Hi

[SimonClarke]

I'm doing a study about radical politics. I was wandering if you could tell me what your precise views are e.g Marxist, Stalinist, Maoist etc, how old you are, which country you are from, occupation, family background e.g poor single parent, middle income married, divorced parents but rich. It's just to get to an idea of, or find if there is, a typical left-wing radical.

Many Thanks
Simon

[Q]

Not sure if people are intersted in participating, but sure. I'll move this to Learning though as it isn't an intro.

[G4b3n]

I will participate, why not?

I am 18 years of age, first year in college.

I am libertarian socialist, more specifically a Libertarian Marxist which is a school of Anarchist thought to give you a general picture.

I am from the United States.

I come from a working class family.

I do not "work" in the bourgeois sense at the moment, however I may participate in Federal Work Study at my university.

There really isn't a "typical left-wing radical", we are all quite different, which does more bad than good really.

[Quail]

I'll participate I suppose.

I'm 22 years old and describe myself as a libertarian communist or anarchist communist. I live in the UK and I've just graduated from university (studied mathematics) and I'm hoping to do a research degree at some point, either this year or next year. I have a young child, so I suppose my occupation would be "student/parent". I came from a relatively well off working class family, with my parents married. I was myself a single parent for a while though while I was studying.

I'm not sure that there is a "typical" leftist, and your survey isn't detailed enough to really draw many conclusions. For example it might be useful to look at the gender and ethnicity of people in the movement (it seems to me that it's very white and male dominated).

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Quail, I think the internet part is white male dominated.
Outside of the English speaking world, which means outside of revleft, there are lots of non-whites and women active in the movement, though the latter is still horribly underrepresented.

[Quail]

Quail, I think the internet part is white male dominated.
Outside of the English speaking world, which means outside of revleft, there are lots of non-whites and women active in the movement, though the latter is still horribly underrepresented.
I was thinking more in the UK actually (not on the internet, but based on what I've seen of left wing movements in the UK), but yeah worldwide obviously there are a lot of non-white leftists.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

27/White/Male
Precarious min. wage employment (last worked in software testing).
Dropped out of university.
Lower middle-class upbringing (Daddy was a police constable).
Politically, some sort of libertarian communist.

[Sasha]

31/white (half jewish)/male/queer
Precarious (parttime job, artist, student)
Parents grew up prole but raised themselves to midle class
Somewhere between individual anarchist and libertarian marxist

[Igor]

sup im an anarchist, 20 years old, finnish

i study machining in a trade school at the moment, dropped out of university last year's dec. divorced parents, both from rural working class families but are now both more urban lower middle class i guess, dad's a (very) small business owner and i lived with him growing up

[UncleLenin]

'Radical politics' is just an opinion that people have. I do not believe any ideology on this site is 'radical'. I believe it is perfectly normal.

[RedBen]

tell me what your precise views are, how old you are, which country you are from, occupation, family background e.g poor single parent, middle income married, divorced parents but rich.

Marxist Leninist, 24, U.S., unemployed mechanic recently out of school, single mom, poor and homeless. anything else? social? bank card? nude pictures of my girlfriend?:D

[Comrade Jacob]

Marxist-Leninist
15
United Kingdom
High-schooler
working-class and/or living on benefits
Single
£13,500 (per annum, earnt by parents)
Parents are married and not rich

[Petrol Bomb]

Non-Doctrinaire Communist
13
Canada
High School Student
Working Class Parents (Married)

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

[Ace High]

I consider myself anarcho-communist if I had to use a label.
I'm 20 years old,
United States born and raised,
Parents upper-middle class, although came from a slightly poor background,
I'm a student in college, used to work in retail

Cool project though, welcome.

[Teacher]

Are you the actual Simon Clarke?

[GiantMonkeyMan]

22/Male/Straight
I work at Primark and have a degree in film studies.
I was raised by a working class mother (and on occasion a father/step-father) in the UK.
I'm a trotskyist on some issues and a left communist on others.

[the debater]

I'm doing a study about radical politics. I was wandering if you could tell me what your precise views are e.g Marxist, Stalinist, Maoist etc, how old you are, which country you are from, occupation, family background e.g poor single parent, middle income married, divorced parents but rich. It's just to get to an idea of, or find if there is, a typical left-wing radical.

Many Thanks
Simon

Background: Currently a college student, 19, grew up in a middle-class American family. Both parents still married, both with college degrees.

Views: For non-economic views, I support certain Libertarian policies as outlined in the American Bill of Rights. I don't mind the modern day family unit, especially considering that many wives are equal to their husbands in terms of take-home pay. I personally am in agreement with Karl Marx's views as he stated in the Communist Manifesto, specifically the "10 points," and am still learning more about Marxism as the days go by. At the same time however, I do believe in merit pay and that colleges nowadays should focus more on engineering, science, medicine, and other similar majors rather than majors such as philosophy or art. I hope that this position isn't too offensive to anyone, but it's a belief I do consider to be important. In terms of how to begin a revolution, I'm of the opinion that running for mayor is an effective way to enact socialist policies and to get the revolution started. I imagine it would be easier to enact leftist policies at the city level rather than at the state and federal levels. Some revolutionaries may prefer protesting over running for office. However with protesting, not only are you not necessarily getting any laws enacted, you are also making it easier for potential hijackers sneaking into your protest and causing a ruckus in order to make the entire protest look bad. This is all my personal opinion however, and since I'm continuously learning new things about the ideologies of RevLeft, my opinions aren't necessarily complete.

[OHumanista]

Hi Simon I am 21, mixed "race" male (if you want to be specific, some native south american blood, some black african, lots of portuguese, lots of russian, some german, some tatar :p ) from Brazil, though I am living in Portugal right now.
Working class background, retired syndicalist (and communist) father who was also a high profile political activist for some time, mom was a factory worker but now just takes care of home. Originally poor by economical standards and later high middle class by time I became a teenager. They're still married.
I am a trotskyist with various other influences and I am a history student on my 2nd year in the University of Coimbra (Portugal)

Also I am not sure you're going to find an average anything, except for young white people which is only representative of the people who spend time on internet forums and not a general "average radical leftist".