started appreciating all of the work she did in the fishing community when I became a leftist.

As far as people in history go, there are a number of folks I admire: Emma Goldman, Eugene V. Debs, Noe Ito, Osuge Sakai, Voltairine De Cleyre, Bill Haywood, Carlo Tresca and Errico Malatesta, to name a few.

[Snowball]

1. Charles Darwin
2. Richard Dawkins
3. David Attenborough
4. Christopher Hitchens
5. Leon Trotsky
6. Karl Marx
7. Vladimir Lenin
8. George Orwell

[fionntan]

James Connolly
Seamus Costello
The 10 Irish republican hunger strikers Joe McDonald being my most inspirational
Thomas"Ta" Power
Larry Marley
Mairead Farrell

[Madvillainy]

Wouldn't say heroes but people like Marx, Engels, Lenin, Bordiga, Luxemburg and Herman Gorter all definitely shaped my political ideas.

[Martin Blank]

Heroes are nothing but two pieces of bread with meat in the middle.

As for people I look up to, that's pretty much anyone over 6 feet tall.

It's better to talk about the people who have influenced you positively.

[MaoTseHelen]

Malcolm-X, Brendan Hughes, and Pearse

[The Ungovernable Farce]

1. Charles Darwin
2. Richard Dawkins
3. David Attenborough
4. Christopher Hitchens
Hitchens? Say what? Sure, he's a good writer, and said some good stuff when he was younger (his book on Mother Theresa is awesome), but how can you get around his love of imperialism?

[Os Cangaceiros]

I don't think that everyone has gotten the message that the left doesn't have heroes, guys. Maybe we should re-iterate that point a few more times.

:rolleyes:

[Os Cangaceiros]

Hitchens? Say what? Sure, he's a good writer, and said some good stuff when he was younger (his book on Mother Theresa is awesome), but how can you get around his love of imperialism?

The man's a raging bigot. When asked about the possibility of Iran being bombed at a talk, he said "Bomb away!"

Anyone who knows how to use a search engine can find an abundance of evidence in regards to his disgusting neoconservative foreign policy viewpoints. Some leftists like him for his views on religion, but even that is colored by his smug elitism. It's bourgeois atheism at it's "finest" (and I say that as an atheist).

[RedStarOverChina]

I don't think that everyone has gotten the message that the left doesn't have heroes, guys. Maybe we should re-iterate that point a few more times.

:rolleyes:
Good call. I would have built an alter for Mao if it weren't for your reminder.

Look, there's a difference between appreciating historical figures and blindly believing in everything they said or did.

[Sir Comradical]

Jesus, Karl Marx, Michael Parenti and Noam Chomsky.

[I.Drink.Your.Milkshake]

Orwell, The Clash, Dylan, Stanley Kubrick, Van Gogh, Dostoevsky, Charlie Kaufman, Marx, Nietzsche, Johnny Marr, Nick Cave and The Stone Roses collectively are probably the biggest influences in terms of shaping the person i am and my interests and opinions. Almost all of the art, politics or literature that i have ever taken an interest in or has affected me was the influence of whatever music i was listening to at the time.

None of them are really "heroes" anymore though.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Look, there's a difference between appreciating historical figures and blindly believing in everything they said or did.

I was being sarcastic. (Maybe you knew that, though...it's hard to read people on the internet sometimes).

[RedStarOverChina]

I was being sarcastic. (Maybe you knew that, though...it's hard to read people on the internet sometimes).
No I didn't know. Next time I'll pretend I did, though. :D

[RedStarOverChina]

Edit: Double post

[A.R.Amistad]

Cpt. Sam Bellamy, Karl Marx, Samuel Adams, Crispus Attucks, John Brown, Nat Turner, Mother Jones, Eugene V. Debs, Frederick Douglass, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Alexandra Kollontai, Soren Kierkegaard, Jean Paul Sartre, C.L.R. James, Spartacus, Jack Reed, W.E.B. DuBois, Josip Broz Tito, Rosa Luxembourg, Adres Nin, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Ta Tu Hua, Chen Duxiu, Ernst Mandel, James P. Cannon, Frederick Engels, Asoka the Great, Hiawatha, Jack London, Stephen Crane, "Big Bill" Haywood, Mark Twain, Mohammed Ali, Malcolm X, Johan Hegg, Markus Toivonen, Ken Owen, Mikail Stanne, Niklas Sundin, Leopold Ritter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masoch#cite_note-0)von Sacher-Masoch, just to name a few....

[danyboy27]

i might got a glorious leader after all

nicolai tesla.

[Lyev]

I like Action Man, Barbie, Ken, Ash Ketchum from Pokemon, Bart Simpson, Gordon Brown, Yugi Mutuo from Yugioh, Miley Cyrus, Jazzratt, The Jonas Brothers (apart from Kevin) and Zac Efron. Oh and Mao, just to name a few.

[Crux]

Really, mainly jesus. And Hitler. For his art.
Request move to chit-chat as it will increase awesomeness.

[A.R.Amistad]

Miley Cyrus:laugh::laugh::laugh::D:D:D:laugh::laugh::lau gh:

[Weezer]

In terms of thought:

1. Marx/Engels/Leon Trotsky
2. Vladimir Lenin
3. George Orwell
4. Slavoj Zizek
5. Socrates

[A.R.Amistad]

1. Marx/Engels/Leon Trotsky
2. Vladimir Lenin
3. George Orwell
4. Slavoj Zizek
5. Socrates 1. OMG Trotsky, Marx and Engels are conjoined at the hip!!!! Ewwwwww:scared:
2.:thumbup1:
3.:glare:
4.ok
5. :p

[Mendax]

An assorted bunch of musicians ranging from Anti-Flags frontman to Zach De La Rocha to Jello Biafra, a handful of authors ranging from Max Barry to Douglas Coupland and a few indviduals from Howard Zinn to Mumia Abu Jamal.

These are more people who have positively influenced me...in whcih case I need to add the green Cross Code Man, A handful of teachers and couple of gays(Literal there(Is there a better way to word that? A couple of homosexuals just sounds worse in my head)).

[The Ben G]

Leon Trotsky
Vladimir Lenin
Che
Fidel Castro
Marx/Engels
Herman Gorter
Antoine Pannoek
Nestor Makhno
James Cannon
Rosa Luxemburg
MLK
Jello Biafra
Paul Mattick
Mikhail Bakunin
Peter Kroptkin
Michael Parenti
George Orwell
Anybody suffering from Oppression, War, and the like

[anticap]

[blanking post]

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Can you not give any hint at all as to what it is that he said?

[anticap]

Can you not give any hint at all as to what it is that he said?

No. I regret having made that post, and am going to blank it. It was unfair of me to allude to something when I'm not yet prepared to go into further detail. I still hope to find the video, and will post it if I do.

[Warboy99]

People

1. Karl Marx
2. Friedrich Engels
2. Josip Broz Tito
3. Che Guevara
4. Subcomandante Marcos
5. Gandhi

Groups/Organizations

1. EZLN/Zapatistas
2. Australian Greens
3. Socialist Party - USA

[A.R.Amistad]

Marx/Engels
Why is everyone making Marx and Engels into some sort of conjoined twin??

[anticap]

Why is everyone making Marx and Engels into some sort of conjoined twin??

I've often wondered the same. I understand e.g. marxists.org putting them together since they co-authored so much, but I'm a bit leery of Engels TBH. I haven't educated myself enough to say for sure, but I get the impression that he put a bit of his own spin on Marx after the latter's death; and if my impression is correct, then I definitely don't like what resulted.

Still, Engels did a lot of great work that I refer to often in my ongoing self-education. (He also wrote some absolute gutter trash, e.g., On Authority, which is an abject misrepresentation of anarchism. Any Marxist who refers to that text in an argument with an anarchist ought to be ashamed.)

[socialistjustin]

Noam Chomsky was probably the biggest influence. His books were a great introduction to modern history.


Michael Albert was also an influence economically speaking.

[bricolage]

Dean Gordon.
Bruce Springsteen.

[Barry Lyndon]

What a bunch of really nutty lists. But what's unfortunately clear from this thread is that people who are attracted to the left usually do so out of a fetishization of resistance, and not out of any sort of intellectual commitment to overcoming capitalism.

Yes, we should all be like you and your reading group and fetishize pessimism, surrender and defeat. People like your stupid jerk-off circle should recall that Trotsky, in addition to being an intellectual, also led an army.

[Robocommie]

Why is everyone making Marx and Engels into some sort of conjoined twin??

Because arguably, the one would not have been possible without the other. They were best friends, Marx inspired Engels and wrote much of the theories, Engels contributed and also edited Marx's writings, additionally, Engels bankrolled Marx by helping him pay his bills so he could keep on working.

[Delenda Carthago]

First of all,Alexandros Grigoropoulos was in no way a hero.


Secondly,my hero is

http://l.yimg.com/l/tv/us/img/site/34/18/0000043418_20070925144552.jpg