Posadism

   An eccentric and marginal Trotskyite sect characterized by a belief in UFOs. Founded by Juan R. Posada (born Homero Cristalli 1912; died 1981), an Argentinian Trotskyite, the Posadists espoused an unorthodox form of Trotskyism that included advocating nuclear war to hasten the collapse of capitalism and a belief that UFOs were evidence of socialist aliens. In keeping with deterministic interpretations of historical materialism, the Posadists reasoned that since advances in technology bring about advances in society, then UFOs representing a more advanced technology than that of capitalism must be from a post-capitalist society, i.e., a socialist society. Aliens have never stayed for any length of time on Earth because human society is at a primitive pre-socialist level and therefore of no interest to them. Posadas himself wrote about flying saucers and socialism in his book Les soucoupes volantes (1968), and, while following the death of Posada in 1981 Posadism has itself become virtually extinct, Paul Schulz in Germany has been publishing Posada-inspired work into the 21st century.