Left Anticommunism: An Infantile Disorder 

Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/ComradeHakim Twitter: @YaBoiHakim A spicy one discussing Left-Wing Anti-Communism, its faults and the origins of its misguidance. This took maybe 6 re-uploads before it wasn't immediately demonetized or flagged somehow. I hope you guys enjoy it

Being a Liberal is like taking a bus towards a city and then getting off a few miles before you reach your actual destination.

As an American lefty I’ve been waiting for this video. I get called a fascist in leftist communities just for having a Luke warm response to the USSR. They have this utopian view of what a revolution should look like. Material conditions matter not. The Vaush community is among the worse in this regard. I would love to see Hakim dismantle Vaush. Hakim is well spoken and well read. A true comrade

I read blackshirts and reds last year. One of his sources in his footnotes was from an Italian newspaper which I couldn’t find on the internet. I emailed him asking if he could send it to me. He literally emailed me within a few days saying that his friend had sent him a newspaper clipping in the 90s and he couldn’t locate it at the moment because he was in very poor health. I sent a reply back asking if I could set up a gofundme for whatever his health issues were and he never responded. That was probably too much. Parenti is a class act. He is a noble man who responds to his readers and cares for this world. If you have 5 mins, look up is email and send him a message of appreciation for his life’s work. Hakim, thank you for your work too.

You should email Noam Chomsky, he almost always writes back.

As an American socialist, thank you for keeping me honest.

As an American, it’s so mental to me that people here can complain about how the USSR built a big military and used it for things. The levels of critical thinking are zero for some of these people.

The idea that academia doesn't have a class character is just absurd. Great video.

George "Paul Robeson was anti white" Orwell

It's so true. No one ever looks at the nuance. There are a ton of amazing things that people have achieved in communist countries throughout history. I hate when it's all looked at as being evil.

Thank you. I found that, in general leftists in countries that don't benefit massively from Imperialism seem to have a much more pragmatic, and frankly much more useful view on politics. Of course, being born in Germany in 1993, I was heavily indoctrinated to condemn the Soviet Union or the GDR without ever even really learning about them. I am thankful for the work of people like Parenti and you, for helping me break out of this indoctrination.

Even if you consider yourself an anarchist, you should recognize, whatever socialist society that sprouts is going to exist in the context of the time and place that it exists in. Leftists should learn from the successes of people like Thomas Sankara.

"Stalinist soap dispenser that didn't work all that well" lmaooo

" 'Are the fascists gonna get their newspapers?!' " -Michael Parenti

I'm also seeing a growing trend of what I'd call anti-intellectualism where people dismiss the very idea of reading theory. They'll tell you "I don't want to read a book by a 200 year old dead white dude", "you're just a book worshiper", and other nonsense as if they don't think they have anything new to learn and have no need to expand their worldview. I hate to come off like I'm saying I'm so much smarter than someone else because I read a book they didn't, but like, reading is cool and good and useful actually.

Literally can’t recommend blackshirts and reds enough !!

“The group’s that can’t organize a reading circle, think they are capable of this.” Best line of the video.

As a brasilian recently-turned socialist, I can say what you said about white western leftists being more prone to anticommunism is spot-on. In Brasil, it is much more common for self-proclammed socialists to defend real socialist experiences such as the Soviet Union. I guess when you live in a country that has always been vitimized by famine and liberal (pseudo)democracy is the exception more than the rule, the Soviet Union seems great by comparisson. Whereas a white, upper-middle class american leftist might look at it and think it was all worthless, since they likely wouldn't be able to keep their lifestyle in a similar society, and anything that doesn't correspond to their utopian vision of socialism is not worth pursuing.

Neither we the whites of the third world (Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil or any others peripheral whites) do that. I think the question is not being a white wester leftist, but being leftist in the central- Western powers. Because I have seen lots of non white Western "leftist" who are the typically anti communist. Generally central-Western leftist are less left or more right than third world leftist.

Brilliant as always. This phenomena has two main expressions: 1) 'eurocommunism': adapting to bourgeois society and ideology for some perceived gain. Eurocommunists are forced to compromise and only accept the most moderate socialism, reforms etc and denounce the strongest enemies of capitalist society. 2) ultra-leftism: denouncing any socialism or methods that are deemed in violation to some eternal principles. This stems largely from lack of practical success -- the smaller the ultra-left group, the more extreme and wide their denounciation of real-life socialist experiments or activities is. Those two also often overlap. One proof of the unscientific nature of their approach is that while they all agree to denounce real-life socialism, they dont have any agreement on the reason why. Real life socialism is attacked as being "marxist statism", "not real marxism", "not real leninism", "marxist leninist state-capitalism", "bureaucratic socialism" etc. etc. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would imagine any scientific factual research could pinpoint the real flaws and make a consensus based on solid proof. But there is no consensus in the united-front of opportunism: only coming up with a narrative that suits their ideological needs. I'll also link my vid on Operation Mockingbird ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KCPn7lN5gIE.html

Good video. Especially your point starting at 9:15. Many people forget, downplay or mock Communist revolutionary background, particularly the fascists ("right wingers"/"conservatives"). Many Communist revolutionaries committed Class Suicide, they rejected their privileged middle class bourgeois upbringing. There was a 99% chance of them gaining nothing but death once they abandoned either lucrative properties they owned or a path to academic success and tenure. Yet those people you mentioned still decided to take that risk on the slim offhand chance they could liberate millions from the tyranny of the capitalists, and the rampant misery, pollution and slavery that brought (and still brings as a matter of fact). That in and of itself is inspiring.

Mashallah daddy Hakim has uploaded.

I bought Black Shirts and Reds after watching one of the reading list videos. Parenti's writing style makes it a very enjoyable read. Great book.

The title makes me want to throw back a few painkillers in anticipation of what the comment section will do to my head.

My parents actually grew up in the soviet union, unfortunately I was born too late to experience it but it sounds so much better than even life in Australia (we have free healthcare, only need to pay off our education once you earn more than a certain amount of money etc.) so it's very weird to me when people talk about how horrible the soviet union was. My mum's complaints about it are that the clothes were ugly and there were no jeans or Mars bars (no fast fashion or American products). She was very surprised and confused when I said that just because I finished uni I'm not guaranteed a job, and when I joked how "in the soviet union, uni pays you" she was like "well it didn't pay that much". It just sounds so great, of course there are flaws but Americans like to forget that while all these flaws were happening in the soviet union slavery and racial segregation was rampant there, women weren't allowed to vote and got paid less etc.

Excellent video. You know, since opening up about being a Marxist-Leninist and relating the historical Irish national liberation struggle to the struggles of oppressed and colonised people all over the world, ravaged by western imperialism, I've noticed that people from all over the world have started getting in touch. Prior to this, when people assumed I was an anarchist or a liberal or whatever, my viewers and the people who contacted me were pretty much all white people from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, etc. and a few European countries. Makes you think. (Or maybe it's just a coincidence, who knows?)

I listened to Blackshirts & Reds in its entirety while on a hike one day. It literally changed my life. That recommendation cannot come enthusiastically enough.

Long life Michael Parenti

As an American, it came as a surprise to me when I got to late highschool that socialism still exists. You would think it was some past movement that didn’t work out and then we move on. It’s actually surprisingly difficult to find any information that makes socialist countries look good. I’m not talking about favorable interpretations, I’m talking about factual information. I think a lot of leftists here just don’t have a nuanced understanding of socialist countries, and I don’t really blame them given the fact that the information is well hidden. They also seem unable to grasp the circumstances by which these countries were formed. It’s not like they were high income liberal democracies with political stability and the complete absence of geopolitical threats, like the US. I mean the formation and development of the US wasn’t pretty either, no country ever was. The point is we need to be able to analyze these things with nuance, to both understand the feats and the failures, and provide adequate context to the events.

"That wasn't true socialism" And they NEVER can tell what this phantomatic "true socialism" is. Very good video comrade

I lean towards Platformist anarchism, and have critiques of a lot of socialist countries, but I do often feel like we refuse to look at or learn from other socialist experiments. It feels like a real weird blind spot.

here's good faith criticism from me. my English is very much not perfect, so please bear with me. there is a huge margin between anarchist critique and Orthodox Marxist, left communist critique. you seem to have acknowledged it here. >"If you have read enough literature on the Bolshevik revolution, for example, you'd quickly notice the pattern of lionizing the first few years revolution up until 1922 or 1923..." still, then you seem to mix anarchist, Trotskyist, and left-communist critiques together. this is a common problem with critics of left-communism because it is too general of a term. many very different tendencies are mashed up together, which makes it easier to strawman them. like with Chomsky and Orwell, neither of them is or was left-communist. Chomsky is Anarcho-syndicalist and Orwell was a trot. >"This trend very easily fits with left-wing anti-communist paradigm as it glorifies the weakest, most fragmented and most uncertain time period in soviet history..." Nah, man. you need to understand the point of critique in order to counter it. equating left-communists to angry children is very misguided. the exact reason why leftcomms have problems with later development in the Russian revolution is that it directly contradicts Marxism. and yes, we know that that was the only way and material conditions demanded it. that the whole point. Bolsheviks, when starting the revolution counted on the upheaval in the western, more developed capitalist countries. as Marx and Engels put it in their preface to the Russian edition of communist manifesto: "If the Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian revolution in the West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist development. " The failure of Western revolutions to succeed meant the failure of the soviet union as a communist project. instead, it took the role of industry builder, the developer of capitalism in semi-feudal Russia. The pros of the Soviet Union were those of social-democratic capitalism. it was supposed to be a temporary dictatorship of the proletariat, awaiting the revolution in the west, but with the apparent failure of that plan, the pretenses of being Dictatorship of the proletariat fell with it. Lenin never in his life called soviet union a socialist state, always saying that it was merely directed in that way: "No one, I think, in studying the question of the economic system of Russia, has denied its transitional character. Nor, I think, has any Communist denied that the term the Soviet Socialist Republic implies the determination of the Soviet power to achieve the transition to socialism, and not that the existing economic system is recognized as a socialist order." he also recognized the importance of world revolution in order to achieve this: "We are far from having completed even the transitional period from capitalism to socialism. We have never cherished the hope that we could finish it without the aid of the international proletariat. We never had any illusions on that score, and we know how difficult is the road that leads from capitalism to socialism. But it is our duty to say that our Soviet Republic is a socialist republic because we have taken this road, and our words will riot be empty words. " I think my Compatriot, Ioseb Jugashivili put it the best way: "The overthrow of the power of the bourgeoisie and establishment of a proletarian government in one country does not yet guarantee the complete victory of socialism. The main task of socialism, the organization of socialist production, still lies ahead. can this task be accomplished, can the victory of socialism in one country be attained, without the joint efforts of the proletariat of several advanced countries? No, this is impossible... For the final victory of socialism, for the organization of socialist production, the efforts of one country, particularly of such a peasant country as Russia are insufficient." That very same Compatriot of mine in several months after publishing the statement redacted it and stated the opposite. he also went on his way to declare the establishment of Socialism in 1936, when the Soviet Union was neither moneyless nor classless, therefore still capitalist... most of what I'm talking about Cuck Philosophy discusses deeper in his latest video. P.S. in the middle of the video you very vaguely try to gesture at historicity which is very much a right-wing tactic and is unbecoming of a leftist channel.

Third worldism looks more and more legit to me every passing day.

As someone just starting their leftist journey this was really, really helpful. I have come across passionate MLs who are seemingly sycophants for Stalin and Lenin and it pushed me away for a while. I've always tried to be conscious during my radicalisation to not be a weirdo, to only believe in things if there is evidence or airtight logic around them. This is probably an artifact of a liberal worldview but I just want to make sure I follow something honest and effective, rather than become some kind of QAnon guy. It is true that if you said Stalin was a good man I would likely instinctively question that, fearing a name more than a person. if you asked me why I think he's bad, I haven't a clue about his life or premiership. These names and how bad they are have been drilled into us since birth. You are right that the blueprint did not exist, and of course hindsight means we can debate at length on what the correct actions were. I am glad that around the world people are more open to Marx, and I am glad people understand that change will not be done democratically or necessarily peacefully. The fact you say MLs are not uncritical has reassured and influenced me enough to join a ML space and search for material on Stalin as well as Lenin. Thank you so much for this video ❤️ stay safe

Wait, there are street stalls in Iraq selling Bordiga's writings? Surely your country has suffered enough.

Your point about a big army reminds me of these posters on the ussr that hang once in my school where one pf their citicisms is that the bolsheviks build an army even though they had signed a treaty with germany.

i watched this before reading theory and came back to it no with a solid understanding of marxism and i gotta hand to you hakim this is beyond excellent!

I just read, and re-read parts, of Blackshirts & Reds thanks to your recommendation here. What a great and accessible read! As one who was a teenager during the Cold War Reagan years in the US, I can say many of these points are still difficult for me. They challenge me in a healthy way. I had no idea how deeply internalized the anticommunist propaganda was until now.

I'm beyond blessed to have found you, Hakim. Keep up the good work! Alhamdulillah and pozdrav from an ex-yu banana republic

One thing is to talk about the October Revolution on a coffee shop and with chill out music, another thing is to talk about the October Revolution on Siberia during the Civil War. I think you can get the idea.

Glad you mentioned Orwell. Having to read Animal Farm in Middle School must've set my political development back by at least a few years

Hakim, great video. Honestly you need to upload more.

i was one of those left anticommunist. im cured now

“If you hold Orwell in any positive regard you need to reassess your political inclinations”. Can I be granted permission to have some nuanced analysis of Orwell as Lenin and Castro are given?

I mean, if everyone around you keeps saying "communism has never worked", you start believing it at some point.

I hear "The USSR wasn't socialism" from other leftists all the time to dismiss all of its faults. I laugh in their face, condemn its faults, and praise its successes.

Thank you for this video. I recently read a lot of Orwell, and couldn’t help but feel the absurdity of it all. I questioned why it’s celebrated, read its interpretations but still felt at unease. This video validated my uneasiness, and now I’ll read Parenti!

Vaush and Xanderhal got destroyed in this debate.

I've seen this in the Balkans. People say shit like "Titoism was flawed and it wasn't true socialism". Like bro what are you talking about, the living standard here 30 years later is about the same as it was then😂 Great video

God bless you my friend

I severely dislike the "all Communism is Stalinism" rhetoric. I disagree with the authoritarian characteristics of certain communist regimes, but it is extremely unfair to dismiss all their accomplishments. Apart from the moon landings, the USSR won the so-called space race. The Bolsheviks were able to transform a largely agrarian society into an industrial society capable of space flight in less than fifty years. This is an enormous accomplishment. The living standards in the USSR for most of the population were vastly superior compared to present-day Capitalist Russia. Said past living standards are superior to that of most of the population of present days US, UK and plenty of other "affluent" capitalist nations. The working class in the 1980s USSR had access to universal healthcare, free education, sports facilities, music lessons and could afford to go to the theatre and do various other cultural activities. Sad but true, that is something the working class in most of the current EU nation-states cannot afford and the working class in the US cannot begin to imagine. Communist systems could be made and maintained without the authoritarian oppression of the USSR, Maoism, and similar regimes although they would certainly need to be able the defend themselves against aggression from Capitalist nations which would necessitate a modern army, preferably nuclear weapons and intelligence agencies to counter foreign interference. The US and US-based multinational corporations have not only violently overthrown Socialist nations, but they also continue to stamp out any democratic socialism within the EU and other liberal democracies by means of political pressure, corporate lobbying and propaganda. I am sad to say that they have been largely successful. A lot of economic and social reforms have been undone by Neoliberalism. Capitalism does not want Social Democrat systems or even minor regulations either. Leftists who try to play nice within capitalism need to face facts: capitalists want them gone too. The only Leftism that is tolerated within a capitalist system is ineffectual leftism. It is not a coincidence that so many successful civil rights activists end up dead even in so-called democratic countries and that right-wing terrorism is not effectively opposed within liberal democracies.

Vietnam, Cuba, and China still stand!

question to ppl who repeat left anticommunist points: we "allow" or say that capitalism can change and evolve, why do we not allow socialism the same? why must socialism always either be perfect or not socialism at all/nothing to take away from?

While this does exist in certain leftist circles, I think it's kind of overstated in this video. The criticisms of the USSR by people like Chomsky, Foucault are recorded and shown over and over again, while their praise of the USSR (especially when acknowledging the extreme pressures the USSR had to combat at all fronts) are ignored. Chomsky was the one who originally opened my eyes to the successes of mao's revolution. The fact of the matter is, is that western leftests are afraid to vocally say positive things about the USSR, Cuba, China because they understand that that will get them deplatformed. At the end of the day, western liberals are divided and disorganized, and if we ever want to accomplish anything in places like the US you are going to have to work with people who don't have hammer and sickle profile pic.

I tend to identify with ancom theory, but I am trying to learn more about the founders of the communist movements. I don't really know enough about Stalin, Che, Castro, Mao, or the DPRK etc to make what I consider an informed judgment on them. As one can likely imagine, it is hard to find neutral viewpoints on these polarizing subjects, so if anyone knows a good resource for related writings, I would appreciate the referral. The (admittedly small amount of) reading I have done tells me that I agree with Marx and Lenin in many regards, but I tend to ideologically favor Trotsky to Stalin. Which is not to say I think he would have been better, particularly in historical context with the rise of fascism in Europe. Alternate History (I think is the channel name) did a great analysis on that particular subject imo.

2:32 must be the stalinist soap dispensers in every bathroom of my high school, DAMN COMMIES!

As an anarchist, I couldn't agree more. I disagree with many actions taken by the USSR and other past socialist experiments, but they must be criticised and analysed as what they actually were with the understanding of context and nuance. Even we as anarchists can learn much from where the USSR went wrong, and where they were correct, and everything in the murky shades of grey inbetween. At the end of the day, even as a hard-line anarchist, I'd rather fight to have a second USSR than more of the same neoliberalism.

I, more or less, squealed when I saw that you had uploaded. I want to thank you for making videos. Your videos have really helped me in terms of class consciousness and I am eternally grateful. Thank you Comrade.

"even their memory stirs fear into the ruling class"

I'm a black American Marxist, and I can guarantee you that you are 1,000,000% correct that this is an overwhelmingly white, Western trend.

I don't condemn the USSR because it's convenient, I don't condemn the USSR because I'm a sectarian, I don't condemn the USSR because it failed. The reason I condemn the USSR in SOME contexts is because it poorly reflected the will of the people, it engaged in western-style imperialism, and it abandoned its original goals quickly. I don't champion the USSR because it killed kulaks, I don't champion the USSR because it killed capitalists, I don't champion the USSR because the US government opposed it. The reason I champion the USSR in SOME contexts is because it helped radically improved living standards for the average Russian, it liberated many oppressed peoples in many ways, it defeated the Nazis and it paved the way forward for leftists of future generations. There are a million more reasons to condemn or support the USSR. There are similarly many reasons to condemn or support almost any leftist society.

Damn LOTS of great videos today, very cool

this video challenged my thinking in a lot of ways. i've been hugely humbled. thank you.

Amazing video! I wish more people here in the US where I live were like you. I wish I could support you on patreon but this Coronavirus pandemic is crushing me :(

Your channel is one of the only, where i feel like i'm learning something

Cuban-American Socialist here, I’m not a Leninist, I never have, and I can say with certainty that I never will be, I was an anarchist and for the most part I still am, though I’m currently arriving at a sort of blend of orthodox Marx and anarchism more akin to the Zapatistas; I will outright say that the 1959 Cuban Revolution has brought some good to the country, my own Grandfather fought in it, he was taught how to read by Che Guevara and the revolution gave him and his family a home in Havana, it’s probably safe to say that if the revolution had not happened I might not have been born, my own mother who risked her life and suffered psychological torture in a Cuban prison for attempting to leave the country 3 times will admit that there were positives to the revolution such as a vastly improved healthcare and education system, but calling the Island a “socialist” country would be reaching, most businesses are state owned and “democracy” is a stage play, and western accusations of human rights abuses are NOT merely propaganda, my own parents were illegally imprisoned without being formally charged after they attempted to leave the country for the second time; now, does that mean that I believe my own people, the family that I have living there right now deserve to get shit on by the Yankee empire? Of course not, the embargo must be lifted, it has failed in toppling the government and only succeeded in harming the innocent Cuban population, do I think that the Cuban Government is awful and that the Revolution failed? Yes; one only needs to look back at how it began repressing other leftist groups (chiefly anarchists who formed a majority in the labor movement) that played a large role in the 26th of July movement by imprisonment, closing down their publications, and forcing them into exile, Nationalizing trade unions and businesses while cracking down on strikes and labor agitation, the real Cuban Revolution, the revolution of the actual people, of the workers was suffocated by party bureaucracy.

I mean lets be honest Hakim, Western Leftists and Liberal posing as Leftists have absolutely lost the plot. The global Left would be better off honestly.

Thank you for making this video! I hope anarchists watch and listen to it!

Very fine, dude. I’ve been studying this stuff for forty years but rare is the exposition on the question as concrete as this was. Very nice work. I came thru the anarchoid/trot/libertarian schools myself, indeed, only broke with them after the catastrophic collapse of the socialist east in the early 1990s. Anyway. Well researched.

Im an organized marxist-leninist and i always get called a fascist and insulted by liberals and even other leftist when i mention anything positive about Stalin or the USSR. Trotskyites and opportunistic socialists have no rooting in materialism and dialectics, the line that they cannot organize a reading circle let alone a successful revolution was much too accurate

“The day after the revolution they get up and say, “But are their civil liberties for the FASCISTS??” -Chad Parenti

Great video man! We should stop beign in the defense always, they should have to justify their positions to us just as we justify ours to them.

OH SNAP! HAKIM’S JUMPING OFF THE ROPES!! ELBOW FROM THE SKY!!!

This reminds me of an interesting analyses I read: anti stalinism is really anti third world liberation. Before Lenin's internationalism (such as his support of Indian anticolonialism and independence), many European socialists supported colonialism as a "civilizing project". Imperialist socialism was mostly rooted in how to more equitably disburse colonial surpluses amongst European workers. That's the intellectual core of ultraleftism.

I learn a lot from you from every video. Thank you very very much.

Hakim, thank you a lot for making this, I really needed some help with dealing with this modern ''communist'' anti-USSR and all old communist states mentality.

For me, there's two reasons for my somewhat doing this First, is rhetoric. Ussr sympathy is bad optics, to be reserved to leftists circles. Any redicalization to center-left people I might have contributed to could never have happened without first denouncing that which they see as evil. Second, is family history. My entire family has lived their lives in the Ussr. I've heard of what life was like. I just can't possibly support it without feeling like I'm actively dismissing my family's hardships.

You're doing the same thing you claim the other side is doing by painting all left "anti-communists" as malicious, spineless or ignorant "stooges" in the one-dimensional way you did. I'm generally not a fan of the Bolsheviks (especially not Stalin) or Mao, but despite that I still hold nuanced views on them and their movements and countries... plenty of other non-ML leftists I know do. Based on some of your other videos, I suspect that if we chatted we would agree on quite a bit, even regarding them and their successes and failures, and the reasons for them, so I wish you were more willing to be nuanced with your takes here, as well. I don't see you all as my enemy or as fools, and I wish you didn't do the same for us, either. Also, there are plenty of us who consider ourselves communists, without subscribing to Marxism-Leninism. Your phrasing and positioning make it seem like that is not possible.

Western comrade here to say i support this content my dude. Its cool to see an international perstective on western imperialism. Would love to hear a leftist perspective on events in Iraq to help counter capitalist propaganda in the USA. Potential video idea?? Good luck in all your endeavors comrade and keep up the great work!

Just when I had a little shitslinging with a certain someone claiming that MLs somehow are not communists. Thank you Hakim.

As a communist, and as much as I’m sure you will declare me as supposedly one of the people you describe in your video, I will say there is a lot of water to the statement that even by 1922 the RSFSR was already doomed to the fate it would succumb to 70 years later, along with a number of the real criticisms to be made about some fairly horrible actions taken by even relatively early Soviet administrations. A party dictatorship is not and cannot be a dictatorship of the proletariat. I understand the state of the proletariat following the civil war at the time and what caused most of the parties to no longer be valid, but in the end there was an explicit vote to abolish a multi party system, and power like that does not just go away. I am well aware that the diversity permitted within the CPSU held a greater range of ideas than most liberal democracies today, which I do not defend in any way, but both systems are woefully inadequate at truly being dictated by the proletariat. In the end, I think a common understanding among the far left and among communists that we have to accept to form a system where we are all allowed to participate in the running of society on equal footing is what I am in the end truly after. A future in which whatever particular tendency succeeds is the only specific tendency allowed to participate (plus the small other gamut of groups considered similar enough to run within their party) is not one in which the left is most likely to co operate with itself except by force, which is never a stable long term solution.

I respect this! On the one hand we must respect and hold up the good works of past socialism, and on the other we must denounce their wrongdoings and failings, as with essentially every historic group or individual! I think I was going to say something that would essentially amount to implying that some or many ML's don't do the latter, but that's just simply untrue going just by your own work. Keep at it!

So pleased you cited Parenti :)

I love the blackshirts and red book. I've been reading it over the past few weeks.

As a left anitcommunist, I don't expect "PERFECTION", I'd be happy with no genocides, a modicum of civil rights, and the ability to have a say in political matters. HTF do you see the Holdomor or Katyn massacre and be like "Oopsie, I guess nobodies perfect lol"

Your book recommendations are always fulfilling! Thank you, Comrade!

I recently read Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism. I was surprised that a book defending the policies of various republics within the USSR was written by such a conservative social democrat. On almost every page it abjures the 'horrors of state socialism' and the 'crimes of stalinism', and at a few points it even rejects the 'clunkiness' of central planning, just to make it clear the author isn't even a democratic socialist. All the while praising Scandinavia, etc. Still, I found it highly illuminating and I recommend it strongly to everyone.

Michael Parenti signed my copy of BLACKSHIRTS & REDS here in Seattle, 1999.

Their rhetoric is identical to anti communists. It especially irks me when they insinuate that their revolution will be the real socialist revolution, all the previous are basically irrelevant or a totalitarian hellscape.

Hakim posted, what a good Ramadhan

My favourite expression for them is "their hands are clean....for they have no hands".

In all sht he did, Orwell did writte "Homage to Catalonia", which brought me here! So there can be some good from him, altho I doubt he would agree with me

I am a Libertarian Socialist and Even though I regard state socialism as flawed, I don't specifically shit on all past successful socialist experiments and discourage people of similar ideology from doing it so. It is still much better than authoritarian capitalism, when the state at least gives most essential needs to their people like shelter and work, so talking shit on them is counter productive and overall aint useful.

Great video comrade, you're getting better and clearer in your ideas!

I'm quite perturbed. I've been more radical before than I am now, I've been shifting towards socdem wording and attitude. The complex and contradictory part is that I respect you quite a lot, and deep inside I agree with most if not all arguments and logic of what you're saying. I think the thing here is related to faith, and having my shit together. When I was more suicidal I defended more radical stances and argumentation (positions and beliefs that I still have, although these days they're more like left inside a chest). I kind of lost faith in a leftist future as I kind of began seeing reasons why we won't make it, in a defeatist manner, not necessarily that I don't believe in the successes made on socialist experiences. Although I believe I have been intoxicated to a degree by capitalist propaganda. But I think the strongest reason why I've been fading from real leftism is an extremely egotistical one, that I can't apologize for. I've been getting better from my depression, getting my life in small tracks for the first time ever. I've been happier than ever, and I'm enjoying friends and trying to do and explore things in life. In the past I got paralysed frequently and I was suicidal mostly because of how horrible things are in the world. Things are getting bearable now. I'm still learning how I can't expect to solve the world by myself, and now I don't believe that humans can coordinate and win this fight globally, against such elaborated weapons and structure. I think I basically sacrificed the fight in exchange for a life that I could pretend is good. Capitalism is ingrained so much that destroys me to imagine and see everything it does and we have to face and combat. I also think about the social isolation, most people I love are people that fit your criticism, I certainly can't change all minds and keep myself and interests protected. I think that I'm developing a belief that the only way to have friends, and not freak out and kill myself, is trying to be a filthy socdem reformist. I never had this talk with myself, I'm shook and catatonic. I truly believe you're right in your criticism, but I think maybe I'm too weak to do different. Simply can't apologise for this compliance. How fucked up.

I really gotta thank Comrade Hakim for this video and the criticism you provide by it. After a long time bouncing somewhere between a liberal/social democrat and a Communist, its clear to me that i am with all my heart and mind a communist. Therefore last year i joined the ranks of a Revolutionary Socialist Group and read as much marxist theory as i can, parallel to my philosophical literature for my planned path into Academia. Now this video really challenges me in my thinking about my so far held conclusion and i love it. I instantly recognized myself in your criticism to some extend (demonizing stalinism etc.). And boy, there is a lot of re-evaluation i gotta do to develop the perspectives for the revolution and the socialist experiments so far in my organisation and my argumentation for international communism itself. This was really helpful and i hope i can bring some new perspectives, tactics and a clearer theoretical approach forward and out to the proletariat "for they have nothing to lose but their chains." To all my fellow comrades here on this channel, who have not lost hope yet. I am honored to be in this fight with you.

It's incredibly telling that not once did you quote Chomsky and Orwell, given that most (if not all) of the positions you attribute to them are false.

For me as an citizen of an former communist country, that is Romania, for us communism was poorly applied, because our communists were very stupid at appling it. We are also stupid at appling capitalism, but that is an other discusion.

7:50 "...what some may _deem_ "authoritarian", which is a meaningless phrase by the way..." Dude come on.

Hi Hakim my name is Jamshid I am from Kerala, India. I have been following your channel for a while and i must say this channel is awesom. As you recommended i read Blackshirts and Reds. In the book there is a chapter named Communism in Wonderland. In this chapter Parenti points out the problems that were in the USSR. Mainly lack of consumer products(even if there were they were not of high quality). Lack of incentive for workers to work. All these problems stem from the inadequacy of a centrally planned economy. My question is how can we remedy this? Do we need to introduce markets like china did? What is the way forward?