For our first class recorded in 2023, we study the history of left deviation in the Communist movement along with some passages from Lenin's "Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder".
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Literature Used in the Class:
Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder by V. I. Lenin
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Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:27 Opening remarks by PCUSA General Secretary
1:23 Section 1: What is Ultra-Leftism?
2:51 Examples of Ultra-Leftism
3:22 History of Ultra-Leftism: Origins - 1850s to 1920s
4:45 History of Ultra-Leftism: Trotsky & The Left Opposition
6:04 History of Ultra-Leftism: Maoism
7:55 Why can't peasantry be revolutionary vanguard? (Q&A)
9:47 Chinese Ideology was Developed by their Material Conditions (Q&A)
11:30 Ultra-Left & Ultra-Right both oppose the Center of Marxism-Leninism (Q&A)
13:09 "Trotsky poses as a left, helps the right" quote (Q&A)
13:23 What is anarcho-syndicalism (Q&A)
15:12 Does Ultra-Left have veneer of authoritarianism? (Q&A)
16:13 Is Hoxhaism Ultra-Leftist? (Q&A)
18:11 Section 2: History of Ultra-Leftism: New Leftism
20:44 History of Ultra-Leftism: Current Day
23:29 Anarchists attacked PCUSA in California; Experience with Red Guards (Q&A)
25:04 To what extent did an industrial proletariat exist at time of Chinese revolution, what did they view them as? (Q&A)
28:18 Chinese revolutionaries didn't have access to urban proletariat (Q&A)
29:01 History of anarcho-syndicalists and trotskyists in Minneapolis (Q&A)
30:17 Anarchists, Ultra-Leftists cannot stop the rise of fascism (Q&A)
31:17 Critical Theory is a post-modern deviation that is ideologically driven (Q&A)
32:23 What does PSL believe? Is Trotskyism a form of fascism (Q&A)
35:04 Is there a particular class element to all of these deviations? (Q&A)
37:57 Section 3: Reading of "Left-Wing Communism - An Infantile Disorder"
48:02 What is the direction that the Chinese Communist Party is taking today? (Q&A)
50:35 On Ultra-Leftist nature of idea of "Settler-Colonialism" (Q&A)
51:32 Is Xi Jin Ping taking China in a more socialist driven direction? (Q&A)
55:17 Section 4: Continued reading of "Left-Wing Communism - An Infantile Disorder"
1:04:32 How and when do we compromise with the bourgeois today? (Q&A)
1:06:35 Believe China is unquestionably socialist (Q&A)
