Revolutionary history, history of colonialism etc.
Molotov, MIM, Dogma, and Stalin’s support for Israel LLCO.org Stalin was a great socialist leader, but it is important to tell the truth about his mistakes. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a high-ranking, important member of Stalin’s regime. Today’s Stalinists occasionally choose him as their favorite candidate to have succeeded Stalin in “what if” fantasy histories. …
The Centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution LLCO.org [This is an edit of a post from 7 years ago, to reflect the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution and to clean up some minor issues.] November 7th, 2017 is the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. We celebrate the great breakthrough of the first successful sustained victory of …
On healthcare and barefoot doctors 21 February 2010 LLCO.org, npr.org The following is a mainstream, bourgeois article from National Public Radio on socialist China’s barefoot doctors. The barefoot doctors were part of socialist China’s alternative approach to medicine. The program sought to provide basic health care to the Chinese masses. Under previous regimes, the vast …
Review of André Gunder Frank’s Lupenbourgeoisie: Lumpendevelopment LLCO.org André Gunder Frank’s Lumpenbourgeoisie: Lumpendevelopement, written in 1972, is a short summary of the evolution of dependency in Latin America from the colonial period through the neocolonial period up to the 1970s. Frank shows how the class structure of Latin American countries evolved in connection with changes …
Book review of Malcolm Caldwell’s The Wealth of Some Nations LLCO.org Malcolm Caldwell was one of the only Westerners to visit Kampuchea (Cambodia) under the “Khmer Rouge” regime. He is mostly remembered as the academic activist who was assassinated in Democratic Kampuchea on December 23rd, 1978, shortly after interviewing Pol Pot. The Western media, starved …
Historical materialism is an approach to the study of society developed by Marx. Marx traced social change, behavior and culture back to their material origins. In order to understand society, potential group behavior and culture, one must know how power and the economy are organized. Society must be understood as a structure of power relations and productive forces. Historical materialism not only explains society, it can also help us in our organizational work and even in our personal lives.
Thoughts on Stalin Prairie Fire LLCO.org Many revolutionaries still stumble on the question of Stalin. They just can’t get by the Stalin issue, even though Stalin is still revered in much of the world despite the best efforts of the bourgeoisie to tarnish him. Stalin is a controversial figure, even within our own movement. Yet …
Notes on today’s Maoists who uphold Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge LLCO.org The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is one of many democratic, progressive, anti-imperialist, groups fighting the Indian state, a part of the global empire. They are one of many movements fighting for the liberation of the poor in the second most populous …
Teresa Hayter’s The Creation of World Poverty was first published in 1981 as a response to the World Bank’s Brandt Report. Even today, decades after it was first published, Hayter’s book is more accurate than not in its depiction of the most glaring fact about our world today, the gap between the rich and poor countries. Hayter’s book is certainly more accurate than the accounts of First Worldists. Even though Hayter may not be fully correct, the overall politics of this work are. Hayter’s work serves as a good introduction to the work of dependency theorists who have come to correct conclusions even though they, often, work within academia. Her work should be placed alongside the work of authors like André Gunder Frank, Walter Rodney, and Samir Amin.
Review: Teresa Hayter’s The Creation of World Poverty (Part 1 of 2) Read part 2 here. Prairie Fire LLCO.org The most glaring fact about our world today is the tremendous gap between the wealthy countries and the poor countries. This division of global society is sometimes referred to as the First World versus the Third …