Can we settle the debate about Delcy Rodriguez now? She was probably within a couple kilometers from Maduro and didn't mention his kidnapping once in her address.

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[–] 29 points 1 day ago (11 children)

This is completely in line with the previous PSUV position. It's not even a concession. They have always maintained that they have free and fair elections. She is the rightful legal successor to Maduro, and she is promising to uphold the existing democratic norms of her country. That she isn't taking an outwardly hostile tone towards the nation which enjoys total military superiority over them during a diplomatic mission at the UN may come across as a betrayal to certain ultra-leftists in the US, but it would seem that the Chavistas in Venezuela do not share the same view.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (10 children)

    what's an "ultra-leftist" to a communist?

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  • [–] 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    left-communists, who are against concessions of any kind, usually with a very idealist vision of socialism. lenin wrote a pamphlet about it "left-wing communism: an infantile disorder"

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  • [–] 16 points 1 day ago

    It's a term for those who make dogmatic or adventurist errors in judgement. In practical example, there was the famous theory of "social imperialism" as supposedly practiced by the USSR. This theory did not correctly grasp the nature of imperialism nor the Soviet Union's actual material processes, but served as a wedge by which those could oppose the Soviet Union while adhering to nominally left politics. Essentially, ultraleftism is confusing allies for enemies, which very frequently turns into its opposite, confusing enemies for allies, like those on the "left" that support NATO against the PRC because the PRC has supposedly "taken the capitalist road."

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  • [–] 15 points 1 day ago

    Ultra-Leftists are typically other communists who are not rooting their actions and methods in material reality. This false consciousness held by ultra-leftists leads to incorrect theoretical and practical conclusions. Conclusions that can endanger the movement itself. Practical concessions need to be made if the reality of the situation demands it. Ultra-Leftism, an Infintile Disorder by Lenin, covers this topic in around 90 pages. Worth reading if you haven't. Marxism is a living science and, as such, can adapt and evolve as conditions change. To not do so would lead to dogmatism and inflexibility, which undermine the communist movement.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (3 children)
  • [–] -4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    well that's a redundant and liberalist thing to call oneself, unless one isn't a communist after all

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  • [–] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    As Lenin said, "one must always strive to be as radical as reality itself." Radicalism itself isn't the point, and being radical beyond reality turns from progress into its opposite, reaction. Ineffective strategy hampers the movement, we need to have effective strategy and tactics, and we discover this through the unity of theory and practice, praxis. Peru's Shining Path is a famous example of confusing allies for enemies, alienating the masses and destroying the movement.

    The origin of dogmatism can often be in failing to take an all-sided view of contradictions. Both the totality and the particularity of a contradiction must be viewed to avoid superficiality.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago*

    I don't understand your criticism.

    People don't call themselves ultra leftist. They call other people that when they take positions that are in advance of what's currently possible as an effective action

    For example, advocating for an armed insurrection in the US and gathering a dozen people to storm the Pentagon the next weekend would be ultra leftism.

    So that advocate might be a communist, but theyre taking an action that won't advance the movement and will just get them and their comrades killed.

    Ultra leftism is the flip side of tailism or right opportunism

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