C is for Communism (with Fred Weston)

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Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 120

@ericalang 4 ай бұрын

We need to question peasants being described as illiterate and backward. I remember studying the concept of Agrarian socialism in the late 80s. There has always been the assumption under Marxist thinking that you can only have revolutions led by the workers or proletariat and you have to go through industrial capitalism to have the conditions for socialism. Green thinking was laughed at by many but now more of us know that capitalism is the cause of environment destruction and a threat to the whole planet. We need to learn from socialism and communal living in pre capitalist societies too that are deeply connected to the land and respect for it. We cannot ignore the stuggles of peasants for land and climate justice around the world such as in India and Latin America

@peterlayzell7245 8 ай бұрын

Great that you let this guy present his analysis without jumping on every point of disagreement. Jeffrey Sachs great on the origins of the Ukraine war.

@ConanDuke 21 күн бұрын

Judging from this exchange, the UK Labor Party is as anemic and clueless as the US Democratic Party. Such a sad state of affairs.

@jmasl7 7 ай бұрын

Point around 46:00 on Jeremy Corbyn likely behaving like Tsipras: Corbyn was never a revolutionary communist and never claimed to be. He's a Bennite not a Trotyskite.

@MatthewMcVeagh 5 ай бұрын

I agree.

@alanchriston6806 8 ай бұрын

I’m still on your cycle ride 😊🏴‍☠️

@anthonymichael5078 8 ай бұрын

Listened to this last night whilst playing Civilisations 6 on my xbox....weirdly without being conscious of it I made friends and ultimately a pact of peace with Peter the great????

@johnpulman7137 8 ай бұрын

Vanguardism excusing massacring people who stand up for their rights on the rebels being uneducated peasants doesn’t really appeal to me.

@ulrickennedy4920 6 ай бұрын

I imagine your one of the few who may just very well be able to get Jerry Sadowitz on your podcast. Worth a try.

@johnpulman7137 8 ай бұрын

I think there’s a big difference between Corbyn’s style of not attacking his detractors (over antisemitism for instance) and selling out under pressure when in government. I’m with Alexei on that one.

@stuartwray6175 8 ай бұрын

Yeah but, milquetoast John McDonnell. Lol.

@thepretendraver312 7 ай бұрын

Is this the first steps to a star trek economy or a state dictatorship?

@xiaoyanzhang56 8 ай бұрын

more talks like this, more education like this, please!

@MrRoblig1 8 ай бұрын

Viva el presidente alexei

@ConanDuke 21 күн бұрын

Revolutionary biscuits of Italy, Rise up from out of your box! You have nothing to lose but your wafers, Yum yum yum yum yum!

@4-dman464 8 ай бұрын

I clicked & 99 Likes pushed 100. I felt the Earth move.

@musiqtee 8 ай бұрын

Our differences and diversities are our strength - our predicaments what we have in common. That’s why dialogue IS the dialectic to reintegrate - as individuals against individualism, as humanity externalising nothing we may know.

@terrypearson6632 8 ай бұрын

How about an M for Monetary system? Get an expert to explain how fractional reserve banking works and how its mechanics are helping to screw us all. Good stuff otherwise.Thanks

@vleessjuu 8 ай бұрын

The monetary system is just an expression of the deeper problems of capitalism. No monetary system can paper over the contradictions. Different monetary systems just represent different ways to try and plug one hole with another. Which is why "conventional wisdom" about which system is best changes all the time.

@CharlesKenwright 8 ай бұрын

Didn’t Germany have the best economy between 1933 to 1939,why can’t we copy what they did

@stuartwray6175 8 ай бұрын

@@CharlesKenwright Wasn't that akin to Roosevelt's New Deal? - omitting the obvious distinction: Nazi totalitarianism.

@sbwords 8 ай бұрын

Oh dear, why won’t the workers listen and join us? This is the funniest episode.

@Missiformationflanangan 8 ай бұрын

i just died laughing at the end

@bob23301 8 ай бұрын

I for one will welcome our AI overlords, viva la revelation of the Daleks.

@harbourwoodlandvisitor2445 8 ай бұрын

its not so much of the ordinary ranks of daleks that worries me. its there leader Davros. a bit of a nut job. the daleks bend to his will at even when he is wrong.

@bob23301 8 ай бұрын

@@harbourwoodlandvisitor2445 You know i was making a quip about a Dr who Alexei was in. ;) So i will take this as a sign that my budding career in comedy is already over. lol

@PeasantsRevolt 7 ай бұрын

Alexei, you've been my hero since I was a child. Please let me move in with you when America inevitably becomes a war zone 😅

@kevintipcorn6787 8 ай бұрын

As time goes on Lenin seems like the only way forward, but there's something deep in me that cringes and recoils from anyone who says "we think" as often this guy and what that implies about his organization. Is that a contradiction, does it need to be? Vanguardism that doesn't seem like a cult, somehow.

@patrickholt2270 8 ай бұрын

You can't have a vanguard without a mass of revolutionary workers and poor who are already largely organised in unions and community associations, and with a strong class consciousness. The vanguard is supposed to be the most militant and conscious members of that. Since we don't have that anymore, and pending rebuilding mass class consciousness and organisation, there's no-one for self-appointed "vanguards" to lead. They become a combination of Utopian and German style "True" socialists, in the categories that Marx and Lenin criticised in the Manifesto, at least here in the Imperial core.

@shaiaheyes2c41 8 ай бұрын

Lenin was a massmurdering sociopath. How can people yet not be aware of this, in this day and age...

@stuartwray6175 8 ай бұрын

@@shaiaheyes2c41you mean Stalin?

@shaiaheyes2c41 8 ай бұрын

@@stuartwray6175 No, Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov Blank alias Lenin. He was a sadistic sociopath.

@dallaskenn 8 ай бұрын

Weston sounds like a stealth Trot.

@MatthewMcVeagh 5 ай бұрын

You think he's pursued the Leninist/Trotskyist tactic of entryism to enter into the non-Trot Revolutionary Communist International so he can then pursue entryism into the rest of the left? :D

@ThisIsNotaUniversity 8 ай бұрын

Alexei staying true to his alternative comedy roots here. Fred is confused. Marx and Engels were quite clear what communism was and said so in the German Ideology: "communism is the real movement which abolishes the present state of things". It was a historical movement but it wasn't a party in the modern sense of a Labour party. And in Russia the communist party was only formed in 1918 after the revolution - which just goes to show how important it was for Lenin., i.e. pretty close to zero. And if it wasn't important to Lenin in the circumstances of really existing socialism then the significance of new communist parties today has less than zero political importance.

@vleessjuu 8 ай бұрын

The Bolsheviks absolutely were a party before the revolution. Just not a bourgeois parliamentary party.

@stuartwray6175 8 ай бұрын

In 1918 the Bolshevik Party renamed itself, the Communist Party.

@jamescelliers3195 8 ай бұрын

The Bolsheviks broke off from the labour party and created the communist party lol. Also you know Lenin wrote quite a few books so we can see what he said about it? He literally developed Leninism which is overtly revolutionary communism, and he wrote a lot about Marx and Engels themselves lol. Funnily enough Lenin also wrote a book called "what is to be done" which describes our current times quite well (ie no communist movement or party in the UK) and its simply to propagandize and be propagandists until material conditions shift enough to the point there is one.

@ThisIsNotaUniversity 8 ай бұрын

@jamescelliers3195 not sure if your laughter is directed at me or why. Yes the "Bolsheviks" were the majority faction of the Russian labour party: it literally means "majority". They weren't a separate communist party and creating one prior to the Revolution would have been completely counterproductive because the labour party needed to establish their strength in parliament. Only afterwards did the majority form a communist party to try to consolidate power. My point was that forming communist parties is in itself meaningless. In Russia the real political work was done through the soviet worker councils. That was where the real power was. In November 1917 the Soviet government was formed as a government of workers and peasants at the Second Congress on a platform of land reform and peace. The "communist party" had nothing to do with this

@stuartwray6175 8 ай бұрын

@@ThisIsNotaUniversity In a situation of dual power, with a weak fledgling bourgeois parliament committed to continuing Russian participation in the war, the Bolsheviks adopted the slogan, 'All Power to the Soviets'. If it hadn't been for Lenin and his leadership of the Bolsheviks the workers and soldiers Soviets wouldn't have lasted very long.

@abitofabitofabit4404 8 ай бұрын

Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Drinking Club

@fellowcitizen 8 ай бұрын

Okey-dokey, Skip, where'd you want to go? ❤🖤🤍💚

@briananglin6766 7 ай бұрын

I'm sorry, and ashamed I stopped going to the Sydney marches, there is no humanity, no-one gives a toss. I'm sickened and demoralised, I will be back though.

@sargentoinkwinson4888 8 ай бұрын

"What a waste that we lost Mussolini. He is a first-rate man who would have led our party to power in Italy" Lenin.

@patrickholt2270 8 ай бұрын

It is a crying shame. If he'd stayed a revolutionary socialist, there would have been no Fascist party in Italy, and the road to WW2 would have been more difficult.

@patrickholt2270 8 ай бұрын

That all sounds fine, if it wasn't the case that there already exist several parties aiming to unite and lead the working class in the direction of revolution. The problem of sectarianism cannot be ignored, because the duplication of effort in half a dozen parties who cannot settle their differences and work together makes the whole strategy seem implausible to most people, including the proletarianised workers and various radical "layers" who would need to be thus enthused and united. I hear a lot of talk about building a tendency into an International and a party, but nothing about merging or combining with the other Leninist parties and crypto-parties. That indicates a profound lack of realism to me. Unlike all these MI5 bots, I'm open to such a prospective plan, but unless it's class-wide and broad in its toleration, to use the analogy from church history, then it's no more realistic than most of the attempts to create a new socialist electoral party which don't bother to liaise with each other and work to establish an electoral pact.

@anthonygreen7063 8 ай бұрын

Agree. I was in Militant in the eighties, and actually found the 'Stalinist' CPB I joined in the 2000's to have a much more open, democratic internal structure than the Trotskyist lineage this new 'International' has sprung from, as well as being more open to working with others. The way this group, essentially the 'Ted Grant' wing of Militant has suddenly swung from being perhaps the most cautious Trotskyist group, having spent over seven decades practicing 'Deep Entryism' in the Labour Party, to proclaiming itself a world-wide, centralised Communist International Party, has a cult-like ring to it that reminds me of Gerry Healy's ill-fated launch of the Workers Revolutionary Party in the 1970's. It won't end well.

@S-JLave 8 ай бұрын

@@anthonygreen7063 Where has the reformism of the stalinists gotten them? An ultra left youth wing and a declining main party. Socialist Appeals adaptation is in line with the scientific socialist approach of adapting to conditions. Socialist Appeal foresaw a left wing reaction within the labour party which manifested in the form of Corbyn. They did their best to win the movement over to a Marxist programme but could not in part due to their size, but the organisation came out of the experience far stronger. Many young people have turned away from labels like socialist because they have been disappointed by figures like Corbyn and Sanders thus they identify more with the label Communist. Thus a name change and a reorientation in this period to focus on this layer of radicalised young people i think makes a lot of sense. Members have freedom to discuss within the branches and we absolutely encourage open political discussion, but we are democratic centralists and we're very proud of being unified in action. Ive had the pleasure of speaking to Comrades who won were won over from the CPB, who had been members of the party in the 70s and 80s when they had thousands of shop stewards organized in rank and files committees. They tell me that looking back on it, in that truly revolutionary period the CPB played a shameful role from first hand experience.

@S-JLave 8 ай бұрын

Sectarianism is its deffo a problem on the left but i think we've got to keep a sense of proportion. At the end of the day I think the amount of unorganized revolutionaries and Communists far outweighs the amount of communists organised into sects. So the RCP has this focus on those unorganised layers because, in my opinion at least, an unprincipled merger will only end up causing more splits down the line and wont necessarily lead to any kind of long lasting unity. I think one of the reasons there are so many orgs today is in fact because of these very unprincipled mergers in the past. The marxist movement must come to some conclusion on issues that currently divide us, ultimately i think the answer to some of these questions can only be proven in practice. Best to connect with the thousands of people out there looking for communist ideas and prove your method in practice than spend years on unity conferences that only spawn new organisations due to fundamental disagreements.

@patrickholt2270 8 ай бұрын

@@S-JLave Well then perhaps you need an equivalent of the World Council of Churches to enable working together without organisational re-unification. Since you're talking a scale of untold decades to achieve one of the primary requirements of class unity.

@JJPwfelli 4 ай бұрын

The problem is the same as all religions. Each faction thinks they have the purest interpretation of God's will. Marx and Lenin were just blokes. They were not infallible Gods. They got a lot wrong. They should be critiqued the same as anyone. No one should be put on a pedestal 'above' everyone else. You should never make yourself an unthinking follower of fallible men. Only through constant critique of everything, including your own beliefs can you filter out the noise and get nearer the truth.

@Mac-ku3xu 4 ай бұрын

Is he still married to Rosemary?

@danw1374 Ай бұрын

Alexei has been married to Linda Rawsthorn since 1974. 50 years this year.

@NickGreiner1988 6 ай бұрын

Now we know what to look out for. You think we don't have patience to listen while you tell us exactly what your tactics are?

@MatthewMcVeagh 5 ай бұрын

Why would you say that? Now we know at least one listener to look out for.

@NickGreiner1988 5 ай бұрын

Don't worry, the feds are probably already doing that for you

@KymHammond 8 ай бұрын

The Right are on the march again and have learnt many of the lessons of social media forged alongside Corbyn this adds another much needed voice.

@Jaysonbc1234 8 ай бұрын

Foooiiiirrr righhttt!

@tarbooshrecords8530 8 ай бұрын

💥🐪

@David-jb5dv 7 ай бұрын

I don't understand how his party would create wealth or deal with difference of opinion or allow people to create and invent new goods, clothres, furniture, anything.

@MatthewMcVeagh 5 ай бұрын

What do you mean 'create wealth'?

@Oscuros 8 ай бұрын

Of course, revolutionary ideology and downbeats go naturally together.

@KymHammond 8 ай бұрын

nothing meta about the regeneration of the social.

@papaann4 8 ай бұрын

I can think of other things C is for.

@NANA-kf1cs 8 ай бұрын

Not a fan of the authoritarianism that usually comes with communism. Personally I'd rather libertarian left options like democratic socialism, eco-socislism, libertarian socialism etc.

@jamescelliers3195 8 ай бұрын

Those all lead back to capitalism. The immense power of the state is needed to dismantle capitalism. Revolution is not a dinner party.

@jamescelliers3195 8 ай бұрын

Franco Spain is the best example of what libertarian socialism leads to.

@AndrewjWilson 8 ай бұрын

Any thoughts about Yugoslavia brand of Socialism under Tito? I was a big admirer of it

@djonfonsteen6331 8 ай бұрын

All those Countries that refused to have their economy "managed"? Look closer they're our perceived threats? Hmm Russia, North Korea, China etc

@BobParrIncr 8 ай бұрын

You probably need to educate yourself rather than rely on what the establishment tells you.

@Steve-z9n1g 8 ай бұрын

Fascism and Communism and not for me,I don't need to be told how to live my life Alexie,Il answer to the Creator.now If you had a conversation with Fred West about Communism!that would be good!!!!

@MatthewMcVeagh 5 ай бұрын

It's not about telling you how to live your life, it's about overthrowing those who make us live impoverished lives.

@Steve-z9n1g 5 ай бұрын

@@MatthewMcVeagh Communism is a positive???

@intelligenceofacertainkind Ай бұрын

@@MatthewMcVeaghbut it's people like you, i.e. bossy, arrogant people that think they are infallible God's, that make life impoverished for everyone. Communism doesn't really change anything. It's just giving a different name for the same arrogant, bossy, authorians that run capitalism.