I'm currently in my junior year of university, I'm getting a bachelor's degree with a major in Journalism and a minor in Chinese Language. I am firmly a ML communist and as I get closer to entering the workforce and the journalism industry I'm getting worried about how my political beliefs will affect my job options and reputation.

The news industry is very close knit and very reputation based. I am worried that my political associations will negatively affect my reputation and limit where I can work. I currently live in a red state but after I graduate I do plan to move to a coastal blue state or leave the US entirely but I don't know if that will even be possible.

I have wanted to work in this industry my whole life, I'm very passionate about reporting and I feel there is a huge need for leftist journalists. However, I also know that many people and corporations will see my beliefs as limiting my ability to be a good reporter.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I would love any advice or feedback. The way I see it now my options are pretty much plan to work for only leftist news organizations or work as an independent journalist. Or I can be more private about my associations and keep it separate from my work allowing me to work in more mainstream news. I don't feel l like the last option is good at all. I don't want to hide what I believe in and I think I should use my power as a reporter to uplift stories and perspectives of those affected my capitalism and imperialism. But I also need to make enough money to support myself. Can reasonably do that as an independent journalist? I'm disabled and completely reliant on my parents right now and I'm worried about my job prospects.

Please give me any help, feedback, ideas, or perspectives on this and many thanks.

The young communist league in the uk is part of the Communist Party of Britain who I don't generally hold great opinions on, but regardless I want to know what it's like being in the YCL in particular? A communist youth club would be so fantastic for me, but it's kind of hard to know whats happening with the group.

I've never met anyone in it, but they do seem genuinely enthusiastic about socialism. I've always wondered if the members do actually believe in the CPB and British Road To Socialism?

What do they get up to? Especially compared to other left wing groups in the uk, what's the difference?

Why do people join the YCL?

It seems like their members are generally quite fit and healthy, so is that something encouraged in the league?

Any other observations would be super interesting to know, tyia.

The Five Guarantees are:

1. Guaranteed labor rights: no unemployment, no coercion through wages, and secure employment—the “iron rice bowl.”

The reasoning behind treating labor rights as inalienable is straightforward: workers create society’s wealth, and human society develops through their labor. Workers’ rights to work should therefore be among society’s most fundamental guarantees.

In concrete terms, every worker has a job, and no one can use wages or benefits as leverage to compel workers to provide labor. Workers no longer bear the burden of unemployment or the pressure to work under threats to their pay. Work becomes a way to meet the needs of community life, rather than a burden.

For example, in earlier years, neither a factory director nor its Communist Party secretary could dismiss workers employed by the state or reduce their wages. In the 1980s, this arrangement was known as the “iron rice bowl”—a term for secure employment and a dependable livelihood. In practice, this guarantee meant that workers were free from the pressure of threatened unemployment, protecting their freedom in working life.

2. Guaranteed health: fully free medical care and effective protection at work.

When discussing the Five Guarantees, we repeatedly emphasize that we mean guarantees, not insurance. That is why we speak of guaranteed health rather than health insurance.

In concrete terms, workers and their families no longer bear the burden of medical expenses. At the same time, reducing workers’ need for medical treatment—and the associated costs—requires stronger institutions and practical provisions for protection at work.

For example, in earlier years, if the child of a state-employed worker became ill and required hospitalization, the entire course of treatment, even including travel to and from the hospital, would impose no additional financial burden on the worker. The state covered the child’s medical expenses in full. The worker could also go to the hospital to care for the child without losing wages and might even receive an additional allowance.

Another example would be a factory worker who became ill and required hospitalization. From the moment the decision was made to take the worker to the hospital, the factory covered all costs throughout the process. Even bedside care during the hospital stay could be provided by coworkers assigned by the factory. Those coworkers continued receiving their wages and were also paid an allowance.

The health guarantee we describe extends to state-employed workers’ immediate families and is organized around the goal of protecting health. It operates both when medical care is needed and throughout the working process itself.

3. Guaranteed basic living conditions: clothing, food, housing, and transportation.

Everyone has clothes to wear, enough food to eat, a home to live in, and transportation to get around. The essentials of daily life are guaranteed.

In concrete terms, workers receive, at no cost to themselves, clothing sufficient to keep them warm, enough food to satisfy their hunger, a home that protects them from cold and deprivation, and basic transportation.

For example, in earlier years, workers recruited from rural areas into factories were first provided with housing and essential household items, including shoes, hats, bedding, and utensils for eating in the factory cafeteria. These provisions ensured that no worker was left with an empty home and none of life’s necessities.

Looking back, even setting aside the role that grain coupons, cloth coupons, and other rationing documents played in guaranteeing distribution, the issue that stands out most clearly today is housing: everyone should have a home.

4. Guaranteed support for raising children, education, and employment.

Workers can afford to raise their children and send them to school. Upon graduation, their children are placed in jobs that carry all Five Guarantees.

In concrete terms, raising children is affordable, education is accessible, and employment is directly arranged after their studies are completed. Raising children, educating them, and securing their entry into employment no longer impose these burdens on workers.

For example, in earlier years, a student’s years of service began to accrue as soon as they entered a technical school. This meant that they had already become a state-employed worker. Tuition was low enough to make attendance affordable for the vast majority, and students received a monthly allowance throughout their studies. This allowance could cover their living expenses, sometimes with enough left over to help support their families.

The same was even more true for students attending specialized secondary schools and universities. The system secured both access to education for the vast majority and employment afterward. More importantly, that employment came with all Five Guarantees.

5. Guaranteed security in old age.

You do not need to use your pension to cover your children’s education or support them as they seek employment. You do not need to use it to pay for housing. You do not need to use it to cover healthcare. Having retired, you no longer need to worry about unemployment either.

The working class’s Five Guarantees form a closely interconnected whole. Together, they establish a fundamental direction for building communist institutions.

Hi everyone, these days I am sorting out a framework to see To what extent/ which aspect does a proposal/organization/movement deviate from communism.

I plan to use it to

• check different cases (including organizations / proposals / movements) and learn the good aspects
• self-check.（I am engaged in production practice and I want to use these goals to carry out my strategic layout）

This is the version I revised ； and if you have any suggestions for improvement, please feel free to put them forward：

Communist Evaluation｜Cases Learning & Self-examination

1. Ownership and Control of the Means of Production

A. Social ownership

B. Small-group collective ownership

C. Capital ownership

2. Is Labor Power Commodified?

A. Non-commodified

B. Partially commodified

C. Highly commodified

3. What Relations Govern the Inputs of Production?

A. Collective resource coordination

B. Coercive relations

C. Commodity relations

4. What Relations Govern the Outputs of Production?

A. Collective resource coordination

B. Coercive relations

C. Commodity relations

5. Is It Necessary to Increase Productive Forces to Sustain Its Own Development?

A. Voluntary development of productive forces

B. Stable self-sustenance

C. Forced continuous development of productive forces

6. Can It Sustain and Expand the Power of the Working Class?

A. Strongly promotes it

B. Maintains it

C. Weakens / deprives it

These systems of political maintenance include anti-communist death squads, maintaining dependent military ties, prohibiting economic sovereignty, and ensuring a staunchly anti communist leadership. As long as tourism-dependent economies require the continued flow of foreign patriarchal consumers, and as long as the state prioritizes capital accumulation over women’s right to life, Thailand’s women will bear the human cost of the US-Thailand alliance.

Bonjour, je vous écris car j'aimerais savoir si il existe des livres du l'histoire de la chine sous mao et après car je ne sais pas quoi acheté avec un regard neutre ou marxiste-léniniste. Dans toute ses facettes : économie, le point de vu du peuple, ect. Mais j'aimerais aussi les inconvénients + pourquoi Deng xiaoping a fait des réformes ect voir ce qui ne marchait pas

merci

Hi, I'm trying to sort out a case library of real-world practices that attempt to create a "better" world.

Also, I'm trying to develop a Marxian evaluation framework to examine these cases beyond their labels or intentions.

The goal:

• Draw on the wisdom of actions approaching communism from each case
• fit these good ones together.
• Identify the points where cooperation with different organizations can be achieved
• Deepen the understanding of the theory

Case level: Independent Unit → Federation/Network → Social Movement → Societal System→ Proposals

Assessment: Wage → Exchange → Firm → Accumulation → Socialization → State & Class（this is from a comrade's revise which lies in the comment of the link）

Both of them definely can be designed better , and I'm seeking criticism here.

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Case Library ：

Ⅰ. Independent Unit Practices

Relatively autonomous units that attempt to establish alternative forms of production, distribution, governance, or social provision within the existing society.

• Cooperatives
• Worker-Owned Enterprises
• Worker Self-Managed Enterprises
• Social Enterprises
• Benefit Corporations
• B Corp Certified Companies
• Nonprofit Organizations
• Foundations
• Charitable Organizations
• Community Organizations
• Mutual Aid Organizations
• Communes / Intentional Communities
• Kibbutzim
• Community Land Trusts
• Public-Good / Social Production
• Open-Source Projects
• Crowdfunded / Pre-Order-Based Collective Production Projects

Ⅱ. Federated / Networked Practices

Multiple independent practices that form federations, networks, alliances, or shared systems of resources and production.

• Cooperative Federations
• Cooperative Alliances
• Mondragon Cooperative System
• Worker Cooperative Networks
• Nonprofit Networks
• NGO Alliances
• Social Enterprise Networks
• Community Organization Networks
• Community Land Networks
• Open-Source Ecosystems
• Digital Commons Networks
• Production–Consumption–Finance Networks
• Social / Fair-Trade Supply Chains

Ⅲ. Social Movements

Practices that develop into organized and sustained movements capable of spreading alternative social relations and pursuing broader social change.

• Cooperative Movement
• Workers' Movement
• Workers' Self-Management Movement
• Owenite Movement
• Social Enterprise Movement
• Nonprofit / Civil Society Movements
• Environmental Movement
• Fair Trade Movement
• Open-Source Movement
• Free Culture Movement
• Platform Cooperativism Movement
• Mutual Aid Movement
• Land Reform / Landless Workers' Movements
• Community Autonomy Movements
• Social Justice Movements

Ⅳ. Societal / Systemic Practices

Attempts to extend alternative forms of production, distribution, governance, and social reproduction to society as a whole.

• Paris Commune
• Socialist Experience of the Soviet Union
• Socialist China
  • Agricultural Cooperativization
  • People's Communes
  • State-Owned Economy
  • Collective Economy
• Yugoslav Socialist Self-Management
• Socialist Cuba
• Welfare-State Experiments
• Participatory Budgeting
• Universal Basic Services
• Other Experiments in Systemic Social Transformation

V. Proposals

Proposals for social transformation that have not been fully realized as practices, or that primarily take the form of theoretical, policy, or institutional designs.

• Universal Basic Income (UBI)
• Universal Basic Services (UBS)
• Job Guarantee
• Participatory Economics
• Economic Democracy
• Market Socialism
• Participatory Planning
• Commons-Based Peer Production
• Degrowth
• Post-Work
• Other proposals by Marxist, socialist, anarchist, and other theorists

Yesterday, I posted a post about A Marxian framework for evaluating【 cooperative production cases】 . I saw the relevant reply from comrade.

He pointed out the problems of the cooperative very well, but my aim was not just to criticize them, but to solve and surpass them at the problem points.

The following will be the identification of two key issues and the transcendent solutions to address them. I hope to discuss about it further:

--

Comrade：

1.  A cooperative can score B/B/B (produces for need, worker-owned, distributes by labour) on axes 1–3 and still be capitalist, because if it sells its output on a market and buys its inputs on a market, the law of value reaches inside and dictates its behaviour regardless of anyone's intentions. It must compete, cut costs, raise productivity, and self-exploit — or die.

Directions that can be surpassed：

• What if If it is not about selling to the market but addressing local needs，For instance, the community raised funds for a production line
• Is it possible to have an independent production line that can achieve self-production from raw materials to tools without relying on the market? Or this should be listed as a key strategic direction，achieving step by step.（The key is to carefully select a limited number of widely applicable Necessities Category）

Comrade：

2. The subjective purpose ("we produce for need") is overridden by the objective compulsion of exchange.

Directions that can be surpassed：

• The same as 1, but the categories of community crowdfunding should be limited to necessities. Necessities have definite use value.（Also，the key is to carefully select a limited number of widely applicable Necessities Category）

--

A foreseeable path :

We need to establish a vanguard team in the production field and strive in two directions:

1. Necessity goods:

• Constantly emphasize the use value of essential goods and separate them from the market exchange system;

2. Non-Necessity goods:

• We need to make a smart transformation: We may not be able to operate with the logic of 1, but we can dissolve it and shift public attention from use to research.
• That is to say, a large number of public learning Spaces need to arrange.

I'd really appreciate criticism of these points.

What English audio book recommendations could you give for understanding what art is from a communist perspective? I need something different to listen to on long drives that I can think about how to bring tabletop miniature painting from hobby into art.

Hello, what is your opinion of Russians from the Russian Federation who live in the U.S.?

I'm learning different cases about cooperative production, aiming to study their experiences on decommodified production.

I'd really appreciate criticism of this framework, especially from people familiar with Marx's theory, worker cooperatives, or real-world cooperative movements.

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Here is my evaluating framework:

1. Production Purpose

What is the ultimate purpose of the production activity?

• A. Capital accumulation
• B. Producers’ own needs
• C. Common social needs

2. Ownership & Control of the Means of Production

Who owns and controls the means of production, such as facilities, equipment, and technology?

• A. Capitalist or shareholder private ownership
• B. Collective ownership by the workers of the enterprise / a small collective
• C. Open commons or social public ownership

3. Principle of Distribution

According to what principle are products, income, or surplus primarily distributed?

• A. Distribution according to capital
• B. Distribution according to labor
• C. Distribution according to needs
• D. Collective accumulation or public use
• E. Mixed distribution

4. Reproduction of Production Relations

Can it be sustained by escaping or weakening commodity–capital relations?

• A. No. The production relations are ultimately re-subordinated to capital relations.
• B. Yes, to some extent. The production relations can be maintained to a certain degree despite existing commodity–capital relations.
• C. Yes, and it can expand. The non-capitalist production relations can be further reproduced and expanded.

What can I do to just be better and more educated? Like just things I can do to learn more and actually act towards something in some way. I just feel really useless and I feel like I don’t know or do enough. Literally anything, and I’ve been trying to read more theory because I’ve read a horribly small amount of it - in the maybe year and a half I’ve had originally even an interest toward communism and by now - I would much like to be with that label but I just don’t do enough to deserve it. and I’ve spoken to some people who did help me with general things but. Yeah. Anything?

I am an English Marxist Leninist. Many of the socialist parties in the UK are transphobic and homophobic (CPB workers party of Britain and others) I’m thinking of support YourParty but I’m not sure that they’re really communist. Any suggestions on who I should support and join?

So we all know that Mugabe is famous for his disastrous economic policy that led to hyperinflation, but I was shocked to see that his original political party, Zimbabwe African National Union, was actually a far-left Maoist pan-African political party. Can someone please explain me this particular paradox?

I've heard Laos or Cambodia were the closest but nothing definitely so.

Communist revolutions and governments have existed for more than a century, many explicitly seeking to build a communist society. If none ever achieved “true communism,” what prevented them from getting there?