Your Biggest Influence?

[00000000000]

Politically that is. If you had to single out one person who inspired or influenced you the most re your political beliefs and ideals?

And why?

[Nox]

Throughout my life, probably Marx or Lenin.

At the moment, probably Chomsky.

[Kornilios Sunshine]

My dad.

[thesadmafioso]

Predictable as this answer may be, Trotsky.

[thefinalmarch]

Left communists on revleft during my long period of lurking

no seriously.

[ZeroNowhere]

That would be Marx. De Leon did play an important part, though, especially in earlier stages of my development, as did Wittgenstein when I was developing my views on philosophy, while blokes like Hegel, Plato and Grossman also contributed a fair bit, though mainly when it came to understanding Marx, inasmuch as Marx did synthesize most of their insights into his own work. Some writers, like Colletti and Sayer, did write good books, although I don't necessarily agree with them (especially Colletti) on everything, but generally speaking they didn't actually influence me that much, and some of the more significant points they made I often only understood in retrospect after picking it up from Marx or somebody else later on. I suppose that more straightforward writers like Tillich also helped me with formulating some things in clearer terms, and hence understanding them a bit better, such as Tillich's description of the relationship between part and whole in terms of power.

[Tim Cornelis]

The degree individuals individually influenced my political views is negligible for all. I'm influenced by Gustav Landauer, Peter Kropotkin, Marx, Lenin, Cornelis Castoriadis. Paul Mattick, Robin Hahnel, Lucien van der Walt and Schmidt (writers Black Flame) and many more. Problem is most (EDIT: much) information I got via an anarchist FAQ.

[The Douche]

George W. Bush. Steve Ignorant. Stza from leftover crack?

[ZeroNowhere]

The degree individuals individually influenced my political views is negligible for all. I'm influenced by Gustav Landauer, Peter Kropotkin, Marx, Lenin, Paul Mattick, Robin Hahnel, Lucien van der Walt and Schmidt (writers Black Flame) and many more. Problem is most information I got via an anarchist FAQ.
If it's The Anarchist FAQ, then that does more or less have an individual author, I believe. If it didn't it might be more excusable.

[Tim Cornelis]

If it's The Anarchist FAQ, then that does more or less have an individual author, I believe. If it didn't it might be more excusable.

Ian McKay is the "main editor", but it has multiple contributors.

[communard71]

Bertrand Russell, Marx, Gramsci, Camus. I wish I had had an actual person in my life to help me though, it may have been easier to understand alot sooner. Also, like cmoney, Georgie Bush.

[thriller]

George W. Bush. Steve Ignorant. Stza from leftover crack?

Stza was a big influence for me. No. 1 tho? Prolly my Grandpa.

[Sam Varriano]

VI Lenin

Emma Goldman

Howard Zinn

Noam Chomsky

also I want to give props to Hunter S. Thompson <_<

[Ned Kelly]

Gramsci

[Rusty Shackleford]

Berries and Cream guy.

[Mr. Natural]

I deeply appreciate Judi Bari, who is a symbol for the sort of red-green praxis I firmly believe needs to develop if there are to be any revolutionary movements into a human future.

Judi bridged red and green: human and natural ecology. So did Marx and Engels. Judi was a Marxist and a deep ecologist, a red-green synthesis that most RevLefters, I believe, dismiss out of hand. And what remains of a left is stuck in place within a dying capitalist system that is taking humanity with it as it goes.

Yes, other Earth First!ers and deep ecologists eschewed social issues, but Judi promoted alliances between forest protectors and forest workers against the common enemy of capital. Judi was a bit of a visionary and one hell of an activist, and she was/is right.

So it really pisses me off that Judi now seems to be regarded, when she is remembered at all, as some sort of sainted guardian of the forest. Judi loved her redwoods, but she even more passionately hated capitalism. As she wrote, "serious ecologists must be revolutionaries." ("Revolutionary Ecology," available on Web)

Judi Bari was/is a red-green revolutionary!

[Sugarnotch]

Noam Chomsky. He's helped me understand the national and global political climates better then arguable anyone else.

Albert Camus. The Stranger (positively) affected me in ways I can't even describe. Helped me come to terms with the universe, really.

Pat the Bunny. Music is a fucking huge part in my life, and Pat's work is tops.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Albert Camus. The Stranger (positively) affected me in ways I can't even describe. Helped me come to terms with the universe, really.



that was a damn good book. i dont usually read fiction, but when i do, its camus.

[piet11111]

Marx obviously

[Sugarnotch]

that was a damn good book. i dont usually read fiction, but when i do, its camus.

Indeed. :lol:

[tir1944]

Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Honestly and over anything without a doubt,
my fellow workers, the workplace, and the capitalist system.

I didn't need to read in a book to confirm that I was or am an anarchist. Honestly, a lot of my favorite political books aren't from anarchists or necessarily dealing with anarchism. Being a wage-slave has helped me sort out my own thoughts so much, and I suppose I picked up some good ideas along the way and it helped shape or articulate my ideas better.

I can't really say a lot of famous radicals have influenced me too much. This is kinda stretching it, but I'd go with
Errico Malatesta, Rosa Luxemburg, Howard Zinn, Eugene Debs, working-class movements and syndicalist unions wordwide.

[OHumanista]

Since this is about number 1...my father then, nothing like having commie parents(mom is too but in principle only, she doesn't knows anything in depth).

[Apoi_Viitor]

Noam Chomsky

[Die Rote Fahne]

My brother.

[GatesofLenin]

Marx, Lenin and of course growing up poor, even though both my parents worked very hard.

[eyeheartlenin]

L.D. Trotsky, because he was right on:

China
Germany
France
the nature of Stalinism and of the Stalinized Comintern and its sections
Spain
the united front
the Soviet Union
the popular front, etc.

Even if Trotsky had been wrong on Kronstadt, which I do not believe, his stance on the questions faced by our class in Europe and Asia was correct and invaluable.

[Art Vandelay]

I would have to say Marx & Engels. Even though my views have been shifting more to anarchism and the question was your biggest influence I would still have to say those two. For Marx he was an absolute genius and the left would be in a dire situation today without his critique of capitalism and Engels because without him much of what Marx accomplished would of been impossible.

[BE_]

Marx.

[Kosakk]

Chomsky, Luxemburg, Marx, Pilger, Klein, Goldman
I've read some of their books.
But I too have to say some members of this forum has influenced me.

[Rafiq]

Karl Marx

Eugene V. Debbs.

Lenin

Robespierre

Spartacus

Various Orthodox Communists

(And just so you know, I am appauled to hear on a revolutionary leftist forum that one of the most popular influences on us so-called radicals is Noam Chomsky. Fuck Noam Chomsky.)

[Frank Zapatista]

Trotsky is probably my biggest influence. Beyond him, Lenin.

[RadioRaheem84]

I had always listened to Marx, Chomsky, Zinn and other progressives. But the number one person that changed my thinking fundamentally and made me proud of being leftist was: MICHAEL PARENTI. A true giant. Helped me see society in a whole new light.

Zizek is slowly but surely becoming my new main man.

Also, I want to throw in Brendan M. Cooney as a Marxist bad ass. A true genius at de-mystifying economics. Also an icon on the left.

[CleverTitle]

Parenti was my gateway.

[RadioRaheem84]

Parenti was my gateway.

:thumbup1: Yeah, I love Chomsky and Zinn, but I was getting burned out on academic lectures without real zeal. I felt like it was a lost cause trying to translate the two into a common tongue or a fiery sermon. But Parenti manages to do that in nearly all of his speeches and makes you fucking proud to be an anti-capitalist lefty.

Another guy who does that is Zizek, only with sarcastic humor.

Cooney from Kapitalism101 does it with a more cocky swagger. Like you don't have to take shit from those assertive douchey libertarians that constantly snide that their mantra is "basic economics", "economics 101", etc.

These guys give someone doubting the intellectual power of leftism/Marxism a big kick in the pants. Marx on Redbull.

[StoneFrog]

-Anton Pannekoek
His book Worker Councils, that was a major point in my development; a real mile stone so to speak in the development of my own communist views.

[L.A.P.]

Malcom X, Huey P. Newton, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln were probably my favorite political people in the world if you asked me before I was a communist. Now...Marx, Lenin, Castro, Mao, Newton, Zizek, Sankara. I'm slowly starting to get into Gramsci and Negri as well.

[black magick hustla]

cammatte, bordiga. a lot of the italian communist left stuff. dauve, maybe some insurrectionary "communism" like invisible committee. communization theory, icc etc

[28350]

Marxxx

[Os Cangaceiros]

my parents, I guess.

[Le Rouge]

Revleft

[RadioRaheem84]

We do have to give ourselves credit. I've never encountered a group of people so level headed and extremely up to speed on current events.

[Sputnik_1]

I hate admitting it (cause I'm horribly proud and stubborn sometimes :/ ) but the person that influenced the most my political views is my husband. I was already definitely anti-capitalistic and rebellious before meeting him, but he helped me understanding better my anger, recommended me books, we had long discussions about politics etc.

[CynicalIdealist]

Bill Hicks.

[Rocky Rococo]

My great-grandfather, Phil Ochs's niece, Big Bill Haywood, and future generations everywhere.

Edited to add: Alex Foti is my guilty pleasure.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

My earliest influences were De Leon, Marx, and Engels, followed later by Connolly, Luxemburg, Mattick, and Pannekoek.

[Rooster]

I had read Trotsky before I had read Marx (found Revolution Betrayed lying on the pavement). I was always kinda interested in the Russian revolution but I never really went out of my way to look into it much. Was just too busy with other stuff. After I read that then I had to read more. So it kind of went off from there. My parents weren't particularly political nor was anyone else in my family. But as to who is my main influence now? I have no idea. Maybe Ernst Mandel or maybe Hal Draper.

[GatesofLenin]

my parents, I guess.
I see so many people post this, guess young kids see more than most adults care to believe. Well said comrade!

[Great1917Revolution]

Karl Marx

Also: Engels, Marcuse, Gramsci, Lukács, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky

[graymouser]

James P. Cannon. Trotsky, Marx, Malcolm X and a handful of others also fit on the list but Cannon probably more than anybody.

Cannon had a way of speaking - some of his best known books are from speeches he gave - that is very direct and very American, and presents revolutionary ideas in a popular way without dumbing them down. If you read his History of American Trotskyism, you really get the sense of this. And it was Cannon who really defines, as I see it, how the party should be run and what it should be. He was not a great theoretician but he was an excellent popularizer and organizer.

Theoretically most people here know I am a Trotskyist through and through. Joseph Hansen and his protege, Gerry Foley (a longtime Socialist Action leader now in semi retirement in Mexico) are also heavy influences in my understanding of world affairs after 1940. Gerry's work on the SA paper did a lot for my political development, and I've tried to measure up to his standard.

But overall I'm sticking with Cannon.

[EvilRedGuy]

All Anarcho-Communists, and TVP/Zeitgeist.

[Cencus]

Margret Thatcher - that woman inspired such loathing for everything she stood in my young mind that for I looked for alternatives.

[Devrim]

My earliest influences were De Leon, Marx, and Engels, followed later by Connolly, Luxemburg, Mattick, and Pannekoek.

Organisation: Irish Republican Socialist Party

Tendency: Left Communists

You really are one mixed up cookie.

Devrim

[tfb]

Pretty much everything I've read/seen/heard/felt/etc. in the past few years has done something to push me towards communism, even if the things themselves were reactionary. If I were to make a list, it wouldn't make much sense to anyone.

I wish it had been a single thing so that this could easily be replicated with anyone else by just making them read a certain book or something.

[Искра]

Myself.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

You really are one mixed up cookie.

Devrim
I don't know about you, Devrim, but I come to this board for comradely discussion not personal attacks. I see no conflict between my personal influences, my membership in a multi-tendencied party, or that I see myself being more or less a left communist. If there's a problem, it's entirely yours.

[Ocean Seal]

Guevara got me into communism, but my most important political influences are Marx and Engels.

[Belleraphone]

Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader.


Although I do think it's Ironic that some people are putting Chomsky and Lenin the same post. Chomsky denounced Lenin.

[Android]

You really are one mixed up cookie.

I don't think Danielle is the only one who comes out with such gibbersih. If I remember correctly, doesn't P. Urban (the founder and long-term leader of the IRSP's US support group who split off a few years back after falling out of favour with the mothership) call himself a council communist.


I don't know about you, Devrim, but I come to this board for comradely discussion not personal attacks. I see no conflict between my personal influences, my membership in a multi-tendencied party, or that I see myself being more or less a left communist. If there's a problem, it's entirely yours.

I think you might have misunderstood Devrim. I do not think he was having a go at you, personally but making a light-hearted political point. That being a member of a political organisatioin that supports national liberation and stating that Mattick and Pannekoek were influences on you, seems a bit odd since they didn't support national liberation.

Also, I'm curious what are the differing political tendencies in the IRSP/IRSCNA? Because the IRSM seems pretty homogenous politically to me.

[Susurrus]

Probably Marx, Kropotkin, Alexander Berkman, George Orwell, and Alan Moore(V for Vendetta got me into leftist politics). Also Douglas Adams, Sartre, and Camus.

[ColonelCossack]

My dad.

Probably the same.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

If I remember correctly, doesn't P. Urban (the founder and long-term leader of the IRSP's US support group who split off a few years back after falling out of favour with the mothership) call himself a council communist.
Yes, Peter Urban did identify himself as a council communist. He was also the person who recruited me into the IRSM way back in the '90s.


I think you might have misunderstood Devrim. I do not think he was having a go at you, personally but making a light-hearted political point.
If he confirms that's the case, I'll withdraw my comment. Sometimes it's hard to read humor on the Internet.


That being a member of a political organisatioin that supports national liberation and stating that Mattick and Pannekoek were influences on you, seems a bit odd since they didn't support national liberation.
This is quite true. Of course, it's also true that someone can be an influence on one's political development even if one disagrees with them on some issues.


Also, I'm curious what are the differing political tendencies in the IRSP/IRSCNA? Because the IRSM seems pretty homogenous politically to me.
There are no formally organized tendencies within the IRSM, but the membership of the IRSM is a mixture of Left Republicans, Marxist-Leninists, Marxists from non-Leninist tendencies, and some leftists who wouldn't necessarily identify with any of those labels. The IRSP's official position is that it stands "in the tradition of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Connolly."

[Misanthrope]

I would have to say Noam Chomsky because he's the author that got me into leftism. Of course Marx. Most anarchists thinkers, Bakunin, Goldman.. um.. Parienti is good

[Android]

This is quite true. Of course, it's also true that someone can be an influence on one's political development even if one disagrees with them on some issues.

Obviously someone can be influenced by a writer without agreeing completely with their perspective. But I do think to claim they were one of your biggest influences, you would at least expect aspects of their politics to be reflected in your political activity. Which as a member of the IRSM, I fail to see how there is such a connection in any meaningful way to state it rather mildly.

For example, take Mattick - Mattick rejected support for national liberation struggles, your political activity is based around such a support, he regarded the Stalinist regimes as capitalist the IRSM were supportive of them, Mattick had a critique of trade-unionism, IRSM seem to want to rebuild the unions, Mattick rejected participation in parliamentary elections the IRSM has stood in elections and had members elected (e.g. Seamus Costello in Bray and the two Belfast members in 1981), Mattick's pioneered the defense of the falling-rate- of-profit analysis as the basis of capitalist crises, whereas the IRSM from what I can tell hold a fundamentally Keynesian analysis as far as I know.

[Devrim]

If he confirms that's the case, I'll withdraw my comment. Sometimes it's hard to read humor on the Internet.

Yes, it was meant to be lighthearted and I am sorry if you took personal offence. There is no need to withdraw anything.

On a more serious level though:


I see no conflict between my personal influences, my membership in a multi-tendencied party, or that I see myself being more or less a left communist.

Android pointed out some of the differences but really I see there being a fundamental contradiction between 'being more or less a left communist' and being a member of a national liberation movement.

Devrim

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Obviously someone can be influenced by a writer without agreeing completely with their perspective. But I do think to claim they were one of your biggest influences, you would at least expect aspects of their politics to be reflected in your political activity. Which as a member of the IRSM, I fail to see how there is such a connection in any meaningful way to state it rather mildly.
The IRSP isn't a left communist party, but some of its members are left communists. Those of us who are left communists advocate a left communist position within the party.

Where left communism has influenced me is in providing models of struggle and socialist organization that reject Marxist-Leninist vanguard party state capitalism, whilst proclaiming that "the liberation of the working class from capitalist domination can only be achieved through the workers' own initiative."

I sometimes jokingly call myself a Syncretic Marxist, but apparently that is not a recognized tendency. :lol:

[Jose Gracchus]

I guess what people are trying to say is "left communism" != "libertarian socialism" or "socialism from below" or whatever. The communist left is identified with several positions: general opposition in the modern era to national self-determination, that is, attempts to back the position of forces trying to establish new bourgeois states [including an all-island 'Irish republic' for that matter]; opposition to building unions or attempting to take them over; opposition to participation in bourgeois elections; and opposition to 'united fronts' with bourgeois parties purporting to represent workers. As such, it seems quite strange for you to claim one can identify with the communist left and simultaneously be a member in good standing of the IRSP.

[Void]

Ussr

[ZeroNowhere]

To be fair, opposition to national liberation struggles may not be a universally held position among left communists.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Yes, it was meant to be lighthearted and I am sorry if you took personal offence.
Fair enough.


Android pointed out some of the differences but really I see there being a fundamental contradiction between 'being more or less a left communist' and being a member of a national liberation movement.
But reading the basic positions of the ICC, for example, I tend to agree with the majority of them.

[CommieTroll]

Marx, Engles, Lenin and to an extent Stalin. Che is a big inspiration, when I started to get interested in politics I was really interested in and still have great respect for James Connolly and James Larkin

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

I guess what people are trying to say is "left communism" != "libertarian socialism" or "socialism from below" or whatever.
So if I agree that "the liberation of the working class from capitalist domination can only be achieved through the workers' own initiative," socialism "can only be established through the mass revolutionary action of the working class," and a socialist society should be administered by decentralized, democratic councils, where does that place me?

[Jose Gracchus]

Sounds like you support something like Socialism or Barbarism or UK Solidarity-style "communism by workers' councils".

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Sounds like you support something like Socialism or Barbarism or UK Solidarity-style "communism by workers' councils".
As I understand it, they would fall into the broader libertarian socialist category, yes?

[Ewok]

Noam Chomsky.

My Latin American Politics/Industrializing Nations professor in college. A devout socialist and dear friend.

[La Comédie Noire]

Marx, Mattick, and Malcolm X.

[∞]

Remember that homeless guy with two masters degrees? People like that are what influence me.

[The left is right]

My parents "planted the seeds" of my socialist ideas. I found Chomsky and Parenti helpful in getting me more interested. The Marx was also vital with the communist manifesto but I'm daunted by Das Kapital :blushing:
I'll read it eventually :)

[Azraella]

My biggest influence? Heh, my deceased brother.

[#FF0000]

Parents

Kurt Vonnegut

Eugene Debs

lol dennis lyxzen

from the very start, at least.

[Ocean Seal]

Hmm, I would have to say that it took Che Guevara to influence me. Not perhaps so much from the ideological sense, but in order to introduce me to the left. Without Che, I might have missed revolutionary politics as a whole, but even the bourgeois media can't fully tear apart Che--who as a whole often stands morally superior and more genuine than the conservatives who attack him and then expouse the morals by which he lived by.

[El Louton]

Grandparents
Parents
Guevara
Marx
Neruda
Life in General
Castro
Tony Benn
Billy Bragg

[Smyg]

My mother, I must sadly say, who made me a diehard feminist, anti-fascist, pro-LGBT rights, et cetera.

[Ballyfornia]

My older Brother and George Orwell

[The Young Pioneer]

This is going to sound a bit strange, but...

George W. Bush.

I was ten the first time he got elected and was required to do a school project on the election for my fifth grade class. How someone so ignorant could get so far caught my attention and I've been immersed in politics and theories ever since.

[NewLeft]

My parents, working class and work full days everyday so that I can enjoy life. I haven't talked to my parents in weeks because I never seem them anymore.. They're always at work and they come home when I'm sleeping.
Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, no matter what people think of them on this forum, I wouldn't even be a leftist..
Emma Goldman, for making the moral arguments..
Of course Marx..

[Luc]

(Since it's only one)

I would say Katla from Finntroll:wub:. Folkmetal got me into hating Christianity which opened up my thinking to alternative ideas and such. Political Economy and Philosophy followed suit after Religion.

Sönder ska han trasa kött och ben av kristi lamm!!!:lol:

edit: i haven't read much (yet) so it wouldn't be correct to say Marx or Kropotkin (i.e.)

[SJBarley]

Che Guevara.
But also to some extent Lenin, his work is what I've read most of to be fair.

[ed miliband]

Alcohol.

[Renno]

Hardcore punk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Arlekino]

Soviet Union because we lost it.

[ZeroNowhere]

(Since it's only one)

I would say Katla from Finntroll:wub:. Folkmetal got me into hating Christianity which opened up my thinking to alternative ideas and such.
Ah yes, troll metal. That explains why you came to Revleft, then.

[The Dark Side of the Moon]

Tie between marx lenin stalin and a friend of mine whom I respect greatly

[Krano]

George Carlin

[rundontwalk]

Probably a mix of like:

John Brown
Sam Houston (I just really respect him. Choosing to give up everything because he wouldn't simply go along with the Confederates and everything.)
John Wayne (this sounds stupid considering he was an ardent anti-communist, but I like the good v. evil vibe and swagger and what not)
Phil Ochs
Steve Earle

Oh and Quanah Parker.

[Bronco]

Reading Orwell's Homage to Catalonia was the first time I really felt an affinity with the Revolutionary Left and the Anarchists in Catalonia in particular, when I started reading proper leftist literature I think Engels had a bigger effect on me because I found his Principles of Communism gave a more concise overview than the Manifesto did, and I also liked his Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. Since then and overall though, I'd say it's probably Kropotkin.

[the fencing revolutionary]

Pat the Bunny. Music is a fucking huge part in my life, and Pat's work is tops.

same^^^^ along with Emma Goldman, Kroptkin, and marx

[Marxaveli]

Marx himself of course, but I suppose as a Marxist, that is a rather cliche answer lol. I really like the works of Rosa Luxemburg ALOT (thus the user name I chose). John Rawls has had some influence on my politics as well. Although he isn't a full-blown Socialist, I think some of his philosophies (such as "Justice as Fairness" and "The Veil of Ignorance") have a place in Socialist thought and application. In general, I think Thomas Paine would probably be the so-called founder of America that most closely resembles my views. Malcolm X and Che are great too, of course. Howard Zinn and Chomsky also.

[Caj]

Hmmm . . . probably either Marx or Bakunin, strange as that sounds. :D

[AmericanCommie421]

Marx and Engels, the two are so inseparable that I can't just say one, and I do think it is unfair when they are combined to just Marx.

[The Dark Side of the Moon]

Oh and pink Floyd.

Just because

[A Revolutionary Tool]

It's hard to pin one thing down as my biggest influence. I've hated the cops, Nazis, and being poor ever since I first realized what they were and that's what really pushed me towards communism. Watching my dad beat the shit out of two cops showed me that you could fight back :thumbup1: