Revolutionary Practice Research Articles

Marxism-leninism: the Ideology of Twentieth Century Communism- A Philosophical Reading from Gramscian Perspective

This article explores Marxism-Leninism, the dominant ideology of 20th-century communism, through a philosophical lens rooted in the thought of Antonio Gramsci. By analysing Gramsci's critique of hegemony, state power, and cultural domination, this study re-examines Marxism-Leninism's theoretical foundations and practical applications. Gramsci’s perspective provides a critical assessment of the ways in which Leninist vanguardism and centralized authority both fulfilled and diverged from classical Marxist theory. The article delves into the tensions between the Leninist approach to revolution and Gramsci’s more nuanced understanding of class struggle, civil society, and cultural hegemony, highlighting the implications for revolutionary praxis. This Gramscian reading allows for a reappraisal of the successes and limitations of Marxism-Leninism, particularly in its ability to address the ideological and cultural challenges of maintaining socialist states during the 20th century. Ultimately, the paper argues that Gramsci’s insights offer valuable critiques and alternatives to the orthodoxies of Marxism-Leninism, opening pathways for rethinking communist ideology in contemporary political context.

The implications of Maoist thoughts and the Chinese revolutionary praxis for a British New Left writer—Raymond Williams

The implications of Maoist thoughts and the Chinese revolutionary praxis for a British New Left writer—Raymond Williams

Contra solidarity: revolution and counterrevolution in the united states and nicaragua

ABSTRACT This article explains how the Contra War was shaped by interaction between revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries both before and after Nicaragua’s 1979 revolution. In successfully overthrowing the Somoza government, the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) built a multilayered revolutionary coalition out of the fractured Nicaraguan politics created by the Cold War developmental state. In response to the FSLN’s successful solidarity politics, the US government, from the beginning of the revolution, through the Contra War in the 1980s, applied a diverse set of tactics that drew inspiration from the successes of Nicaragua’s revolutionary practice in order to undermine the revolution. This adaptive response helped radicalise Nicaragua’s revolution, widened support for the Contra War, despite adverse US and global public opinion, and made possible the unravelling of the Iran-Contra Affair.

江西宁都红色资源特征及其可持续发展对策研究

As the political and military center in the early stage of the Central Soviet Area, Ningdu in Jiangxi was one of the command centers and main battlefields of the anti encirclement and suppression war in the Central Soviet Area. It was the famous birthplace of the Ningdu Uprising and the birth of the Red Fifth Army Corps, and is known as the “cradle of the Soviet Area”. Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Wang Jiaxiang, Ren Bishi, Xiang Ying, Deng Xiaoping and other older generation proletarian revolutionaries carried out arduous and magnificent revolutionary practices in Ningdu, Jiangxi. Through long-term revolutionary practice and struggle history, they have accumulated rich red resources. This article categorizes the basic types of red resources in Ningdu, Jiangxi, and analyzes their typical characteristics such as wide distribution, diverse forms, spiritual education, and political distinctiveness. It also proposes sustainable development strategies such as firmly establishing the correct concept of protection and development, exploring resources to promote the construction of red cultural brands, extending the red resource industry chain and increasing the integration of business formats, and using full media to increase the publicity and promotion of red resources.

Enacting the Anti-fascist Body: Somaterapia as Collective Liberatory Becoming

I introduce the practice of somaterapia (somatherapy), an eclectic synthesis of Gestalt therapy, capoeira Angola, anti-psychiatry, collective trust exercises, radical pedagogy, and anarchism developed as an anti-fascist practice aimed at healing the violence of oppressive forms of social organisation as they manifest in bodies. Somaterapia takes an immanent and materialist view on what constitutes a body, eschewing mind-body dualisms and transcendent forms of organisation in lieu of an affective somatic reality. The fascisms somaterapia thus seeks to eliminate are not just the macro-fascisms of the political milieu, but also the micro-fascisms that stem from and reciprocally enrich these, forming blockages of libidinal energy or tesaõ that affect everything from our thoughts and our posture to how we treat ourselves and how we treat each other. In this sense somaterapia has much in common with the enactivist view of cognition. Like somaterapia, enactivism sees brains, bodies and environments as complex, reciprocally presupposing imbrications of nested autonomous systems sustaining themselves through the maintenance and exploration of ongoing adaptive tensions between self-production and self-distinction. Viewing somaterapia through the lens of enactivism thus allows us to potentially enrich the anti-fascist potential of this revolutionary practice. 1

The Evolving Study of Revolution

As the practice of revolution has evolved, so too have theories of revolution. Much of the current literature on revolutions focuses on contentious processes. But a need exists to take a more holistic approach—one that better incorporates history, thinks across divides in the literature, contemplates what precedes and follows revolution, and places revolutionary processes and the structural factors that underpin them into dialogue with one another.

Marx and Engels' Educational Thought and Its Innovation and Practice in the New Era

The educational ideas deeply explored by Marx and Engels in revolutionary practice have strong vitality and important guiding significance. In the context of the new era, socialism with Chinese characteristics further enriches the educational ideas of Marx and Engels, emphasizes the cultivation of morality and clarifies the purpose of education; At the same time, traditional cultural education has been highlighted, and the role of education in cultural inheritance and spiritual construction has been played; The distribution of educational resources has been balanced, and educational equity has been improved; Education reform is also constantly deepening to cultivate innovative talents with innovative abilities. Therefore, we must always prioritize education as a strategic development priority; Deepen the reform of the education system and mechanism to promote the healthy development of education; Strengthening the construction of the teaching staff to safeguard the improvement of educational quality; Emphasize the joint efforts of the Party, government, society, schools, families, and individuals in education.

The rise and fall of Marxism in Ethiopia: a critical analysis of emancipatory paradigms

The article identifies three factors that contributed to the failure of Marxist ideology as a paradigm of emancipation in Ethiopia. In a nation that is defined by a complex process of nation building and centuries of interdependence among different cultural backgrounds, Marxism was introduced as a revolutionary practice that promises a radical break with the past. Through an analysis of the historical context within which such an ideology was introduced in the Ethiopian context, it will be argued that Marxism failed to provide an alternative epistemic foundation for an emancipatory practice since it was trapped under an elitist thinking, was developed as a conception of instrumental modernization that is antithetical to existing values and also constituted a utopian ideal that was not grounded in a proper historical consciousness. With the recognition that Marxism failed to serve as a foundation of an emancipatory practice in Ethiopian soil, there is a need to look for a new paradigm of emancipation that is grounded in a social ontology that is cognizant of the complex history and the relations of interdependence that gave birth to Ethiopia’s contemporary predicaments and has the capacity of hosting a public sphere that can develop dialogical encounters.

“Woman , Life, Freedom”: The Emergence of an Inclusive Definition of Iranianness

Since the advent of the modern nation-state under Reza Shah, the Persian language has appeared as the most permanent foundation of nationalism and its drive to uniformity. Westernized nationalism intended to erase ethnic identities in favour of Persianity. Under the Islamic regime, Islamist/nationalism has intended to crush non-Shi’ite religious identities. Aspirations of religious/ethnic minorities to full citizenship rights have been shattered by all-out discrimination, securitization and Shi’itization that have impeded the completion of the nation-state building project. The ongoing revolution in Iran with women at its forefront that expanded to various social groups, ethnicities, genders and religions across the country, has challenged this model of power. The revolutionary practice has spread demands for the separation between religion and state, and is leading to the emergence of a new inclusive definition of Iranianness. It has also led to the rise of an intersectional consciousness according to which democracy, freedom and social justice are closely intertwined with gender, ethnic, religious, sexual and class equality. The most effective way to resist efforts that overlook potential collective action is to place the marginalized at the center.

Fundamentos do processo de trabalho em terapia ocupacional: uma abordagem analítica a partir do diálogo entre Terapia Ocupacional Social e Saúde Coletiva Latino-Americana

Abstract Introduction This paper presents an analytical approach to occupational therapy practice grounded in historical dialectical materialism. It understands occupational therapy professional practice as work within a capitalist system, and thus subject to analysis through the labor process theory. Objective To propose an analytical approach to occupational therapy practice aimed at supporting the development of an emancipatory practice framework based on the dialogue between Social Occupational Therapy and Latin American Collective Health. Method Utilizing emancipatory action research methodologies, this study conducted 10 workshops with 10 occupational therapists aimed at collective knowledge production. Results Human activity is identified as the object of occupational therapy working process, defined by the category work in its ontological dimension. Radical participation is set as the intended product of this process, which entails engaging in efforts to transform the social determination of collective living conditions. The individuals in this process include occupational therapists and the followed-up individuals, groups, and/or communities, all viewed as social beings collaborating toward social transformation. Four theoretical-methodological tools are identified: emancipatory analysis of human activities, emancipatory proposition of human activities, operationalization of radical participation, and interventions in the social fabric. Conclusion Occupational therapy, as a form of social practice, offers a specific contribution to the development of a collective revolutionary praxis. This praxis, aimed at realizing a concrete utopia, seeks to generate the means to create a new society.

On the Revolution

The Cuban Revolution is construed as a discursive formation, searching in its evolution — and in its connection with an evolving revolutionary praxis — the causes of its weakening and/or survival. A balance is drawn at three crucial moments: crisis, resistance and creation. The mechanical identification of Revolution with State has impoverished the revolutionary discourse. The deeper meaning of the Revolution, in connection with a renewed praxis, needs full restoration. To overcome the imbalance or dissociation between the various dimensions of the Revolution, the effort must concentrate on transforming the current state of affairs through the intervention of popular forces, i.e., the inaugural factors of the Cuban Revolution itself.

The Strategic Positioning and Implementation Path of Red Cultural Resources in the Civic and Political Education Curriculum of Colleges and Universities

Abstract Red culture is an excellent cultural achievement formed by the Chinese leading people in long-term revolutionary practice, and it has become an indispensable content of ideological and political education in colleges and universities with its high value and rich connotation. Based on the strategic positioning of red cultural resources in the curriculum system of ideological and political education in colleges and universities, this paper designs the teaching path of red cultural, ideological, and political courses and implements it. It also constructs an assessment system to evaluate the quality of teaching in red culture and civic politics and proposes the use of the particle swarm algorithm to optimize the index assignment method in hierarchical analyses. Then, the fuzzy comprehensive assessment method is used to assess the teaching approach’s implementation effect. The implementation of the teaching path resulted in medium-high assessment scores for the teaching content, teaching method, and teaching effect, indicating the effectiveness of the red culture and civics teaching path. Students’ learning attitudes were significantly improved (3.5 points) compared with those before teaching (2.26 points), and it was found that the scores on the ideological and political quality test of the students who were taught with the integration of red resources were significantly higher than those of the traditional classes (P<0.05). This paper is critical for integrating cultural resources from the red minority into ideological and political education in colleges and universities.

THE IMPERIAL HAIKU COMMISSION APPROVES THIS MESSAGE’: AN EXAMINATION OF AUTOMATED PLAY AND CULTURE AS (RE)DESIGNED BY BOTS.

This paper examines a community called Subreddit Simulator on the social media platform Reddit. It is a digital space where human and social bot co-exist on an ontologically equal footing to co-create culture, community and a sense of 'play'. We recognize this community as a pioneer community against a larger backdrop of deep mediatization. With the recent attention given to bots such as Chat GPT it is imperative that we do not overlook communities in which progressive and revolutionary practice has been happening for years. This extended abstract proposes an ethnographic approach to viewing the Subreddit Simulator community while the longer form work will bring the ethnographic results to bear to discuss philosophically the opportunities and implications of reimagining networked spaces in a less human-centric manor.

Universalism in Unevenness: Writing History at the Hill

This essay explores the discourse produced in Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) as part of an intellectual genealogy at the University of Dar es Salaam and Rodney’s involvement in a political landscape that was global in nature. The author proposes that the book offers a methodology of writing history, both in terms of the periodic expanse of such a history and positing the historical problematic. She argues that Rodney produces a universal history insofar as universality is assumed in the social relations of exploitation and consequently solidarities of revolutionary praxis globally. This necessitates a further interrogation into the historical question that, the author posits, in Rodney’s work lies in deciphering the spaces of contradictions and crisis.

Verso of the “Vulgar” Portrait: Georgi Plekhanov’s Anti-Kantianism and Activist Aesthetic

This essay examines Georgi Plekhanov, founder of the Russian Marxist movement and a supposed exemplar of “vulgar Marxism.” It analyses Plekhanov's formulation of a Marxist aesthetic, interrogating the widespread image of Plekhanov's “vulgar” focus on economic determinism and his neglect of cultural forces' influence on revolutionary praxis, locating him instead within a fuller history of Marxist thought. A contextualization of Plekhanov's fin-de-siecle writings on art demonstrates that these texts were effectively a component of his contemporary polemics against critics of Marxist theory, and that within them he was pursuing his polemical agenda of criticizing Kantian philosophy and defending Marxist materialism. These dual aims manifested in Plekhanov's rejection of the Kantian notion of aesthetic disinterestedness and a stress on the formative role class conflict exerted on artistic creation, ultimately resulting in his formulation of an original aesthetic theory prescribing political commitment and thus mobilizing artworks towards revolutionary ends.

Scientific and legal principles of determining the territorial boundaries of cathedral Ukraine in the light of revolutionary practice (1917–1920)

Formulation of the problem. Recently, issues related to the history of the implementation of the idea of Ukrainian unity have become extremely acute in ideological life. Along with statements about the absence of the phenomenon of the Ukrainian nation, denials of the fact of the existence of a full-fledged statehood of Ukraine, Russian politicians and some scientists are promoting misleading statements that the current Ukraine was the result of unfortunate mistakes of the leaders of the previous stages of social development, turned out to be a conglomerate of artificially "glued together" in the information space. a territory with an ethnically heterogeneous,or even simply predominantly non-Ukrainian, population. The purpose of the article is to highlight the chronologically first attempt at scientific and practical-political determination of the natural boundaries of territories with the predominance of the Ukrainian ethnographic element as an objective, fair, convincing criterion for their regular composition into a single national-state space. Using the methods of scientific objectivity, concrete-historical and analytical comparative research, the processes of ideological-theoretical and legal substantiation of the concepts of achieving Ukrainian unity in the times of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the times of the Central Council and the Directory, the Hetman's Ukrainian State and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1917-1920) are reproduced yr.). On the basis of the available documents and real facts, the picture of the implementation of interconnected concepts of the Ukrainian national-democratic revolution and the unification of the branches of Ukrainianism, which had been dispersed until then, is being reconstructed. A convincing conclusion is made that the observance of clear, principled guidelines for the ethnographic principle, as an unshakable legal basis for the formation of an independent cathedral state, brought undeniable practical results, while neglecting this principle, replacing it with other,mostly opportunistic approaches, ended without results. Key words: Ukrainian revolution, national unity, ethnographic principle, national territorial autonomy, independence, regionalism, separatism, Act of Zluka.

Советское. Проблема целостного рассмотрения

The phenomenon of “Soviet” is multifaceted and unique in history. Having a huge content and correlated with the categories “society”, “state”, “power”, “man”, “culture”, it requires not only consideration in its constituent parts, but also in its entirety. Therefore, it is viewed as a concept created on the basis of the Bolsheviks (Leninist) interpretation of Marxism opposed to the Mensheviks (Plekhanovs) interpretation, which was adapted to the conditions of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Its main point was an attempt to create a path of the country development excluding its capitalist stage and accelerating the transition from feudalism and early capitalism to communism. In the revolutionary practice of the Bolsheviks this was expressed as the development and the implementation of the policy of “war communism”. However, the phenomenon of the Soviet would not have been possible without a specific state and quality of Russian society and person shaped by history, in particular without the habit of obedience formed as a natural defensive reaction against the autocratic power that dominated the country for five centuries, possessing the tools for this domination. At the same time the Soviet also had a positive content originating in Marxism and finding the possibility of its realization in the “new” person, formed by the Bolsheviks on the ruins of the destroyed old society in one way or another involved in private property. Deprived of historical memory, indued with the constructed Soviet consciousness, the “new” man was the main force who received the benefits of the new system, who overcame fascism and retained faith in the Soviet way of being until it was completely lost, and who was disappointed in hopes that never came true.

Հայ Ժողովրդական կուսակցության հիմնադրումը / Creation of the Armenian People's Party

One of the political parties that have played an important role in the life of the Armenian people since the last quarter of the XIX century by the efforts of the intelligentsia united around the newspaper "Mshak", the Armenian People's Party was founded in Tiflis on April 11, 1917: The NPA convened two congresses: the 1st in 1917. September 24-28 in Tiflis and the 2nd in 1919 in September in Yerevan. They adopted two programs and the party charter elected by the Central Committee and the Central Bureau of 23 people (Chairman Mikael Papajanyan). The first NPA program was confirmed, that in a short period of time, a political party it was separated from the Russian cadets and stood on national land. NPA is not a revolutionary practice, a peaceful, gradual reform, he was a supporter of a parliamentary, legal, democratic state. The people recognized the superiority of national interests over class interests. The NPA recognized Armenia and the Armenian people should there is only one principle-Armenian orientation.

Ambiguity, Contingency, and Dominance: Decolonizing Theories of Modernity

Abstract Focusing on the work of Johann P. Arnason and Peter Wagner, this article examines in its first part recent sociological, non-linear and contingency-sensitive ways of engagement with modernity, which refer to different levels of socio-historical configuration (civilization analysis vs. world sociology) and attribute different significance to normative questions. While both authors acknowledge the entanglement of European and non-European cultural worlds as well as its power dynamics, they still fail to fully grasp and theorize the devastating role of colonialism, which today is still felt in the marginalisation and even erasure of knowledge, perspectives, ideas and experiences from the ‘non-West’. Their approaches also lack a serious engagement with post- and decolonial scholarship. The second part of this contribution presents decolonial thinking as a theoretical and normative-political project. Theorising modernity from ‘beyond’ invites us to ‘break the Western code’ (Mignolo) and engage with modernity from a perspective that is grounded in different epistemologies, philosophies and social imaginaries, ultimately questioning autonomy and mastery (over humans and nature) as basic premises or axioms of Western modernity. As a normative-political project decoloniality is future-oriented and, focusing on the temporally, spatially and socially contextualized acting subjects and collectives, aims to rebuild a polycentric world and establishes ‘pluriversality as a universal project’ (Mignolo). The Zapatista movement in Chiapas (Mexico), representing a new understanding of the revolutionary subject and the revolutionary praxis, illustrates how indigenous groups and (urban) Marxists can come together as equals, learn from each other and negotiate how to change the world in discourse and practice.

Ambiguity, Contingency, and Dominance: Decolonizing Theories of Modernity

Abstract Focusing on the work of Johann P. Arnason and Peter Wagner, this article examines in its first part recent sociological, non-linear and contingency-sensitive ways of engagement with modernity, which refer to different levels of socio-historical configuration (civilization analysis vs. world sociology) and attribute different significance to normative questions. While both authors acknowledge the entanglement of European and non-European cultural worlds as well as its power dynamics, they still fail to fully grasp and theorize the devastating role of colonialism, which today is still felt in the marginalisation and even erasure of knowledge, perspectives, ideas and experiences from the ‘non-West’. Their approaches also lack a serious engagement with post- and decolonial scholarship. The second part of this contribution presents decolonial thinking as a theoretical and normative-political project. Theorising modernity from ‘beyond’ invites us to ‘break the Western code’ (Mignolo) and engage with modernity from a perspective that is grounded in different epistemologies, philosophies and social imaginaries, ultimately questioning autonomy and mastery (over humans and nature) as basic premises or axioms of Western modernity. As a normative-political project decoloniality is future-oriented and, focusing on the temporally, spatially and socially contextualized acting subjects and collectives, aims to rebuild a polycentric world and establishes ‘pluriversality as a universal project’ (Mignolo). The Zapatista movement in Chiapas (Mexico), representing a new understanding of the revolutionary subject and the revolutionary praxis, illustrates how indigenous groups and (urban) Marxists can come together as equals, learn from each other and negotiate how to change the world in discourse and practice.