Few questions

[Adz]

1) What is the difference between Socialism and Communism?

2) Do people on here generally support the likes of Stalin, Mao and others who while left wing where responsible for oppressive regimes?

3) Which political party in the UK do you guys generally vote for/support? First guess would've been Labour but seen as their mostly champagne socialists now it's probably not them.

4) When you say "bourgeois", does this just mean the 1%, or are you on about people who supports capitalism in general.

5) Are there any countries in the world that are genuinely socialist? From what I can tell Norway, Sweden etc are just more like left wing versions of capitalism.

6) Do you think the left needs to do more to fight the right wing elements, be it protests, being more vocal or even resorting to violence against the likes of Britain First, Golden Dawn, Stormfront and other fascist/racist groups?

[Q]

1) What is the difference between Socialism and Communism?

2) Do people on here generally support the likes of Stalin, Mao and others who while left wing where responsible for oppressive regimes?

3) Which political party in the UK do you guys generally vote for/support? First guess would've been Labour but seen as their mostly champagne socialists now it's probably not them.

4) When you say "bourgeois", does this just mean the 1%, or are you on about people who supports capitalism in general.

5) Are there any countries in the world that are genuinely socialist? From what I can tell Norway, Sweden etc are just more like left wing versions of capitalism.

6) Do you think the left needs to do more to fight the right wing elements, be it protests, being more vocal or even resorting to violence against the likes of Britain First, Golden Dawn, Stormfront and other fascist/racist groups?
1. Depends on who you're asking. They're here often regarded as the same.
2. "Marxist-Leninists" (aka Stalinists) and Maoists here do. Most other currents don't.
3. I don't live in the UK, but I find myself closely aligned with the CPGB (http://cpgb.org.uk/) group, which is emphasising the need for the fracturous far left to unite into a common party around a communist programme and around the basic principles of democracy, internationalism and working class political independence.
4. Strictly speaking the bourgeoisie are those that actively participate in the M-C-M' cycle (that is, they invest money to get more money). More loosely pro-status quo politicians are often included.
5. No. The Scandinavian countries are, like you say, very much capitalist. Socialism is not just a policy change.
6. As far as fascists form a threat, we ought to defend ourselves against them. This is very basic. Although, we shouldn't fall into the trap of calling for state bans.

[Sinred]

What is the difference between Socialism and Communism?

Socialism (often wrongly adressed as communism) is the state-stage before a society can enter the classless state-free communism.



2) Do people on here generally support the likes of Stalin, Mao and others who while left wing where responsible for oppressive regimes?

I do. And i find it wierd that people who is conscious about the systen knows how much propaganda capitalist media and its "experts" spits out, somehow still thinks the slander against the ones you mentioned is facts. The capitalist will always lie about or silence the steps of socialism.
It is a part of preserving this system and its been done since the first thoughts of socialism rised up upon the working class.
I (like most people here) does not see old china or the soviet union as modern paragons to follow. They did huge misstakes and i personally dont find them realy relevant for todays struggle in the western world.



3) Which political party in the UK do you guys generally vote for/support? First guess would've been Labour but seen as their mostly champagne socialists now it's probably not them.

Im not brittish so i dont know. But im perfectly sure its not Labour the people here to vote for.
After all the name of the forum is revleft. Not backstabbingsocialdemocrats.com :)


4) When you say "bourgeois", does this just mean the 1%, or are you on about people who supports capitalism in general.

No. The borgeuisi is the same as the capitalist class. The people that owns the means of production (factorys, companys etc). In other words, the people in control of the corporations, banks and their politicians. Small buiseness owners is usually referred to pitty-bourgeois and have a mixed position in the class struggle.



5) Are there any countries in the world that are genuinely socialist? From what I can tell Norway, Sweden etc are just more like left wing versions of capitalism.

As a swede i can tell you neither Sweden or Norways are socialists. They are capitalist state with regulated capitalism. In swedens case it is not even regulated anymore and now we got the fastest growing gap between rich and poor in the EU.
Best example of what i would consider socialist countries ATM is Venezuela and Cuba.


6) Do you think the left needs to do more to fight the right wing elements, be it protests, being more vocal or even resorting to violence against the likes of Britain First, Golden Dawn, Stormfront and other fascist/racist groups?

Yes. These groups are dangerous for leftists, foreigners and the working class in general. They, IMO, should be beaten up and chased off from the streets.
This, offcourse, depends on the settings. And not all actions are good actions. its more about tactics than strategy.
But dont make them martyrs. So avoid killing them.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

1) What is the difference between Socialism and Communism?

That depends both on who you ask and what sense of "socialism" you have in mind.

As far as political movements go, some call social-democracy and similar movements "socialist" (this is why the main social-democratic party in France is called the French Socialist Party). Revolutionary socialists, however, distinguish between socialism and social-democracy, and call themselves either "socialists", "communists" or both.

As for the modes of production, most revolutionary socialists do not distinguish between socialism and communism, both terms referring to a classless, stateless society based on the socialisation of all of the means of production. Marxists-Leninists, on the other hand, call such a society "communism" and equate socialism with the transitional revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat, a class society where the proletariat rules.


2) Do people on here generally support the likes of Stalin, Mao and others who while left wing where responsible for oppressive regimes?

Again, this depends on the tendency. Marxists-Leninists generally do; orthodox Trotskyists defend the centrally-planned, state-owned economy of these (in our terms) degenerates and deformed workers' states while calling for a political struggle against their leadership.


3) Which political party in the UK do you guys generally vote for/support? First guess would've been Labour but seen as their mostly champagne socialists now it's probably not them.

I'm not in the UK, but I would say many of refuse to support bourgeois parties with the exception of those cases in which we can unmask a bourgeois workers' party as traitors in the case they form a government. This does not, however, give ostensible revolutionaries carte blanche to call for a Labour vote year after year.


4) When you say "bourgeois", does this just mean the 1%, or are you on about people who supports capitalism in general.

It means the people who own the means of production and extract surplus value to the extent that they do not have to work, which means quite a bit more people than "the 1%".


5) Are there any countries in the world that are genuinely socialist? From what I can tell Norway, Sweden etc are just more like left wing versions of capitalism.

They aren't "left-wing" at all, they're boring, run-of-the-mill capitalism. Again, though, the answer depends on the tendency. If you think that socialism is the same as communism, a stateless society, obviously there have been no socialist countries, nor can there be.


6) Do you think the left needs to do more to fight the right wing elements, be it protests, being more vocal or even resorting to violence against the likes of Britain First, Golden Dawn, Stormfront and other fascist/racist groups?

That depends on the concrete situation. Of course violence can't be ruled out. But it's hard to answer such a question in abstract.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

1) What is the difference between Socialism and Communism?
Nothing, in my opinion, although some tendencies see the former as a stage leading to the latter.


2) Do people on here generally support the likes of Stalin, Mao and others who while left wing where responsible for oppressive regimes?
Some do, some don't. I don't.


3) Which political party in the UK do you guys generally vote for/support?
I'm not in the UK, but I generally reject bourgeois electoral politics.


4) When you say "bourgeois", does this just mean the 1%, or are you on about people who supports capitalism in general.
It means the capitalist class as a whole.


5) Are there any countries in the world that are genuinely socialist? From what I can tell Norway, Sweden etc are just more like left wing versions of capitalism.
No, there are no existing socialist countries.


6) Do you think the left needs to do more to fight the right wing elements, be it protests, being more vocal or even resorting to violence against the likes of Britain First, Golden Dawn, Stormfront and other fascist/racist groups?
Fascists should be dealt with by any means necessary.

[Adz]

Thanks to everyone that answered my questions, I'm quite new to socialism and there's still a lot I'm not sure about, so thanks for clearing these things up for me.



I do. And i find it wierd that people who is conscious about the system knows how much propaganda capitalist media and its "experts" spits out, somehow still thinks the slander against the ones you mentioned is facts. The capitalist will always lie about or silence the steps of socialism.
It is a part of preserving this system and its been done since the first thoughts of socialism rised up upon the working class.
I (like most people here) does not see old china or the soviet union as modern paragons to follow. They did huge mistakes and i personally dont find them really relevant for todays struggle in the western world.


I do agree with you in that Stalin & Mao's (and others) ideals are often portrayed in a very biased, negative viewpoint by western media, but in my opinion that still doesn't justify excusing them for the oppression of millions. If you support Stalin for example, then what do you think of Gulags, forced resettlement, the Great Purge, the Holodomar etc? Do you not believe they happened, or that they were not as bad as often portrayed?



Yes. These groups are dangerous for leftists, foreigners and the working class in general. They, IMO, should be beaten up and chased off from the streets.
This, offcourse, depends on the settings. And not all actions are good actions. its more about tactics than strategy.
But dont make them martyrs. So avoid killing them.

When you say this, do you mean just the extremists in the far right that practise violence themselves towards immigrants, or the entire right wing?

Not sure what I think myself, I'd definitely support doing it to the scum that would intimidate or even attack someone in the street for being black or muslim (sadly these things are happening more and more in Britain, and imo it could easily get a lot worse), but when it comes to the mainstream "patriotic movements" I don't think violence is the way to go, though I could see why some people would want to.

[Brotto Rühle]

1) What is the difference between Socialism and Communism? To Marx, and most Marxists, there is no differences. They are synonymous. Lenin did, to the ire of myself and others, use it to describe the "first phase of COMMUNIST society" in his State and Revolution. This has led to people who claim, mistakenly, that socialism is an intermediate society, between capitalism and communism.


2) Do people on here generally support the likes of Stalin, Mao and others who while left wing where responsible for oppressive regimesThe question of them being "left wing" is irrelevant. There are those that are the left wing of capital, and that describes Mao, Stalin, and the others of those oppressive regimes. What matters is the content, and the content of their theories, and their actions, their organizations (parties and states) was capitalist.

Do people generally support them? No. Are there fools that do? Yes.


3) Which political party in the UK do you guys generally vote for/support? First guess would've been Labour but seen as their mostly champagne socialists now it's probably not them. I'm not in the UK, however it's high time that communists recognize that parliamentary tactics, especially voting for bourgeois political parties, are useless.


4) When you say "bourgeois", does this just mean the 1%, or are you on about people who supports capitalism in general. Bourgeoisie are the representatives of capital. They draw surplus value from the labour of the proletariat. Merely "owning the means of production" without taking into account the social relations of production, is not enough to describe them.

The 99% and 1% dichotomy is a false one. A liberal one. One that should be done away with, along with that waste of time "occupy".


5) Are there any countries in the world that are genuinely socialist? From what I can tell Norway, Sweden etc are just more like left wing versions of capitalism. No. Capitalism is a global socio-economic system, one that can only be abolished in totality. Nations such as Norway and Sweden are still capitalist nations. Even those nations that proclaimed to be socialist: China, the USSR, Albania, GDR, Cuba, and Venezuela today are nothing more than capitalist nations with red rhetoric.


6) Do you think the left needs to do more to fight the right wing elements, be it protests, being more vocal or even resorting to violence against the likes of Britain First, Golden Dawn, Stormfront and other fascist/racist groups?No. Communists need to attack capitalism, and stop acting as if fascism is outside of the wider capitalist problem.

Fuck the left.