This was a lecture delivered by Liu Shaoqi in 1939. You can read a transcription here. Since it’s a longer text, we’re preliminarily allocating two weeks for it.
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), as will off-topic comments.
You can post questions or share your thoughts at any time. When we move on to a new text, this thread won’t be locked.
I am only halfway through, but I can tell this is an excellent description of what Communists should be like. I love the emphasis on revolutionary morality and unity. I need to say, though, that many of our comrades fail to follow a fundamental principle that is universal to all Communists, and they should scarcely be called such: the practice of mutual aid and the renunciation of individualist tendencies. Marxist-Leninists constantly emphasized their deep longing for a Communist world free of exploitation and any forms of oppression. Although many of us come from different countries with particular conditions, this feeling is universal.
However, many of us in the West seem to put our selfish interests above the interests of those in need. Most refuse to practice mutual aid, preferring to buy this or that junk instead of using that money to help others. Indeed, a 60$ video game is more important to them than assisting others and satisfying the basic needs of those less fortunate or treating themselves to a vacation whose funds could have been used for something actually useful. Any money that could have been used to help the struggling proletariat is wasted money.
“Ridiculous,” they will reply, “you can’t expect us to sacrifice our hobbies and vacations for the interest of the starving proletariat.” That’s precisely what I expect, and to them, I say, then maybe don’t call yourself a Communist and stop tainting our movement with bourgeois interests. Of course, they excuse this bad behavior by claiming they organize and show up at protests, which for them is enough. But they are only fooling themselves by doing so. They reject the Marxist-Leninist principle of being a Communist in every facet of our daily lives and are not the benevolent leftists they pretend to be.
If you think I demand too much out of you all, think again. Successful Communists all sacrificed pursuing selfish nonsense in order to serve the proletariat, but our Western Communists, instead, prefer to serve themselves.
A major reason our leftist movement in the West is unable to take off is that we are being held down by individualists, who are corrupted with bourgeois desires and choose not to assist those in need and, thus, are against the current interests of the domestic and global proletariat. My comment is done in good faith and it is not my intention to deny the validity of any Marxist-Leninists. I only wish to make some at least do self-criticism.