East Germany is especially complicated considering when the Berlin Wall fell the communists were all purged from their positions, many in show trials.

Socialism (what you call communism) already stands firm, working in theory and in practice. If you’re not familiar with the theory and haven’t looked much into the practice, just adopting standard red scare views, then I don’'t see why you think yourself fit to judge them.

China is a socialist country. Public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy, mixed forms of ownership govern the small and medium firms while massive state owned enterprises form the backbone of the economy. The State is under the control of the working class, which results in over 90% approval rates.

We should absolutely learn from their successes in creating a society controlled by the working class and directed in its interests.

I don’t know what you’re trying to say here, sarcasm isn’t a point. These are all examples of countries that have been dramatically successful in uplifting the lives of the working classes.

Checkmate mr mark

Is that why he’s named after German currency?! 🤔

Communists here cheer on socialist countries and communist parties partially because they’ve made massive strides in democratizing their economies, bringing it under the people’s control. No socialist system in history has been so lopsided as to hinge entirely on one person, there are obviously leaders in socialist countries but they don’t have the kind of omnipotence nor omnipresence your comment implies.

The PRC is a good place to start, considering it’s on track to becoming the world’s most developed country and advanced socialist state.

A few things, here:

1. Communist theory does work in practice.

2. Socialism/communism are democratic, and have been so historically and presebtly.

3. Socialism and communism don’t care if everyone is a “good person.” I don’t know how you came to that conclusion.

Communist parties over socialist economies, like in the USSR, PRC, Cuba, Vietnam, etc have all been dramatically successful in uplifting the lives of the working classes and democtatizing the economy. Communists support communism and socialism because of the effectiveness of these systems.

Not really. There were some that felt that way in the later parts of the USSR, but the broad majority still supported socialism and wished to maintain it. In socialist countried today, they are overwhelmingly crirical of capitalism and supportive of socialism. Liberals exist in socialist countries, sure, but they aren’t the mainstream.

A good intro is the prolewiki page for the DPRK! It also has a lot of further reading listed. The government section is rather minor, but links to the DPRK’s constitution. Finally, there’s a “study guide” that’s a huge compilation of resources to check out. Starting with those should help with understanding the basics, at a high level.

Incorrect on both counts. Democracy is rule by the majority, socialism is a mode of production where public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy and the working class is in control of the state. Libertarianism just refers to a limited state, it cares nothing about how that is achieved. Anarchism and anarchist-adjacent ideologies are almost always revolutionary as well. Pacifism is uncommon.

I’m not “brainwashed” for sharing the opinions of the majority of major communist parties. I’m a communist, and my views are consistent with that. The WPK has the overwhelming majority of seats, but is also popularly supported, and does not have direct control over who people vote for. These are “tankie,” sure, they’re views shared by the majority of communists and “tankie” is just a pejorative for us.

I encourage you to look into how the DPRK actually functions, as well as its inception as an indigenous movement against colonization by Japan and later the US.

All socialism is democratic, so I assume you mean reformist socialism. Reformism has extremely specific and limited use-cases, Allende being a short-lived example. Chile was able to successfully elect a Marxist, but he was ousted in a coup. It isn’t impossible, but relying on reformism as the main strategy in all or even most cases is a significant departure from Marxist analysis of the state and its class character.

Libertarian socialism is more anarchist than anything, and has no problems with revolution. I don’t see why you bring it up.

I mention the Black Panthers because they are one of the more beloved and successful leftist groups in US history, and absolutely deserve to be taken seriously. You’re right, claiming to be democratic and communist doesn’t make a group democratic nor communist, what matters is their structure. Democratically, they have approval-based voting, and 3 political parties. There are also factory councils for direct worker management. Public ownership is the principle aspect of their economy.

More than anything, their self-determination in the face of a brutal empire sanctioning them into starvation should be supported, even if you don’t agree with their structure.

Like what?

I mean, kinda? Revolution is a core part of Marxism. There are rare instances like in Chile where voting worked, but then Allende was couped by the US and Pinochet.

The Black Panther Party had close ties with the DPRK, so that’s not really unreasonable. Leftist groups historically have had support for the DPRK, especially in context of the US Empire’s attempted genocide of northern Koreans.

They don’t, they reference what they call the “June 4th incident” all the time when relevant. What they don’t allow is spreading the fictionalized version of events, ie tanks running over 10000 protestors in the square. They acknowledge the real events, which were riots around Beijing that were put down by the PLA, resulting in a few dozen deaths of officers and a few hundred rioters killed by the PLA. The west uses the atrocity propaganda of the former story to undermine the socialist project in the PRC.

The Red Army was responsible for 80-90% of the war effort in Europe against the Nazis, the eastern front absolutely eclipsed the western front.