Скачать или смотреть Socialist Self-Criticism #1 -Northstar Talks: Politics

Welcome, or welcome back!

Today, I discuss a few of the mistakes of past attempts at Socialism- whether excessive Pacifism and lack of readiness to defend the Revolution against inevitable Reactionary counter-revolution (as in Salvador Allende's Chile: where US-supported Fascist forces overthrew the elected Socialist government in a short civil war that placed US puppet Augusto Pinochet in power... This might have been avoided, however, if the Socialists were better armed and organized...) or an excessive caution and focus on internal stability and hunting down subversives- as in Stalin's leadership of the Soviet Union.

We can learn from these mistakes- whether the need for Stalin to have considered more of Trotsky and Bukharin's critiques (the former emphasizing the need for quickly spreading Socialism around the world before an effective Capitalist encirclement could form- as did occur in the cold War- the latter emphasizing the peasantry as the basis for Socialist power in many countries- as Mao formalized with his Agrarian Socialist theories in China...) and maintained greater openness to new ideas in Soviet society, or Lenin's mistakes in setting up the USSR as a one-party democracy (which would, and did, inevitably develop oligarchical characteristics despite its democratic institutions such as Mass Meetings- due to the lack of formal and organized but still Socialist opposition parties under Democratic Centralism...)

Socialism must rise up again, and take leadership in the world somehow- otherwise humanity is in for a VERY rough time (and billions dying) with Climate Change, Artificial Intelligence, and a handful of corporations monopolizing almost everything while supporting Fascist movements (as is already occurring in the United States with the billionaires, their companies, Trump/MAGA and Project 2025...) But, if the same mistakes are made as it the past, it's doomed to fail again- so learning from past mistakes is of the greatest importance here.

Heck, even Capitalist countries need to learn from the past. Germany, for instance, is repeating its past mistakes- and seeking to invade Russia again (over Ukraine) while supporting the mass-murder of countless innocent people in Concentration Camps (such as CECOT in El Salvador- where Trump is deporting people to illegal internment in conditions sure to cause illness and death, and planning on stepping this up to hundreds of thousands of victims...) rather than, say, forming a military coalition with the rest of Europe and China against the United States government's massive violations of human rights and saber-rattling destabilization of world peace.

Until next time viewers, take care of each other. Be kind to yourselves. And, may you always find a guiding star to lead you home.

Northstar