I Want to Believe: Posadism, UFOs, and Apocalypse Communism by A. M. Gittlitz (review)

Reviewed by: I Want to Believe: Posadism, UFOs, and Apocalypse Communismby A. M. Gittlitz Mikheil Kakabadze I Want to Believe: Posadism, UFOs, and Apocalypse Communism. By A. M. Gittlitz. Pluto Press, 2020. 249pages. £18.99 softcover; ebook available. In I Want to Believe, New York-based journalist A. M. Gittlitz traces the curious history of the political movement known as Posadism from its [End Page 137]mid-twentieth-century emergence in the Trotskyist Fourth International in France to its contemporary iterations within left-wing online meme culture. Published by the radical publishing house Pluto Press, I Want to Believedeparts from the premise that "there is something valuable" in the "confused insurgent desires" (1) of the revolutionary socialist movement centered around the Argentine militant organizer Homero Cristalli (1912–1981), a.k.a. J. Posadas. Guiding us through the maze of twentieth-century international communism, party politics, and factional schisms, Gittlitz explains Posadism's contemporary appeal in spite of (and partially due to) its enthusiasm regarding nuclear holocaust, UFOs, and intergalactic communism. While the book overwhelmingly deals with the historical intricacies of Marxist-Leninist sectarianism in Latin America and beyond, I Want to Believealso contains material of interest to the scholar and student of alternative religions. Especially in part three of the book, Gittlitz's portrayal of Posadism's associations with UFO lore, Russian Cosmism, and fringe science suggests that religious studies' approaches to the phenomenon could present fruitful avenues of research. Likewise, Gittlitz's discussion of recent "neo-Posadist" groups and their attempts to shape public opinion through (semi-)satirical actions proves relevant. Gittlitz shows how groups such as the Intergalactic Workers' League–Posadist combined "meme magic" with Leninist propaganda tactics as an online means of building the "revolutionary party" (186). Against the background of climate collapse, incipient fascism, and the real possibility of nuclear warfare, neo-Posadism's merging of left-wing militancy with esoteric ideas and ufology presents a timely research topic for scholars interested in the entanglements of alternative religious concepts and politics in our current juncture.