This website is experiencing an overhaul.

Who I am and why the page is being rebuilt

I'm still the same web developer as before; you can continue to call me by my pseudonym, Hespera, if you'd like. I use She/Her pronouns. This website is experiencing a complete rework for multiple reasons, which are as follows:

1. Reading more Marxist and Marxist-Leninist theory has demonstrated to me that I had misunderstood multiple concepts, which are being rectified. This has additionally contributed better context for some things I've been working on, which are experiencing rewrites to include new and better information.
2. I want to make the website code more legible (to myself) and better optimized for iterability across web pages.
3. As I was making some checks for the site as it's nearing one full year of age, I became aware I had critically mistranslated a Greek word, much to my embarassment. As such, I've decided it's probably best to keep this ideology in English, or at least non-English words that I already natively use (small portions of Spanish and German).

This ideology will henceforth be referred to as Donovan Thought, which may interchangeably be referred to as Socialism with North American characteristics; I don't think a fancy name is really necessary—you may also refer to me as Ms. Donovan or Comrade Donovan if you'd like. This is still internationalist, to be clear, but rather its character has taken on a distinctly North American influence, because these are the material conditions I understand best; this is not by any means reflective of North American (or countries within) nationalism.

(As a brief aside, Socialist nationalism may be used, but this is critically VERY DIFFERENT from, "national socialism." While the latter refers to a Socialism-Appropriating Reactionary movement (other examples include national bolshevism or the, "American Communist Party"'s, "MAGA communism"), Socialist nationalism instead refers to building a national character for the purpose of unity—specifically, for democratic centralism—but isn't intended to imply superiority, and takes on an internationalist character.

This is the way the term is explicitly used by the Communist Party of Vietnam. While the term may leave a bad taste in the mouth of English-speakers due to the unfortunate similarity of terminology with a reactionary movement, Socialist nationalism predates, "national socialism," and consequently, despite some people being hesitant and translating it as Socialist patriotism (which conveys a different meaning), it's more accurate to translate it as the former and refuse to let a reactionary movement that deliberately manipulatively named itself after Socialism to exploit the working class dominate the terminology.

For further information on how this term is properly used and intended, please see: [YouTube] Luna oi!: NATIONALISM (Left vs. Right Nationalism).)

While I do still want to work on some internationalist planning, I do think I should prioritize developing Donovan Thought for the North American conditions; I will need to study Pantherism and Puerto Rican Socialism, and likely Cuban Socialism, amid the Soviet and Vietnamese models I've already been researching, however I feel these are still incomplete developments that will form key elements of a larger whole—as is noted by the Communist Party USA, racism is the single most powerful bastion of capitalist oppression in the West.

I will likely be more critical and potentially harsh towards my Anarchist comrades, as I've taken on a distinctly Marxist-Leninist character now and have been getting an increasing understanding of what the actual critiques are vs. what quote miners will critique with. I do, however, disagree with Lenin's hypothesis that Anarchists are reactionary or liberal; rather, I see Anarchists (at least in the modern sense, where much less of the non-violent influence of Bakunin and Kautsky—contributors to the social democrat philosophy—floods the ideology) as revolutionary, but agree with the critique that trying to immediately abolish the state is too hasty while other forms of classism still exist, and additionally now properly understand the critique of Proudhon, Bakunin, and Kropotkin's abolition of the state vs. Marx, Engels, and Lenin's withering of the state.

This consequently, ironically, delays an actual revolution by making the Anarchist conditions of revolution dependent on a society equally willing to abolish all other class oppression simultaneously (ex. misogyny, transmisia, racism, etc.), which is why Lenin critiqued them as liberal (in the sense that liberals intend to prevent a revolution). The aforementioned books above weren't chosen randomly, and the fourth listed will clarify what these critiques are—I recommend reading it, as well as the others (particularly the third) as soon as possible.

I do still believe that Marxist-Leninists and Anarchists can work together, though probably to a much more limited degree than I originally thought. Additionally, like Lenin, I think that much more attention needs to be pressed towards the social democratic (and by extension, democratic socialist) movements' Socialism-Appropriating Utopian and Socialism-Appropriating Opportunist character, and less so towards the Anarchists. (Notably, Lenin berated social democrats—primarily Bernstein and Kautsky—for using part of Marx's critique to criticize Anarchists, but ignoring the inconvenient parts that demonstrated social democracy cannot work.)

If you have questions, feel free to reach out via secure email or Neocities comments. I also have an affiliated Bluesky, which additionally changed URL; the old profile picture is still intact as I haven't decided whether to continue using the original symbol, or something more directly hammer-and-sickle. I don't know if DMs are possible as I refuse to, "age verify," that account in an effort to reduce the dissemination of personal information.

Temporary dev log

• 13 December 2025: index.html (Home page) drastically altered to reflect site name change. Primary Proton Mail contact address changed to donovan-thought@pm.me. Associated Bluesky page changed to @donovan-thought.neocities.org. Grievance of excessive delays reported to Communist Party USA; rectification pending. Started reading Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism, Part 1 (The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism (i.e. dialectical materialism)). Primary philosophical document renamed amid extensive rewriting; still no ETA for completion.
• 14 December 2025: Added additional context to index.html (Home page). Started reading Wage Labour and Capital by Karl Marx.
• 15 December 2025: Finished reading Wage Labour and Capital by Karl Marx. Started reading Value, Price, and Profit by Karl Marx.
• 16 December 2025: Finished reading Value, Price, and Profit by Karl Marx. Started reading Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels.
• 17 December 2025: Finished reading Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels. A lot of points Lenin elaborated upon in The State and Revolution had further context applied as this book was the source of a lot of his ideas in that book. I additionally recognized some excerpts from the text that've so far been used in my reading of Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism, Part 1 (The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism). Continued writing of the preliminary document for Donovan Thought in excess of 3,000 words.
  
  Started and finished reading Socialism and Religion by Vladimir Lenin. (It's very brief, on par with the brevity of On Authority by Friedrich Engels). Started and finished reading On the History of Early Christanity by Friedrich Engels. Started and finished reading The Attitude of the Workers' Party to Religion by Vladimir Lenin. Started and finished reading Classes and Parties in Their Attitude to Religion and the Church by Vladimir Lenin.
  
  Started and finished reading On Why I'm Leaving the Party (CPUSA) by Khadija Haynes. It was a very accurate critique that echoes my own issues with the party; this is part of why I have my own website for publishing theory, as the Communist Party line certainly needs shifted a lot further left. Seemingly paradoxically, this is why I recommend people join the CPUSA: the Party line isn't going to move if we just let it rot.
  
  I personally have my own criticisms of the CPUSA, and agree with her understanding that the party is ossified, refuses to write new theory, and fails to enact productive praxis in favour of releasing statements. I will probably end up building a new branch due to the one near me having a Chairworker who doesn't check his messages.
  
  Started and finished reading In its Members' Own Words: The CPUSA Abandons Marxism-Leninism by Red Clarion (Unity-Struggle-Unity). This offers some explanation as to the Party's resistance to adopting Ho Chi Minh's cadres model of organization. Started and finished reading An Anti-Clerical Policy of Socialism by Rosa Luxembourg. This didn't really offer as much as I was hoping it would; for context of the Socialism vs. religion research, I recognize how religion immediately sprang back to life after the illegal dissolution of the Soviet Union.
  
  I additionally recognize that religion is a tool of hope for the workers, and that it'll very likely dissolve naturally as class antagonisms are broken down, as its origins come from a revolutionary response to class struggle (or inversely, like the Mormons, a reactionary response to class struggle). Consequently, I'm trying to figure out how exactly to set up the Socialist policy on religion in a country where approximately 71% of the population is religious, and approximately 69% of the population is specifically Christian.
  
  Started and finished reading The Socialization of Society (What is Bolshevism?) by Rosa Luxembourg. Started and finished reading Combat Liberalism by Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong). (Another brief one; it's talking about Socialism-Appropriating Opportunism and alleged Marxists refusing to engage in both intellectual and physical praxis and just letting things keep going on as normal—yet another criticism which could be levied at the current CPUSA party line.)
  
  Started and finished reading In Defense of Nationality by Rosa Luxembourg. Started and finished reading Socialism and the Churches by Rosa Luxembourg. Started and finished reading Oppose Book Worship by Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong). Minor updates to the preliminary document for Donovan Thought.
• 18 December 2025: Started and finished reading On Practice by Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong). Started and finished reading On Contradiction by Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong). It mainly seemed like an expansion of the ideas discussed in On Practice with a particular focus on dialectical materialism instead of mechanical materialism, the latter of which is a term Mao coined to elaborate on alleged Marxists who only take into account what happens materially (base) without taking into account the way human thought (superstructure) reflects onto that base, at least from what I understand.
  
  Started and finished reading On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People by Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong); I've only previously skimmed this but not read in-depth. What I gathered from it is primarily discussing the details of how to properly ensure democratic centralism utilizing dialectical materialism, including a note near the end that one shouldn't be dogmatic and just copy someone else's system 1:1 (no shit) and should develop Socialism according to their own material conditions.
• 19 December 2025: Corrected a typo where I for some reason wrote, "November," instead of, "December," on the previous dev log. Started and finished reading Dialectical and Historical Materialism by Joseph Stalin. Pretty much a bunch of the stuff that Engels discussed in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific combined with some of the stuff Mao later stated in On Practice, On Contradiction, and On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People; I can definitely see the influence that Stalin weighed onto Mao just from this alone.
• 20 December 2025: Rest day taken yesterday due to a workplace injury. Started and finished reading A radiant future for our country by Thomas Sankara. Started and finished reading Political Orientation Speech by Thomas Sankara. A very eye-opening read that unintentionally greatly expands upon Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism while discussing the new plans for Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso), a country that was Socialist until a coup d'etat resulting in the assassination of Comrade Sankara.
  
  It was unfortunately quite difficult to read as the website that it's hosted on clearly poorly machine-translated it—or at least that's what I initially thought. I then discovered that someone else (Drew Povey) had poorly machine-translated it from French to English on Scribd, and then ThomasSankara.net reuploaded it to their English site, which makes me question if that can actually be held to copyright given it's not actually their material, leaving open the potential for a much better translation.
  
  Still, a good read; very much recommended. You may just need to do what I did: go back and forth between the English and French versions to figure out what got mistranslated at many, many points.
• 23 December 2025: Temporarily postponing writing so I can fully focus on reading What Is to Be Done? (Burning Questions of our Movement) by Vladimir Lenin. REMINDER: DID YOU DONATE TO A PALESTINE FUNDRAISER THIS WEEK? IF NOT, PLEASE SPARE $25 USD OR APPROXIMATE EQUIVALENT FOR FATHI ALHAJ (GAZAVETTERS #169; BUTTERFLY VETTERS #1461) AT: https://gofund.me/22ea342d
• 24 December 2025: Finished What Is to Be Done? (Burning Questions of our Movement) by Vladimir Lenin. I'm unclear as to why this book gets recommended so much? It's primarily a massive criticism of another Communist newspaper for being dogmatic and alternating between economism and terrorism and consequently simultaneously not getting anything done while also scaring off workers. Most of Lenin's direct advice re: the title is found in Chapter 5.
  
  It can really just be summarized as:
  1. Have an all-state newspaper (for example this would be an all-USA, all-Iraq, all-Ghana, etc. newspaper instead of many smaller/regional newspapers.
  2. Ensure that this newspaper releases its newsletters at least 4 times a month (implied: at least one issue per week) as simultaneous method of national communication between Party blocs and by making the entire country aware of both grievances and party activity across the country
  3. Don't be a fucking terrorist; if you don't already have broad proletarian support you're not going to start a revolution (The Shining Path should probably read this tbh)
  4. Focus on both day-to-day Party work and the broad path to revolution, but don't try to plan everything out in way too much detail. Additionally, keep the most integral parts of your Party private if there's an active threat to your Party (in his time, tsarist police raids; this additionally applied to the newspaper itself being secret and illegal in his time)
  
  Not sure I'd really recommend it as anything other than a common-sense filter. Unless your party is demonstrating these problems I don't really think this is as necessary as it gets pressed. It should also be stated that while this very much critiqued only organizing on the shop floor and in the agrarian sectors and having newspapers that were bizarrely only really focused on the Russian intelligentsia, I would argue that allegedly, "Socialist," parties in the USA have serious problems with lacking union integration—
  
  —to elaborate: pull out of the AFL-CIO, adopt actually democratic unions with elections instead of bureaucracy, exercise explicit Marxism-Leninism in your unions instead of being a syncretic political blender; this is what the IWW used to do back in the day—
  
  —and focusing far too much on releasing newsletters and statements without actually doing anything; subsequently I would apply the opposite critique to our current material conditions.
• 24–25 December 2025: Continued writing of the preliminary document for Donovan Thought. Removed Socialist Revolutionary (as in, Socialist Revolutionary v. Menshevik v. Bolshevik) influence that had unintentionally wormed its way into my work. Sharpened critique of Anarchism. Considering breaking up the Introduction into separate sections, depending on how long the rest of the document ends up being (currently in excess of 10,000 words).
  
  Started and finished "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder by Vladimir Lenin. Very informative and will be adding to my recommended essential Marxist-Leninist reads list. Corrected this entry's date to 24–25 December (was previously 23–24 December). Adding a further clarification since Left-Wing Communism added better information on the IWW:
  
  Lenin actually critiques the IWW on the exact point I made in the previous entry: that they were unable to achieve broad proletarian support because they entirely refused to work within bourgeois and reactionary trade unions, instead of doing both at once (which was relevant to how the Mensheviks failed to achieve broad proletarian support because they only supported illegal work like what they were doing with the Bolsheviks, but wouldn't participate in the Duma like the Bolsheviks were, which granted the Bolsheviks the ability to legalize their newspaper), and this led to the IWW withering into a useless organization—this is something I picked up on autonomously, but now I understand why.
  
  Started reading The Foundations of Leninism by Joseph Stalin. Legitimately just expecting this to be more regurgitating Lenin. Finished reading The Foundations of Leninism, but I'm very much going to need to re-read this at a later point. Distracted thinking about Party formation given the resistance of the CPUSA to shifting the Party line to Leninist praxis and to maintaining proper contact and collaboration with their own members.
  
  Started and finished reading Theses on the Organisational Structure of the Communist Parties and the Methods and Content of their Work by the Communist International (ComIntern); specifically the Third Congress. An absolutely integral document I'll be repeatedly going back to for future reference. Looked into the American Party of Labour out of curiosity; just Hoxhaists i.e. dogmatic idealists. Utterly baffled by every, "anti-revisionist," party ultimately just being some flipped coin of Trotsky.
  
  Started reading Reform or Revolution? by Rosa Luxembourg.
• 26 December 2025: Finished reading Reform or Revolution? by Rosa Luxembourg. Very much would recommend; it's a massive rebuttal of Bernstein's reformism of Marxism into a nothingburger ideology (if you aren't already aware, Bernstein attempted to find a middle-ground between Marx and Proudhon (the first Anarchist) and ended up influencing both Kropotkin (Anarchism) and Kautsky (Social Democracy)—these four reformists (Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Kautsky) have caused serious damage to scientific Socialism i.e. Marxism) and explains why revolution is necessary and why cooperatives and trade unionism (syndicalism) aren't actually a solution and are only temporary bandages.
• 27 December 2025: Added a date to the previous entry because I forgot to. Started and finished reading Theses on Feuerbach by Karl Marx. Provides the source of a famous Marx quote but nothing really integral in my opinion. Started and finished reading Better Fewer, But Better by Vladimir Lenin. I mostly just got out of this: do things slowly, constantly check for mistakes and admit when you have them, reduce bureacucracy, keep your government as simple as possible and cut out any part of it that isn't absolutely necessary.
• 28 December 2025: Corrected date due to crossing over midnight. Started and finished reading Critique of the Gotha Programme by Karl Marx. Would not recommend; these concepts are much better explained in The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin, and some of Marx's misogyny slips in near the end of the critique.
• 29 December 2025: Started listening to The Public School to Prison Pipeline by Dr. Amos Wilson.
• 30 December 2025: Finished listening to The Public School to Prison Pipeline by Dr. Amos Wilson (re: previous entries; listened to at 1.5–2x speed depending on how much attention I was able to devote to it re: limited free time). My thoughts on it are a little complicated so I'll just expound them here:
  • He has a very potent critique of Marxists who are dogmatic about their theory and insist upon people reading it, but provide no actual tangible aid, particularly to Black communities, which I very much appreciate him calling out.
  • He expanded upon the school-to-prison pipeline inherently being a class issue; this is correct.
  • He critiqued the RSSR for their Russofication of the Soviet Union and particularly talked about their oppression of the Balkan states—this is correct, and refers to Joseph Stalin ripping away autonomy from the Balkans despite them solidifying under Socialism, one of the major fuck-ups of the USSR.
  • I disagree with his take that Malcolm X doesn't offer Black people a path to liberation, however I absolutely do agree with his take that if Black people don't forcibly seize power with violence, then Black people will always be oppressed, even in allegedly Socialist countries. I do however feel that this should be taken in tandem with Lenin's instructions in What is to be Done? as he points out why being a terrorist isn't as effective as building dual power (however for short-term gains this can be helpful, this is mainly in reference to overthrowing the economic system that causes the other systemic oppression) and then having a targeted revolution specifically during a period of economic crisis; if Black people are to achieve liberation it'll need to be done through Socialism with a material analysis of the Black conditions in the given region (ex. North America) which will present material solutions to the problems that arise and can be refined through the principle of Unity-Struggle-Unity as elaborated upon by Mao in On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People. This additionally puts an onus on all Marxist-Leninists to ensure that Black people are not only educated in the basics of Socialism, but also masters of both theoretical knowledge of and practical application of dialectical materialism and Unity-Struggle-Unity, for example how the Black Panthers used to operate before being obliterated by COINTELPRO.
  • He seems to have misunderstood a difference in material conditions and response to those material conditions (in reference to Black education from the African perspective from attentive mothers and an African-centred education style) as actually being Black superiority rather than a byproduct of white capitalist imperialism (re: Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism); he did however understand that Black people have been subject to European colonialism and American colonialism and presented the correct solution that Black people should be taught to be proud of their African and Black identity rather than running from it. I also appreciate him bringing up that, "IQ," is a bullshit concept and can be increased over time, denoting that the only reason the Japanese were excelling over Americans was due to extended study time, however he backtracks and states that Black people are also genetically predisposed to greater intelligence than all other people. This takes on a religious element of divine intervention which has previously been critiqued by Engels and Luxembourg through the example of Christianity, and while it can be revolutionary at first, it will eventually devolve into a reactionary ideology (especially with its roots in race pseudoscience)—Black education needs to be rooted in dialectical materialism, not idealism.
  • His work is certainly still worth drawing from. His assertion that building Black culture and Black education, especially regarding Africa given the eurocentrism of education in the imperial core, is absolutely an essential step in Black liberation.
  • He brought up the fact that Black people are often given high-standing positions to make things seem more fair (this feels similar to fairwashing, if not directly a part of it) shortly before laying off large amounts of the population. This was devastating to hear and is an important piece of knowledge to have. He additionally brings up the analysis that welfare was created as a response to the poor rioting when their conditions couldn't be met, so they were given extra help to be placated so that they wouldn't resist the system of economic oppression. This bears a fascinating implication that, for example, US republicans shredding welfare will result in revolutionary Socialist accelerationism.
  • He provided an additional critique of welfare that was borderline Marxist critique of the labour reserve army, making the connection that if people on welfare are educated and required to work, they can be hired to skilled jobs at lower wages than their previous workers were, and are at a disadvantage for doing so. When taken into the Marxist context (see: Capital), the labour reserve army—the unemployed—are deliberately inflated for this purpose, because it means that workers who fight for better pay and working conditions can be replaced by people more desperate to work, "dearer," as Marx puts it, i.e. in worse conditions with lower pay. The addition of welfare into this equation means that despite The Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall—the fact that as capitalists speed up production and compete with each other, the person producing faster can sell at a cheaper price to outsell their competitors as the commodities are now cheaper to produce, requiring their competitors to rapidly create the same advancements, who must now lower their price to that of the capitalist they were catching up to lest they lose buyers, lowering the profits for all capitalists involved—the capitalists can maintain a portion of buyers who can still technically buy their goods while they inflate the labour reserve army (this is only a bandage solution), utilizing their power through the bourgeois state. This is the exact same reason that universal basic income isn't a solution.
  
  Started reading Anti-Dühring by Friedrich Engels. Pausing reading—far too exhausted to process theory right now.
• 3 January 2026: Started reading Theses on the Organizational Structure of the Communist Parties and the Methods and Content of Their Work by the Third Congress of the Communist International, again.
• 4 January 2026: Late update but finished re-reading Theses on the Organizational Structure of the Communist Parties and the Methods and Content of Their Work by the Third Congress of the Communist International.
• 10 January 2026: Leaving this note here: this site is experiencing slower development as I've become a Marxist-Leninist teacher and agitator and am writing study guides for Communist theory for people both in my union and online, and one of my students has begun teaching other people what they've learned. The current guide I have is for The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin (which I'm unsure if I'll upload here), and I'm currently writing a study guide for What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement by Vladimir Lenin.
• 11 January 2026: Opted to upload the Study Guide for The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin to this site; the link is also present at the top of the page. The file is approximately 0.2 MB.
• 12 January 2026: Started and finished reading Serving the People with Dialectics: Essay on the Study of Philosophy by Workers and Peasants by Foreign Languages Press, Peking, People's Republic of China (multiple authors are named in relevant sections). I was directly recommended this on account of the fact that I asked for advice on how to proceed given I'm now teaching multiple people, one of whom has started teaching other people.
• 14 January 2026: Uploaded the Study Guide for What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement by Vladimir Lenin; the link is also present at the top of the page. The file is approximately 0.25 MB.
• 21 January 2026: Uploaded the Study Guide for Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin; the link is also present at the top of the page. The file is approximately 0.16 MB.
• 23 January 2026: Unironically considering building a new Communist Party given the Communist Party USA is frustrating me with its lack of communication and its counter-revolutionary reformism. Current working name between people I've been discussing this with is literally just, "Marxist-Leninist Party of North America."
  
  Brief research brought to light unfortunate former projects of the Party of Communists USA (ended up being USAmerican nationalist and defending a pedophile), American Council of Bolsheviks (split from PCUSA after being sick of their patsoc shit; failed to organize a proper movement and dissolved), Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) USA (Maoist party that dissolved; Socialism with Chinese characteristics isn't something that'll work here anyways), and Marxist-Leninist Party USA (like the current American Party of Labour, a Hoxhaist party; consequently dogmatic for Socialism with Albanian characteristics).
  
  Bizarrely, I also discovered a Neocities page called Communist Party USA (Marxist-Leninist), but if they even got off the ground, they appear to have been inactive for at least 2 years.
• 28 January 2026: Started reading The Right of Nations to Self-Determination by Vladimir Lenin. (Also, I stopped logging whenever I'm re-reading things.)