Video description:

In this episode of the 1Dime Radio podcast, I am joined by Donald Parkinson, co-host of the Cosmopod podcast and , editor and chief of Cosmonaut Magazine, a non-sectarian Marxist magazine that analyzes revolutionary strategy and encourages open-minded dialogue between communist factions.

Being in the center between ultraleftism and rightist communism, Donald does not fit into the categories of the classic leftist factions and their associated tropes. Avoiding dogmatism while still being an unapologetic revolutionary Marxist, Donald offers a good-faith critique of Marxism Leninism today that MLs and all leftists could learn from.

This podcast serves as a friendly critique of Marxism-Leninism today and the ideology of “anti-revisionism.” In particular, we critique ways in which Marxist Leninists and Maoists approach history and questions surrounding the Soviet Union, China, and “Actually Existing Socialism.” We critique Marxist-Leninist historiography by critiquing Grover Furr, a writer who is frequently cited by MLs as to why Stalin “did nothing wrong” or that all of the atrocities in the USSR did not happen or were inevitable.

While it is easily to dismiss the rising popularity of Stalinism as just a bunch of online “Tankies” (A term which has been bastardized by liberals), we believe it is important to take Stalinist trends on the left seriously and study history in a way that does not regress into binary thinking.