For a brilliant revolutionary take on the Soviet Union and Mao’s China, please see Raymond Lotta, “You Don't Know What You Think You ‘Know’ About The Communist Revolution and the Real Path to Emancipation: Its History and Our Future,” Revolution, April 30, 2014
Thank you, Paul, for this powerful podcast…. on the heals of the crime against humanity/weaponization of the supply chain. IDF has not taken any responsibility yet but the dots trace back to their fascist regime.
Listened and watched your commentary Part 3. You sited the Russian and Chinease revolutions. No mention of the Cuban system or some of the socialistic systems evolving in S. America and the Caribbean. What's you take of their systems.
Also if / whenever the Revolution happens here in the USA who do you think will be the communist leaders currently available to be the leaders. Please don't include octogenarians.
Always listen and try to find answers to my many doubts the the current system ain't working and needs replacing.
Oreo seems to be happy irrespective what system of government he's in. Why can't we all be happy living and loving our owners. Live the dogs life.
Cuba's moment of being able to inspire real socialist revolution around the world seems to have gone away long ago probably thanks in part to having towed the revisionist Soviet line instead of aligning with Mao. There's some real corruption there and I understand the infrastructure is in dire condition. You know it's got about 10-11 million people, almost half the NY metro area. I've been there and do think it has a lot of admirable characteristics including not just a great health care sector but some interesting ecological innovations in the wake of the loss of Soviet oil. I was struck by how different race felt there -- much different and better than the US and by how educated everyday people seemed there. Castro's literacy programs was pretty cool. The waitress in the hotel I stayed in in Havana spoke English to me, French to another table, German to another table and Spanish to her colleagues. I will always defend Cuba against US embargo and invasion. Venezuela is not a country I know enough about to really get into but obviously it has been mercilessly targeted by the US Empire and US sanctions should be opposed. What's with the ageism? Biden is dithering and fading in his early 80s. Chomsky was sharp as Hell all through his 80s. Avakian is something like 81/82 and sharp as Hell. People age differently. If I don't start writing less I won't make it to 70. Che and Fidel wanted me and my parents and nursery school mates nuked at age 4 in October of 1962 - LOL. I try not to take that personally. Oreo's pronouns are she/her! :)
Paul, I believe I figured out why sometimes I was not allowed to comment here. If I went direct to PSR through a search engine instead of connecting via the subscription email from your substack account, I wouldn’t be allowed to comment without creating a “profile” for substack. I can comment if I link to PSR via the email notifications I receive showing that you have a new PSR substack entry.
Question: I’m not engaged in a lot of conversations about various groups identifying as socialist/communist. How many people have you met who think that “Marxism or socialism is about winning a collective bargaining
agreement or getting a community garden or putting a woman on the city council, even a Marxist woman like in Seattle on the city council, or getting solar home tax incentives, or just fill in the blank of small incremental changes meant to make life more tolerable under capitalism.”??
I obviously haven’t met any, but as I mentioned, outside of talking to Revcoms now and then I’m not involved in those conversations.
Observation/hunch/unsubstantiated belief of mine: given the Democrats & GenocideJoe try to use their UAW bureaucracy support as a credential for themselves, I believe the attempts by the SEP to establish Rank and File committees and work with Will Lehman to take over leadership of thousands of UAW members and retirees is useful, even if those attempts can be categorized as incrementalism and not as revolutionary. They’re useful in their rejection of the two parties and the corrupt union bureaucracy and building awareness. That can lead to more.
Your PSR segment is about Revolution, so I won’t object if you don’t put the SEP campaign in the same context. But attempts to get union membership to reject the two parties and their ideology certainly has caught the attention of enforcers over the decades.
My Undies Don't Twist! (MUDT) So, it sounds like you are upset about Deng "To Be Rich is Glorious" Xiaoping. With a capitalist-imperialist hegemon in the world, the most powerful Empire ever to have existed, what can you expect them to do? Human markets pre-date capitalist and socialist ideologies. People need to exchange the credits and debits of--yes!--ABILITY / NEED. What China has accomplished is remarkable. In China the government controls the banks, in the United States the banks control the government. What is lacking for me in your analysis is the very concept of MONEY. I follow Kelton and Hudson. China uses money as a utility, in the West money is a commodity. In a true People's Society, there would be only one bank, and hoarding or manipulating money would be universally condemned. Currency is not based on gold or some stupid digital token, but on the full energy and potential of the mass of the people. But moving forward, if we avoid nuclear war, I do believe that eventually there will have to be communism to survive. As Roger Hallam says: "You either stop eating meat to stop society from collapsing; or you stop eating meat because society has collapsed: either way your days of eating meat are coming to an end." I fear that your "scientific approach" to revolution fails to factor in the emotional factors (EF) that drive human behavior.
I love Raymond Lotta’s work! For anyone who asks about other “revolutions”, Lotta’s analysis of Venezuela under Chavez is very good.
If you have a link please send as I need to up my knowledge game on Venezuela.
Thank you, Paul, for this powerful podcast…. on the heals of the crime against humanity/weaponization of the supply chain. IDF has not taken any responsibility yet but the dots trace back to their fascist regime.
Hi Paul.
Listened and watched your commentary Part 3. You sited the Russian and Chinease revolutions. No mention of the Cuban system or some of the socialistic systems evolving in S. America and the Caribbean. What's you take of their systems.
Also if / whenever the Revolution happens here in the USA who do you think will be the communist leaders currently available to be the leaders. Please don't include octogenarians.
Always listen and try to find answers to my many doubts the the current system ain't working and needs replacing.
Oreo seems to be happy irrespective what system of government he's in. Why can't we all be happy living and loving our owners. Live the dogs life.
Cheers
Cuba's moment of being able to inspire real socialist revolution around the world seems to have gone away long ago probably thanks in part to having towed the revisionist Soviet line instead of aligning with Mao. There's some real corruption there and I understand the infrastructure is in dire condition. You know it's got about 10-11 million people, almost half the NY metro area. I've been there and do think it has a lot of admirable characteristics including not just a great health care sector but some interesting ecological innovations in the wake of the loss of Soviet oil. I was struck by how different race felt there -- much different and better than the US and by how educated everyday people seemed there. Castro's literacy programs was pretty cool. The waitress in the hotel I stayed in in Havana spoke English to me, French to another table, German to another table and Spanish to her colleagues. I will always defend Cuba against US embargo and invasion. Venezuela is not a country I know enough about to really get into but obviously it has been mercilessly targeted by the US Empire and US sanctions should be opposed. What's with the ageism? Biden is dithering and fading in his early 80s. Chomsky was sharp as Hell all through his 80s. Avakian is something like 81/82 and sharp as Hell. People age differently. If I don't start writing less I won't make it to 70. Che and Fidel wanted me and my parents and nursery school mates nuked at age 4 in October of 1962 - LOL. I try not to take that personally. Oreo's pronouns are she/her! :)
Paul, I believe I figured out why sometimes I was not allowed to comment here. If I went direct to PSR through a search engine instead of connecting via the subscription email from your substack account, I wouldn’t be allowed to comment without creating a “profile” for substack. I can comment if I link to PSR via the email notifications I receive showing that you have a new PSR substack entry.
Question: I’m not engaged in a lot of conversations about various groups identifying as socialist/communist. How many people have you met who think that “Marxism or socialism is about winning a collective bargaining
agreement or getting a community garden or putting a woman on the city council, even a Marxist woman like in Seattle on the city council, or getting solar home tax incentives, or just fill in the blank of small incremental changes meant to make life more tolerable under capitalism.”??
I obviously haven’t met any, but as I mentioned, outside of talking to Revcoms now and then I’m not involved in those conversations.
Observation/hunch/unsubstantiated belief of mine: given the Democrats & GenocideJoe try to use their UAW bureaucracy support as a credential for themselves, I believe the attempts by the SEP to establish Rank and File committees and work with Will Lehman to take over leadership of thousands of UAW members and retirees is useful, even if those attempts can be categorized as incrementalism and not as revolutionary. They’re useful in their rejection of the two parties and the corrupt union bureaucracy and building awareness. That can lead to more.
Your PSR segment is about Revolution, so I won’t object if you don’t put the SEP campaign in the same context. But attempts to get union membership to reject the two parties and their ideology certainly has caught the attention of enforcers over the decades.
My Undies Don't Twist! (MUDT) So, it sounds like you are upset about Deng "To Be Rich is Glorious" Xiaoping. With a capitalist-imperialist hegemon in the world, the most powerful Empire ever to have existed, what can you expect them to do? Human markets pre-date capitalist and socialist ideologies. People need to exchange the credits and debits of--yes!--ABILITY / NEED. What China has accomplished is remarkable. In China the government controls the banks, in the United States the banks control the government. What is lacking for me in your analysis is the very concept of MONEY. I follow Kelton and Hudson. China uses money as a utility, in the West money is a commodity. In a true People's Society, there would be only one bank, and hoarding or manipulating money would be universally condemned. Currency is not based on gold or some stupid digital token, but on the full energy and potential of the mass of the people. But moving forward, if we avoid nuclear war, I do believe that eventually there will have to be communism to survive. As Roger Hallam says: "You either stop eating meat to stop society from collapsing; or you stop eating meat because society has collapsed: either way your days of eating meat are coming to an end." I fear that your "scientific approach" to revolution fails to factor in the emotional factors (EF) that drive human behavior.
fear not. Post Mao China is a nightmare.
Seems to me that you could add Fidel Castro to the very short list of successful revolutionary leaders against overwhelming odds.
Excellent pod! Thanks for the links