Are you a communist? Think we need a revolution? Tune into the official podcast of the Revolutionary Communist International, for communist theory, analysis and...
Who was Joseph Stalin and what is the legacy of his leadership? In this episode of the Spectre of Communism, we weigh the evidence, based on historical fact and the principles of Marxist theory, to give Stalinism a fair trial.The USSR achieved great things, thanks to the superiority of the planned economy. It defeated the Nazis, expropriated capitalism on a sixth of the earth’s surface and built a superpower in just a few decades. Genuine Marxists celebrate all of these accomplishments.However, we must also acknowledge that there were many mistakes, and many crimes. A line of blood separates Stalinism, by which we mean the bureaucratic counterrevolutionary dictatorship at the head of the workers’ state, from the real principles of Bolshevism and Marxism.Virtually the entire leadership of Lenin’s party that won power for the Russian workers and peasants in 1917 were killed in the frame ups of the 1930s, along with countless others. Meanwhile, the leaders of the USSR actively wrecked revolutionary struggles abroad and sought alliances with imperialism to secure their positions.How do we explain this? Jorge Martin, leading member of the Revolutionary Communist International, makes the case that Stalin and the clique around him were not guided by Marxist theory, but by the narrow interests of defending their privileges and positions. Their outlook was one of empiricism and cynical ‘pragmatism’, which was entirely contrary to the way Lenin built the Bolshevik Party.But in the end, we are only presenting the evidence: you can be the jury! Let us know what you think in the comments. Is Stalinism ‘guilty’ of betraying the world revolution?Sources:‘Revolution Betrayed’, Leon Trotsky https://marxist.com/classics-the-revolution-betrayed.htm‘Stalinism and Bolshevism’, Leon Trotsky https://marxist.com/stalinism-bolshevism-trotsky.htm‘Marxism and the National Question’, Joseph Stalin https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1913/03a.htm‘The April Theses (The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution)’, V.I. Lenin https://marxist.com/the-april-theses-the-tasks-of-the-proletariat-in-the-present-revolution.htm‘Is Socialism in One Country Possible? A reply to the YCL’, Spectre of Communism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdIM6mnoBrM‘What is the Permanent Revolution?’, Spectre of Communism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z44RMQMJlRQ‘How the Spanish Revolution was betrayed’, Spectre of Communism, https://marxist.com/podcast-how-the-spanish-revolution-was-betrayed.htm ‘Lenin and Trotsky: What They Really Stood For’, Alan Woods and Ted Grant, https://marxist.com/lenin-trotsky-stalinism-johnstone.htm‘Once Again: The USSR and its Defence’, Leon Trotsky, https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/11/ussr.htm‘Stalin’s responsibility in the creation of Israel and its disastrous consequences’, Fred Weston, https://marxist.com/stalin-and-the-founding-of-israel.htm
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1:27:25
Communist replies to right-wing LIES: Musk, Peterson & Shapiro
Did communism kill 100 million people? Was Hitler really a communist? Is there no difference between Lenin and Stalin? Right-wing pundits and politicians always throw blood-curdling statistics and historical ‘facts’ to prove that communism is pure evil, while capitalism is the best system that could ever exist. In this video, leading communist Fred Weston takes on three popular right-wing commentators, and separates fact from fiction.Some of these reactionary culture warriors have made entire careers out of ‘proving’ that communism could never work; and has caused chaos, death and misery whenever it has been tried. There are whole libraries of history and political theory books filled with bile ‘proving’ that communism is synonymous with terror and dictatorship. Elon Musk, the richest man on earth with the ear of the President of the USA, spends nearly all of his time demonising socialism and boosting right-wing politicians on the social media platform that he owns. Especially in times such as these, with inequality, war and poverty rampant, the capitalists need to smear and discredit any possible alternative to their rotten system: revolution and communism most of all. But looking at the facts not only demolishes these slanders, it reveals that capitalism is the deadliest system ever to exist, responsible for death on a scale that dwarfs even the most outlandish anti-communist propaganda.Watch as Fred takes on Ben Shapiro, Elon Musk, Alice Weidel and Jordan Peterson, answering their reactionary lies with communist facts and logic! Skip to:00:04:32 Ben Shapiro: “Capitalism is the best possible system and communism killed 100 million people.”00:32:53 Elon Musk and Alice Weidel: “Hitler was a communist.”00:52:28 Jordan Peterson: “Lenin was no better than Stalin.”Sources:Deaths from poverty under capitalism:https://www.cdc.gov/global-water-sanitation-hygiene/about/about-global-hygiene.htmlhttps://www.wfp.org/news/world-wealth-9-million-people-die-every-year-hunger-wfp-chief-tells-food-system-summithttps://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-caused-by-vaccine-preventable-diseases-over-timehttps://www.unicef.org.uk/campaign-with-us/child-health-report/ Declassified Soviet figures on gulag deaths and purge victims:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/10/russia.lukeharding Eyewitness account of Trotskyist at Vorkuta:https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isr/vol24/no03/vorkuta.htm The truth about the Black Book of Communism and the Black Book of Capitalism:https://jacobin.com/2025/01/black-book-communism-courtois-historyhttps://libcom.org/article/interview-black-book-capitalism-robert-kurz Hitler on Marxism and communism:https://famous-trials.com/hitler/2529-1923-interview-with-adolf-hitler Capitalist’s support for Hitler:https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/hitler-millionaire-backers-how-german-elite-facilitated-rise-nazis-third-reich/ https://www.economist.com/culture/2022/04/30/the-german-industrialists-who-aided-and-abetted-the-nazi-regime Political persecution of communists by Nazi regime:White, Joseph Robert (2009). "Introduction to the Early Camps". Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA). Lenin on Stalin and the Soviet bureaucracy:https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/mar/02.htm https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/dec/testamnt/index.htm
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1:20:40
2024 Wrapped: a year of war and revolution
2024 has been a year of war, revolution and crisis on every continent. From the horrors of the Gaza genocide, to the revolutionary summer in Kenya and Bangladesh; from viral assassinations, to to the re-election of Donald Trump. The communists have been offering analysis and perspective at every step of the way, and now: it’s time to put this dramatic twelve months in review with 2024 WRAPPED!
The above are not random or isolated incidents. They are all ultimately products of the unprecedented crisis of the capitalist system. The tensions and class anger in one country after another carry revolutionary implications. In response to the mood of profound rage against the system, we launched a new Revolutionary Communist International in 2024: the embryo of the world party of communist revolution so desperately needed by the working class!
In a joint season finale, the two podcasts of the RCI – Spectre of Communism and Against the Stream – have come together to provide a round up of this turbulent year. Joe Attard, Hamid Alizadeh and Jorge Martín look at the events that have defined 2024, and the strides forward we have taken in the RCI.
We would like to thank everyone who has listened to Spectre of Communism and Against the Stream this year. We’d love to hear about your favourite episodes. Stay tuned in the new year, when both podcasts will return for brand new seasons!
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Recommended reading/viewing:
Analysis of the Gaza and Ukraine Wars:
https://marxist.com/israel-palestine.htm
https://marxist.com/tag-menu-item/ukraine-russia-conflict
Article and speech about Bangladesh:
https://marxist.com/bangladesh-the-unfinished-revolution.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Z-mcO80OE
Speeches from the founding Conference of the RCI:
https://podcast.marxist.com/category/international-marxist-university-2020/
Manifesto of the RCI:
https://marxist.com/manifesto-of-the-revolutionary-communist-international.htm
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1:36:00
Lenin’s crusade against imperialist war – lessons for today
We are living through an epoch of war and revolution. In Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and countless other countries, wars and civil wars are raging, all with the backing and complicity of various imperialist powers. In these turbulent times, the ideas and methods of Lenin – who fought a relentless struggle against warmongering chauvinism during the First World War – provide the clarity that is so desperately needed in the world today.
War tests all political trends to destruction. Then as now, the outbreak of war saw the same ‘socialist’ leaders who had once opposed imperialist conflict abandon their class perspective, and line up behind their respective capitalists in defence of the ‘fatherland’. Lenin waged a merciless crusade against this betrayal, and argued for a class-independent position against the horror of imperialist war. This firm line was instrumental in the Bolsheviks’ eventual seizure of power in October 1917.
To discuss Lenin’s masterful approach to the questions of war and imperialism, the Spectre of Communism podcast welcomes Marie Frederiksen, leading member of the Revolutionary Communist Party in Denmark. Marie explains not only the historical development of Lenin’s ideas, but their immediate relevance to the struggle against war and imperialism today.
To bring out the immense relevance of Lenin’s ideas and to transmit them to a wider layer of communists today, Wellred Books – the publishing house of the Revolutionary Communist International – has recently published a collection of Lenin’s writings on imperialism and war.
This is an invaluable tool in the theoretical arsenal of revolutionaries today, and we strongly recommend listeners get their copy today, available here in paperback, as an ebook and as an audiobook: https://wellred-books.com/on-imperialist-war-lenin-selected-writings/
We also recommend The First World War: the Great Slaughter by Alan Woods for a Marxist analysis of the causes, history and aftermath of WWI: https://wellred-books.com/the-first-world-war-a-marxist-analysis-of-the-great-slaughter/
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58:37
What is the Permanent Revolution?
Trotsky’s theory of the permanent revolution is one of the most important, but also amongst the most misunderstood ideas in the entire Marxist tradition. Does it really mean that revolution needs to happen everywhere, all at once? Does it ignore workers outside of the West? Is it contrary to Lenin’s views? Josh Holroyd, leading member of the Revolutionary Communist International, takes up these questions and explains the real essence of Trotsky’s remarkable contribution to our theoretical arsenal.
Trotsky developed his theory based on his experience of the Russian Revolution of 1905, in which he played a leading role. He witnessed first hand the treachery of the ‘liberal’ Russian capitalists, and the immense revolutionary potential of the young Russian working class. He defined the permanent revolution as one that “makes no compromise with any single form of class rule, which does not stop at the democratic stage, which goes over to socialist measures… a revolution whose every successive stage is rooted in the preceding one and which can end only in the complete liquidation of class society.”
In other words, the proletariat in underdeveloped nations, at the head of other oppressed layers, particularly the peasantry, is the only class capable of leading and winning a revolution for democratic demands (freedom of assembly, free speech, land reform etc.) Having done so, rather than hand power back to the capitalists and ‘wait their turn’ for socialist revolution, the workers will move to socialist tasks of expropriating capitalism and planning the economy.
The revolution will also not limit itself to national borders, but become the spark for an international revolutionary process that can only truly end with the overthrow of capitalism in the most advanced countries. Thus, the revolution occurs not in predetermined ‘stages’, but constitutes a ‘permanent’ chain of development, ending with the victory of socialism throughout the world.
This important theory was proved correct in practice, both positively with the victory of the Russian workers and peasants in October 1917, and negatively with the defeat and deformation of revolutions throughout the 20th Century and beyond.
Overcoming the myths and grasping the essence of Trotsky’s analysis is critical for class fighters striving to understand the dynamics of revolution today, and bring the world socialist revolution to victory!
We recommend this episode be viewed in conjunction with this one on the question of Socialism in One Country: https://marxist.com/podcast-is-socialism-in-one-country-possible-a-reply-to-the-young-communist-league.htm
Are you a communist? Think we need a revolution? Tune into the official podcast of the Revolutionary Communist International, for communist theory, analysis and history, every week!
Under the crisis-ridden capitalist system, humanity lurches from one disaster to another. War, poverty and precarity are facts of life for millions.
Given the circumstances, it is no surprise that an unprecedented number of workers and young people are being drawn to the revolutionary banner of communism.
But what does it mean to be a communist? What is the communist perspective on the most pressing questions facing humanity: like armed conflict, the climate crisis, technological development, inequality, and so on?
In what philosophical and historical traditions do we stand? How do we answer typical right-wing objections to communism?
The purpose of this podcast is to arm our listeners with the ideas and arguments necessary to defend the principles of communism, to win others over to a revolutionary perspective, and develop their own mastery of Marxist theory.
Brasil