This may sound a idiotic at first, but I will do my best to explain. As a communist, even more so as a Marxist-Leninist (probably the most widely "hated" type), if I were to devote the vast majority of my time to the leftist cause, would residing in a less developed country give me a more productive chance to move it towards socialism? In first world countries such as the United States, I think all of us M-Ls will agree that it is especially difficult to bring revolutions here. In the third world, there are many more people who are aware of and open to socialism. Many smaller countries have governments that are less able to control their populations from "acting up". Would helping those places develop self-sustaining systems for life, such as irrigation, shelters, and institutions be an effective way to help socialism? Or would those residing governments and/or the first world bourgeoisie put an end to it, making it a lost cause?
It's not our job to spread revolution to other countries, it's our job to spread revolution to the country we are in.
We should indeed spread revolution in our countries but I do not hold it against others if they do move to fight a revolution elsewhere; many in Spain were foreigners and Che Guevara helped lead a revolution in Cuba, Bolivia etc.
Many revolutions have enlisted the help of like-minded foreigners to help out. As long as you don't fall into some third-worldist, defeatist mentality that only in the third world can revolution happen, it's fine. If you find the culture of some other country more appealing then your own and you learn their language, I see nothing wrong with migrating there.
I don't think that revolution is impossible in the first world - I just think that making the third world a better and more self-sustainable place could than make first world revolutions easier. First world capitalism relies on the impoverishment of many small countries, and by helping those, capitalism in the first world could be weakened.
It's absolutely true that revolution in the countries that are exploited by the imperialist countries would weaken the imperialist powers, and that's why it's good for them to happen. I'm curious what you mean by "helping" the third world countries. Do you mean charity or joining up with communist parties in those countries and helping them or something? I think charity is actually anti-revolutionary in a lot of ways because it's used by the capitalists to try justify their actions and it skirts around the issue of why these poor conditions exist (capitalism).
Oh no! I do not mean charity! I mean helping struggling countries develop civil systems (power, shelter, irrigation) and other things that would improve quality of life there. I've also thought about agriculture, such as making systems that allow higher food production in countries in environmentally-hostile parts of the world.
To chime in, I think it is good to help out with revolutions in other lands (we are Marxists and thus internationalists; despite claims by our detractors to the contrary) especially if you are a migrant to that country. I would not suggest flying to, say, Colombia to join up with guerrillas on the spot however as they'd probably be suspicious of you (remember the US and the Colombian dictatorship try to infiltrate them regularly) without any sort of contact with them (via a group they trust) before hand (which is a reason why M-L groups do need regular contact with M-L groups in other countries). In regards to building their infrastructure, this would be a good thing but you'd need the Revolutionary groups to have some power at least in a region otherwise the only thing you'd be doing is building up the infrastructure of the current leadership, improving it and possibly getting them more support (as it would be hard for example to do a sort of "gonzo" irrigation drive; you'd have to have permission from the government in power). For instance in Colombia you would have to do it exclusively in FARC controlled regions (which is not a bad idea if it can be done). Sorry if I am misunderstanding what you mean.
^ I totally agree, and I also think that Colombia would be the ideal place to do it in.
Honestly if an american showed anywhere to some third-world communists saying that he wanted to join their organisation, the first thing that would come to their minds would be C.I.A spy. Personnaly, as someone from the third-world, I advise you to stay in your own country, as much as the situation might be bad there, going somewhere else is not going to improve it either. Finding ways to advance the struggle in their respective countries is the best thing first-world comrades could currently do. Solidarity groups for anti-imperialist causes and education about the conditions of the third-world and the righteosness of the people's struggles might seem a little innefective sometimes, but if accompanied with a good and principled theoretical struggle, it can change something and would certainly help third-world comrades.
Just help the Marxist-Leninist movements in your own first-world nation for now. That would probably be the best idea. In this age after the fall of the greatest Marxist-Leninist foothold, communist revolutions are becoming harder to perform. But if you really want to help revolutionary struggles around the world, I would suggest spreading the knowledge of Marxism-Leninism to third-world nations that are currently not in revolutionary struggles, particularly in Africa. Help communist parties and developing revolutionary movements over there. Currently revolutionary nations are very dangerous for foreign revolutionaries, especially those from the U.S. The national revolutionaries will most likely be suspicous of you and you will probably get killed. Even if dont get killed, I doubt that you would make a big difference to their revolution, unless every first-world Marxist-Leninist went to that nation. In terms of aiding the poor people there, that would probably help capitalism more than socialism. When a foreigner comes to help people in poorer nations, that represents the "benefits" of global capitalism. I know all this stuff because my mother grew up in revolutionary El Salvador, and nobody cared if a foreigner that came to help them was for the revolution or not (there was a Canadian journalist helping them that was also for the FMLN), they only cared about getting help. That journalist helped them live, but he did not inspire them to revolution.
