Why are there few/no members here from 'Communist' countries?

[The Cheshire Cat]

I wonder why there are so few or no members here from countries that claim to be communist? I mean, I never saw someone from Cuba here, or from Vietnam, or China or Laos. I think I saw someone from China once, but you would think there would be more members from 'communist' countries.

[ВАЛТЕР]

No country in history has ever claimed to be communist.

It could be a language barrier, or it could be restrictions a nation puts on its internet. Or a complete lack of internet connection for some people.

[The Cheshire Cat]

Well, I mean countries with ruling parties that claim to be communist. And in Cuba the education is good and if I'm correct, they learn English. In China the education is not bad either and there are more English speakers in China than in the USA, so I heard. I know Chine has restricted internet, but I do not know wether this counts for Revleft. And I am not sure wether Cuba has restrictions on the internet.

[Lynx]

This is a forum for young white males, according to demographics.

[Igor]

Well, I mean countries with ruling parties that claim to be communist. And in Cuba the education is good and if I'm correct, they learn English. In China the education is not bad either and there are more English speakers in China than in the USA, so I heard. I know Chine has restricted internet, but I do not know wether this counts for Revleft. And I am not sure wether Cuba has restrictions on the internet.

Chinese English education is absolutely terrible though, and for that to be true in any sense would require a ridiculous stretching of what constitutes an English speaker.

Also it's not just the "socialist countries" that lack representation here, it's pretty much the entire developing world which shouldn't surprise you one bit if you've used English internet before.

And yeah Cuban internet, too, is pretty restricted and in addition to that they have very low connection levels anyway, even in Latin American terms

[Comrade Samuel]

This is a forum for young white males, according to demographics.

Where is everybody else then? stormfront? :scared:

[Lenina Rosenweg]

There are cultural and linguistic reasons. People from China who speak English are often unsure of relating to native speakers. They are often shy concerning how others wil perceive their English ability.Also there is a Chinese language forum/internet community, Utopia, which is something like the Chinese RevLeft.

I imagine the same would be even more true in Vietnam and Laos. There also security reasons. Expression of socialist ideas or viewpoints critical of the governments of these countries may carry risks.

In Cuba relatively few people have internet access.

[#FF0000]

We've had quite a few now that I think back. Folks from all over. China, Vietnam, the Eastern Bloc, etc. Only one person from a former 'communist country' is still active though, I think.

There's also the point that revleft isn't really a big thing, you know?

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Cuba has horrendous difficulties with internet connections.

I had to walk miles to get a shitty computer there. :rolleyes:

[Lynx]

Where is everybody else then? stormfront? :scared:
My guess is their demographic is older, white and male. If it weren't for Stormfront I might not have found RevLeft as quickly as I did.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

There are cultural and linguistic reasons. People from China who speak English are often unsure of relating to native speakers. They are often shy concerning how others wil perceive their English ability.Also there is a Chinese language forum/internet community, Utopia, which is something like the Chinese RevLeft.

I imagine the same would be even more true in Vietnam and Laos. There also security reasons. Expression of socialist ideas or viewpoints critical of the governments of these countries may carry risks.

In Cuba relatively few people have internet access.

I know most Cubans do not have personal computers, but i read an article about Cuba having multiple computer cafes. Internet Censorship is in fact non existent on Cuba, the Cuban regime does not censor US media, the journalist was able to go on all major capitalist propaganda US media websites in all computer cafes he went to. For Cubans i don't think this would be so interesting, as far as they are concerned the working class is in power and they are focusing on collectively advancing the country and build socialism. Talking about Capitalism in socialist countries is like talking about feudalism for us, it is not of current and rather archaic.

[Igor]

I know most Cubans do not have personal computers, but i read an article about Cuba having multiple computer cafes. Internet Censorship is in fact non existent on Cuba, the Cuban regime does not censor US media, the journalist was able to go on all major capitalist propaganda US media websites in all computer cafes he went to. For Cubans i don't think this would be so interesting, as far as they are concerned the working class is in power and they are focusing on collectively advancing the country and build socialism. Talking about Capitalism in socialist countries is like talking about feudalism for us, it is not of current and rather archaic.

Cuba has some computer cafes but they're ridiculously expensive for cuban standards. And they definitely do censor internet to certain extent, mainly dissident websites though not actual mainstream Western media, but the main problem is still the fact that regular Cuban people wouldn't be able to access it even if nothing was censored.

Reporters sans frontières on Internet in Cuba (http://en.rsf.org/internet-enemie-cuba,39756.html)

[X5N]

Well in the case of China, it's probably blocked because the government is afraid of people becoming actually communist.

[Igor]

Well in the case of China, it's probably blocked because the government is afraid of people becoming actually communist.

I really don't think they give that many shits about RevLeft, of all things. I bet things like actually very militant working class and really pretty potent local radical movement worry them a bit more than the idea of couple of more getting to read what random American teenagers think about the world.

[Robespierres Neck]

I'm sure there's someone on here that's from a former socialist country/state.

[smellincoffee]

Also, I think this forum tends to attract people are isolated in thinking left, so we seek out connection and discussion here. It's rather like the Ex-Christian.net forums. It tends to attract mostly people in the United States, and especially in the south because atheists down here have fewer constructive opportunities to discuss religion.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

I really don't think they give that many shits about RevLeft, of all things. I bet things like actually very militant working class and really pretty potent local radical movement worry them a bit more than the idea of couple of more getting to read what random American teenagers think about the world.
You know, this got me thinking - what happened to sunfarstar? He was pretty active, then out of nowhere stopped posting. I know he was trying to start a political organization in China (CRP-MLC). I hope the dude is alright and didn't get arrested or something :confused:

[edit]
I just realized you joined after he stopped posting - his last activity date is December 23, 2011

[Zealot]

I would imagine they have their own forums in their own languages. Thinking that they should all be on Revleft speaking English approaches chauvinism.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I know most Cubans do not have personal computers, but i read an article about Cuba having multiple computer cafes. Internet Censorship is in fact non existent on Cuba, the Cuban regime does not censor US media, the journalist was able to go on all major capitalist propaganda US media websites in all computer cafes he went to. For Cubans i don't think this would be so interesting, as far as they are concerned the working class is in power and they are focusing on collectively advancing the country and build socialism. Talking about Capitalism in socialist countries is like talking about feudalism for us, it is not of current and rather archaic.

When I was in Cuba, I wouldn't say that internet cafes are widespread per se. Mostly there were little internet cafes in hotels, some of which are very out of the way.

I didn't chance my luck at trying to access any dissident websites. Some western news websites (BBC) seemed suspiciously slow, though sites like Facebook all worked okay. I wouldn't say there's a huge amount of censorship in Cuba, tbh.

[ВАЛТЕР]

I'm sure there's someone on here that's from a former socialist country/state.

We're not talking former states, but current "socialist" states.

We have many members from the former states, myself included.