"Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920) by Lenin. Marxist Theory #Audiobook + Discussion

Lenin seems to be describing today's Russian communist party who is aiding imperialist Putin in his imperialist war

Could the climate crisis be that something that realises the key conditions for a revolution to happen?
It's a crisis that affects both the exploited and the exploiter putting both in the corner. On one side the proletariat has the opportunity to acknowledge that the level of capital exploitation has growth to such a point that it's gonna destroy everything. Workers can also acknowledge that this is not their fault, it is the system itself that goes in that direction.
On the other side, the exploiting class would also have no choice but to acknowledge that the level of exploitation has arrived to such a level that the earth itself can't take it anymore. And I think they did acknowledge this in recent years, looking atall the hurry among billionaires to get in space.

If we had to accept this, I would say that a necessary compromise that today's communist revolutionary groups, organisations and parties face is a collaboration with all other enviromental groups that ar trying to address the issue of the climate crisis by questioning the system. Even though they are mostly liberal groups, some have reactionary views and their demands for change are different from ours, there still are strong common objective conditions that can facilitate the assimilation of our ideas and our demands among their followers.

Thank you so much for your work. I turn to this channel nearly every day to find time, to find guidance by our ancestors. I wholly agree with you about American trade unions and not capitulating to the right. Thank you so much comrade. Your work means so much to this world.

Unfortunate that the Western left is by and large having to learn all these lessons again at the steady climbing peak of contradiction and crisis. Lets keep learning. Let's keep teaching. The elder Comrades like Lenin show us the way. Solidarity from our studio to yours comrade. Keep up the good work!

To the IWW’s credit they do host workshops about workers rights and organizing but yeah they leave a lot to be desired.

Petit-Bourgeois Class Consciousness is the driving force for Neo-Feudalism and its two largest offsprings Petit-Bourgeois "Socialism" and Fascism

I feel like Trotskyists cannot say they’re the true successors of Lenin and have read this book. Lenin is literally chiding the dogmatic left-wing communist movements of multiple countries and if turned back on The USSR this would definitely represent their (the Trotskyist) ideology: unrealistic and incapable of compromise.

this one was a really good one, i listened to it while at work, it felt a bit like a how to guide on marxist organizing. quick question about the menchevicks, could we equate them to modern day democrats, they seem like it everytime they pop up in the literature

are you going to keep finishing the marxist leninist study guide?

bro this absolutely blows my mind. ive been some degree of a fledgling communist for like 12 years at this point (ML for more like 3-5) and this work has enlightened me to so many of my own errors. but also the errors of a lot of established and more advanced communists around me and in the public sphere in general. it feels like the vast majority of his directions to the british communists are very very applicable to present-day communists in the US. if that's the case, why is there still discord among the current ML parties??? we have our instructions right in front of us!

Bookmark:2:12:15

Right to work=Right to get paid less.

When ever I hear Lenin on the proletarian dictatorship it strikes me that it will take time. Like a lot of time, I’m not fighting for communism for me but communism for future generations. I feel like socialism may last for a century or more before it can fully transition to communism. We may do well to borrow the indigenous mentality of working for the welfare of the next seven generations. We need to not only look to the initial revolution but look to it’s ability to sustain itself for generations. It seems like the greatest danger for a socialist state comes from its second and third generations. How do we cement class struggle and socialist consciousness so that socialism will not fall to revisionism of generations who have never known capitalism?

Thanks for making these audiobooks, i appreciate it a lot :)

Currently re-reading this work, while listening at the same time. I'm also liking the commentary. Getting to know my local Left, & I actually made the acquaintance of someone who is in DSA who also listens to this channel. I attended a Green Party meeting, next I wanna check out DSA. I wanna put this theory to work, this year. Again, I commend your commitment, & I'm in full study mode.

After listening to your comments regarding Mussolini's rise, I definitely will check out the Zetkin texts about fascism.

I've been avoiding this work by lenin for a really long time because of the title. Something about it just really rubbed me the wrong way but decided today to take the plunge. I'm only 1hr 30min in but I'm really enjoying it so far, and it has highlighted some of the mistakes in my outlook/organizing.

Also, just, PHENOMENAL narrating. Some of the best i've heard!

What is a social chauvinist to Lenin?

personally I think that America has run out of cards to play in terms of the social desire for capitalism but this dose not mean that cards are not being played, the most abundant example of this is the tik tok ban (im personally not a fan of it but i digress) the main talking point in the hearing was that china was stealing us peoples data and when the CEO stepped out on to court and explained why that wasn't the case. all the comity did was talk about extremally insane arguments. Besides that the us gov has made similar claims to when they were caught lying about socialist countries . america has no more card left but is instead recycling old ones

Here to boost us!

The right wing is already starting a slow burn civil war in the USA. Since the US is not a small country, this is going to play out on a regional level, because the political culture of the US varies by degree per region. It's the responsibility of local orgs to stamp out local right wing militias AND CHURCHES whether by due process where it still functions or WELL PLANNED subterfuge. This will require solidarity with anarchists and I don't see it as adventurism as the swine in the militias are neither popular or nor principled people.

As far as i know, none if the supposed progressives are doing any true anti war agitation. AOC held a damn military recruitment event for highschoolers. So sad

I think social media and Twitter in particular encourage ultra-leftism, chiefly the symptom of choosing principle over power. This is why most American “communists” mock CPUSA instead of joining us.

thank you so much for sharing this. ♡

Chomsky Iikes to criticize Lenin by saying that he represented the "conservative wing" of the socialist movement at the time. I've never understood his point but I suspect it's a reaction to texts like this.

Thank you for posting it, total banger.

Hey comrade just wanted to thank you for posting these. I was active and organized years ago but became depressed after the failure of the George Floyd uprising but these readings and discussions have helped me get my bearings politically again. Especially this one which had helped me see into my own failures as a communist. Your reading of the revolution begins now even got me to join my local dsa chapter. So thanks for inspiring me to have the revolutionary spirit again! I appreciate it

Little over half way through, wanted to clarify some things. When lenin writes about working with the bourgeois against the feudal system, and then engaging in bourgeois politics. These are done with certain caveats. The first being united against the common enemy of feudalism. The second being that engaging in bourgeois politics creates some flexibility in how the Bolsheviks could operate both within and outside the law. It acted as a means to further advertise, so to speak, the cause. What cpusa and dsa do is misunderstanding this when they tail the democratic party? The Bolsheviks ran their own candidates and didnt endorse a bourgeois candidate as opposed to voting/ endorsing a bourgeois party once feudalism was done away with. This is what separates their engagement on bourgeois politics from opportunists that funnel growing class consciousness back into a bourgeois party?

Thank you so much S4A

Should Marxists in dsa or cpusa start doing what the Bolsheviks did and vet new members to a vanguard party. Like not splitting from cpusa or dsa, rather forming a parallel org that is much stricter and more disciplined and then proceed to advocate within dsa and cpusa?

I was doing a another listen through and had two comments come up that i am posting now before i forget. I am in the process of joining the union at my new job and found out they both tail the Democrats every election cycle as well as in the contract negotiated they gave up striking. I have some ideas on things to advocate for, such as cutting endorsement and advertising of/ for the Dems, as well as trying to organize unions in other companies that could be contracted out and scab us. Are there more suggestions on things to do or resources to look at?

This one was very hard to put down, just clear and concise lines to what feels like has undermined a lot of the movement now, kept me hooked all the way through.

Thanks for the work, as always, S4A.

One of my favourite texts of Lenin's :)

I just finished what is to be done 1902 and man this guy was a marxist mega brain

"Orthodox" coms say Lenin was state capitalist. Is Dengist revisionism preferable to Yeltsin revisionism? How does a state council anticipate and deter opportunism with the pressure exerted by foreign capital? I don't know anything about SwCC, I hope someone more familiar can chime in.

There are so many valuable lessons in this text that are still relevant today. Thank you for all the work you are putting into this channel!

Im a libertarian socialist. I generally disagree with lenins viewpoints here. However it is interesting to listen to and i wanna thank you so much for this video, as i dont have much time to actually read physical books. (And my attention span sucks :p)

Thanks for the vid, listening at work

Lenin's writing is ever relevant. Thank you for reading and any and all of your synopsis, review and rants.

Combining this book with vincent bevins' book if we burn ive found useful. Thank you for posting thisb

If anyone wants to give time stamps for the individual sections, I'll put them in the description to make chapters.