Fifteen days ago I started reading "State and Revolution" after discovering it was hella short! Yesterday, I managed to finish it! Today, I'm beginning "What Is to Be Done?" because it is also hella short!

I'll probably go back and read State and Revolution again at some point, just to reinforce its ideas. Here is my takeaways after finishing the book:

Clear definition of the state and its function. This was something I understood but couldn't fully articulate.

"The state is a product and a manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms. The state arises where, when and insofar as class antagonism objectively cannot be reconciled. And, conversely, the existence of the state proves that the class antagonisms are irreconcilable"

In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy. And at best it is an evil inherited by the proletariat after its victorious struggle for class supremacy, whose worst sides the victorious proletariat will have to lop off as speedily as possible, just as the Commune had to, until a generation reared in new, free social conditions is able to discard the entire lumber of the state.

The state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another. This is such a succinct description by Engels.

Lenin makes it clear that the process involved in his vision of revolution to communism is a long process, one that may even take generations to complete. The process being:

• Capitalism.
• proletarian revolution and smashing of the bourgeois state.
• implementation of the proletarian state and its dictatorship over exploitative forces.
• the socialist period, stamped with the birthmark of capitalist society.
• The withering away of the proletarian state, as state functions become simple "control and administration" operated by "foremen and accountants."
• Communism.

It's amusing to see not much has changed in the political landscape. We still have arguments today about using the current state system to "democratically" transform the state from capitalist to socialist. It's the same opportunism expressed back then. Lots of talk about "democratic republics" and just how compatible they are with capitalism. In his critique of the anarchists of his time, he accuses them of seeking "overnight" abolition of the state and not seeing the need to defend against bourgeois counter-revolution. I know very little about historical anarchism, so I'll have to take his word on that one. These kinds of reads also add more to my reading list. I'm now very interested in reading Marx's analysis of the Paris Commune.

Much of the book was stuff I already "understood," but it was nice to read where these ideas are rooted. The best part of the book for me, though, was Chapter 7. It ends abruptly, and the postscript after reads:

This pamphlet was written in August and September 1917. I had already drawn up the plan for the next, the seventh chapter, “The Experience of the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917”. Apart from the title, however, I had no time to write a single line of the chapter; I was “interrupted” by a political crisis — the eve of the October revolution of 1917. Such an “interruption” can only be welcomed; but the writing of the second part of this pamphlet (“The Experience of the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917”) will probably have to be put off for a long time. It is more pleasant and useful to go through the “experience of revolution” than to write about it.

It is more pleasant and useful to go through the “experience of revolution” than to write about it.

My immediate thought was, "You did it. You fucking did it." It reads like a kind of walk-off into the sunset.

I look forward to reading the rest of his works. It was a very enjoyable read, even if I was a little lost in the history.

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/227673

Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

With the city’s mayoral candidates officially looking toward November, the field has remained unsettled as opponents to Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani continue to bicker about the best path forward.

Mayor Eric Adams, who has shown no signs of stepping aside despite his dismal poll numbers, is trying to chip away at the presumed front-runner and writing off his fellow opponents. In a recent interview with MSNBC, Adams continued to paint Mamdani as someone who is out of touch with the average New Yorker and promising things he can’t achieve. “He is an academic elitist. He studied poverty. I lived poverty. His programs are going to impact working-class people,” Adams said.

Zohran Mamdani studied poverty. I lived it.He’s an academic elitist with plans he can’t implement, or worse, that would hurt working-class New Yorkers. Affordability is a real crisis, and I’m fighting for the people who feel it every single day. I grew up poor, joined the… pic.twitter.com/08tszOVJi5

— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) July 11, 2025

While Mamdani’s primary campaign has been praised for building an extensive coalition to defeat former governor Andrew Cuomo, Adams downplayed the achievement and suggested that the state legislator took advantage of a burgeoning movement that existed prior to him joining the race.

“He already had an army on the streets. They were already in the college campuses. They were already protesting on our streets. The Palestinian movement was already underway. There was already this energy in the streets, the anti-Trump movement,” he said. “All he had to do was pop his head up and say, ‘Hey, I’m in favor of all the stuff you guys are doing. Come join me.’ And people joined.”

Adams also continued to criticize Cuomo, who he alleged has asked him to drop out of the race in order for the former governor to mount his own independent bid against Mamdani. The mayor said that Cuomo has a history of disrespect toward Black elected officials and that he followed Adams’s lead in establishing an independent ballot line to “bamboozle” his run for reelection.

“I gave you an opportunity to go one-on-one with him. You spend $25 million. The voters heard your message. You thought you were up 32 points in the poll, you lost by 13 points. And now you want to have another bite at the apple when you didn’t get out and campaign like you should have? You didn’t walk the streets. You didn’t talk to people. You lived in a cocoon. Now, you should have another shot?” he said of Cuomo.

Cuomo, meanwhile, continues to leave the door open for that second shot at defeating Mamdani, but it remains to be seen if he’ll actively campaign. His spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, is confident that Adams will fail to win over voters, telling NBC New York of the mayor’s standing in the polls, “He’s so underwater with New York voters, he should consider growing gills.”

Despite his criticism of Cuomo, Adams is facing accusations that he, too, has pressured a candidate to drop out. In an interview with PIX11, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa accused Adams of trying to poach voters from his party, claiming that the mayor even offered a job in his administration for his troubles.

“He’s even floated the idea that he would make me the deputy mayor of Public Safety,” Sliwa said. “Could you imagine me and Mayor Adams? We would be like two scorpions in a brandy glass.”

Adams denied that such an offer was ever made. “In no way have I ever offered Curtis Sliwa a job to drop out of the race — that’s simply false. I have not said one word to Curtis in months,” he said, per PIX11.

Though the candidates continue to be at odds, the pile of money opposing Mamdani is growing, even if there isn’t a consensus pick to spend it on yet. The Wall Street Journal reports that an independent expenditure group called New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25 has launched with at least $20 million behind it with the intent of defeating Mamdani in the fall. Hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman has already signaled his support for Adams, while sources tell the Journal that former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to join forces with former Trump appointee Bo Dietl on another PAC with goals of raising $10 million. As the report points out, they’ll all also need some kind of actual plan:

Political strategists and financiers say the opening weeks of the general election have been chaotic. They complain the anti-Mamdani bulwark lacks a positive message. And a candidate. And enough voters to win. They worry the flood of outside money could backfire, and make voters suspicious of special interests.

And that would suit the front-runner just fine.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/32974288

More than 20 countries are convening in Bogota next week to declare “concrete measures against Israel’s violations of international law”, diplomats told Middle East Eye.

The “emergency summit” is due to be held on 15-16 July, co-hosted by the governments of Colombia and South Africa as co-chairs of The Hague Group, to coordinate diplomatic and legal action to counter what they describe as “a climate of impunity” enabled by Israel and its powerful allies.

The founding members of the group included Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa.

States due to take part in the summit include Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Lebanon, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Portugal, Spain, Qatar, Turkey, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Palestine.

Try and stop me!