Rostamism



Rostamism, sometimes referred to as Duvalism-Rostamism is a political ideology developed from the late 19th century and throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, founded by the Rostami sisters, Afsun and Soudeh Rostami, with major early contributions by figures such as Navid Karimi, a prominent early Duvalist theoretician in Aftarestan. It is a Communist political ideology, philosophy, and praxis centered around Vanguardism, Democratic Centralism within the Vanguard, Communal and Workers' Councils and self-management, anti-factionalism, and the establishment of a as a transitionary state between capitalism and communism, believing that communism cannot be achieved while capitalism is the dominant global mode of production. After the Revolution of Aftarestan 1959-1966, Rostamism was officially codified by the Revolutionary Party of Aftarestan as the official ideology of both the Party and State in Aftarestan in the Party Manifesto and Constitution of the Revolutionary Republic of Aftarestan.

It is a development of Classical made to fit into the specific circumstances of Aftarestan throughout the 20th century, initially during the first revolutionary efforts in the 1910s and 20s, and further developed throughout the First Republican era, culminating in the Revolution of 1959 and subsequent first founding of the Revolutionary Republic of Aftarestan. Rostamism has changed throughout its history, but several key elements remain largely the same or similar to their initial incarnation from the earliest sources of Rostamist theory and praxis, maintaining that the Revolution is an ever-changing process that cannot be stalled or halted, and that good revolutionary praxis must always evolve and adapt to whatever situation or circumstance is present, with similar emphasis placed on cultural revolution as a necessary step in undoing centuries of social, cultural, and political harm done to society, with education efforts emphasized to educate the population on social, political, and philosophic literacy. In most Rostamist theory, a largely decentralized society based on Communal and Workers' Councils, a partially decentrally planned economy at the nation level, and the centralization of state politics within the Vanguard Party, meant to act as the channel through which society engages with state level politics.

According to Soudeh Rostami's work Revolution, Liberation, and Warfare, a thesis on Duvalism in the Developing World c.1911, revolution cannot meaningfully take place in the most highly developed countries, referred to as "the heartland empires", believing that conditions in these 'heartland empires' are unfit for revolutionary activity to begin, as the standards of living and work are adequate enough for enough people in these nations that widespread liberatory thinking, nor can it begin in underdeveloped, agrarian societies that have not yet begun widespread industrialization, believing that without the influence of widespread industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, revolutionary thinking and activity cannot possibly be well organized enough to bring about widespread change or liberation to the masses, and that only in the developing world within the industrialization influence of the heartland empires can revolution be accomplished successfully. Later on in the same work, Soudeh explained her belief that Aftarestan met these conditions almost exactly, with widespread rapid industrialization, large-scale urbanization of major population centers, rapidly growing wealth inequality at the hands of Heartland Artemian capitalists in the country, with growing dissent and social angst amongst the population at large, all culminating into what she believed would become the staging ground for a successful revolution. Ultimately Rostamism only took root in Aftarestan several decades later, ultimately proving Soudeh to be at least partially correct, but not fully, causing Rostamist leaders to adapt to the changing circumstances of the time, and to amend official Rostamist thinking within Aftarestan.

Rostamism has often been described as a ideology when compared to Volkovism, with many differences between them being the application of social & cultural revolution, how the vanguard party should lead the revolution, and the role the general population should play in society. Many early critics of Rostamism believed that it was a failed development of Duvalism with only a failed revolution to show for it, which resulted in many anti-Rostamist movements in many existing Socialist movements and states of the early to mid 20th century, with its first major success of the Revolution of Aftarestan 1959-1966 resulting in a cautious renewed interest from the international socialist community, though most major existing socialist and communist states reaffirming anti-Rostamist positions internally, but often recognizing the success and validity of Rostamism as a genuine and effective development of Duvalism.