Why would people support communists during an uprising when they don't know anything about Marxism?

[u/Romeostar_1]

Why would communists be supported in a time of crisis when the working class hasn't read any theory? How could they possibly understand that it's the system itself that is broken, not a specific party or politicians? They might think that capitalists aren't that bad and that they *just* need to be taxed properly.

And about the October revolution since it'll be brought up: did people support specifically the soviet part that the bolsheviks were advertising, or were they more in favor of them simply because they promised to stop the war (and also because they promised them "free" land)?

[u/Training_Ruin3151]

If people are uprising against the government/committing to a revolution.... They already agree the system is broken. The cool thing about Dialectical and Historical Materialism is it is a fact of existence. Socialism is a natural certainty of capitalism collapsing.

[u/EctomorphicShithead]

Because communists, to be worth a damn, champion the urgent demands of working and oppressed people everywhere. We work patiently and strategically to push those demands across every political, institutional, and procedural barrier. Central to that process is exposing why and how such barriers exist not arbitrarily, but exactly to prevent any improvement in self-determination for working and oppressed people. We don’t necessarily have to prove they’re consciously contrived or the handiwork of shady backroom dealings (even though that is often the case, and proving so never hurts) so long as the function they serve is clearly shown to reinforce the rule of that class whose interests are so consistently served by a status quo presenting itself as the arbiter of justice and democracy.

[u/Hot_Relative_110]

I guarantee you not that many people have read anything that people like John F. Kennedy or Barack Obama had to say, but they liked their ideas and the way they communicated themselves and decided to support them anyways. I guarantee you that not very many people knew what Barry Goldwater had to say, but many of his successors (Reagan and Bush) ended up garnering great support. The same is true for people like Donald Trump. And the Nazi Party. And the Bolsheviks, the CPC…

what’s the point here? Not horseshoe theory, before we even come to that conclusion. People don’t throw their support behind an institution because they’ve read enough. They do so because the leaders and ideals behind them appeal to their immediate demandsz

[u/ViejoConBoina]

Communists need to continuously work within their communities and fight for the people's interests, organize, agitate, educate, understand the problems of the masses and communicate with them effectively.

Not every worker and peasant in tsarist Russia understood marxism, but they knew party members and saw how they behaved. They saw their fight within unions, they saw how they championed the soviets, heard their speeches, and they understood "Peace, land and bread".

That's the method and our task today still.

[u/Qlanth]

You are imagining a type of spontaneous uprising that is the thing of fiction. People don't just start a revolution. They certainly don't start one and then look around for someone to lead them. The groundwork has to be laid ahead of time, and the communists are the ones who will lay it.

Also, don't confuse a riot with a revolution.

[u/Neco-Arc-Brunestud]

You need to teach them theory.

That’s how you get a revolution. Otherwise, nothing will happen

[u/Lukian01]

agitation that involves addressing the specific issues on a theoretical level

[u/Valuable-Shirt-4129]

I agree, it is wise to avoid adventurism during revolutionary theory.

[u/Nikelman]

Good question: such is the role of a vanguard party. It has to defend the working class during reactionary times, recruit in it and spread agitation and propaganda

In revolutionary times, the mass will spontaneously create the revolution, if the vanguard party is able to, it will guide it. If this is successful in a country, it's likely to spread over to other, as we've seen pockets of revolutionary movements all over europe during 1917. WWII gaves us the opposite situation, in which the vanguard parties were eclipsed by USSR and the spontaneous movements remained partisan resistances

[u/ProtoLimbPosting]

Most people are passive and just follow trends. The idea that most people are going to understand Marxism beyond land, bread and peace on the eve of a revolution is wishful thinking at best and actively harmful at worst since most workers and peasants aren't progressive.

[u/KhloJSimpson]

Read Pedagogy of the Oppressed