Vijay Prashad, "Lenin and the Route to Anti-Imperialism"
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- Опубліковано 9 тра 2024
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This event took place online on Monday, April 22. It was co-sponsored by the Centre for Marxian Studies at Jadavpur University and the Critical Theory Workshop. Gabriel Rockhill chaired the event.
For more information: jadavpuruniversity.in/academi...
criticaltheoryworkshop.com/
Vijay Prashad never disappoints. Always a pleasure to hear his thoughts on complicated issues that are cogent and comprehensive.
Lenin and the Route to Stalin and the Route to The Entire GULAG Archipelago. Millions of miserables of Mother Russia Anti Imperial Hogwash Intelligentsia!
What a racket Vijay Prasad is, always mute about the millions of innocent people killed, sentenced to life, and frozen and starved by Lenin and Stalin.
Instead we must bow down to the same failed system via this pathetic Intelligentsia..
That was good and at the age of 71(today two days after this) I am writing notes. Vijay, thank you!
You’re still young and inspirational to us Millennials!
Never stop learning and improving!
Many happy returns, comrade
Lenin and the Route to Stalin and the Route to The Entire GULAG Archipelago. Millions of miserables of Mother Russia Anti Imperial Hogwash Intelligentsia!
What a racket Vijay Prasad is, always mute about the millions of innocent people killed, sentenced to life, and frozen and starved by Lenin and Stalin.
Instead we must bow down to the same failed system via this pathetic Intelligentsia..
13:21 - “....the war starts in 1914, and doesn't end till 1945, there's a slight in interregnum, there really isn't World War I and World War II, it's the same War....” Thank you for saying this, Vijay. I've been saying similar for several years now, and get plenty of push-back. In fact, Vijay doesn't go far enough. The way I see it, the first Balkan War was where the war began -- in 1912. In that war, Britain wanted to test the strength of the Ottoman Turks, but didn't want to put their own access to oil in jeopardy, in case the Turks proved victorious, so it goaded other countries to break away from the Ottoman Empire, and talked Greece into joining the war, in order to test the naval power of the Turks. The Ottoman Empire lost territory when it lost in that war, and it told Britain that the Turks could be beaten, so Britain devised a scenario that set the conditions for what we now call WWI. So it's more accurate to say the war began in 1912, not 1914. But more than that, the war not only includes the Balkan Wars, World War I & World War II, it also includes the Cold War, and the Post-Cold War -- the War is still going on today! -- 112 years later. This is the second hundred-years war.
Interesting 🤔
Who are the two sides of this then?
@@hansfrankfurter2903 At least with regard to the 20th century wars, this was a war to determine where the epicenter, the political center, the core of the core, would be between the imperialist countries. Not just how the colonial spoils will be divided, but who would administer that division. In the 1900s/1910s there were several legitimate (at least in their elites' minds) hopefuls in the running, but by industrial output it was already pretty clear they were on the comparative decline. In the 1930s it was much clearer who would be serious contenders in the finals round, and the others were rapidly eliminated from the running when Germany made its moves.
So the prime runners were in both wars the U.S. and Germany. The U.S. needed Germany defeated -- it was not a complete given that the following years were going to be the American Century.
Consequently, the U.S. had a strong interest in making sure Germany was defeated -- much stronger than its immediate interest in breaking the Soviet Union. To put it in older terms, the liberal/capitalist order had to clean house, complete its warring states period, and establish its king/emperor, so to speak, before it could go on crusades to conquer its more permanent enemies, the infidels. In fact, the infidels were quite useful to this end.
It's said that U.S. policymakers had a policy of waiting the war out and helping out whoever was coming out on top, but I think they would have joined against Germany no matter what.
I believe Parenti said capitalism survives because it always has socialism to bail it out. In this case, it had communism to fight its war.
It's always great to find Vijay.
🌃Love hearing from Vijay⭐
Wow what a collaboration. Really interesting bravo Gabriel and Vijay. 👏
I think I caught on your cold,Vijay!Seriously,this is great stuff.Respect to your interlocutor!
I hi hi U.N. TV by
So deep for me
O
Vijay Prashad - time to remember the original antiimperialism-fighters.
Vijay Prashad is a champion of the masses. Keep up the good work sir!
Oh hell yeah
Two of the best teachers!
Truly.
Yeah, Vijay ✊ absolutely vital discourse for the present moment
Thank you so much for this enlightening discussion. I hope VJ is feeling better.
I'm glad I found this channel, it seems like a channel that's serious about discussing Marxism/communism/socialism (whatever you want to call it) and staying on just that topic.. no social media drama discussion.
Very refreshing to have found this channel
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:19 *🗣️ Introduction toay Prashad and his scholarly work*
- Mentions Prashad's essays on Lenin's anti-colonialism and self-determination
- Highlights his insightful public commentary and scholarly writings
01:02 *🌎 Advancing class struggle and union activity in the US*
- Notes a new auto workers union in the US South
- Student encampments against the war in Gaza
- Signs of increasing activity in the "wretched imperialist center" of the US
01:53 *💐 Reflecting on Lenin's extraordinary life and work*
- Amazed at Lenin's vast body of theoretical and practical work in just 50 years
- Not only did he produce seminal writings, but also led a revolution and built a socialist state
03:04 *📚 Importance of Lenin's post-revolution writings*
- Over half of the "Selected Lenin" book covers his post-revolution period
- This period was crucial as he grappled with building socialism amid imperialism
03:32 *🚫 Lenin settled debates on liberalism and colonialism*
- He conclusively refuted liberalism in works like "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back"
- "Development of Capitalism in Russia" settled the debate on colonialism and capitalism
04:27 *🏛️ Lenin settled the question of the party's nature*
- "What Is To Be Done" clarified the party's centralization, democracy, and discipline
- Discipline meant political education, not blind obedience
05:08 *🏗️ Incomplete project of building socialism*
- Lenin didn't fully theorize the limitations of building socialism before his death
- His last writings grappled with this unfinished critique of the socialist state
06:14 *❌ "Imperialism" pamphlet is incomplete, not a full theory*
- The pamphlet analyzes a specific conjuncture, not a general theory of imperialism
- It's an error to treat the pamphlet as a complete theory in the Leninist tradition
28:21 *⚔️ Hyper-imperialist militarization of US foreign policy*
- The US sees the world as "nails" and wields its military might as the "biggest hammer"
- Instead of development projects, it increasingly relies on militarizing conflicts
- It threatens countries commercially engaged with China as "national security threats"
29:28 *🔥 The US provoked the Ukraine war via NATO expansionism*
- Russia's actions were in response to US/NATO provocations like the Maidan coup
- US unilaterally withdrew from nuclear treaties, escalating tensions with Russia and China
- This is a hyper-imperialist conflict imposed on defensive powers like Russia and China
30:22 *⚠️ Warning against treating Lenin's work dogmatically*
- Lenin's pamphlet analyzed a specific conjuncture, not a general theory of imperialism
- Blindly applying it as a general theory to today's conditions is anti-Leninist
- We must build theory from facts, not repeat analyses devoid of concrete conditions
31:58 *🙌 Honoring Lenin by building on his methodological approach*
- Lenin was a comrade, not a religious god to blindly worship
- We honor him by taking his methodological, conjunctural approach
- Not building theory from facts leads to strategic and tactical errors
32:42 *💫 Appreciating Prashad's dialectical historical analysis*
- Prashad encourages a dialectical, conjunctural understanding of history
- Avoids idealist history with fixed epochs applied rigidly across contexts
- Sees Leninism as a methodological approach, not dogmatic repetition
34:42 *🚩 Hyper-imperialism and the objective conditions for socialism*
- Lenin saw imperialism creating objective conditions for socialism's achievement
- In this hyper-imperialist moment of US desperation, do conditions for socialism emerge?
- Prashad's view on the contradictions of hyper-imperialism is sought
54:51 *🔄 Questioning the 1991 periodization for neoliberalism*
- Neoliberal transformations and bourgeois realignment with imperialism started before the Soviet collapse
- The formal 1991 dissolution may not be the best demarcation point from a historical materialist view
- More nuanced argumentation is needed for this periodization
56:04 *❓ Exploring the nature of neo-fascism*
- Unlike classical 20th century fascism, neo-fascism is more dispersed beyond the imperial North
- Is it simply a tactic to implement neoliberalism or reflective of deeper social conflicts?
- The structural relationship between neo-fascism and neoliberalism needs examination
57:14 *👺 Neo-fascism as the "double" of neoliberalism*
- Historically, fascism emerged to defend the bourgeoisie against the rising left/worker movements
- Neo-fascism picks up neoliberalism's victims, reinterpreting their abandonment
- It protects neoliberalism from critique by shifting blame to political forces like Clinton/Congress
01:01:09 *🌐 Varieties of neo-fascism based on national/regional particularities*
- Neo-fascist forces have distinct origins in Eastern Europe, US, India, etc.
- Their grievances stem from humiliation, abandonment by neoliberalism in specific contexts
- A more granular analysis of these national/regional nuances is needed
01:04:04 *🔁 Reconsidering the 1973 starting point for neoliberalism*
- The suggestion to consider 1973 as the beginning of the neoliberal period is valuable
- It may have two starting points - the 1970s policy agenda and post-1991 political confidence
- The analysis could be enriched by examining this dialectical periodization
01:07:00 *🌐 Transnational corporations and changing corporate landscape*
- Need more analysis on the shift from nation-based to multinational/global corporations
- Their multi-sited productive units alter underlying conditions of the conjuncture
- This could provide a helpful additional layer to the conjunctural analysis
Made with HARPA AI
Thanks, a great thought provoking and insightful discussion.
Manna from materialist heaven!
Materialism is a self-defeating ideology
Great discussion ❤
Respects,Gabriel!
Vijay is a geopolitical/historian scientist. He’ll always give you an education.
Love your work,Vijay!
Great!✊
Excellant
I enjoyed listening to this. Cheers
Great lecture...... truly interesting and educational 👍
Great.........
I love this bloke!
#LONGLIVERESISTANCE
Thank you!
Dude Vijay tore you apart man… he knows you can take it. Good for you for not letting it get to you,
More please! Thank you. Much needed discussion and analysis. ¡Viva Lenin!
Michael Huidson's 1972 book, especially the most recent third edition, "Super Imperialism" is essential to understanding of U.S. imperialism today. I would say there were two historic periods between the end of World War 2 and the beginning of the third great capitalist depression in 2008. The Bretton Woods, welfare state period of 1946-71, followed by the Reactionary Capitalist offensive against the Western welfare states and the communist states of Eastern Europe, 1971-2008, misnamed "Neo-Liberalism." Capital didn't just undo progressive taxation and public welfare spending, circa 1971-2008. It did away with any effective financial regulation, and criminal prosecution of financial crime. It's a "human right" in the West to allow criminals to loot banks and rob bank customers, with effective financial sector regulation being an intolerable imposition of "authoritarian big government". Great Depressions need to be called Capitalist Great Depressions. There was no great depression in the Soviet Union during the 30's, just as there is no great depression going on in China since 2008. Planned economies that aren't weighed down by the debt over head Capital places onto the backs of Labor don't have great depressions.
Who doesn't know already that Lenin's work on Imperialism was meant as an explanation for the Great War (WW1).
You'd be surprised.
Whether it was intentional or not the so-called 1914-1918 anglo-saxon war was put on the back burner with biological warfare (Spanish Flu). The Slavs kept fighting Poland-USSR, Italians-Ethiopia, U.S.-Latin America etc. In 1945 the U.S. melded into the Fourth Reich continuing to use NAZI's in Ukraine besides the rest of the world. The USSR had to fight in Ukraine through 1953 because of the collective west (NAZI American Terrorist Organization NATO) CIA, NSA etc. Nuclear Weapons became a fascist magic bullet brought about by mostly physicists from the fallen Austro-Hungarian Empire. The USSR did not need to continue military spending by 1980's while Reagan envisioned a space force/ star war silliness ignoring 1972 ABM treaty that Governor W Bush negated and U.S. continued military spending for SDI and forever wars.
yeah cause everyone is a middleaged white guy....
@@LaLasta Touché!
First-World Ultra-'Leftism' is pervasive in English-language social media. On the ground however not so much.
cadre = cad ray
Thank you, gentlemen
Hope always have a transcript for later reading nad discussion here in PH😅
Vijay Prashad is bae 💖💖 looking forward to this discussion
Since my name is Gabriel, I pretended Vijay was talking to me :3
The subordination of Europe began in 1919 with the World War I reparations.
I love Vijay and Gabriel. We (the left) should also be discussing that we are in the middle of freefall ecological collapse, due to ecological overshoot, as we speak. Sadly the left never seems to address this seriously. I agree that capitalism must be replaced. But we also must be realistic that we're also facing societal collapse and potential NTHE (Near Term Human Extinction) in the next 20-50 years.
Why do you believe that socialists don't adress this? That was most of the discourse pre 2022
There are Marxists that focus on this, too. Kohei Saito and John Bellamy Foster are two. Another interesting thinker that viewed exchange-for-profit as a process of cost-shifting was K. William Kapp, The Social Cost of Business Enterprise. Originally published in 1950 as *The Social Costs of Private Enterprise* as response to Hayek and the Mont Pelerin Society. (Free download).
Cheers
@@Barklord cheers and thanks 👍
Question for VJ: Imagine the exact same nominal amount of US Govt net spending since 1982 and thus, under current institutional practices, the exact size of nominal US public debt, but spent on trandportation and communication infrastructure repair and upgrade, public health, environmental remediation and protection, constructive, non-military restorative, reparative and sustainable productive capacity foreign aid, and the like. Would that not have a gigantic positive difference, despite the tax code changes you (rightly, but on wrong grounds) criticized?
Thank you so much for this
Excellent - a Concrete analysis of Concrete conditions , the heart n soul of the ML method n worldview. Learnt that in the halcyon days of the 1970s and still trying to promulgate it in my dotage. Lotta Continua !! Vinceremos !!!
Why is it considered true that we have to pass through capitalism before socialism or communism? It seems to me that the productive capacity of capitalism is because of social cooperation, not from its method of private appropriation and distribution.
Material conditions develop before consciousness develops. What Marx shows in his writings is that socialization happens objectively in the development of the commodity form. Historically, this proceeds the development of the working class and the development of working class consciousness.
@freethinkingdragon8074 What is it about the commodity form that leads to socialist consciousness? There's always been cooperation, and Aristotle already understood many problems with exchange value. It just seems like the difference in production between the two systems comes down to 1) legal control of the means, 2) legal control of distribution of surplus, and 3) purpose of production; exchange value Vs use values. In the 19th century, American farmers were aware of the problems of production for exchange value, which led to higher yield = lower prices. I really don't think that the commodity stage is a necessary thing. It's just what Marx saw happening around him at the time.
You misunderstood my comment. The commodity form does not lead to socialist consciousness. It is the class struggle that leads to socialist consciousness but even then it is not automatic. The commodity form socializes production. That is production is organized around the exchange of commodities and objectively acquires a social character.
@freethinkingdragon8074 But commodities and commodified labour pre-existed capitalism, so I still don't see why capitalism is a necessary stage. Anyway, thanks for the positive critique and interaction.
@@BarklordThis is probably not a very satisfying response, but volume 1 of Capital addresses these questions in depth. Also Principles of Communism gives a quick survey of the transition from small crafts to capitalist industry.
Vijay is a great thinker and should be widely known to all Please save us from the horrorshow of global capitalism
Very informative discussion I have some comments to make. If I look at the linens work especially the end of his life the notes and the taxes he made I have got to understanding that he does not believe that when the war starts there is other wars that are not imperialistics in 20 century and now 21st century so in other words if we talk about between the lesser of the two evil which side should we ally with I agree with you with the Western emperialist are so aggressive and more evil than the other side but let's look at the other side how did or how are Chinese government doing with his own people do you know how many members of a family living in one room what is the percentage of this in the society of China what happens if somebody loses a job in China Is it that the family supposed to pay him to survive or is it some kind of socialist system that will pay him or her for unemployment. How about health plans and health care Is it even like you a country like Canada let's listen Canada is a capitalist and imperialist country but for their own people at least they haven't given in the advantages or the privileges that the working class got for struggling during early 19th century and late 18th century in this country and so they still have social everybody's health plan. Look at it from this point of view why the goods and and merchandise producing China are so cheap Is it the basic of capitalism production the the value of the goods comes from the workers contribution to the production means it's not the capitalist money that's of course a part of it but where did the capitalist God that that got it from other workers in the past so when you say I'm not meaning you particular when somebody says the China production is increasing just because the extra values that is taken from the workers there is a lot higher or some people call it profit prophet is a lot higher so they can produce more more and the country goes to other countries I mean the government goes to other countries and makes facilities that makes those countries to be addicted to these goods and merchandise so if this is socialism or maybe imperialism and parallelism is not only through a true militarization is also true banking through money through making the other countries what we used to call semi-dependent or semicolony which they have to import lots of goods from China which are from exploitations the highest degree of Chinese workers and why how will they do that because they have the proper infrastructure they will have the roads to move these goods and so on so forth.
More like “Lenin and the Route to Soviet Imperialism”
When did Lenin die? I think his influence on the Soviet project was supplanted well before it became an "empire", as you call it.
In the Imperialist epoch the ('bourgeois')democratic strivings of nations for self determination must,fr MLs at least. Combine with Socialism. This is the law/logic of Combined and Uneven development the unity of 'opposites' VS Kapitalist imperialism(s). Since 1917 itself indeed there have been numerous instances of such Combined social revolutions and which will doubtless be the case in the future.
I agree with you
Podríais traducir con subtítulos en español, por favor
Excellent information and theorizing. What do you both think of Paul Cockshott (Glasgow University) on socialist planning methods. He is an amazing macro economist.with computer simulations of socialist economies.
I second that, I've always wanted to see Paul and Gabriel in conversation.
Like Irish and Hawaiian nationalism?
Subscribed
What!?! Land of the free? Whoever told u that is your enemy
I'm a big Shakespeare fan and particularly the history play Henry IV. It's a really great dramatic political economy analysis of the Lancastrian revolution of 1399. I've always seen Bolingbroke the Duke of Lancaster as a Lenin-like figure, he even has his own "Finland Station" moment when he landed at Ravenspurgh to challenge the king. If you're interested in Lenin or political economy more generally, I recommend reading Henry IV parts 1 and 2 with an eye toward understanding revolution. There's also Falstaff.
Who has all the bases in the world? Don't spend too much time thinking . It's clear.
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️💕💕💕🌟🌟🌟
😂
Tip notch observations. From the imperialist kore of tkaronto
Reminds me of 'my' contention that the Whole/the World system(s) develop UNevenly/thru struggle (of Opposites). Dialectical Historical Materialism at Work !! Without that methodology the World remains obtuse/strange at best and damned well incomprehensible at worst.
You have the Abrahamic notion of Go.Krishna was a man too, the divine inthe east is internal a Parmenidian Being always within being
I think you are too deferent to Abrahamic religions . Hegelian dialectic is Hegel’s attempt to destroy the dialectic by pasting the dialectic to Christian theology theology I did my PhD in 1981 “ The role of the clinic and the logic of criticism in Hegel, Bruno Bauer and the Frankfurt School” . I was so disappointed in Adorno’ s critique of Heidegger and quit philosophy. I am back into it Parmenidian paradigm is still foreign Marx and tha t is a problem
You should take Lenin from Russia and bring him to your house.
Mr Prashad is brilliant. I think the message and essence should reach all the working class. Because of small attention spans and historical ignorance, could you also make shorter videos explaining Lenin and Marx. I think you could reach much more people.
Give us a lesson on Lenin, then tell us to vote Biden. These professional leftists are so tiresome.
You're aware that the people in the video would never ever tell anyone to vote for Biden, just to be clear? I'm fairly certain they're both supporting De la Cruz as part of a leninist program of building dual power.
There are plenty of people out there like you describe, I know. UA-cam is full of them.
The great irony is that by conquering the the caucasian and central asian states Lenin proved himself an imperialist.
You never read him, right?
Chomsky points out that Lenin's authoritarianism led to state capitalism and totalitarianism, repressing socialism in Russia. I think Chomsky's argument is persuasive. Lenin may have had socialist ideals, but in practice his policies resulted in totalitarianism with no worker participation.
Chomsky's points are pretty overly simplistic and unproductive when one knows/understands the conditions during the beginning of the USSR.
@@kyledrumsSimplistic, no. Concise and unconvoluted, yes. And productive, yes, in that they analyse how revolution coopted by authoritarianism in the spirit of 'the ends justify the means' can and did lead to totalitarianism. 'Animal Farm', for example, shows a simple sequence of events, but is not simplistic or unproductive.
Chomsky himself is bourgeois controlled opposition which is why he is plastered everywhere as the poster boy of the left.
He teaches nothing but facile pacifist rhetoric , and tacitly accepts the status quo by arguing for vague unrealistic utopianism of “anarcho syndicalism” .
Watch Caleb Maupins take down of Chomsky’s distortions of Lenin if you want more detail on that specific angle.
Much of Russian centralism was r response to Russian & Western reactionary attacks, including their mult country invasion.
On the other hand, the new Russian gov did not revive the
multi party coalition shirts.After, there was some local autonomy
at grassroots, even +’1 party.
Thé situation is complex.
Chomsky does some good analysis and journalism, but he's a petty-bourgeois anticommunist. The ruling class loves harmless ultra-'leftists' who work against the socialist movement.
These guys are a waste of air
When Vijay goes off on a tirade we get educated. When us politicians go on a tirade we get illegal wars of brutality and economic disasters.
Ah revisionism
Explain…
What?
@@devos3212 he's basically saying that Lenin's explanation of what imperialism is, only applied to his time, era has changed, and thus russia isnt imperialist, despite doing imperialism and, fulfilling all criteria of an imperialist nation, one that is at the highest stage of capitalism. he is rewriting Marxist theory in order to justify his views. typical revisionism, i was already skeptical when he mentioned stages, which are fine, but often this talk is often used by revisionists like Kruschov to justify their horrible theories and abandon marxism.
Edit Out his “Blowing Nose” Moments, Sneezing Moments, Coughing Moments, Throat Clearing Moments, please. Most viewers will be So Repulsed by the grotesque moments that they will Stop watching the Video. This is No Disrespect to your guest. This editing Process will HELP your guest get his points across to a Wider Audience that will NOT turn the video off in repulsion and utter Disgust. Thank You for your consideration. P.S. Today’s Editing Tools will make it easy for you to make this video “presentable” to the Public.
evil
Lauda and the route to anti communism
I would like to know Vijay’s opinion on where he sees western imperialism in the future. Does he believe western capitalism will pull another rabbit out of its proverbial hat or is it over for imperialism and therefore capitalism in the future. The reason I ask is with the rise of multi polarity and the inevitable decline of the US dollar as the world’s currency how is the US going to pay for its own empire and how can the US or any other western countries able to bring production back to the west while competing on an international capitalist market? Surely in a couple of decades the game is up, unless the US or Israel blow us all up in a nuclear Armageddon.
The world has rejected marxism. Go away and get a job.
Until those jobs are taken away by either by reduced funding or automation/ai....
Capitalism is a house built on sand.... it will literally destroy itself.... question is do we want to go with it....
Marxism &! nationalism are again on the rise,’Some socialisms have
much more employment rate easier t get a job under socialism!!!
The US govt just sent the Sec State and the Sec Treasury to scold China because their economy is too good. The US Empire is collapsing. Socialism is the future.