Our community is growing larger and larger. Two weeks ago, we had finally passed the 1,000 users mark after years, and right now we are already at almost 2,000 users. Possible causes for this are the very recent US government censorship of Reddit. In the course of 3 weeks, Reddit banned the left-leaning r/chapotraphouse, r/MoreTankieChapo, and left the subsequent ideological refugees in r/MoreMoreTankieChapo also homeless.

Good news, we exist, and our community welcomes all revolutionaries, especially marxist-leninists. In this website, we uphold the past and current* socialist experences. We love hate speech, we are only against bourgeois ideology and reactionary language**.

We have been entering Reddit, albeit slowly, but we’re still trying to make our way to be known before the r/communism and r/communism101 are banned and loses all its subscribers and consequently awareness of our space. We shouldn’t worry about it, though, we can make an organized effort to bring comrades here later, also.

The thing is, we need a name, comrades. Most of the time I’ve seen the comrades share our community around was either saying “the communist Lemmy instance”, the “Communist Lemmy”, “communism.lemmy”, or something along those lines. These are not easy to remember.

Comrade @muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml suggested that we could do a public poll to decide a name, to be approved by both users and administrators.

Let’s keep in mind the most voted one shouldn’t necessarily be the chosen one, but would certainly influence admin decision. The reason for this is that while the majority may vote for simple and catchy names (which is good), it may actually be also useful to check for distinctive names that could make our community appear on top on search engines, for example.

What are you waiting for? Get going, comrade. We will need a name to begin our propaganda effort.

*Current socialist experiences include China, Cuba, Vietnam and People’s Korea.
**Reactionary language means any discrimination against historically oppressed peoples, like women, trans folk, non-white folk, etc. Racism, sexism, ableism, xenophobia, and LGBT discrimination should not be allowed, not even ironically.

  • @glucosemaximos
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    4 years ago

    how about Lemmygrad? like Leningrad, a safe haven for comrades. edit: I’m glad my first comment got so much affection!

  • @darkcalling
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    184 years ago

    For what’s it worth I think now is a poor time to change it because:

    Its been spammed around a bit (for months actually, even before CTH was banned) on reddit so lots of people know it in the back of their heads or have it bookmarked and changing the name will only cause more confusion and difficulty for those refugees from reddit who may be struggling to remember the name (at least this one is simple and obvious). Changing the name will result in more confusion in the wake of more bans (IF they come, I’m not sure reddit really intends to do anything but drive CTH users off) as people only casually paying attention may recommend to others the old url so if it doesn’t point to the new location that would be a major problem I think.

    That’s really my only concern.

    • Camarada ForteOPA
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      4 years ago

      That’s quite easy to solve with a redirect. But we’re probably not changing the url for now, just the name of the instance, and that name we’ll share around.

    • Free PalestineA
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      84 years ago

      this is honestly how I feel about it. At this point, it’s probably a bad idea to change it.

      • @BobbyBlock
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        74 years ago

        The longer you leave it though it might be worse, people will get used to the current name.

        As for a name maybe just “Red” because it is simple, describes it well enough and it’s kinda funny that it’s coincidentally the first syllable of “Reddit”

        • Free PalestineA
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          4 years ago

          IMO changing it at this point might fuck with people’s saved URL, which would be suicide if the URL doesn’t redirect to here. Though, the site being called “lemmy” isn’t helpful for searching, because every search term but “lemmy website” takes you to the artist, and “lemmy website” only takes you to the dev branch of the site. If we’re going to rename, it needs to be something unique to make it search-engine-able, and in my opinion if we’re deadset on changing the name, we might as well go with something poetic, which is why my suggestion is “Laika”. This is the left’s starlight beacon to a new future, in our continuing quest to unify under one banner. So, might as well be the Soviet space doggo. Also if it’s Laika, we’ll have a mascot.

          • @chad1234
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            44 years ago

            so there is a musician by the same name. the suggested names should also be run through a search engine

            but it is probably a bad time to suddenly swap names

          • @NegativeDialectics
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            4 years ago

            Laika is sick! I wish Valentina Tereshkova‘s name was short and catchy like that. But Laika is cool as hell.

      • @darkcalling
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        74 years ago

        I’m not saying never change it. I’m saying maybe hold off for a bit until things have calmed down. As it is I think with the evolving situation we stand to gain a lot of new users if the situation on reddit continues. I think in a month or two the situation may be markedly different. I’m just saying during a transitional period for many people it would be very unwise to kind of fuck with the ability for people to find it. I know there are people who probably bookmarked this place from months ago (I know I did) who may only now or shortly begin to look for a new home and go through their bookmarks looking for that one alternative they know they bookmarked on CTH ages ago.

        I do think a re-direct for a time would be helpful though for those who have it bookmarked. Certainly if the lemmy part of the URL is being changed that is a huge problem. But I reiterate that waiting a little bit would be best as there are a still a lot of people floating around uncertainly waiting on CTH. I know there’s been some drama with liberals being on the mod team for the CTH discord and banning ML’s lately so I think that’s another situation we should wait on. It is entirely possible if regrettable that imperialist, chauvinist elements seize control of the new CTH lemmy instance which is set to launch later this week and if they do and this website URL has changed there are going to be a lot of lost refugees who have no idea where to go.

        Which is a real tragedy because as a liberal it’s easy to find a place online to go and network, same thing as a reactionary. But as any kind of anti-capitalist, to say nothing of someone who has a principled anti-imperialist line it is very hard and if the URL changes there are going to be a lot of people who don’t know subs like sendinthetanks on reddit or whatever and won’t find us again.

  • Iskender
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    4 years ago

    deleted by creator

  • @queer_bird
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    124 years ago

    As much as I appreciate the Lemmy project and the simplicity of just “communism” on Lemmy, I think we need to forge our own identity. I think we need a name with that is obviously Marxist, but doesn’t attract to much attention from reactionaries. We have a fairly well developed library of symbology as Marxists, and even if we are heavily ML leaning we should probably avoid being too sectarian, or having a name that makes you think of specific countries… It has to be memorable, preferably short. These are a lot of tricky things to combine. I suppose the purpose of this site isn’t exactly mass appeal but it is still important. Symbols worth considering for incorporation to names:

    • Hammer
    • Sickle
    • Fist
    • Red
    • Star
    • Wreathes of Grain
    • Cogwheels and gear
    • Lenin and the Boyz
    • Ploughs (underrated)
    • Abstract concepts like liberation, revolution
    • Bread and Roses (would probably attract Libs lol)
    • Arm and hammer
    • AK
    • Internationale
    • Lib tears

    Plus infinite more if you are most historically literate than me

  • @CriticalResist8A
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    104 years ago

    Hear this: Commie Lemmy. It rhymes.

    (But actually I like Lemmygrad a lot as someone suggested).

    Also apparently an instance doesn’t need to be .lemmy.ml? Could we get a second domain name for this instance? Sharing “lemmygrad.ml” doesn’t work on most platforms because they need either a www. or https:// to hyperlink it automatically. If you don’t include a hyperlink, you lose a good portion of potential users. And if even 10% of users that see your link don’t click it, that’s 10% people you’re not getting right now.

    Since .ml domains are free, we should register the name the wins with it too, and have it redirect to lemmygrad.ml

    • @pimento
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      104 years ago

      You can share the link as https://lemmygrad.ml as well.

  • @TeethOrCoat
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    94 years ago

    What’s wrong with the current name?

    • @chad1234
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      54 years ago

      Agreed, I am happy with it as it is. Lemmain!

  • @knipexcrunch
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    84 years ago

    My hot take is we should avoid overly communist branding and use this site to tank-pill people. A mainstream site controlled by MLs would be very powerful.

    • Camarada ForteOPA
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      204 years ago

      We’re not going to “conceal” our views, because we know them to be true, and we shouldn’t be afraid of the truth. This is the ultimate tank-pill; our views should be accessible.

      • @knipexcrunch
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        4 years ago

        I didn’t mean to conceal, but just not cover ourselves in hammers and sickles, as much as I love them.

        Like, we should be openly communist, but maybe not have communism in the URL. People just aren’t gonna click the link and thus never be exposed if their brain has a wall from the word in the URL.

        But eh, it’s your site, I’m just happy to be off reddit.

        • Camarada ForteOPA
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          4 years ago

          I somewhat agree with you, but that position has been losing if you read the comments. So we’ll leave it like this for a while, but also leave the poll open in case anyone decides for a change.

          “Lemmygrad” is simply wonderful, and I hope it gets approved.

          P.S.: Not my site, I’m just an admin

    • @ImARabbit
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      84 years ago

      That’s what the chapo.chat lemmy instance will be for

      • Muad'DibberMA
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        94 years ago

        I agree with this. I’d rather have this be an explicitly communist instance, and have the chapo one be big-tent. Plus I just don’t want the headache of having to moderate hundreds of anti-AES western chauvinists.

      • @knipexcrunch
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        24 years ago

        Ahhhhh, I guess I didn’t understand lemmy. Ignore me

        • @ImARabbit
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          44 years ago

          Yes, anyone can set up a Lemmy instance on their own server, and then they are federated. So it’ll be like several Reddits that are all communicate with each other.

  • @corvibaeisatankie
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    74 years ago

    I really don’t feel there’s any value in changing the domain or the name of the instance. Honestly, this place has grown so much since I first joined and I’m very happy about that. Let’s keep the name as it is and focus on recruitment.

  • @Hildegarde
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    54 years ago
    1. I believe you are forgetting some current socialist countries
    2. C-lemmy? Clemmy?
    3. If need be, could purchase a redirect from another URL? What if Lenin.ml redirected here? It’s a play on Lemmy.ml LOL
    • Camarada ForteOPA
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      74 years ago

      I’ve added only the ones I’ve had enough information of. People often cite Laos, but I have little information about it.

      Intellectual honesty, you know ):

  • Free PalestineA
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    44 years ago

    We love hate speech,

    was this intentional?

    • lemmygrabber
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      114 years ago

      yeah but “hate speech” here means hating on the bourgeoisie and dead slaveowners which was considered against Reddit’s terms.

      could have put in quotes lol.

      • Free PalestineA
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        44 years ago

        that makes a lot more sense. I had to read that multiple times, because I thought my dyslexia was playing tricks on me.

        Regardless, what’s the name of the doggo the Soviets sent into space? it starts with an L, and i think that should be the name of this instance

    • Camarada ForteOPA
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      94 years ago

      Just a play on words. It just means our guillotine memes are welcome here 😍

  • Raton_en_Criss
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    34 years ago

    I remember you proposed Iskra which i quite liked so i think that would not be a bad choice.

    • @ImARabbit
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      44 years ago

      That’s pretty larpy. I cringed

  • @Sawyer
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    4 years ago

    Removed by mod

    • Muad'DibberMA
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      54 years ago

      Naming it after Lenin who was corrupted by his power and eventually became fascist.

      Citation needed. Also did you notice Lenin on the sidebar?

      that the only way to implement a communist state is to have no intermediate state of dictatorship

      There has never been a successful anarcho-communist revolution. The only successful revolutions have been explicitly anti-imperialist, or ML / communist. From Parenti’s Left Anti-communism, the unkindest cut:

      For a people’s revolution to survive, it must seize state power and use it to (a) break the stranglehold exercised by the owning class over the society’s institutions and resources, and (b) withstand the reactionary counterattack that is sure to come. The internal and external dangers a revolution faces necessitate a centralized state power that is not particularly to anyone’s liking, not in Soviet Russia in 1917, nor in Sandinista Nicaragua in 1980.

      Engels offers an apposite account of an uprising in Spain in 1872-73 in which anarchists seized power in municipalities across the country. At first, the situation looked promising. The king had abdicated and the bourgeois government could muster but a few thousand ill-trained troops. Yet this ragtag force prevailed because it faced a thoroughly parochialized rebellion. “Each town proclaimed itself as a sovereign canton and set up a revolutionary committee (junta),” Engels writes. “[E]ach town acted on its own, declaring that the important thing was not cooperation with other towns but separation from them, thus precluding any possibility of a combined attack [against bourgeois forces].” It was “the fragmentation and isolation of the revolutionary forces which enabled the government troops to smash one revolt after the other.”

      Decentralized parochial autonomy is the graveyard of insurgency–which may be one reason why there has never been a successful anarcho-syndicalist revolution. Ideally, it would be a fine thing to have only local, self-directed, worker participation, with minimal bureaucracy, police, and military. This probably would be the development of socialism, were socialism ever allowed to develop unhindered by counterrevolutionary subversion and attack. One might recall how, in 1918-20, fourteen capitalist nations, including the United States, invaded Soviet Russia in a bloody but unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the revolutionary Bolshevik government. The years of foreign invasion and civil war did much to intensify the Bolsheviks’ siege psychology with its commitment to lockstep party unity and a repressive security apparatus. Thus, in May 1921, the same Lenin who had encouraged the practice of internal party democracy and struggled against Trotsky in order to give the trade unions a greater measure of autonomy, now called for an end to the Workers’ Opposition and other factional groups within the party. “The time has come,” he told an enthusiastically concurring Tenth Party Congress, “to put an end to opposition, to put a lid on it: we have had enough opposition.” Open disputes and conflicting tendencies within and without the party, the communists concluded, created an appearance of division and weakness that invited attack by formidable foes.

      Only a month earlier, in April 1921, Lenin had called for more worker representation on the party’s Central Committee. In short, he had become not anti-worker but anti-opposition. Here was a social revolution–like every other–that was not allowed to develop its political and material life in an unhindered way.

      doomed to fail as power corrupts

      This is a standard liberal talking point, that power corrupts, IE all people are selfish individual units, and no one in a position of power can act for the collective good, and use that power to benefit others. What matters, in class society, is in whose class interests leaders work towards. Otherwise you end up with nonsense like equating richard nixon to fidel castro.

      • @Sawyer
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        4 years ago

        I am a communist, just because I disagree with part of your views does not make me anti-communist. You have the right to believe what you wish, I will not infringe upon that right. I am not an anarcho-syndicalist, I believe money should not exist. To play the capitalist’s game by continue to generate goods for the sole purpose of profits like the Syndicalists try to only plays into their hands, in my opinion. Please refrain from calling me what I am not.

        Yes, the single instance of anarcho-communism did not succeed and was crushed by fascists. It is my hope that a revolution in the modern age with the coordination and communication the internet offers would remedy or at least compensate for that lack of organization.

        I do not believe people have an inherent selfish nature, I believe power corrupts because power itself has a need to protect itself, to maintain the system. If people had an inherently selfish nature Anarcho-communism would not function. People are raised to be selfish because of how capitalism put everyone except the rich in a constant struggle for survival. It is much harder (but by no means impossible) to work for the common good and not be selfish when you are enslaved. Please refrain from strawmanning me by inventing an argument that I did not make.

        All elected power must be instantly dismissable by a majority vote. If you can find a dictator willing to step down at a moments notice when he acts against the will of the collective go for it. I believe an equal distribution of power acts more towards the collective good than a dictator. But hey, we won’t know for certain until it happens, so let’s form both a communist country with a temporary dictator and an anarcho-commune that skips that step and see which is more successful. Good is not the enemy of perfect, and we both have the same ultimate goal.

        • Muad'DibberMA
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          4 years ago

          Yes, the single instance of anarcho-communism did not succeed and was crushed by fascists.

          Lots more than that, as I said anarcho-communism has zero historical successes. Free territory, Catalonia, Patagonia Rebelde, Shinmin, the french anarchists in the 1960s… all lasted less time than it took most people to get through high school. Meanwhile anti-imperialist revolutions have lasted for more than 80+ years, defeated nazism / japanese fascism, raised the life expectancy and uplifted millions of people out of poverty.

          I believe power corrupts because power itself has a need to protect itself, to maintain the system.

          Is power sentient now? “Power” doesn’t make decisions, people and groups of people do. You hid this liberal take now behind a term, ignoring the vast differences of people and the organizations they make up.

          All elected power must be instantly dismissable by a majority vote.

          This has been done (the bolsheviks had this in the early days for example in soviets), but its been found that

          If you can find a dictator willing to step down at a moments notice when he acts against the will of the collective go for it.

          Is this the part where you start calling all communist leaders t o t a l i t a r i a n dictators now? Again, extremely liberal thinking. These leaders were hugely popular due to their actions and push for collective betterment of the people.

          Authoritarianism just means when you tell westerners they can’t do imperialism.

          • @Sawyer
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            -44 years ago

            We cannot have an intelligent discussion if you keep strawmanning. I never said power was sentient. I never said “all communist leaders” are totalitarian. If you are unwilling to discuss this in good faith, then further discussion is pointless. I respect your opinion, even though I disagree with it. It is unfortunate that this is not mutual.

    • Camarada ForteOPA
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      4 years ago

      I decided to remove your comment for breaking the first rule of the Communist Lemmy instance:

      1. No capitalist apologia / anti-communism.

      And also the first rule of the /c/communism community:

      1. No non-marxists

      Your analysis of the period is not just plain wrong, but it’s highly infected by idealism. Lenin was not a monolith, he was elected democratically by the peasants and workers, and the policies enacted during his era was the conscious and collective decision of the whole of the CPSU. Anyways, @muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml already described your mistakes.

      We have a safe space for communists to advance our science through collective and international engagement. In this place, we don’t have to respond to common CIA propaganda talking points, something that surely slow us down. If you have any questions about communism and past or actually existing socialist experiences, please, feel free to ask the community at /c/communism101. Until then, please, study further, you’re just embarassing yourself.

      P.S.: Also, refrain from using dummy accounts to make your upvote count higher and downvoting others. This is infantile.

      • @Sawyer
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        4 years ago

        Removed by mod

        • Camarada ForteOPA
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          4 years ago

          I am an anarcho-communist. Just because I disagree with your views does not make me anti-communist.

          This isn’t “my view”. If you wish to be a communist, it’s expected that you read the developers of communist theory and the scientific methodology of historical/dialectical materialism. If you do not subscribe to those contributions to the proletarian communist science, what is the point to call yourself a communist? You also gave no evidence in favour of the claims you made, you’re just spewing common CIA propaganda talking points.

          I stated my beliefs, even giving the courtesy of a bias warning. I am not invalidating the opinion of others, simply stating my own.

          History is not a matter of beliefs, it’s a matter of facts. It’s not your opinion, you’re just wrong, because you can’t even prove what you said. “Lenin became power-hungry and corrupted”. I mean, how can you tell? How can you prove Lenin’s “secret intentions” if you have no record of such a thing? Well, there’s something you can do. Read. Study the policies of USSR. Compare Lenin’s writings about the events and their results, study the Congresses of the CPSU, understand their historical conditions, etc… This methodology is basic Marxism. I can easily tell you haven’t learned enough with your overt idealism.

          This is my own account. If I am receiving upvotes and you are receiving downvotes then other users share my views.

          Yeah, right, 30 seconds after you comment, you have 7 upvotes. Fuck off, you’re either doing that yourself (which would be very sad) or you’re with your friends “trolling” people on the internet. Grow up.

          Saying someone isn’t a communist just because they don’t 100% agree with your views is infantile. Abusing your power by removing a comment just because you personally don’t agree with it is infantile.

          No, you’re not a communist, because you’re a lazy anarchist who doesn’t read anything and still think you know better than people. “Abusing my power”? I’m deleting your shit because we don’t have a marxist-leninist space to still spend our time disproving CIA propaganda like we do in the liberal surface of the internet. Most of the mods here are very pedagogical people and they’re very calm and patient with you liberals. I’m not, I’m sorry, I’m not your teacher.

          I acknowledge and support opinions that differ from my own. It saddens me to see you behave this way.

          You can have your opinions, I removed your comment because I don’t tolerate liberalism and falsehoods. As Marxists, we should make sure truth thrives over all bourgeois lies, some of which you’re already familiar with.

          This is the last reply I’m giving you. If you reply to this comment again, I’m banning you. Any mod can easily unban you and restore your comments, but that will be up to them. You have been warned.

          • @Sawyer
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            4 years ago

            Removed by mod

            • Camarada ForteOPA
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              84 years ago

              If you ban me for defending myself the modlog will show in perpetuity your abuses.

              I’m not banning you, I’m banning liberal influence in this communist instance. You just happen to be a part of it, whether you’re conscious of it or not. I hope you break free from your ego and admit your ignorance, which is clear to anyone who has actually studied Marxism.

              Again, this action can be undone, but it’s up to the other mods. You should have been banned in the first comment, in my opinion. Please, instead of a Marxist-Leninist space, go to Reddit. They welcome liberals there.