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An ultra is a dogmatist/reductionist who thinks revolutions and socialism can only be built by following what's written in the old Marxist texts and completely disregards the part of Marxism where the authors talk about our theory being a call to action, a scientific Method, and not a dogma. They would say stuff like AES countries are not socialist because they are still using trade to build productive forces for their people in the third world, which is an incredibly foolish thing to say for anyone who is familiar with the transitional phases of socialism. They also promote adventurism that emphasizes on spontaneous action rather than the disciplined militant class struggle that the Marxist-Leninists believe in.

The term originated in the 1920s in the German and Dutch workers movements, originally referring to a Marxist group opposed to both Marxism-Leninism and social democracy, and with some affinities with anarchism.

These people would spend more of their time reading theory, which is the first step of the theory study, and less time actually practicing it, which is the 2nd part. They sacrifice material analysis for ideological stubbornness and that is antithetical to Marxism. They fall for things like 'class reductionism' and neglect 'class intersectionality' that is important for the liberation of all oppressed people in society. Therefore, they also often reject the proletariat's class alliance with other different classes like the peasantry and the lumpenproletariat.

That's why they are attracted to all the failed revolutionary authors in history, e.g. Bordiga, Paul Mattick, Herman Gorter et al.

Some major sectors of Ultraleft are: Left Communists, Trotskyists, left-anarchists, Hoxhaists, and Maoists who don't read Mao.

These people have been criticized by various successful revolutionary communists in history who have proved the effectiveness of scientific socialism i.e. the original school of Marxism in building successful revolutions. Some of the biggest critics were Lenin and Mao Zedong. Some good texts written by them on this topic are,

• Left-wing communism: an infantile disorder by Lenin.
• Left-Wing" Childishness and the Petty-Bourgeois Mentality by Lenin
• A Suppressed Speech of Lenin (at ECI) And Other Items
• On Practice by Mao.
• Oppose Book Worship by Mao.
• On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People by Mao.
• Mao’s "Speech at the Lushan Conference" (1957)