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How could the Soviet union with such well developed counter intelligence miss Gorbachev and Yakovlev and the numerous large scale sabotages during the last years of the USSR ?
I mean the KGB was the most well developed intelligence agency,they had numerous informants everywhere and a number of infiltrated agents.
YET they missed Yakovlev,for whom we for sure know was a western spy recruited when working as a diplomat in Canada(the head of Kgb in 1987 literally warned Gorbachev for his unsolicited contacts with westerners)
Nobody of those hundreds of thousands of people ever lifted a finger to stop the collapse.And when thay did they were so few and disorganized that they were easily crushed ?
WHY ?WHERE WAS THE GRU ?WHERE WAS MVD AND INTERNAL TROOPS ?
HOW could they miss Gorbachev and allow the sgady deaths of Chernenko etc ?
https://redd.it/1lxdhfp
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Massive "Free Palestine!" crowd kicking off this year's Sanfermines festival in Pamplona, Spain
https://redd.it/1ltsct3
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Bi-Weekly Discussion Thread - (July 06)
We made this because Reddit's algorithm prioritises headlines and current events and doesn't allow for deeper, extended discussion - depending on how it goes for the first four or five times it'll be dropped or continued.
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* 'Slow' events - long-term trends, org updates, things that didn't happen recently
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[ Previous Bi-Weekly Discussion Threads may be found here https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3AWDT ]
https://redd.it/1lsnrsc
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Taiwan, the island soon became an affordable and reliable hub for the bike manufacturing industry.
this is it. Another case of core producers began to outsource its unprofitable manufacturing processes to the third world. From the same article;
> Taiwanese companies and entrepreneurs soon figured out that they could do as good a job for themselves and could cut out the middlemen. Companies such as Giant rose to prominence early in the Taiwanese outsourcing game, primarily as OEM (original equipment manufacturer) suppliers to the major western bike brands.
> With their ever-improving technical excellence, these companies progressed rapidly in both capability and in their own economic terms, and some also struck out on their own in tandem with their OEM productions – and stand-alone brands such as Giant and then later Merida emerged.
> Even so, many of the Taiwanese OEM makers are smaller concerns that either do not make products under their own name, or only do so in certain smaller market sectors around the world – to avoid clashes of interest.
This parallels with Thailand where OEM makers created during the late 80s in order to supply auto parts to various Japanese monopoly automakers. They're going to explain to me why Southeast Asia is so radically "different" than the so-called Tiger.
Now we're going to the 90s;
> Meanwhile, the entire trade infrastructure of the Pacific Rim region was dependent on the production of containers, ships and port infrastructure, which composed a new geographical hierarchy of logistics hubs dominated by export-processing zones and gargantuan container ports. It was within this context that the opening of mainland China was made possible.
This explains why the industrialization of Thailand and China occurred in the coastal regions, and where the relationship between South China and Taiwan and HK began to develops. Such regional maldevelopment is a feature of modern-day "value-based" imperialism, not a bug.
> The second major turning point was the Asian Financial Crisis, which began in Thailand in 1997. The profit rates of Thai manufacturing, construction and services had all begun to decline as early as 1990. Far more dependent on exports than the Japanese, South Korean or Taiwanese precedents, manufacturing had begun to confront both vertical and horizontal limits due to its position in global trade hierarchies. First, Thai firms were unable to successfully implement labor-saving technology, preventing them from moving up the value chain. Second, they were caught in a “realization crisis” that grew in intensity throughout the 1990s, in which Thai producers were unable to secure sufficient shares of market demand in the face of rising competition, particularly from China. The stagnation in Japan also meant that consumer demand in Asia’s largest economy plummeted. The US and Europe thereby became the most important export markets, and competition for access to these markets increasingly became a zero-sum game. With the Chinese share of the US import market growing from 3.1 percent in 1990 to 7.8 percent in 1998, Thailand’s stagnant, meager share of 1.4 percent throughout the same period was evidence of this “realization crisis,” and, paired with rising wages in manufacturing, led to the rapid growth of speculative investment in banking, insurance and real estate, similar in character to the Japanese asset bubble.40
Looking from this alone you would think there was a underlying structural problem within the Thai manufacturing that left Thailand unable to upgrade industrially, in fact it was the crisis within the Japanese monopoly capitalism (also known as the Japanese asset price bubble burst) that left Thailand vulnerable to China's "rise". But it doesn't mean Thailand wasn't on the way to the "Tiger" status. I disagree with their conclusion.
> Meanwhile, the Chinese currency reforms of 1994 had the effect of devaluing the yuan but not floating the currency entirely, further enhancing Chinese competitiveness while also retaining a moderate level of insulation from
A review of Chuang's "Red Dust" (in regards to Thailand and the Asian financial crisis)
Since I've post a review of Chuang's journal Red Dust on the discussion thread and no one is responding to me, felt shitty but not surprising. The casual readers here are all white people who don't know anything about Asia except half-assed readings or sayings about China from shitty Dengist subs, content creators, and beyond. Now I'm going to expand a review of the essay and my problem with it, and I want to hear your contributions. I will begin by addressing the problematic discourse regarding the Chinese diaspora in SE Asia;
> Often called the “bamboo network,” Everywhere these migrants went, they continued the tradition established in the Ming Era, founding their own (usually family-based) conglomerates to facilitate trade, mining, agriculture and light industry across Southeast Asia.
As a Thai "Chinese" the "bamboo network" is frankly a racist myth. Not only these "Chinese" capitalists were, and still are, competing with each other on different national borders, they literally go to war with each other (Indonesia vs Malaysia for example). There's no unity just because they share the same ethnicity and they are now the backers of the petty-bourgeois anti-China sentiment (the petty-bourgeoisie are often of Chinese descent themselves). The specific relationship between the "bamboo network" and China didn't take its place until the 90s (where the relationship between South China and Taiwan/HK become central to its capitalist restoration), these were all retroactive inventions that didn't exist during Mao or even the first Deng era. We are now going to Thailand and the beginning of the "Fifth Tiger";
> As previously seen in the cases of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, much of this growth was facilitated by the patronage of the US military in the region. This is particularly true of Thailand, which provided both combat troops and a series of military bases for American use during the war in Indochina. Between 1950 and 1988, the US provided “over US$1 billion in economic and US$2 billion in military assistance,” with the bulk of this flowing into the country during the war years between 1965 and 1975.[53\] The relative weight of this aid becomes clear when compared to total FDI, which was a mere $1.18 billion between 1961 and 1980, growing to $6.88 billion in 1981 to 1990 and $5.05 billion in the handful of boom years between 1988 and 1990.[54\] The $3 billion of direct aid received between 1950 and 1988, spurred by military interests, compares to some $8 billion in FDI over roughly the same period. Through the bulk of American military involvement in Vietnam, total US aid roughly equaled Thailand’s entire budget of foreign reserves (from 1965-1976).[55\] The relative importance of direct military patronage only decreased when Japanese FDI began to pour into the Thai economy following the Plaza Accord. While US-originated FDI had composed 45.1 percent of Thailand’s total in 1965 to 1972, compared to 28.8 percent for Japan, these figures were reversed by the early 1990s (see Figure 4 above). Between 1987 and 1995, Japanese investment composed 31.6 percent of the total, and the US share dropped to 13.2 percent.[56\]
This should put the "anti-communist frontier" theory into the dust bin. Thailand was just as an "anti-communist frontier" state as South Korea and Taiwan and yet it didn't follow the latters in building heavy industry (all along until the mid 80s). I think the real cause lies elsewhere, particularly the latter's mover advantage in relationship to the restructuring of Japanese monopoly capitalism (which focus on the historical territories of the empire) and global capitalism. As the first chapter perfectly explains the real cause of the Japanese technology transfer;
> But these trade transfers did not happen in a vacuum. Within Japan, they were a response to overproduction, demographic limits and the
When Race Burns Class is really useful in understanding modern MAGA fascism.
https://kersplebedeb.com/posts/raceburn/
https://redd.it/1lr5yo4
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Court suspends Thailand’s PM pending probe over leaked phone call
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/court-suspends-thailands-pm-pending-case-over-leaked-phone-call
https://redd.it/1lp7irr
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What is your opinion on the NPA of the Philippines?
By NPA I mean the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the communist party of the Philippines.
My grandfather actually used to be a member during the 70s-80s (maybe even 90s?) so i’m trying to learn more about them. But, there seem to be a lot of negative opinions, i’ve seen people say they are terrorists (though i don’t usually believe when people say this shit because i’ve seen a lot of groups and people being called terrorists but i agree with what they are fighting for and how they’re fighting for it). i’ve also seen people say they have disturbed the peace and hurt, caused trouble or have killed innocent civilians, i’ve also heard people say they are not real communists.
So i’m just wondering what everyones opinion
https://redd.it/1lk997o
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In imperialist countries, should communists resist funding-cuts to education?
In imperialist countries, should communists resist funding-cuts to education?
Im not quite sure that I even want Americans to be educated (particularly in STEM subjects).
* I dont want the Silicon Valley nor the NSA to have competent data scientists and software engineers.
* I don't want the US Military to have competent medics, geological analysts, military analyts, or biological-weapons researchers.
* I dont even trust your ruling class to have climate scientists (because they dont use the science for climate restoration, they use it to predict zones ideal for destabilization & exploitation).
* I don't want your oil tycoons to have access to so many petroleum engineers.
* I don't want the CIA to have competent bilingual/bicultural spies.
* I don't want your weapon's contractors to have competent engineers. I dont want USA to have so many astrophysicists because ultimately many of them work for drone/mussile programs, satellite surveillance technologies, or even the militarization of space.
* etc. etc.
The weakening of imperialism is necessary for the viability of revolution in the Global South (and will create revolutionary conditions in the imperial core itself). Dont get me wrong, I'm not arguing that Western Communists should just go along with austerity. But when it comes to education in particular... why should we push against the tide on this issue?? Isnt our political energy better directed elsewhere?
https://redd.it/1lizws4
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Pro and cons of wild cats - example: 1970 postal strike
https://industrialworker.org/power-to-the-postal-workers-the-wildcat-strike-of-1970/
https://redd.it/1lilnmt
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özgür gelecek statement regarding Isreal-Iran war
https://ozgurgelecek55.net/politik-gundem-emperyalist-isgallere-siyonist-saldirganliga-fasist-katliamlara-karsi-birlik-mucadele-zafer/
https://redd.it/1libxa1
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The Migrant Genocide: Toward a Third World Analysis of European Class Struggle
https://mronline.org/2025/06/18/the-migrant-genocide-toward-a-third-world-analysis-of-european-class-struggle/
https://redd.it/1lhgvfh
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What Was Political Economy?
https://desperatetimes914496456.wordpress.com/2025/06/20/what-was-political-economy/
https://redd.it/1lh5cou
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Online socialist groups?
I want to join some socialist and left-wing groups, but I'm pretty socially awkward when it comes to being in-person, are there socialist groups on the internet I can go on?
https://redd.it/1lfmh9h
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History of Red-Green electoral alliances
These formations seemed to be pretty common beginning in the 1980s in Western Europe but not so much anymore, is this wrong? Are there any good histories on the subject, online or in print?
Another aspect that is curious to me is that even though they appeared to be a natural outgrowth of "Eurocommunism", they were obviously were not limited to Moscow-line parties. In the fissile world of left politics this seems to be an unusual characteristic.
https://redd.it/1lfi5dw
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Nationalism in Vietnam (a Socialist country) – a fundamentally anti-Socialist force
Today, patriotism in Vietnam is gradually being corrupted into nationalism, even though Vietnam is a Socialist country led by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).
Nowadays, young Vietnamese barely understand what Socialism or Communism really is. Despite Marxism-Leninism being part of university curricula, it is largely ineffective. Patriotism has morphed into nationalism and chauvinism.
Vietnamese youth—especially Gen Z—are the most heavily indoctrinated by nationalist thinking. Many support the government unconditionally, regardless of right or wrong, while another large group elevates their own nation and demeans others. They often claim that Vietnamese history is best history, that past military victories make Vietnam's army "invincible" by default, best army.
They call themselves Communists, but in reality, they are nationalists. It’s only because they were born and raised in a Socialist country that they confuse national pride with Socialist support.
Worse yet, many believe that modern-day Russia is a Socialist state, and that Putin will restore the USSR. They hate China but also irrationally hate Mao Zedong (when the true object of criticism should be Deng Xiaoping),...
They equate loving the nation with loving the regime, and anyone who holds different views is instantly labeled as a "pro-South Vietnam" sympathizer—often using slurs like “3 que”, “đu càng”, or “khát nước”, among other nonsense.
https://redd.it/1luhc3a
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Field Surgery: The Avakianite Organizational Line In Our Movement
https://classpartisan.wordpress.com/2025/07/06/field-surgery-the-avakianite-organizational-line-in-our-movement/
https://redd.it/1ltao2y
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currency speculation. FDI into Thailand hit a trough in the same year, and when it recovered, the bulk of investment was in real estate, rather than manufacturing. All of this was facilitated by a wave of liberalization and deregulation measures encouraged by the Thai state. Restraints on the financial sector were lifted and, most importantly, faced with mounting debt
The liberalization of the South Korean financial system happened in the same time despite its relative level of development to Thailand. This should tell you that this was a structural pressure by the global capital to "liberalize" all the way until 1997.
> Though growth and investment in China also declined, the worst of the crisis was avoided. The US remained a strong export market (and would become even more important after its own dot-com bubble) the yuan was protected from rampant speculation, the profit rate of manufacturing remained robust, and, most importantly, all of China’s major regional competitors were essentially eliminated.
This is it. Once the crisis happened and the US-led global capital's hunger for centralized manufacturing that allows the "rise" of China and therefore eliminates Thailand from this stage. This resulted in Thailand's never-ending economic stagnation and political crises. Now us Thai communists must figure out on how to do revolution and overthrow the frankly neocolonial capitalism in Thailand alltogether.
https://redd.it/1lrewlr
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declining profit rates that followed. Each cycle of restructuring was preceded by a decline in the net profit rate of manufacturing (in 1960-1965, 1970-1975 and the late 1980s onwards),[70\] and each trough was preceded by overproduction in the core industries and the reaching of key demographic limits. The textile industries, for instance, had been founded on the rapid expansion of the female workforce. But by the mid-1960s, this labor surplus was reaching its limits and, combined with inflationary pressures, women’s wages began to rise.[71\] By the end of the 1960s, the remaining pools of cheap, under-employed rural labor had begun to shrink precipitously, and between 1970 and 1973 nominal wages in manufacturing rose some 63 percent: “For the first time in the entire history of over a century of Japanese capitalist development, capital accumulation became excessive in relation to the limited supply of labour-power.
Now we're going back to Thailand;
> Exports from Thailand to Japan increased over the same period, following a pattern seen across Southeast Asia, where trade balances (imports minus exports) with Japan (as well as South Korea and Taiwan) were negative and tended to become more imbalanced after 1985. More importantly, this imbalance was itself a signal of the inequalities built into the supposedly win-win sequence of “flying geese” industrialization. In reality, both the Tiger Economies and the booming Southeast Asian countries were part of an emerging Pacific Rim hierarchy, shaped by US military interests and economically dominated by Japan, which was locked in a competitive symbiosis with the US economy. In the East Asian Tigers, this hierarchy would play out via conflicts over the sharing of intellectual property and high-tech market shares and production techniques.[58\]
this part ignores that the majority of actual R&D and IPs still reside in the first world, the "Tiger" economies did not come any closer to any actual technological innovation that Japan or the US spearheaded. That being said the part about the "flying geese" is correct, it was a bullshit term that invented in Imperial Japan and it was resurrected during the 1960s. The obvious hierarchy is embedded with the expansion of the Japanese-led Asian manufacturing production despite the rhetoric (notice the modern-day Chinese "win-win" propaganda with backwards countries in Africa or Asia).
> In Southeast Asia, the regional inequalities were much starker. Each sequence of industrial restructuring and technology transfer in the region had been accompanied by a growing reliance on imported technologies and components, as well as a decreasing reliance on import-substitution as a driver of domestic development. By the time that a major wave of restructuring hit Southeast Asia, much of the incoming FDI took the form of highly mobile firms utilizing cheap labor without transferring substantial ownership of advanced technologies to capitalists in the host countries--or doing so very selectively. This has been characterized as a somewhat “technologyless” industrialization, particularly pronounced in export sectors, which tended to be both geographically concentrated in export processing zones, dominated by foreign-controlled firms (in Malaysia, such firms contributed some 75 to 99 percent of major exports) that built very few backward-linkages to domestic enterprises.[61\]
While this is somewhat correct in SE Asia, it ignores that there were attempts among these SE Asian countries to upgrade their industries (Proton in Malaysia is one of the major examples). It even ignores that this so-called "technologyless" industrialization is what was happened in Taiwan, one of the "Tiger economies. Here's an example of its famous bicycle industry;
> As bike-building excellence was honed, these Japanese manufacturers in turn moved their production to Taiwan and elsewhere in search of even lower rates. By exporting their management and manufacturing expertise to
Mamdani’s Train is Running But Blacks Wonder if There is Space for Them | Black Agenda Report
https://www.blackagendareport.com/mamdanis-train-running-blacks-wonder-if-there-space-them
https://redd.it/1lrdjh4
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Thoughts on Muammar Gaddafi
I've always been interested in the Gaddafi period of Libya, and I'm interested in what others have to say about it. Mostly because I'm torn between what he did good and his goals, versus the torture and executions he did.
What do you think?
https://redd.it/1lqmdib
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Trump and Zionist 'New Middle East' billboard advertises ongoing plan for new nations joining the Abraham Accords, including 'Free' Syria, absolute monarchies and Sisi's comprador regime.
https://x.com/ME_Observer_/status/1937983830473982303
https://redd.it/1lkilc9
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UN reports warn that resettling thousands of hardened fighters in Syria could transform it into a hub for exporting (wahabbi) terrorism
https://www.telesurenglish.net/opinion/warning-against-normalizing-extremist-groups-in-syria-and-future-regional-risks/
https://redd.it/1ljkddj
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Want to research the Cuban Revolution — where should I start?
I'm diving deep into the Cuban Revolution and looking to build a solid base for research both the historical and ideological sides. I'm not interested in surface-level takes or simplified narratives. I want to understand the contradictions, the class dynamics, the internal debates, and the broader international context (especially U.S.–Latin America relations and Soviet involvement).
Books, documentaries, films, series — I'm open to anything, as long as it's critical, well-researched, and helps me see the bigger picture. I’m also curious about perspectives from inside Cuba vs. outside. What were the best sources that helped you go beyond the usual “Castro and Che” storyline? Also, if anyone has advice on lesser-known primary sources, I’d appreciate that too.
Thanks in advance!
https://redd.it/1lin88h
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What does it mean to be a socialist, or communist?
Like how much of a difference is there between the two, if there is one.
https://redd.it/1lik5be
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Why are most socialist and some communist movements involved in activism that criticize selective activism hardly mentioning minority killings in Syria?
Genuinely dumbfounded by the lack of coverage in movements on the new US-backed Syrian regime's complicity in atrocities and sectarian/pro-Israeli stances, normalizing killings and not actively cracking down on wahabbism in Syria. Druze, Christians, Shia and Alawi have been consistently kidnapped, tortured and killed in many parts of Syria for seven months straight. Now the Orthodox church bombing in the capital, Damascus. Lime this is insane.
I get it . Far-righters like to use this to sanitize the nationalistic bourgeois regime of the Ba'ath party. Still, does it really not get under their skin to see the brutality? Are most liberals and leftists seriously trusting of Al Jazeera alone for their Middle-Eastern and Levantine politics and news? Why do you all think this is happening?
I believe we should be way more vocal about these horrendous occurrences. Like genuinely mindblowing, active ignorance.
https://redd.it/1li8p8m
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Bi-Weekly Discussion Thread - (June 22)
We made this because Reddit's algorithm prioritises headlines and current events and doesn't allow for deeper, extended discussion - depending on how it goes for the first four or five times it'll be dropped or continued.
Suggestions for things you might want to comment here (this is a work in progress and we'll change this over time):
* Articles and quotes you want to see discussed
* 'Slow' events - long-term trends, org updates, things that didn't happen recently
* 'Fluff' posts that we usually discourage elsewhere - e.g "How are you feeling today?"
* Discussions continued from other posts once the original post gets buried
* Questions that are too advanced, complicated or obscure for r/communism101
Mods will sometimes sticky things they think are particularly important.
Normal subreddit rules apply!
[ Previous Bi-Weekly Discussion Threads may be found here https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3AWDT ]
https://redd.it/1lhaggp
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book reccomendations about art and ai
I recently had an argument with a friend about the role of art and AI in a Marxist society. He claims that artists are the bourgeoisie because they own the means of production. He also claims that AI is useful because it allows those who do not have artistic skills to create art, so it makes it easier for the working class to become artists. As far as I know, yes, artists are not the proletariat, but they are not the bourgeoisie either. AI, while useful in some ways, in a capitalist society is used to exploit workers. The argument that AI's existence makes it easier for the working class to create art is at odds with the fact that it is currently exploiting workers (artists) by stealing their creations. So, I am looking for books about art and AI from a Marxist perspective. I'n not good with theory and haven't read much besides Marx so I would like to know what is the correct stance in marxist perspective about this. I would like to know if my friend is right of if I'm wrong.
https://redd.it/1lfvz7s
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Good Books/Documentaries on the History of the Iranian Revolution?
Just the title. Anything that goes into how the current regime operates too would be helpful. Ideally I'd like to watch a documentary/YouTube video that isn't just complete garbage western propaganda. Anything from a communist angle would be a bonus too.
https://redd.it/1lfjg2r
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What are we doing other than protesting and speaking amongst ourselves?
I dont want a discussion, this is just a question for you to ponder Comrade…
https://redd.it/1lfgtju
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