Life-Long Comrades

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

So, this is explicitly not some peeing contest or anything, I'm just genuinely curious. Now then, I've seen a great number of users over the course of my time here say they were formerly fascists, anacaps, democrats, republicans, etc. my question is, how many members and whom here has always been involved with, supported, etc. radical Left-wing politics, praxis, and so on? I mean like, when you knew of politics and got involved in politics, you were immediately drawn to Marxism, Anarchism and so forth. I am curious because ever since I got involved and started reading I was instinctively drawn towards the fSU and from there got a hold of some Bakunin and I've been on thuggery ever since. Post your shit my fellow loonies!

[The Feral Underclass]

I've been a communist since I was 14. I'm now 32 (almost). I feel that if I was ever going to stop being a communist I would have done so by now.

[RedWorker]

I always was from the left, socially "liberal" (for the lack of a better word) and anti-authoritarian.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I got into anarchist politics via music when I was 14 or so. Aside from a bizzare marcyite episode in my mid 20s its been more or less consistent

[PhoenixAsh]

Raised in a 3 generation communist family. One of my granddads met Lenin and Pannekoek and Andropov.
Extremely active before and during the war (3rd illegal leadership of the communist party ...after the first two were send to the camps). After the war elected (local) politician for the Dutch Communist Party (CPN). Retired in 1956. Dad was active untill Milosevic trial. Mother was active in the communist youth movement and womans movement. Grandmother was active in the war and in the womens movement after. Left the party after 1956.

I am active in political party work since 15. Activism since 17. Radical activism since 18.

[RedWorker]

One of my granddads met Lenin and Pannekoek and Andropov.

Are you serious!? You must give more details! On a side note, redstar2000 from RevLeft met Che Guevara.

[Ele'ill]

I think like a lot of people I did radical things as a reaction to society and civilization, especially as a kid. So I am unsure how to answer the question in the OP. I always saw most things institutionalized as being harmful, a distraction, boring, and dominating. I distinctly remember watching the news with relatives and thinking it was a joke like it was so intentional that it wasn't believable (so I kind of tuned it out, wrote it off as being more bullshit in a world that was barely real like why is this place being made to be so linear and dead), I had the same feelings about school and did poorly all the time. Ironically seeing images of rioting on the news probably played a big part in eventually finding radical stuff (so thanks to all those folks back then in the streets setting things on fire, throwing stuff at cops, and making things that aren't supposed to happen, happen <3)

[PhoenixAsh]

Are you serious!? You must give more details! On a side note, redstar2000 from RevLeft met Che Guevara.

Yes. But there isn't much to tell. He met him with a small group. They talked. He said he was a smart person. He was still young and important enough to go there but unimportant enough to be the one talking. It was a few years after the revolution and I believe it was either before or after the civil war. I am not to sure on that (either with the 3rd international/komintern congres or later in 21-22 with a small party delegation). And that is about it. He used to sing Avanti Populo and always added at the end: viva Lenin and Leidse kaas (kind of Dutch cheese). He liked Lenin, admired him. He was very conflicted about Stalinism but he was a party man. "Never leave the party. You can't leave the party. Because the party is the class. You may not agree with what the class does but you solve it in the class. And if you can't solve it you work to change it." I remember this paraphrasing because when he was in the home and got demented he would stand up all of the sudden and give a political speech to nobody in particular.

He also knew Sneevliet and Holst bij the way. His father was part of the SPD split from which the communist party later developed as the CPH (by that time my Grandfather was also a member) and was part of the committee which was part of the 3rd international at the end of WWI and finally the CPN. His father was friends with Gorter.

He left after the split with the Brug Groep in 1958. My grandfather was opposed to the split and opposed to the way the party reacted to it. After that he was always very sick. But stayed involved in a lot of initiatives. A lot I had to get from the BVD dossiers....which were heavily editted. That was kind of ironic.

When I was born I was too young and when I was older he was getting too sick. And finally when he did want to talk about it he already started to get alzheimer and things came out very fragmented.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Even during my AnCap days, my ideals were always anti-authoritarian and egalitarian to some extent. The idea that the current way of things were somehow just and eternal simply did not in anyway sound rational or justifiable to me.

[M-L-C-F]

I've always been toward the left. I just didn't know any better as a kid. But thankfully I became conscious of my class as a teenager. I was an idiot early on, but I learned. I became an atheist first. But the skepticism from it, helped me see the barbarism and hypocrisy of the current system. It's what helped push me further left. Along with the criticism of theism as the opiate of the masses. That may sound dumb, but it spurred my learning. Leading me on an odyssey of no return. It's like TAT said, if I was gonna stop being a communist. I would've already done so by now.

My maternal grandfather was fairly radical. Despite being a catholic and voting democrat. He mainly did it as an anti-republican vote, and it was a union thing. As he was an autoworker, and a UAW member. He was a sympathizer to our movement. A supporter of DRUM, the Cuban Revolution, and he was a supporter of Chávez in his later years. From what I could tell, he was a sympathizer to the black liberation movement. Whether it was the Panthers, or the various leftist black leaders here in Detroit. He was one of the most anti-racist people I knew. Showing solidarity for his black co-workers. My uncle also told me how my grandpa would watch Comandante's speeches on C-SPAN, like I used to. I could go further. But for any shortcomings, he made up for it elsewhere.

[Zoroaster]

Ever since I was little, I had dreams about utopian societies without money or government, where everyone was happy and free, and people could do what they want.

Of course, things changed quickly. When I was little, the dreams usually had blurry versions of characters like Mario or Sonic. The dreams I have now have Karl Marx and Bill Cosby (yes, Bill was in my dream. It was pretty sweet).

[TheSocialistMetalhead]

I've leaned to the left for as long as I can remember.

I have always been vehemently anti-racist and I always found it appalling how people in my country spoke about immigrants, specifically Morocans and Turks. My socio-economical views were inspired by my religious education first. When i wasn't really that involved in politics yet, I was on the left of the social democratic parties but not yet a communist.

As a Catholic I strongly identified with Liberation theology though and in reading about various struggles in South-America, I embraced communism. I initially supported the Soviet Union, Maoist China and Cuba, thinking they were actual socialism :laugh:.

I then contemplated anarchism for a while but I finally decided it's methods were disagreeable to me and proclaimed myself a Trotskyist, my views are strongly influenced by council communism though. :lol:

I first started getting involved in politics when I went to university. I had intended to join one of two socialist/communist movements (excluding the social democrats). I considered COMAC (the youth wing of PVDA/PTB, the Belgian Party of Labour) but decided on ALS/EGA, the youth wing of LSP/PSL, the latter being the Belgian section of the CWI. They felt more professional, more ideologically sound, better read and they actually make an effort to educate their members about Marxism and other branches of left-wing thought.

[Lily Briscoe]

I was raised by parents who are social democrats (I was, too, and was in a social democratic organization through my late teens up until the very beginning of my twenties). Obviously there is a massive gulf between social democratic politics and communist politics, but I feel like the general set of 'values' or whatever that underpins my political views has been pretty consistent throughout my life.

It's always weird for me to talk to people who came to whatever brand of 'far left' politics after being like evangelical Christians, or capitalist "libertarians", or active Republicans (in the American sense). It's something I can't even imagine.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Are you serious!? You must give more details! On a side note, redstar2000 from RevLeft met Che Guevara.

I met Ed Clark (aka redstar2000) once.

That means I'm separated from Che Guevara by one degree of separation! :ohmy:

[Sea]

Even during my AnCap days, my ideals were always anti-authoritarian and egalitarian to some extent.I think this is a good example of how much ones ideals are worth. ;)

[Hrafn]

Yupp.

[Devrim]

Are you serious!? You must give more details! On a side note, redstar2000 from RevLeft met Che Guevara.

It is not that surprising a thing. I think for a lot of young people today 'the revolution' is something that happened in history books, but for people who are only middle-aged today, they will all have known people who were involved. My grandfather met Tito, I must have met people who knew Bordiga, and I have met a couple people who met Lenin. I don't think that this is unusual though.

Devrim