Important leftists in the world?

[Dimitri Molotov]

Hello, comrades! I would like to make a list of important socialists, communists, and anarchists for some studies I am currently doing. However, I don't know too many people who were communists besides the obvious leaders. I was hoping to make a list of people who made different technological breakthroughs who just happened to be leftists, such as Norman Bethune who was a medical expert who created the first mobile blood transfusion unit in Madrid, and created over two dozen medical instruments. I would like this list to compose of people like that, who aren't necessarily famous for political reasons, like Che Guevara or Vladimir Lenin, I would like it to be more for people who helped better society in different fields other than politics. I hope I explained the question adequately, thank you comrades!:thumbup:

[ChampionDishWasher]

Hello, comrades! I would like to make a list of important socialists, communists, and anarchists for some studies I am currently doing. However, I don't know too many people who were communists besides the obvious leaders. I was hoping to make a list of people who made different technological breakthroughs who just happened to be leftists, such as Norman Bethune who was a medical expert who created the first mobile blood transfusion unit in Madrid, and created over two dozen medical instruments. I would like this list to compose of people like that, who aren't necessarily famous for political reasons, like Che Guevara or Vladimir Lenin, I would like it to be more for people who helped better society in different fields other than politics. I hope I explained the question adequately, thank you comrades!:thumbup:

Oscar Wilde wrote a pretty good essay on Anarchism called "The soul of Man Under Socialism." I would definitely recommend it.

Einstein was a socialist too, which I find to be pretty interesting. He wrote an essay called "Why Socialism?"

That's all I've got right now.:)

[Os Cangaceiros]

Élisée Reclus - renowned geographer during his time (and an anarchist)

[Zanthorus]

Anton Pannekoek was a renowned astronomer. He even had a crater on the moon, an asteroid and the astronomical institute at the University of Amsterdam named after him.

[manic expression]

Pablo Neruda, Paul Robeson, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Gustave Courbet, Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre, Langston Hughes.

[StalinFanboy]

karl marx

[Delenda Carthago]

Paulo Freire, academic on education.

[OhYesIdid]

W.E.B. Dubois, Malcolm X, Patrick Lumumba, Mahatma Ghandi, Noam Chomsky, Erich Frohmm, and Neils Bohr are some that I know.
Although Dr. Salk was kind of socialist, wasn't he?

[Oswy]

Helen Keller should go on any list too.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Herman Muller, US geneticist and Marxist. Attempted to start a Soviet Institute of Genetics, lost out in a power srtuggle with Trofim Lysenko and forced out of the USSR. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946.

Ursula LeGuin-anarchist and science fiction writer. Cousin of Herman Muller.

Frantz Fanon, Trinidad writer and psyciatrist. Active in Algerian struggle against French colonialism.

Amilcar Cabral-Guniea-Bissau agronomist, active in independence struggle against the Portugese.

Stieg Larsen-Trotskyist revolutionary. Trained guerilla troops in Eritrea. Mystery writer.

Nazim Hikmat-Turkish Marxist poet, kinda the Turkish Neruda.

Hugh McDairmed, Scottish poet, communist

China Mielville-science fiction writer, activist in British SWP

Vanessa Redgrave-actor, was active in Trotskyist orgaqnizations

I have heard one of the founders of the Australian Communist Party was an astronomer who immigrated from Italy. He made some important discoveries, his name escapes me.

Oscar Niemeyer-Brazilian architect

Terry Bisson-US science fiction writer and activist

Lu Xun-Chinese writer and revolutionary. The CCP today claims him as a close sympathizer but he appeared to be very critical of them.

Kim Stanley Robinson, science fiction writer. Academic Marxist background, he "studied under" Frederic Jameison.

Kate Devlin, world renown US humanitarian, writer,activist, political theorist, historian, fashion model, and Trotskyist revolutionary.

[Tablo]

Emma Goldman. She even used to be a household name.

[S.Artesian]

Can't leave out CLR James, Mariategui, Farrell Dobbs.... the list is endless.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Emma Goldman. She even used to be a household name.

That was because of her political work, though.

[ttomthebomb]

Che Guevara should also be on that list.

[gorillafuck]

W.E.B. Dubois, Malcolm X, Patrick Lumumba, Mahatma Ghandi, Noam Chomsky, Erich Frohmm, and Neils Bohr are some that I know.Uhh, what?

[OhYesIdid]

Uhh, what?

What?! They were socialists! The imperialist media has strived to sugarcoat them as liberal pacifists, just like they've done with MLK, but they were leftist.

[#FF0000]

What?! They were socialists! The imperialist media has strived to sugarcoat them as liberal pacifists, just like they've done with MLK, but they were leftist.

Gandhi was not a socialist. Wasn't a big fan of workers going on strike, if I remember correctly. I think he told workers that did so that they weren't allowed to accept donations or had to find other work if they went on strike or something like that. He was also a pretty vile racist.

[Pretty Flaco]

The guy wants people who aren't know for political reasons, but other ones, like art, science, music, sports, etc.

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

Sigmund Freud, who supported the Austrian Socialist Party during the period of "Red Vienna," 1918-1934. The majority of his followers were Socialists or Communists.

[Tablo]

That was because of her political work, though.
And that is why I should read the whole op instead of just the title. :lol:

[NewSocialist]

Herman Muller, US geneticist and Marxist. Attempted to start a Soviet Institute of Genetics, lost out in a power srtuggle with Trofim Lysenko and forced out of the USSR. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946.

Müller was also a world famous eugenicist... http://www.mankindquarterly.org/muellersletter.pdf

[Tomhet]

Me.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

The number of creative people who were/are communists or at least leftists is vast. A few more I thought of;

Tony Kushner, writer/director of "Angels Over America". Was a Marxist, I believe he doesn't consider himself one now.

Sir Herbert Read, British artist and anarchist. He acceptance of a knighthood was controversial in the anarchist movement.

Henry Moore-sculpter, anarchst

EL Doctorow. Novelist, not sure of his politics but he made a fiery anti-imperialist commencement address atrt Brandies University about 20 years ago.

The late Harold Pinter. British playwright, made fierce denunciations of Blair's complicity in imperialism.

Gunter Grass-German novelist

Gore Vidal-novelist

Diego Rivera-Mexican muralist, communist, sometime Trotskyist

Orozco-Mexican artist

Andre Breton and most of the Surrealists. Some time "fellow travellers" of Trotsky.

WH Auden-British poet, communist

Gummadi Vittal Rao (Gaddar) Indian poet, Dalit activist, Naxalite

Lal Singh Dil another Dalit poet and Naxalite

The Naxalbari movement seems to have produced some amazing poets.

[Left]

I believe Albert Einstein was a socialist, google "Why Socialism - Albert Einstein".

[#FF0000]

EL Doctorow. Novelist, not sure of his politics but he made a fiery anti-imperialist commencement address atrt Brandies University about 20 years ago.

I'm pretty sure he's a communist. Cory Docotorw is his son, right?

Also I think Alan Sokal is a communist or a leftist of some sort. He's a physicist who wrote some postmodern article back in 96 that turned out to be a big hoax pointing out how postermodernism is some dumb bullshit sometimes.

[Zeus the Moose]

I'm pretty sure he's a communist. Cory Docotorw is his son, right?

Cory Doctorow isn't E. L. Doctorow's son. That said, Cory Doctorow's Wikipedia page mentions that he was born to "Trotskyist teachers," and while his politics aren't known (at least to me), his book For the Win features a group of WoW gold farmers forming a union. So my guess is that Cory has some left-wing sympathies.


Also I think Alan Sokal is a communist or a leftist of some sort. He's a physicist who wrote some postmodern article back in 96 that turned out to be a big hoax pointing out how postermodernism is some dumb bullshit sometimes.

Sometimes?

[#FF0000]

...his book For the Win features a group of WoW gold farmers forming a union.

A modern Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.

[youpeople]

Some left-wing classical composers:
Hans Werner Henze
Luigi Nono
Conlon Nancarrow
Iannis Xenakis
Richard Barrett
Kurt Weill
Hanns Eisler
Nicolaus A. Huber
Konrad Boehmer
Frederic Rzewski
Christian Wolff
Benjamin Frankel
Cornelius Cardew

Other/Possibly: Music of the Second Viennese School was classified degenerate art in Nazi Germany. John Cage (anarchism). Bela Bartok. Those belonging to the Union of Soviet Composers (not necessarily communist). Aaron Copland.

etc..

[Apoi_Viitor]

Helen Keller

[youpeople]

Left-wing directors too:

Sergei Eisenstein
Lev Kuleshov
Dziga Vertov
Vsevolod Pudovkin
Luis Bunuel
Joris Ivens
Hans Richter
Luchino Visconti
Jean-Marie Straub/Daniele Huillet
Jean-Luc Godard
Groupe Dziga Vertov
Guy Debord
Rene Vienet
Gilo Pontecorvo
Bernardo Bertolucci
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Third Cinema movement
Glauber Rocha
Fernando Solanas
Jorge Sanjines
Tomas Gutierrez Alea
Emile de Antonio
Santiago Alvarez
Ousmane Sembene
Costa-Gavras
Elio Petri
Ken Loach
Humberto Solas

There are lots more, probably no art form has a greater Marxist presence.

[Red Commissar]

Well, some possible writers:

Jack London was an influential writer in his time and "Call of the Wild" is still read in some schools. He was a member of the old Socialist Party of America back in its heyday and considered himself a socialist, though he had some shitty views on race.

Theodore Dreiser was an influential writer in his time (early 1900s and the first half of that century), though he is not as well known now. He was a socialist afaik.

Ernest Hemingway had some "leftist" sympathies. He went to Spain on the side of the Republicans and spent some time in Cuba too. He had some stupid views on women though.

I guess you could toss in Upton Sinclair too. Though compared to the other two he was much more declared and committed in his political activities.

And regarding scientists: while they weren't important for contributing theory on their own, you had Theodore Hall and Klaus Fuchs who were scientists participating in the Manhattan Project. Both leaked secrets to the Soviet Union. Hall was the youngest on the team and later switched to biology. Fuchs after being imprisoned for nine years in connection with the leak of intel, went to East Germany and was among those who helped China develop a nuclear bomb.

[gorillafuck]

What?! They were socialists! The imperialist media has strived to sugarcoat them as liberal pacifists, just like they've done with MLK, but they were leftist.No they were not. Ghandi was a pacifist who was not a socialist. And Lumumba, yeah he was left wing, he wasn't a socialist though.

Also, the imperialist media saying Lumumba was a liberal pacifist? I've never once heard Lumumba mentioned outside of left wing media.

Anyway that's off topic since the OP asked for people who's main work isn't in politics. Wasn't Joe Strummer a socialist?

[HEAD ICE]

Kate Devlin, world renown US humanitarian, writer,activist, political theorist, historian, fashion model, and Trotskyist revolutionary.

I can't find any information on this person. A Trotskyist, historian fashion model intrigues me.

[The Grey Blur]

mark twain
lev vygotsky
half the international brigades were poets and writers of various degrees and ability

[brigadista]

angela davis
tariq ali

[DaringMehring]

Some obvious ones:

folk singer Woodie Guthrie (This Land is Your Land, etc.) / CPUSA

folk singer Pete Seeger ("Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "Turn, Turn, Turn", etc.) / CPUSA

author B. Traven ("Treasure of the Sierra Madre") / some sort of European communist

author Dashiell Hammett ("The Maltese Falcon") / CPUSA

singer, actor, Paul Robeson / CPUSA

author Stieg Larsson ("Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") / Swedish Trotskyist

there are many more... of course they're mostly clustered around periods of revolutionary upsurge, when the movement was connected to the masses and growing.

[WeAreReborn]

Peter Kropotkin was a renowned zoologist as well as being a famous geographer. He helped map out much of Siberia and gave a great understanding of what Russia really looked like.

[MarxSchmarx]

One scientist that doesn't get much attention despite his serious engagement of Marxism is the British/Indian biologist J B S Haldane, a man far ahead of his time.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

I can't find any information on this person. A Trotskyist, historian fashion model intrigues me.

That was added as a joke."Kate Devlin" is a Trotskyist activist. Wannabe historian. Fashion model, well, maybe someday.

Google "Kate Devlin socialism" or "Kate Devlin chinaworker".

[Marxista]

Antonio Gramsci, father of Italian Communist Party

marxists.org/archive/gramsci/index.htm

[Red Commissar]

Antonio Gramsci, father of Italian Communist Party

marxists.org/archive/gramsci/index.htm

The OP is looking for "left-wing" people who were known for other things- science, literature, poetry, etc- not for politics.

[Marxista]

The OP is looking for "left-wing" people who were known for other things- science, literature, poetry, etc- not for politics.

Ops... I failed :D

Well, Pasolini director and poet, Quasimodo poet (nobel price in 1959) was antifascist, Levi Montalicini and Margherita hack, Mario Monicelli (director), Hikmet (poet), Guttuso (artist), Cesare Pavese (poet), Italo Calvino (writer)..
Sorry for my last post :blushing:

[JustMovement]

Actually Gramsci s influence extends beyond politics, and is a major reference point for modern sociologists on both the Left and Right because of his theory of cultural hegemony (or so my friend tells me). Also to the Italians I would like to add Italo Calvino (author) and the whole Italian school of neo-realism (Bicycle thieves, Rome open city).

[RedHal]

Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould - evolutionary biologists

[wunderbar]

Bertolt Brecht
George Orwell
Carlos Latuff