Revisionism?

[Comrade Thomas]

Hi everyone, I know this sounds like a really silly question but it is used so often online and offline but what exactly is it?

[Fourth Internationalist]

Revisionism is a term that includes any ideology with the Marxist label that another Marxist of a different Marxist-labelled ideology believes in some way violates one or more of the basic and core tenents of Marxism. For example, Stalinism and Trotskyism both have the Marxist label, yet I would consider Stalinism revisionist because I think it is in contradiction with almost all of Marxism, besides some empty rhetoric that sounds vaguely communist. The term is most commonly used by Stalinists, from what I've seen, in describing other Marxist-labelled ideologies, especially Trotskyism.

[Comrade Thomas]

Ah, okay thank you.

[Atsumari]

Does it matter if an idea is revised at all? Whenever I hear someone condemn an idea on the grounds that it is revision of an individual thinker rather than facts, reason, or ethics, then it seems like the ideology has fallen into dogmatism.

[Fourth Internationalist]

You can read this if you want. It is short and a little interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revisionism_(Marxism)

"Anti-revisionism" deals with the same thing, except this is an even more exclusively Stalinist term, usually implying the defense of Stalin from the "Soviet 'revisionists'" like Khrushchev and Co. (some also extend their accusations of revisionism to Mao and other Stalinist leaders like Castro and the Kims).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Revisionism

[Fourth Internationalist]

Does it matter if an idea is revised at all? Whenever I hear someone condemn an idea on the grounds that it is revision of an individual thinker rather than facts, reason, or ethics, then it seems like the ideology has fallen into dogmatism.

It does matter because then those "revisionists," despite effectively throwing out Marx entirely, still use his name. It's not that it's a different ideology that it is a big deal, it's that they are still labeling themselves as something they're not. In the case of Stalinists, their claim of being Marxists and communists makes the rest of us Marxists and communists look really bad.

[PhoenixAsh]

Yes. For completions sake of course there should be a mention that the term revisionism is a pejorative term and often used to serve as an argument in and of itself.

Stalinism denounces Trotskyism as revisionism....Trotskyism denounces Stalinism as revisionism. They both conclude the other one isn't Bolshevist nor Leninist. Trotskyists eventually got kicked out of the Bolshevist party. Of course they both reject each others arguments as lies, slander and false representations or as false analysis...but both maintain the debate is of vital importance....so it is being waged for a whooping 90+ years now.



The entire situation reminds me of the lyrics of a Dire Straists song:


I go down to Speaker's Corner I'm thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say they're Jesus one of them must be wrong
There's a protest singer singing a protest song

[Malesori]

Khrushchevism is the original "revisionism"

[reb]

Revisionism is an ideological slur used shamefacedly by Stalinists and Maoists. It really doesn't mean anything beyond that they can't find an argument against you or you say something bad about Leninism or Maoism. Revisionism relies on a bourgeois and idealist conception of history, one where the history of world is decided by ideas rather than ideas being decided history.

[Remus Bleys]

Khrushchevism is the original "revisionism"

Luxemburg called Bernstein a revisionist though...
reb's right though. Revisionism today means something bad was said about stalin or maybe lenin (though several anti revisionists revise lenin!) But if we were to use it like Rosa did, one would realize that this is simply capital dominating marxism and turning it into a bourgeois ideology. Revisionism is a symptom, not a cause. Yet it still needs to be fought against for the same reason all bourgeois ideology is to be fought against.

[Comrade Thomas]

Wow I didn't expect such a reply.

[BisexualCommunist]

Revisionist is the title given to Trotsky and his lapdogs. For some reason, they just do not seem to grasp the true nature of socialism/communism, and have been trying to destroy Marxist ideala for over 90+ years.

[Five Year Plan]

Revisionism in the broadest sense of the term means professing an idea that contradicts an earlier one that developed within the same ideology or worldview. It can be good or bad, depending on the quality of the new idea relative to the idea being revised. On the left, it usually refers to specific debates such as the one between Bernstein and Kautsky or Stalin and the "Trotskyites."

[BisexualCommunist]

R.I.P Ramón Mercader, Hero of the People.

[Brutus]

R.I.P Ramón Mercader, Hero of the People.

Cut the crap. Killing doesn't make one a hero. The biggest irony is that a person serving Stalin and his clique could ever be considered a "hero of the people", or considered anything other than a thug.

[BisexualCommunist]

Cut what crap? I am just simply honoring a hero who gave his all for the cause, by getting rid of traitors.

[reb]

Cut what crap? I am just simply honoring a hero who gave his all for the cause, by getting rid of traitors.

Now I'm sure you're just a troll.

[Art Vandelay]

R.I.P Ramón Mercader, Hero of the People.

All hail our glorious eternal leader, Iosif Vissarionovich! RIP to the hero of the people, the man with the steady hand, Ramon Mercader! Don't let the traitors and their political descendants silence your message of truth BC!

[BisexualCommunist]

Oh don't worry, I won't be silenced by traitors to the cause.

[BisexualCommunist]

See this is why I will from now on not be responding to you, because of your constant whining like a little child who doesnt get her way.