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{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"
!{{Infobox website|name=ProleWiki<br><small>''"The proletarian encyclopedia"''</small>|
! colspan="2" |type=<small>Collaborative online encyclopedia,</small><small> wiki</small>
|language_count=7<ref group="note">However, most of the site is available in English, with the other language versions scarcely receiving any edits or updates. Some versions of ProleWiki in different languages, such as the Chinese ProleWiki, have not been edited in over half-a-year.</ref>|founding_date=<small>30 September, 2020</small>|founder=<small>[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Comrade:Forte Felipe Forte]|key_people=<small>[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Comrade:CriticalResist CriticalResist],[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Comrade:MxAsh MxAsh],<ref group="note">Largely in a technical capacity.</ref><br>[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Comrade:Jucheguevara Jucheguevara]|num_users=<small>325 (total)<br>15–20 (active editors)</small>|url=<small>prolewiki.org</small>|espoused_ideology=<small>[[Marxism-Leninism]]<br>Support for [[Actually existing socialism|AES]]</small>}}
|}
'''ProleWiki''' is a [[Marxist-Leninist]] collaborative encyclopedia founded in September 2020. It is based on the [[MediaWiki]] software.<ref name=":0">[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/ProleWiki ProleWiki - ProleWiki]</ref>


'''Lemmygrad''' is a principally [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] link aggregator (similar to Reddit) founded in August 2019. The site is powered by the [[FOSS|free and open source]] software called [[Lemmy (software)|Lemmy]] and is [[Fediverse|federated]] with other websites that rely on Lemmy to function (similar to Mastodon or Matrix, with which Lemmy is able to federate).<ref>[https://www.makeuseof.com/best-fediverse-servers-create-online-community/ The Best Fediverse Servers to Create Your Own Online Community] by David Rutland (8 October, 2022) ''MUO''</ref> As of February 2023, the site hosts nearly 40,000 posts and around 300 active users per month, although actual patterns of user activity varies.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/ Lemmygrad.ml]</ref>
ProleWiki spans several subjects, including information on history, current events, communist parties worldwide, and countries, as well as hosting a library of texts related to Marxism. The site is closely connected to another community on the online left, [[Lemmygrad]]. ProleWiki is available in several languages, but is most active in English.
==History==
The following is a timeline of major events and developments which have taken place on ProleWiki.
===Founding and early development (30 September 2020 – 24 November 2021)===
ProleWiki was founded on 30 September 2022 by a user who went by the name of Felipe Forte, as well as other users of the internet forum Lemmygrad. The initial concept for ProleWiki originated as a reaction to the [[Liberalism|liberal]] bias found on [[Wikipedia]]. The then-sole administrator of ProleWiki, Forte would firstly attempt to attract editors via promoting the project on Lemmygrad as well as various Telegram groups and Discord server. The website faced several spam bot attacks and eventually established an "account request" system.<ref>[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Special:RequestAccount Account request] page on English Prolewiki</ref>


Lemmygrad was founded at a time when Reddit was cracking down on pro-[[CPC]] communities as a way for [[Dengists|China supporters]] to have their own space free of corporate rules and ownership.
The site was able to enjoy a spike of editors and general activity in the first few weeks of its existence, which prompted then sole administrator Forte to invite most editors into an administrative group.<ref>[https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Special:Log&offset=&limit=500&type=rights&user=&page=&wpdate=&tagfilter=&subtype= User rights log] ''ProleWiki''</ref> However, this strategy did not work out because of absenteeism and eventual lack of interest in the project from most of this first wave of editors. Eventually, the administration shrunk down to just those who continued to work in the project – CriticalResist, Jucheguevara and Andassol. This action was done in order to ensure ProleWiki would have a stable and effective administration. Andassol eventually left the administration in 2021 due to a busy schedule.
===Ideological conflicts on patriotic socialism (1 August 2022 – 27 September 2022)===
The internal condition of ProleWiki would remain relatively stable for most of early-to-mid 2022, with few notable conflicts within the editorship or administration, This status quo would be upset in August of 2022 when the inevitable creation of the page on Patriotic Socialism happened. The page noted Patriotic Socialism (with regards to the pseudo-socialist chauvinist ideology found in the United States of America) as being opportunist and revisionist. However, a few members of ProleWiki were Patriotic Socialist, including then-administrator Jucheguevara, and a conflict would start between the (very few) Patriotic Socialist and non-Patriotic Socialist elements within ProleWiki.


The website does not contain advertisements and does not collect user information beyond what is necessary for the site to function.
This conflict would result in the non-Patriotic Socialist attaining ideological victory over the Patriotic Socialist elements, with the anti-Patriotic Socialist viewpoint of the article persisting and relative peace would remain in regards to that article. A month after the initial conflict, in September, the administration was contacted anonymously with a tip that Jucheguevara conspired with the Infrared collective to make accounts on ProleWiki under false pretences so as to push a patriotic socialist agenda on the wiki.


== Functioning ==
Following this revelation (and confirmation of the claim), Jucheguevara was banned on 27 September 2022. He was stripped of his powers as an administrator and his account banned from the project.<ref name=":9">[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/391777 "Jucheguevara has been removed from administrative positions"], by ProleWiki administrator Forte (27 September 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref>
===Banning of Wisconcom (28 September 2022 – 23 October 2022)===
In June 2022, a user by the name of [https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Comrade:Wisconcom Wisconcom], who self-identified as a [[Hoxhaism|Hoxhaist]], joined ProleWiki and disagreed with the encyclopedia's stance on China and [[market socialism]] in August of that year.<ref name=":6">[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Topic:X1agp9ljig0tt2cj Topic on Talk:Market "Socialism" is Capitalism] by Wisconcom (15 August 2022) ''ProleWiki''</ref> After weeks of an incessant ideological conflict within the editorship, the administrators first gave Wisconcom a moratorium to essentially stop editing articles about China or debate it, although Wisconcom was sometimes insulting or being disrespectful to other comrades in the editorship.


=== Federation ===
While this would permit some internal peace to develop within ProleWiki, ideological disputes would soon develop. After being warned multiple times about his behavior, Wisconcom claimed he "retired" and left the project of his own accord, but returned three days later along with a petition demanding extended user rights over ProleWiki. The administration rejected this petition as they deemed Wisconcom had not earned such privileges through his mere 5 months of being with the project, and further believed him too unstable for such a position due to the combative behaviour he exhibited several times both on Lemmygrad and Prolewiki.<ref name=":3">[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Topic:X5jt5fmceilpdixv On the blocking of Wisconcom] by ProleWiki administrator Forte (23 October 2022) ''ProleWiki''</ref> Following a few more lengthy discussions about the petition, the administration would proceed to ban Wisconcom from the project due to the total breakdown of any possible dialogue and his past behaviour towards other users.
Lemmy, the software which is used to run Lemmygrad, is compatible with ActivityPub which is a federation protocol used by many other projects (such as Mastodon, Peertube). Websites powered by Lemmy are usually called ''instances''.


This means that it is possible to interact with other instances which run Lemmy or, since an update in 2021, even with a Mastodon or Peertube user, all from one's home instance, which is the instance they created their account on. This is similar to phone calls, where it is possible to call someone that doesn't have a contract with your phone company.
Following this ban, Wisconcom attempted to create numerous alt accounts on ProleWiki and Lemmygrad along with releasing articles heavily criticizing the site and its community with fabricated facts.<ref>[https://www.hexbear.net/post/249519 Since November 2022, a very committed "anti-revisionist" has been trying to infiltrate and smear the name of Prolewiki online], by CriticalResist on Hexbear.</ref> This is the reason this individual and his subsequent ban are noteworthy in the history of ProleWiki.
 
== Ideology ==
Each Lemmy instance comes with an empty blacklist by default, which allows them to block other instances from interacting with them.
ProleWiki adheres to Marxism-Leninism. The site supports [[actually existing socialism|actually existing socialist]] countries, and views China, [[Laos]], [[Vietnam]], [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], and [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]] as dictatorships of the proletariat.<ref>[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/ProleWiki:Principles Working Principles of Prolewiki]</ref>
 
=== Communities ===
As a link aggregator, Lemmygrad functions similarly to Reddit with communities in which people can post text or pictures (or both at the same time). Other users can then comment in those posts, which become threads (similar to forums).
 
=== Users ===
Similar to Reddit, users can create accounts (and provide short answers to some questions to make sure they are not spammers, perceived wreckers, or "ideological undesirables").
 
Once their account is approved, users can ''subscribe'' to a community so that posts from that community will appear in their ''Subscribed'' view.
 
There are three views:
 
* Subscribed, which shows communities one is subscribed to (including federated communities on other instances),
* ''Local'', which shows all communities from the instance one is on, and
* ''All'', which acts like Local but additionally shows all communities from all federated instances
 
Users are able to create communities on their home instance and become its moderator.
 
=== Administration and moderation ===
Lemmygrad possesses an administration team, which is able to act on the whole instance as moderators.
 
Moderators are different from administrators in that the former can only act on their own communities, and not on the whole instance.


This means also that while moderators can only ban people from their community, administrators can ban people from the whole instance.
== Structure ==


== History ==
=== Administration ===
In its founding in 2020, ProleWiki functioned under the leadership of its founder and current administrator, Felipe Forte, but currently is also managed by CriticalResist. Since late 2022, the administrators represent an organ of decision making as well as of guidance towards the established goals of ProleWiki. The editors, once their account has been approved and as soon as they join the project, can request internal referenda and vote on them. Editors are often solicited to vote on new editor applications as well as get involved in the project.


=== Founding and early developments ===
For example, since February 2022 ProleWiki holds a book club that is entirely managed by an editor. This structure of "work groups" allows ProleWiki to rely on its 100% volunteer base (both in the editors and administrators) to help grow and maintain the project by letting them volunteer their time and effort in projects they enjoy. This eases the workload on the administration and lets it act more like a guide or auditor to make sure the principles of ProleWiki, as well as its mission statement, are still being followed.  
Lemmygrad was founded in August 2019, with its first post being on the 17th of that month.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1 Lemmygrad's first post]</ref>


==== GenZedong migration ====
=== Relations with external forums and communities ===
In March 2022, the [[GenZedong]] subreddit was quarantined on Reddit. As usual during a ban wave, it mostly targetted right-wing subreddits but a left-wing subreddit was added in the wave so that Reddit could claim they were impartial in their bans. Its accompanying communities of "GenZhou" (its educational outlet) and "GenZhukov" (its military history and tactics outlet) were banned, according to Reddit, for being used to evade the quarantine on GenZedong<ref>[https://old.reddit.com/r/genZhou GenZhou] on Reddit</ref><ref>[https://old.reddit.com/r/genZhukov GenZhukov] on Reddit</ref> despite being created prior to the quarantine.
The ProleWiki administration has connections with ideologically-aligned communities on the internet, which most prominently include Lemmygrad (from which both of the two ProleWiki administrators, Forte and CriticalResist, hold moderatorship on that site<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/ Lemmygrad]</ref>). ProleWiki also maintains some links with communist content creators on Twitter.  


Lemmygrad received a huge influx of users at that time and had to establish user account vetting as, at the same time, trolls from GenUSA (a pro-US community made in response to the growing popularity of GenZedong) were also making accounts to troll Lemmygrad.
== Criticism ==
 
===Stance towards Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Hoxhaism===
As a response to this huge influx of new users, the administrators of Lemmygrad made several posts to try and get them acclimated to Lemmygrad quickly, as it was different to Reddit in many ways (in the rules, the federation aspect, and the methods of moderating). Eventually, two moderators from GenZedong were made into site admins so there could be communication between the community of GenZedong and the administrators of Lemmygrad. One of them later agreed to leave the administration on amicable terms.
ProleWiki, as a pro-AES (Actually Existing Socialism) encyclopedia, does not believe in the concept of social-imperialism,<ref name=":103">[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Social-imperialism ProleWiki - Social-imperialism]</ref> which is at odds with [[Maoism|Marxism-Leninism-Maoism]] and Hoxhaism.
 
=== Disregard for the proletariat in AES countries ===
This increase in site activity was temporary and eventually subsided later in the year 2022. However, the c/GenZedong community on Lemmygrad remains the forum's most active community.
ProleWiki largely doesn't document the exploitation of the working class in the countries they deem as actually existing socialism. While documenting the economic exploitation of the workers in Western countries, they seldom do so of the East Asian countries of, for example, China. ProleWiki explains this by applying the theory of the Second Cold War, which believes that the USA is waging a second Cold War against China (as opposed to the USSR in the time of the first Cold War). Under this model and learning from the praxis of communists that lived through the first Cold War, ProleWiki holds that when communists publicly criticise socialist countries, they are not giving a nuanced analysis but are adding arguments to the arsenal of anti-communists.                  
 
===Anti-psychiatry page===
==== Denial-of-service attacks ====
In 2021, Amicchan joined the project and wrote about many topics, with much of those edits going into a page about anti-psychiatry that they had made.<ref name=":1">[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Psychiatry ProleWiki - Psychiatry]</ref> This gave rise to a large debate between the editorship as well as the administration, as one side did not want ProleWiki to be seen as an anti-science outlet, while others were open to the idea that communists should question psychiatry as well as document its abuses under capitalism.
Along with the migration of the GenZedong community, Lemmygrad suffered denial-of-service (DoS) attacks against it, taking down the site for a number of hours at some points between March and May. This prompted the administrators of Lemmygrad to switch to another hosting provider with better (D)DoS protection, as well as update the Lemmy code to patch the vulnerabilities the attackers were using.
 
==== Purge of the c/Hoxhaism community and banning of its creator ====
In June of 2022, a self-proclaimed [[Hoxhaism|Hoxhaist]] user by the name of [https://lemmygrad.ml/u/wisconcom Wisconcom] would join Lemmygrad.ml.{{Relevance inline|reason=Hundreds of people (supposedly) join Lemmygrad each year. How is this one instance of a new account be made meaningful?}} He would quickly centre his posts around [[People's Republic of China|China]] specifically, hurling all sorts of criticism at it. Regular users of Lemmygrad, whom by and large supported the People's Republic of China, began to argue with Wisconcom who did not budge on his views, using dubious or anti-communist sources such as the [[Hindustan Times]], the [[Peterson Institute for International Economics]] or even tabloids such as "CAKnowledge".<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/267414 Comment] on Lemmygrad</ref> However, it is important to note that the sourcing employed by the pro-PRC Lemmygrad moderation and usership were not of any higher quality, with their "sourcing" consisting of dubious and informal posts from GenZedong as well as poorly-formatted and articulated posts on small pro-PRC blogs, which themselves cited no actually academic sources.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/267398 Comment] on Lemmygrad</ref>
 
Wisconcom was eventually banned from Lemmygrad for being overly combative and after several user reports about his bad faith and insulting behaviour, although the founder of Lemmygrad later said directly that he was banned for "ultra-leftism".<ref>https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/330430</ref>
 
He quickly created another account under the name of Ouisconcom and created the c/Hoxhaism community (c/ being the prefix to all community URLs on Lemmy). The community he had created was being used almost solely to criticise China and not, as the administrators expected, used to talk about Hoxhaism or [[Hoxha]] to any notable extent. A post was made looking for user input on this community<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/362912 The administrators want your opinion on the Hoxhaism community] on Lemmygrad</ref> and the moderation concluded that the Hoxhaism community should either be repurposed, or completely deleted and Wisconcom banned for ban evasion and his ideological stance.
 
Later, the community of Lemmygrad claimed that Wisconcom had came back to Lemmygrad under different names trying to bait and stoke trouble within the community. The accounts which were supposedly his were quickly banned, as by that point nobody on Lemmygrad had any patience left for his antics.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468504 RationalWiki made an article about us] on Lemmygrad</ref><ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468568 A message to Wisconcom] on Lemmygrad</ref><ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/497025 Possible Wisconcom alt] on Lemmygrad</ref>
 
==== Lemmygrad.com imposter site ====
In September of 2022, alleged [[Patriotic socialism|patriotic socialists]] of the [[infrared]] community created lemmygrad.com, a website that was meant to copy Lemmygrad but with a "MAGA Communist" purpose.
 
The administrators of Lemmygrad, to protect their reputation, announced they had contacted lemmygrad.com's hosting provider on the grounds of copyright infringement (one of the only things they could do that went against the Terms of Services). The host replied very quickly and took down lemmygrad.com, although the domain name was still usable by its owner.
 
Presently, the domain redirects to a [[Transphobia|transphobic]] account on Twitter.
 
=== Formalisation of rules ===
In the same month of September, the administrators of Lemmygrad would formalise two rules they had always operated on:<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/379908 We have added two new rules] on Lemmygrad</ref>
 
* ''No porn or sexually explicit content (even if marked NSFW).''
* ''No right-deviationists (patsocs, nazbols, strasserists, duginists, etc).''
 
The first rule was formalised by popular demand, although like most Marxist spaces, Lemmygrad did not allow pornography or other sexual nudity content from the start.
 
The second rule was also being operated on after some belligerent patriotic socialists attempting to create accounts on Lemmygrad and ultimately brought down the enjoyment the community had in using the website with their disruptive behaviour.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/239568 <nowiki>We have [re]instated the Dongistan community</nowiki>] on Lemmygrad</ref> However, it was formalised after lemmygrad.com was created as a basis to provide transparency to the community and make the banning of future patriotic socialists easier.
 
=== Merging of "Shit X Say" communities ===
Shit X Say communities, popular on Reddit (ShitLiberalsSay, ShitRedditSays...) were quickly brought over to Lemmygrad. For a while, c/ShitLiberalsSay was the biggest community. Eventually though, many more such communities were created by users and often left to abandon. Other users started complaining about these many communities that also, they felt, polluted their timeline and prevented them from seeing things other than hatful content. As such it was decided based on popular demand that all communities following the "Shit X Say" format would be merged under just two communities: ShitReactionariesSay and ShitUltrasSay. No other community of this type would be permitted on Lemmygrad after this.
 
== Ideology ==
Lemmygrad has grown from an almost unvisited website back when it started to one of the biggest instances using the Lemmy software. This has caused many changes to happen in the working principles of the forum so as to respond to this external as well as internal growth.


Lemmygrad is principally Marxist-Leninist and militantly supportive of what they call "[[actually existing socialism]]". Users who do not entirely follow this line are allowed to some extent, but do not control discourse, and are possibly subjected to bans.
Eventually, a productive dialogue was established and the page was split into two, with one documenting Psychiatry<ref name=":1" /> and another documenting the movement of anti-psychiatry.<ref>[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry ProleWiki - Anti-psychiatry]</ref> Furthermore, a notice was added on the Psychiatry page to explain that the article was undergoing "an ideological dispute over its content" and one should "establish a consensus with comrades before making edits". After these two resolutions, neutrality was brought back to the page and after which ProleWiki has not received any more criticism on this page.


==See also==
*[[Lemmygrad]]
*[[Friends of Socialist China]]
==References==
==References==
<references />
<references />
===Notes===
[[Category:Wikis]]
<references group="note" />
[[Category:Online left]]
[[Category:Internet forums]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2020]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2019]]
=== Notes ===
[[Category:Internet trolling]]
<references group="note"/>
[[Category:FOSS platforms]]
[[Category:Online piracy]]

Revision as of 22:43, 23 April 2023

ProleWiki
"The proletarian encyclopedia"
Type Collaborative online encyclopedia, wiki
Available in 7[note 1] languages
Founded 30 September, 2020
Founder Felipe Forte
Key people CriticalResist,MxAsh,[note 2]
Jucheguevara
Users 325 (total)
15–20 (active editors)
Espoused ideology Marxism-Leninism
Support for AES
URL prolewiki.org

ProleWiki is a Marxist-Leninist collaborative encyclopedia founded in September 2020. It is based on the MediaWiki software.[1]

ProleWiki spans several subjects, including information on history, current events, communist parties worldwide, and countries, as well as hosting a library of texts related to Marxism. The site is closely connected to another community on the online left, Lemmygrad. ProleWiki is available in several languages, but is most active in English.

History

The following is a timeline of major events and developments which have taken place on ProleWiki.

Founding and early development (30 September 2020 – 24 November 2021)

ProleWiki was founded on 30 September 2022 by a user who went by the name of Felipe Forte, as well as other users of the internet forum Lemmygrad. The initial concept for ProleWiki originated as a reaction to the liberal bias found on Wikipedia. The then-sole administrator of ProleWiki, Forte would firstly attempt to attract editors via promoting the project on Lemmygrad as well as various Telegram groups and Discord server. The website faced several spam bot attacks and eventually established an "account request" system.[2]

The site was able to enjoy a spike of editors and general activity in the first few weeks of its existence, which prompted then sole administrator Forte to invite most editors into an administrative group.[3] However, this strategy did not work out because of absenteeism and eventual lack of interest in the project from most of this first wave of editors. Eventually, the administration shrunk down to just those who continued to work in the project – CriticalResist, Jucheguevara and Andassol. This action was done in order to ensure ProleWiki would have a stable and effective administration. Andassol eventually left the administration in 2021 due to a busy schedule.

Ideological conflicts on patriotic socialism (1 August 2022 – 27 September 2022)

The internal condition of ProleWiki would remain relatively stable for most of early-to-mid 2022, with few notable conflicts within the editorship or administration, This status quo would be upset in August of 2022 when the inevitable creation of the page on Patriotic Socialism happened. The page noted Patriotic Socialism (with regards to the pseudo-socialist chauvinist ideology found in the United States of America) as being opportunist and revisionist. However, a few members of ProleWiki were Patriotic Socialist, including then-administrator Jucheguevara, and a conflict would start between the (very few) Patriotic Socialist and non-Patriotic Socialist elements within ProleWiki.

This conflict would result in the non-Patriotic Socialist attaining ideological victory over the Patriotic Socialist elements, with the anti-Patriotic Socialist viewpoint of the article persisting and relative peace would remain in regards to that article. A month after the initial conflict, in September, the administration was contacted anonymously with a tip that Jucheguevara conspired with the Infrared collective to make accounts on ProleWiki under false pretences so as to push a patriotic socialist agenda on the wiki.

Following this revelation (and confirmation of the claim), Jucheguevara was banned on 27 September 2022. He was stripped of his powers as an administrator and his account banned from the project.[4]

Banning of Wisconcom (28 September 2022 – 23 October 2022)

In June 2022, a user by the name of Wisconcom, who self-identified as a Hoxhaist, joined ProleWiki and disagreed with the encyclopedia's stance on China and market socialism in August of that year.[5] After weeks of an incessant ideological conflict within the editorship, the administrators first gave Wisconcom a moratorium to essentially stop editing articles about China or debate it, although Wisconcom was sometimes insulting or being disrespectful to other comrades in the editorship.

While this would permit some internal peace to develop within ProleWiki, ideological disputes would soon develop. After being warned multiple times about his behavior, Wisconcom claimed he "retired" and left the project of his own accord, but returned three days later along with a petition demanding extended user rights over ProleWiki. The administration rejected this petition as they deemed Wisconcom had not earned such privileges through his mere 5 months of being with the project, and further believed him too unstable for such a position due to the combative behaviour he exhibited several times both on Lemmygrad and Prolewiki.[6] Following a few more lengthy discussions about the petition, the administration would proceed to ban Wisconcom from the project due to the total breakdown of any possible dialogue and his past behaviour towards other users.

Following this ban, Wisconcom attempted to create numerous alt accounts on ProleWiki and Lemmygrad along with releasing articles heavily criticizing the site and its community with fabricated facts.[7] This is the reason this individual and his subsequent ban are noteworthy in the history of ProleWiki.

Ideology

ProleWiki adheres to Marxism-Leninism. The site supports actually existing socialist countries, and views China, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, and DPRK as dictatorships of the proletariat.[8]

Structure

Administration

In its founding in 2020, ProleWiki functioned under the leadership of its founder and current administrator, Felipe Forte, but currently is also managed by CriticalResist. Since late 2022, the administrators represent an organ of decision making as well as of guidance towards the established goals of ProleWiki. The editors, once their account has been approved and as soon as they join the project, can request internal referenda and vote on them. Editors are often solicited to vote on new editor applications as well as get involved in the project.

For example, since February 2022 ProleWiki holds a book club that is entirely managed by an editor. This structure of "work groups" allows ProleWiki to rely on its 100% volunteer base (both in the editors and administrators) to help grow and maintain the project by letting them volunteer their time and effort in projects they enjoy. This eases the workload on the administration and lets it act more like a guide or auditor to make sure the principles of ProleWiki, as well as its mission statement, are still being followed.

Relations with external forums and communities

The ProleWiki administration has connections with ideologically-aligned communities on the internet, which most prominently include Lemmygrad (from which both of the two ProleWiki administrators, Forte and CriticalResist, hold moderatorship on that site[9]). ProleWiki also maintains some links with communist content creators on Twitter.

Criticism

Stance towards Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Hoxhaism

ProleWiki, as a pro-AES (Actually Existing Socialism) encyclopedia, does not believe in the concept of social-imperialism,[10] which is at odds with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Hoxhaism.

Disregard for the proletariat in AES countries

ProleWiki largely doesn't document the exploitation of the working class in the countries they deem as actually existing socialism. While documenting the economic exploitation of the workers in Western countries, they seldom do so of the East Asian countries of, for example, China. ProleWiki explains this by applying the theory of the Second Cold War, which believes that the USA is waging a second Cold War against China (as opposed to the USSR in the time of the first Cold War). Under this model and learning from the praxis of communists that lived through the first Cold War, ProleWiki holds that when communists publicly criticise socialist countries, they are not giving a nuanced analysis but are adding arguments to the arsenal of anti-communists.

Anti-psychiatry page

In 2021, Amicchan joined the project and wrote about many topics, with much of those edits going into a page about anti-psychiatry that they had made.[11] This gave rise to a large debate between the editorship as well as the administration, as one side did not want ProleWiki to be seen as an anti-science outlet, while others were open to the idea that communists should question psychiatry as well as document its abuses under capitalism.

Eventually, a productive dialogue was established and the page was split into two, with one documenting Psychiatry[11] and another documenting the movement of anti-psychiatry.[12] Furthermore, a notice was added on the Psychiatry page to explain that the article was undergoing "an ideological dispute over its content" and one should "establish a consensus with comrades before making edits". After these two resolutions, neutrality was brought back to the page and after which ProleWiki has not received any more criticism on this page.

See also

References

  1. ↑ ProleWiki - ProleWiki
  2. ↑ Account request page on English Prolewiki
  3. ↑ User rights log ProleWiki
  4. ↑ "Jucheguevara has been removed from administrative positions", by ProleWiki administrator Forte (27 September 2022) Lemmygrad
  5. ↑ Topic on Talk:Market "Socialism" is Capitalism by Wisconcom (15 August 2022) ProleWiki
  6. ↑ On the blocking of Wisconcom by ProleWiki administrator Forte (23 October 2022) ProleWiki
  7. ↑ Since November 2022, a very committed "anti-revisionist" has been trying to infiltrate and smear the name of Prolewiki online, by CriticalResist on Hexbear.
  8. ↑ Working Principles of Prolewiki
  9. ↑ Lemmygrad
  10. ↑ ProleWiki - Social-imperialism
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 ProleWiki - Psychiatry
  12. ↑ ProleWiki - Anti-psychiatry

Notes

  1. ↑ However, most of the site is available in English, with the other language versions scarcely receiving any edits or updates. Some versions of ProleWiki in different languages, such as the Chinese ProleWiki, have not been edited in over half-a-year.
  2. ↑ Largely in a technical capacity.
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