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Lenin's "The Defeat of One's Own Government in the Imperialist War" | GZD Reading Group | Week 12, 2024
(lemmygrad.ml)
We're starting off with a very short one for the first week. This text was published in 1915, two years before the October revolution, and is sadly still highly relevant in the imperial core.
This reading group is meant to educate, and people from any instances federated with Lemmygrad are welcome. Any comments not engaging in good faith will be removed (don't respond to hostile comments, just report them).
You can post questions or share your thoughts at any time. We'll be moving on to a new text next week, but this thread won't be locked.
You can read the text here.
Saying it again doesn't make it true. "nuh uh" is not a valid argument.
I think you need to (re?)read Marxism and the National Question. (I probably will) You seem to be crossing ethnicity and nationality. Ethnicity has nothing to do with national identity so I don't know why you bring it up.
The entire ukraine conflict is because there were 2 national groups within the state of ukraine and one of those nations wished to eliminate the other. The banderites illegalized the Russian language because they wanted a single national identity within the borders of ukraine. That is what all nationalists want. That is why nationalism is dangerous because it leads to the subjugation and elimination of minority nations by forced assimilation, first by legislation then by violence.
Its impossible to say whether Lenin would have supported Russia in this war but he would have stood with the Donbas republics pre 2022. I imagine he would have frowned on them inviting Russia to annex them but if the alternative was pogroms (it was) I think he would understand.
We can look at the writing of past marxists but they didn't write on the possibility of a capitalist state fighting an expansionist war against a mono-polar capitalist imperialist order. Dialectical materialism is not a religion it is a practice. You have to analyse each situation as it arises you cant just accept written words as dogma.
There are several Socialist Nations who have clearly chosen the side of Russia. The DPRK don't fucking miss a beat and they side with Russia. China is usually pretty quiet about international politics that don't involve them but they are clearly siding with Russia. Cuba also puts the blame on usa and nato expansionism.
Do you doubt the judgement of the professional Marxist academic theorist in the Communist Party of Cuba CPC and WPK to all be wrong? That's a bold line to take.
As for the national character of hong kong and tiawan, its irrelevant to this discussion because they are nothing like the DPR and LPR were because they haven't declared independence from China.