What was your reason for choosing the tendency you belong to now?

[The Stalinator]

(I apologize if there's already a thread for this, I'm new here.)

I guess I'd just like some opinions from fellow revleft members before deciding which one to focus my studies on. So, what drew you in to your tendency? Might be fun to share.

[o well this is ok I guess]

Don't focus your studies.
Read whatever appeals to you at any given moment.

[The Stalinator]

Don't focus your studies.
Read whatever appeals to you at any given moment.

That's what I normally do, but I'm hoping someone in here will bring up something that really strikes my interest. I'm pretty new to all of this, so that'd just help me a lot.

[Proukunin]

I used to be very authoritarian. M-L. But over the months I have become anti-authoritarian in my views on how socialism should be implemented. I am a Libertarian Communist because I feel direct democracy is the only was to give the people full power. Plus, I'm not attracted to party dictatorship. I am still influenced on a small aspect by Lenin.

[Sensible Socialist]

I was drawn towards the ones that didn't sound batshit crazy and didn't fall into the traps of personality cults or authoritarian tendencies that focused themselves on the writings of dead Russians or Chinese men who botched a chance to establish a true socialist society and provide an example to all mankind.

That, and anarchists had cool songs. :laugh:

[Apoi_Viitor]

∞ist - "More left-wing than communists. More scientific than Marxists. I push it as far as I can because I live with no limits. Theres only new plateaus for me to achieve, I'm going to be the very best that no one ever was. The great potential of the proletariat can only be realized under ∞."

[Agent Equality]

This thread is a shit-tendency-war-storm in the making

[o well this is ok I guess]

That's what I normally do, but I'm hoping someone in here will bring up something that really strikes my interest. I'm pretty new to all of this, so that'd just help me a lot. I'd recommend some the newish insurrectionist material. The Coming Insurrection, At Daggers Drawn with the Existent, Introduction to Civil War, that sort.

Once you're done reading those sorts for their contributions to theory, they can be read purely aesthetically.

[Susurrus]

I came to authoritarian communism first, when I knew little about actual theory or practice, then I came to see the flaws in it and came to where I am now, which is in the general area of anarcho-communism.

To OP I recommend Kropotkin and Malatesta's "Anarchy" essay if he's interested in reading material.

[The Stalinator]

I'd recommend some the newish insurrectionist material. The Coming Insurrection, At Daggers Drawn with the Existent, Introduction to Civil War, that sort.

Once you're done reading those sorts for their contributions to theory, they can be read purely aesthetically.

Ah, thank you. Could I find these in a common bookstore, Chapters or whatever?

[Nox]

I used to be a Trotskyist, until I realised what it actually was :D

I'm a Hoxhaist pretty much because I'm a Stalin/Hoxha fanboy. Hey, at least I can admit it.

[La Peur Rouge]

Because Left-Coms get all the *insert sex of your preference here*.

/thread

But seriously, I was interested in Lenin's and Trotsky's theories at first but certain things I read didn't appeal to me, then I stumbled upon Gorter, Mattick, Bordiga, Luxemburg, Pannekoek, and others.

[noble brown]

I guess I'm closer to libertarian communism then anything else. What's interesting to me is that I went thru an authoritarian phase also. What got me out of it was I started reading political philosophy. They dealt alot with questions of what freedom and liberty really meant. And I started reading alot of anarchist lit.

I think u should choose your own path in your studies but the more inclusive your studies are the broader your base of knowledge will be. The broader your base of knowledge the bigger the picture you picture you will see.

Phlosophy: ethics, politics, economics
Sciences: behavioral science, genetic, bio, sociology,psychology, social psycology, anthropology
History (like "a peoples history of the u.s."); international politics; applied econ

These are some of the subjects that have had an influence on my world view. I could help you with specifics if u need. Have fun, keep your mind open and think critcally.

[L.A.P.]

Don't try to force yourself upon a tendency, in fact, try as hard as you can to just not pay attention to it. Don't think a tendency is like joining a club. You can learn a lot from varying leftist. For example, I'm a Maoist but I still like to read Antonio Gramsci and Autonomists.

[Cynic]

I was a former Marxist-Leninist but I started to question the idea of the vanguard and realized it was still a tool of oppression and the workers were not free. I realized all states are oppressors but I still believed in the power of the workers and unions so I became a Libertarian Socialist.

[punisa]

I guess I'm closer to libertarian communism then anything else. What's interesting to me is that I went thru an authoritarian phase also. What got me out of it was I started reading political philosophy. They dealt alot with questions of what freedom and liberty really meant. And I started reading alot of anarchist lit.

Interesting input. For me it was the other way around.
Once I actually started meeting people who were devoted to various sorts of libertarian ideologies it didn't take long to switch to marxism-leninism.
Not saying that I have an authoritarian fetish or something like that, but I prefer vanguard action.

I still believe that anarchist theory is amazing and I feel no animosity towards anarchist comrades whatsoever. I respect it for being the fastest train towards communism.
But it tends to isolate itself from the working class, probably the main reason why it mostly appeals to young students.

Regarding Marxism I took it that its essential to actually talk to working people, more the better.
First thing you would discover is that they are not very knowledgeable regarding the real left options (besides the socdem).
As you explain these, they would at least 99% opt for some sort of vanguard revolution that would lead towards socialism - almost everyone agreed that instant communism would be too much of a shock.

I like political theory and philosophy and will read everything someone throws at me, but I'll always keep an eye on the actual situation down at the street.


I'm a Hoxhaist pretty much because I'm a Stalin/Hoxha fanboy. Hey, at least I can admit it.

Hey comrade, we're so close yet so apart :D

[Q]

The far left in the Netherlands is tiny and when I started looking into communism I wanted to look for a tendency that was active or closely related in the party I was in at the time (the Dutch SP). I found the Dutch section of the Committee for a Workers' International, a Trotskyist group, and quickly joined afterwards. That was 5,5 years ago.

Today I consider myself to be an Orthodox Marxist with a twist here and there. You could say simply a communist. My blog here on Revleft (the link to the latest post is on the upper right corner of this post) gives a comprehensive list of my ideas spread over several posts.

[Luís Henrique]

I founded it...

Luís Henrique

[DinodudeEpic]

I don't have a tendency as much as having several guiding ideologies.

Market socialism (Mutualism), Ordoliberalism, and Democratic Socialism.

[Ballyfornia]

Animal farm turned me into a sort of stalinophob. Now im just some form of far left winger

[Die Neue Zeit]

Today I consider myself to be an Orthodox Marxist with a twist here and there. You could say simply a communist. My blog here on Revleft (the link to the latest post is on the upper right corner of this post) gives a comprehensive list of my ideas spread over several posts.

Orthodox Marxism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_Marxism)

Modern Orthodoxy is... a good thing! :D

[Rooster]

I did not choose a tendency; a tendency chose me. It's kinda weird to just pick what you believe in. Like, "hey, tomorrow I'll believe in God so I'll go research God more so that I know for sure". The older you get, the more you read and the more diverse your ideas will become so just relax about being a part of a club.

[tracher999]

i am fore total freedom no gods no leaders fuck all that bullshit i do everything too get it:cool:

[Ocean Seal]

I think that I haven't chosen a tendency because I feel that most at the moment have a severe flaw. I support Leninsm because I think it has protected the development of socialism and in general been a force that has done more good than any other in history in terms of development and justice. However, I do think that Leninism may harbor an inherent basis for counter-revolution which is the the consolidation of power in the bureaucracy and in the party which eventually leads to alienation from the masses and can be expressed as liberalization later on. It was RED DAVE who made me realize this in his criticisms of Maoism as having the basis for counter-revolution which I later thought applied to Leninism as a whole. So I thought, that the Left-Communists, particularly the ICT dealt with this fairly well after speaking to Zanthorus. He presented the view that the ICT had on the state which attracted me to Bordigism. I do however think that in the short span of time ahead of us Leninism does still seem like the more reasonable path to take and I think that it could be highly successful in the future if it chooses to engage more people. I can't call myself a Left-Communist though because I still stand with Lenin on the national question, I support whatever attempts the left has of utilizing unions and other bourgeois structures (though knowing that it can't be those structures which bring change) and I think that Stalin was correctly building socialism and I'm more than happy to support Leninist organizations worldwide.

[thesadmafioso]

I arrived at Leninism quite early in my studies of leftism, as the model outlined by the Bolshevik Revolution always struck me as the most effective and practical method for the implementation of proletarian revolution.

From there I eventually arrived at Trotskyism after deciding that it was the natural progression of the thought outlined initially by Leninism. Given the fact that Lenin and Trotsky had been in close agreement with the concept of permanent revolution, democratic centralism, and other significant issues during the Revolution and the years proceeding it, it seemed to be the most logical continuation of the thought outlined by Lenin.

I always had some serious misgivings with the theory behind Stalinism as well, so I suppose that I was bound to arrive at this point at some time or another.

[Frank Zapatista]

I used to be a Marxist-Leninist/Hoxhaist until I read The Revolution Betrayed by Trotsky and realised that Stalin's Socialism in One Country is inherently flawed and is responsible for the failure of the Soviets at becoming a successful Communist state.

[Magón]

I read The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin, along with another book, and found Anarchism to suit what I thought and felt, better than Marxist theories I'd previously looked into and just lightly went along with.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

I got a fuzzy feeling in my belly when I realized what I had come to believe had a name ... Anarchist Communism.

So I settled on a set of ideas, then realized later it was part of a larger movement.

[Devrim]

I broke with anarchism over the union question during a series of strike at my work in the late 1980s.

Devrim

[Weezer]

I wish I knew what tendency I was.

I stuck in-between tendencies as of late.

For awhile I considered myself an Orthodox Trotskyist, but recently I've broken away from Trotskyism because I don't really agree with the theory of permanent revolution anymore, or really any of Trotskyist theory. I still like Trotsky for who he was and I don't think Trotskyism is a "tool of the bourgeoisie" or "revisionist" as some over-enthusiastic Marxist-Leninists say it is. But Trotskyism hasn't really done much.

I'm leaning more towards Hoxhaist arguments, especially after watching this documentary on socialist Albania, which made Hoxhaism look really appealing. I explored the website of the Hoxhaist organization The American Party of Labor, and agreed with a lot of what they had to say, but they are extremely irrelevant, even in the world of minor politics.

At the same time, I don't like to be associated with cults of personalities, especially of small states like Albania was. I believe those are gross mutations of socialist theory and irresponsibility on the hands of bureaucrats.

At this point, I would go with nearly any tendency. I just want a tendency/party without personality cults, supports the collectivization of the biggest 500 businesses of a country, supports the establishment of worker's councils, isn't afraid to work with other tendencies, and most of all: revolutionary.

The only organizations in my area is the PSL and the SPUSA, I support both, but I will probably end up joining the SPUSA.

[Pretty Flaco]

My tendency is whatever the hell I damn well please!.. jk

I'm just a socialist, marxism appeals to me most personally, although I haven't read enough marx to outright call myself a marxist. I support the empowerment of the working class and oppose fake leftism which seeks populist support from the working class but has no interest in the working class abolishing capitalism and creating a economy/state controlled by the working class.

[bietan jarrai]

I started as a Pan-leftist and more of an anti-fascist, but later moved on to anarchist and as I started to study a bit more I started calling myself an anarcho-communist. Later I discovered Marxism and started reading Leninist texts; joined the Portuguese Communist Youth; so I am a Marxist Leninist. I consider myself an anti-revisionist Leninist, however I do not support Stalin; I hold a critical view of him and can see both the good and the bad. I'm not a maoist as I see most maoists (at least in Portugal they are) as pseudo-intellectual and sectarian.

After studying most leftist tendencies, I come to the conclusion that marxism-leninism is the only one capable of carrying out a truly proletarian revolution, building socialism and heading towards communism. There were errors in the past and there are errors in the present, there will also be errors in the future but as Álvaro Cunhal said "A party that pretends it doesn't make mistakes or that hides its mistakes is a party that deceives itself and the workers". Build the party, prepare the revolution!

By the way, some might say this post is sectarian. However, what I really mean is that, when fighting imperialism, we must unite and put our differences apart; however when fighting for socialism, there is only one way.

[Luc]

Tendencys are for Sectarians.

I like anything without a state. Power to the Commune! You know; Communism.

[Luc]

Ah, thank you. Could I find these in a common bookstore, Chapters or whatever?

Heres a good site for anarchist Literarture:
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/

I believe this is the essay:
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/malatesta/anarchy.html

Heres a good Communist site, there are also some anarchist texts:
http://www.marxists.org/

I haven't been able to find anarchist literature (some works by Marx though) in any bookstores, I suggest just reading online from archives like these.

[Revolutionair]

I believe that there only a couple of things that could be considered 'human nature'. The first one is one that I learned through Marx, humans labor, we build stuff and we like to build stuff. The second one is the desire for freedom, we basically do everything we can to increase our freedom.

If I do not try to oppress my neighbour, then, I hope, my neighbour will not try to oppress me. We can live together and share both information and materials.

I do not adhere to any specific tendency. I am heavily influenced by Marx, Zizek, the historical anarchist and workers' movements, anti-fascism and anarchist thought.