starkillerfish

Arsen Ostrovsky is a human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum.

Mmm yes human rights expert here to tell you why human rights dont really count this time

I wrote a short baby leftist reading list a while back which might be useful!

1. Principles of communism (Engels). https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm Explains the history of capitalism and what communism is in very basic terms.
2. Wage labour and capital (Marx). https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/ The very very basics marxist economic theory. Like a taster of Capital.
3. The three sources and three component parts of Marxism (Lenin). https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm Super short essay by Lenin on the key concepts of marxism to tie everything together.
4. Imperialism (Lenin). https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ We live in the world of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism. Lenin in many ways predicted the 21st century evolution of capital.

Extra reads:

• Classic: Communist Manifesto (Marx+Engels). https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ If you want to know what all the fuss is about.
• Feminism + Liberation: Women, Race & Class (Davis). Connects socialist feminist theory and black liberation theory. One of my favs of all time.

Yup!

The amount of people was unreal. I think that's quite a few more than previous years

i am pro website brutalism ( pretty cool website i found that collects this aesthetic https://brutalistwebsites.com/ )

Very cool achievement. Wondering how space exploration will look like post ISS + how space exploration cooperation will look like.

just some thoughts from my readings. if anyone has corrections ill be happy to edit.

5. I would be wary of the idea of innovation for innovations sake. If you do want to point to things, I'd point to the USSR space program. There are also numerous nobel prize winners for specific scientific discoveries. Also the internet in the US was government funded. The basic idea of innovation in capitalist mode of production is that the risks of development are taken on by the public (taxes paid for research, eg. vaccines), but the technology and profits are appropriated by the capitalist class.

6. Depends when, but in later stages of the USSR you could make a small business. But to me the question is: what exactly do you want to pursue? If you have an idea how to improve a specific product you could petition to work at that specific department. Making new products would be under the jurisdiction of the relevant GOSPLAN department.

7. Essentially correct, except there were complex (and patchwork) systems in place for purchasing and distribution of produce.

8. There were penalties in place if you refused to work (fines, visits by authorities). You dont lose housing (you are always assigned one) or medical care (free) or payment for family (women worked in the USSR too + childcare was available), but you could get in serious trouble. The question here is also: why would you refuse to work? If you didn't like your workplace you could fill paperwork to be reassigned. You had vacation days etc. So a refusal like that would probably be seen as a sign of distress.

9. Not easy to answer in a paragraph, but the basic gist is that after Mao the CPC changed quite a bit and saw the introduction of foreign capital and market reforms as a necessity for progress. I think the current CPC position is that they are building up productive forces before moving on to the next stage of socialism.