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Che-Lives is a
web site dedicated to
revolutionary leftist ideas and discussion. The website hosts
a live net radio station, a Che-Lives
e-zine written by members of the forum, covering a
whole range of leftist issues, and a discussion forum for the left.
Originally started as a site dedicated to
Che Guevara, it has grown
into one of the largest communities of radical leftists on the
internet, with more than 7,900 members. This is down from 8,800
people at one point, as a result of technical difficulties that led
to corruption of board software and the loss of more than 1000
member accounts and the deletion of almost 4000 inactive accounts.
The forum itself is now on a
separate URL, as a result of a
community decision to broaden its horizons.
It also has a
Che-Lives store, with Che-related paraphernalia and merchandise,
which generates the revenue needed to pay for hosting.
Radio
Rebelde
The Che-Lives community has recently relaunched one of
the popular features of the site to the community at large, Radio
Rebelde. Playing left wing music 24/7, the internet station is
available for free on the homepage.
Che-Lives E-Zine
Che-Lives also has an e-zine, available both in HTML and PDF
format, written by members from across the political spectrum. It
covers issues from the German
KPD’s battles against the
Nazi party, to the
Iraq war, and reaches
thousands of readers.
Revolutionary Left
The site’s most visible section, which has its own URL,
is the forum, with over 7,900 members. Its general mission is to be
a university of sorts for young leftists to learn about the ideas
of
Marxism,
Anarchism and the
Left in general, and enter the arena of radical activism, prepared
with the ideas necessary to be effective in their goals. In keeping
with this aim, the forum has a section devoted to learning basics,
as well as a more advanced theory section, and a practice section
to interconnect activists from across the world and connect young
workers and students with an organization in their area to work
with in advancing their aims.
The Revolutionary Left community
has been met with reactions ranging from praise to downright scorn
over its collective political trends as well as its administrative
structure.
The forum takes a position of tolerance with
reservations towards supporters of
Capitalism, allowing them to post on the boards,
but restricting them to one area of discussion entitled
“Opposing Ideologies.” Members who have shown
themselves to be mildly
nationalistic,
sexist or
homophobic, but not enough to be banned, are
restricted here as well depending on the collective decision of the
community. Outright
racists, sexists and homophobes are summarily
banned.
Some condemn the decision-making process, as well as the
decisions to ban those whose opinions may be deemed
“unacceptable,” as elitist. In order to
understand the basis of such accusations, and why they have grown
to spawn at least three smaller boards, we will need to take a look
at Revolutionary Left’s controversial board
structure.
The Commie Club
The Commie Club, which got
its name as a joke, is the decision-making body of the community on
Revolutionary Left. It began simply as a way to have debates
amongst leftists over the many different tendencies within the
radical left without having to repeat “left vs.
right” debates in every thread. Its original purpose was
soon meaningless as the policy of restricting right-wing members
was adopted. As the site grew however, its founder was in need of
more help in keeping the site up and running. Thus began the
selection of Moderators by vote, and the Commie Club’s
designation as a “democratic decision-making
body.” It wasn’t long before this body voted to
create a section named “Opposite Ideologies” to
which right-wingers, sexists, racists or homophobes were to be
restricted, although many sexists, homophobes or racists are simply
banned. This gave purpose to the Commie Club again: keeping
reactionaries in check, restricting or banning them by daily
discussions and votes.
It began as a forum where any dedicated
leftist, after a month and at least 150 posts, could send a message
to an Administrator and be allowed in. Eventually as the site grew,
a process was adopted to involve the entire Commie Club in
recruitment. It was a process of nominations, whereby members
nominated others and other members had to second the
nomination.
Today the nomination process has been replaced by
regular polls. Any CC member can start a poll on bringing in a new
member.
Unfortunately in recent times the Commie Club has been
ironically dominated by mainstream Anarchists who disallow members
to joint he Commie Club if they do not follow the same ideology.
Because of this several rumours of marxist conspiracy have sparked
and all of which have been denied.
Political Evolution
As the years progressed, the Commie Club began to drift
towards positions that put them at odds with some of the
site’s members. Allegations of elitism and liberalism
were levelled against the board for the political trends on the
site. Such groups included the
Maoist Internationalist
Movement, which accused the board of being a collection of
teenagers playing revolutionary politics. At this time, the board
took a position which was distinctly and clearly
anti-authoritarian, restricting
Maoists and
Stalinists quite frequently. Critics declared this
a sign of sectarianism and a community not serious about radical
leftism.
These differences of view led to the creation of two
boards: one (now mostly defunct) named the International Socialist
Front, and another named Ernesto-Guevara (also now defunct), where
Che-Lives and its forum are referred to as
“Che-Libs.”
Eventually, the site backed away
from its institutionalized positions against Stalinism, though
Anarchists are heavily represented on the Commie-Club. Instead, it
is
Individualist Anarchists,
Lifestylists and reformists who find
themselves on the defensive. A recent decision by the Commie-Club
has made supporting
class war and working class-based organizing
a prerequisite for membership on that decision-making body.
In
recent times the forum has been criticized for banning members who
do not uphold the cc's ideology, The membership has since dwindled
from its original number.
External links
Che-Lives, the site itself Revolutionary Left, the
site’s forum Che-Lives’ and Revolutionary
Left’s server status Radio Rebelde, the
site’s radio station
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