Revolutionary Leftism with Breht O'Shea

planted: 31/08/2022last tended: 03/09/2022

Breht O'Shea on the left in general, but Leninism and a bit of Maoism in particular.

~00:17:17 Leninism is very much focused on the 'how' of revolution.
Breht says something like - once you've realised capitalism is harmful; once you've realised that socialism is a better alternative; you might start thinking, how do we actually get socialism in place? You'll pretty quickly then get to Leninism.
Discusses Maoism. Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution. O'Shea suggests that portrayals of Mao as a genocidal leader are fallacious. Definitely (huge) mistakes were made, but not as a deliberate program of terror.
And Stalinism. Says sort of similar as above. That Stalin was not simply a cartoon monster, and that a lot of what is said about him is propaganda. But that he also oversaw many terrible things. My gut finds O'Shea too sympathetic but hey I don't know the history well, so maybe I have just been propagandised.
~01:06:51 The importance of theory, the important of organising, the need for both.
~01:09:11 Is economics a science? Crudely, historical materialism is the 'science' of Marxism. Dialectical materialism is the philosophy.
~01:21:09 Capitalism and fascism.
~01:42:33 Your projects need to be situated in a bigger movement. Class consciousness etc.
~01:45:54 Recommends Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, The State and Revolution and The Wretched of the Earth.

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