Reform-Leninist Theses on Bravery and Initiative; Do not Fear the Sea in Reform

5 September 2025.

Originally betitled: Reformed Tankie Theses on Bravery; Adhere to The Proven Principles of Former Comrades in Reform

Comrades, ere we finish with the matter of Reformed Tankie Doctrine for the time being, I must call this Twentieth Tankie Conversation, to part the waters firmly, that less hopeful, more aloof comrades are not abandoned to draw the wrong conclusions in the deluge of deep theoretical discussion which has been posted of late.

Reform-Leninism is now at the qualitative level of ideology and policy formulation before it, that it has been made ever more necessary to begin the... more fluid, or uncertain questions. When charting a new course, one knows, specially the helmsman knows, what the destination is, more or less. But the path of travel remains ominous, full of fog and looming ice-bergs.

This departure onto the sea of political renewal has been uncharacteristic and uncharted in many instances. Our galleon of Reform-Leninism has, undoubtedly, sustained some damage. Do not fear, however, comrades; for many other communists have set out upon this dark, perilous ocean, and have successfully sailed their reforms to the other side.

At times when you are frightened, and thinking of jumping from the galleon of Reform-Leninism, ask yourself these pertinent questions: would our Gross-Admiral— whose very name our galleon bears —would our Gross-Admiral Vladimir Ilyich have abandoned the Bolshevik vanguard ship of the line? What of our gross captains who succeeded him, Comrade Khrushchev, Comrade Brezhnev, Comrade Honecker, or Comrade Deng? Did any of them desert their duties and hop overboard? It is a historically proved fact: Leninists do not abandon their ships.

The policy formulation process of Reform leaves much to chance and accident. This can be scary for comrades who are not yet sure of themselves, ideologically speaking. Howbeit, comrades have a duty to improve and and sail the ideology, to not do so should be the highest expression of treason, the fear and denial of Leninism as a living ideology itself. It is better to hit the rocks on the waves to Reform, than to hide Leninism shamefully away as a relic displayed only at ridiculous stagnant party congresses.

Let a word of tempred caution be added. A helmsman who does crash into the rocks, if he had given the order to go full steam ahead, will rightly or wrongly be faulted for the loss of the ship and the death of the crew. Sail slowly, with collective captainship, and whatever the result, you will be blameless.

Remember always to respect and maintain two things, the rudder and sails: collective leadership, and comradery, moderation, and care in Reform. Without these two essential elements, the ship of Leninism will either remain stationary as it rots away, or worse, will flow off course until it crashes into something, far from somewhere.

The last thing I will say in this article aimed at encouragement, is very pertinent. If the mighty captains of all the major ships in the various socialist fleets refuse to hear your proposed plan of destination to Reform, do not be afraid to steal (excuse me, 'revolutionarily expropriate') a sloop, like Comrade Stalin in the old days, and yourself set sail on the waters to Reform. You may get lost and deeply forloren in loneliness, thinking yourself a utopian idealist wrecker, or mad as a nut-bar (I certainly have!); but if you find a way as our previous comrades had, you will save the ideology and be rewarded as the next gross captain of the immortal ship of the line which is Leninism.

It is important to recall that the present galleon of Reform-Leninism began as a gadfly gun-boat, shooting at the bows of decrepit one-true-vanguard parties many times its size, a thankless though certainly not fearless task. Yet here we are, sailing towards the brighter currents of Reform, whilst these dogmatic sectarians watch the wood rot, for they have not so bothered just to paint it. Our Leninist galleon may not be the biggest, but it is the fastest and healthiest. Let the vanguard party ice-makers stay there and rot into the bottom of the sea, we do not need them!