Showing posts with label Leninism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leninism. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

A Leninist approach to the inter-imperialist clash in Ukraine

By Nikos Mottas.
 
“The working class”, V.I Lenin was stressing out, “in case it is conscious, will not support any group of imperialistic predators” (1). More specifically, concerning the stance of the workers' movement towards imperialists, he was using the following characteristic example:
 
“A country, let us say, possesses three-fourths of Africa, whereas another possesses one-fourth. A repartition of Africa is the objective content of their war. To which side should we wish success? It would be absurd to state the problem in its previous form, since we do not possess the old criteria of appraisal: there is neither a bourgeois liberation movement running into decades, nor a long process of the decay of feudalism. It is not the business of present-day democracy either to help the former country to assert its “right” to three-fourths of Africa, or to help the latter country (even if it is developing economically more rapidly than the former) to take over those three-fourths. Present-day democracy will remain true to itself only if it joins neither one nor the other imperialist bourgeoisie, only if it says that the two sides are equally bad, and if it wishes the defeat of the imperialist bourgeoisie in every country. Any other decision will, in reality, be national-liberal and have nothing in common with genuine internationalism. [...] In reality, there can now be no talk of present-day democracy following in the wake of the reactionary imperialist bourgeoisie, no matter of what “shade” the latter may be“ (2).

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Ho Chi Minh — How I became a communist

Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen Tat Thanh), 1890-1969.
Published in April 1960 in a Soviet journal entitled Problems of the East. Selected Works, vol. 4 (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1962).

After World War I, I made my living in Paris, now as a retoucher at a photographer’s, now as painter of “Chinese antiquities” (made in France!). I would distribute leaflets denouncing the crimes committed by the French colonialists in Viet Nam.

At that time, I supported the October Revolution only instinctively, not yet grasping all its historic importance. I loved and admired Lenin because he was a great patriot who liberated his compatriots; until then, I had read none of his books.