We are a podcast and journal on Marxism, Anti-Imperialism, and Communism.
Why are we called Cadre?
We take our inspiration from Che Guevara’s 1962 “The Cadres: Backbone of the Revolution”, where he argued that “a cadre person is an individual who has achieved sufficient political development to be able to interpret the extensive directives emanating from the central power, make them his, and convey them as orientation to the masses, a person who at the same time also perceives the signs manifested by the masses of their own desires and their innermost motivations”.
He argued that a cadre “is an individual of ideological and administrative discipline, who knows and practices democratic centralism…; who knows how to practice the principle of collective discussion and to make decisions on his own and take responsibility in production; whose loyalty is tested, and whose physical and moral courage has developed along with his ideological development in such a way that he is always willing to confront any conflict and to give his life for the good of the revolution. Also, he is an individual capable of self-analysis”.
Che concludes that “the cadre person is creative, a leader of high standing, a technician with a good political level, who by reasoning dialectically can advance his sector of production, or develop the masses from his position of political leadership”.
Che asserts that “the development of a cadre individual is achieved in performing everyday tasks; but the tasks must be undertaken in a systematic manner, in special schools where competent professors -—examples in their turn to the student body—will encourage the most rapid ideological advancement”.
We seek to uphold this directive and revitalize the cadre in today’s revolutionary politics, where ideological development, discipline, commitment to the people, and above all a willingness to learn are sorely needed.
What do we do?
We conduct interviews with theorists, revolutionaries, Communists, and many more, and disseminate them in written, audio, and visual formats for the education of all. We seek to develop the modern cadre by informing today’s Communist politics with the necessary theory (especially knowledge on imperialism, by studying such literature as Dependency Theory and more) while also promoting praxis through a commitment to revolutionary struggles against imperialism. We do not do this to make money, advance careerism, promote individualism, or create a celebrity-theorist persona; instead, we believe in the selflessness and anonymity of real revolutionary struggle.
As students, we are interested above all in learning and advancing a radical pedagogy that emphasizes revolution and liberation, rather than an overly academic approach that treats revolution as discourse locked in the ivory tower. The cadre is by its very nature a young person learning revolution; we seek to dispense with the puerile readings of Marx that lack an atom of revolutionary content, and put forward Marx, among the revolutionaries who followed him, as agents of historical action.
We also seek to engage in learning on the ground and through travel, particularly to revolutionary projects in the Global South. Unfortunately, it has become easy to theorize about revolution as a career without ever making a contribution to it in person or in sites of struggle. We believe travel, and engaging with people in struggle, is a necessary means to make revolution a living, breathing discipline rather than a frozen academic pursuit. We also do not wish to be sequestered online or as just another media company or podcast; we seek to engage in action and education rather than entertainment.