4w ago

"How to Be a Good Communist" by Liu Shaoqi | GZD Reading Group | Weeks 13-14, 2025

This was a lecture delivered by Liu Shaoqi in 1939. You can read a transcription here. Since it's a longer text, we're preliminarily allocating two weeks for it.

This reading group is meant to educate, and people from any instances federated with Lemmygrad are welcome. Any comments not engaging in good faith will be removed (don't respond to hostile comments, just report them), as will off-topic comments.

You can post questions or share your thoughts at any time. When we move on to a new text, this thread won't be locked.

17 comments

A very good and insightful text, if somewhat lengthy. I've been working through it since yesterday. A lot of common sense stuff but it's good to have it laid out in such a logical and well structured way. I found this part in the last chapter to be especially good advice when it comes to how to behave properly in a party:
It is necessary for comrades in the course of inner-Party struggle to receive well founded criticism, for it is helpful to them, to the other comrades and to the whole Party. On the other hand, it is also unavoidable that at times some comrades will receive unfounded criticisms or be attacked on certain matters, or will even be wrongly judged and disciplined. Failing to allow for this, they become shocked and feel most miserable and dejected when it occurs.
In this connection, it is my opinion that every Party member should pay attention to uniting with his comrades, be sincere and open, refrain from hurting others by thoughtless or sarcastic remarks and, in particular, refrain from irresponsibly criticizing comrades behind their backs. The proper attitude to any comrade’s mistakes is sincerely to remonstrate with him and criticize him to his face., out of concern for the comrade and a desire to be of help. All of us, and especially those in more responsible positions, must bear this in mind.
On the other hand, it is my opinion that comrades should be mentally prepared for inner-Party struggle, should open-mindedly accept all well-grounded criticism and be able to endure misunderstandings or attacks, or even unfairness and injustice; in particular, they should not get upset or excited over irresponsible and unjustified criticism or rumours. As far as irresponsible misjudgement and criticism are concerned - that is, excluding properly conducted criticism among comrades or through the Party organization - one can try and clear the matter up or offer some explanation when necessary, but if that does not help, one might just as well let others say what they please, provided there is nothing wrong in one’s thinking and behaviour. Let us remember the Chinese sayings: “Who never gossips about others behind their backs or is never the subject of gossip?” and “Never mind the storm, just sit tight in the fishing boat.” No one in this world can entirely avoid being misunderstood, but misunderstandings can always be cleared up sooner or later. We should be able to endure misunderstandings and should never allow ourselves to be dragged into unprincipled struggle; at the same time, we should be always vigilant and keep watch over our own thoughts and actions.
That is to say, we should take care not to use words that wound other comrades and should be able to stand injurious language from others.
We are radically opposed to unprincipled disputes in the Party. Since they are unprincipled, they are useless and harmful to the Party, and there is generally little of right or wrong, or good or bad, about them. In such unprincipled struggles, therefore, there is no point in passing judgement as to who is right and who is wrong, or estimating who is better and who is worse, because that is impossible. All we can do is radically to oppose struggles of that kind and ask the comrades involved unconditionally to stop them and get back to principles. This is the policy we should adopt towards unprincipled disputes and struggles.
- That is to say, we should take care not to use words that wound other comrades and should be able to stand injurious language from others.
  Lenin is getting called out for being a dick.
  
  😂
- be sincere and open, refrain from hurting others by thoughtless or sarcastic remarks and, in particular, refrain from irresponsibly criticizing comrades behind their backs. The proper attitude to any comrade’s mistakes is sincerely to remonstrate with him and criticize him to his face, out of concern for the comrade and a desire to be of help.
  I had a thought the other day that was unfortunately spurred by disagreements in the group chat of an in-person org: I don't think leftist orgs should have group chats, message boards, or any other sort of inward-facing social media.
  Social media (and big group chats are basically that) could not be better designed to produce misunderstandings and amplify conflicts. The "criticize someone to their face" part of this reading is how you minimize this.
  Internal social media is essentially an ongoing, informal meeting. To those active on internal social media, your actual meetings seem to re-hash a lot of old conversations. To those who aren't active on internal social media, your actual meetings seem like jumping in halfway through an ongoing discussion.
  In-person meetings have practical time and attention constraints. These force your group to efficiently address a manageable number of issues. Online, you can argue endlessly about everything under the sun. You will generate disagreements you don't need to have right now on topics increasingly far from what your group is actually doing in real life.
  I think the corollary to "criticize people face-to-face" is "start with a one-on-one conversation, and don't spring a group call-out on anyone."

What a good reading!
- I always recommend it to everyone.

Taking a firm proletarian stand on how good this book is. It should be required reading for all communists.

Glad people seem to be enjoying my suggestion! I'll be sure to give more.
- Thx!
  
  np!

Might as well give the link:
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/liu-shaoqi/1939/how-to-be/
- there's already a link in the post
  
  whoops, my bad

Did you take my suggestion after all or was this suggested by others?
Either way, thanks! It's a good read.
- yes, the suggestions with a few more upvotes were significantly longer
  
  gotcha

This work in particular was a large influence on how I should act as a Communist, and how that should guide my interactions with others. Glad to see it being read and studied more! Very happy that a comrade recommended it to me.

17 comments