COMMENTARY
The Attorney-General resigns. Ho Hum. An Idaho Senator resigns for making a fool of himself in public. Yawn. George Bush is still clueless on Iraq. Oh, well. Today, or at least the time it takes me to write up this commentary, all that ‘real’ news is so much hot air. Why? Today is the first serious collegiate football Saturday and the time to make my predictions about who will win this year’s coveted national championship (Jesus, I better stick to politics, this line sounds like something out of the late lengendary sportswriter Grantland Rice. Somebody please stop me if I start writing about the 'mythical' national championship). I admit that I got waylaid last year when Florida seemingly came out of nowhere to bonk hapless Ohio State. But that was last year. This year is as fresh as the driven snow.
On the first day of September it would be pointless (and foolhardy, as well) to name the winner. One of the virtues of following the Top 25 in the college football ratings is that, more so than in professional sports, the most precise calculations can blow up in your face. Witness last year’s unlikely defeat of Southern California by UCLA just when it looked like they were a cinch for a national championship berth. So with that precaution in mind here is my Top Four which reflects the strength of the top conferences in the scheme of things. Pac-10- Southern California. Big 10-Michigan. Big 12- Texas and the home conference of last year’s national champion’s, the SEC- Louisiana State University (no, no repeat for Florida). For all you Virginia Tech (ACC) and/or West Virginia fans (Big East). Get real!
Update- September 3, 2007. Obviously it is cruel and unjust world when one really comes down to it. The first week is barely over and Michigan has already bitten the dust. To borrow a phrase from the above-mentioned Grantland Rice to help understand the Appalahian State victory- on any given Saturday any one team can ...... Well, you know the rest.
Update-September 10, 2007 Jesus I know how to pick them. Michigan goes down again this time to Oregon. What I want to know is who put that drug in that drink while I was stewing over my selections. We are all political people remember and there ARE conspiracies in history. This bears further investigation. Well, at least my feel for the ACC is right. Nice Go LSU.
Update October 1-My point about the vagaries of the Top 25 can hit home this week. Texas is gone so I now only have USC and LSU (two good choices in hand, in any case). Big East fans- I told you so. Nice Go LSU. Are we know going to have to contend with four Florida teams now with South Florida on the road to the national championship?
Saturday, September 01, 2007
AL-MALIKI ON THE HOT SEAT
COMMENTARY
IMMEDIATE UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ (AND AFGHANISTAN TOO)
Recently I speculated on the fate of one al-Maliki (Whither the Maliki Government?, August 2007), head of the wholly American-owned subsidiary in Iraq. I mentioned in passing a reference to the fate of Nguyen Diem in Vietnam in 1963 when the Kennedy Administration got fed up with his act. Now it appears that events over the last several days seem be blowing the same kind of ill wind for brother al-Maliki. Not only have various bourgeois politicians in America been calling for his head, notably Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Carl Feingold, but President Bush has been rumbling about his pal’s shaky grip on the situation in Iraq. The tom toms are also being heard about a possible Iraqi military coup. Yes, that’s right, a military coup by the same guys who cannot go out in the streets of Baghdad without at least half of the American 82nd Airborne division by their sides. Apparently they have plenty of time and courage to plot against the hapless al-Maliki government. From his bunker in the Green Zone al-Maliki has been making noises about the negative effect that American politicians have had on the situation. In short, he is telling all and sundry to buzz off. Whether al-Maliki can control the situation in the face of all this adversity remains to be seen. I will take plenty of 2-1 bets that he is gone before the autumn leaves here in New England are all on the ground. Any takers?
IMMEDIATE UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ (AND AFGHANISTAN TOO)
Recently I speculated on the fate of one al-Maliki (Whither the Maliki Government?, August 2007), head of the wholly American-owned subsidiary in Iraq. I mentioned in passing a reference to the fate of Nguyen Diem in Vietnam in 1963 when the Kennedy Administration got fed up with his act. Now it appears that events over the last several days seem be blowing the same kind of ill wind for brother al-Maliki. Not only have various bourgeois politicians in America been calling for his head, notably Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Carl Feingold, but President Bush has been rumbling about his pal’s shaky grip on the situation in Iraq. The tom toms are also being heard about a possible Iraqi military coup. Yes, that’s right, a military coup by the same guys who cannot go out in the streets of Baghdad without at least half of the American 82nd Airborne division by their sides. Apparently they have plenty of time and courage to plot against the hapless al-Maliki government. From his bunker in the Green Zone al-Maliki has been making noises about the negative effect that American politicians have had on the situation. In short, he is telling all and sundry to buzz off. Whether al-Maliki can control the situation in the face of all this adversity remains to be seen. I will take plenty of 2-1 bets that he is gone before the autumn leaves here in New England are all on the ground. Any takers?
THE HEROIC AGE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
It is rather fitting, in light of the October 9, 2007 Republican presidential debate in Michigan, to reflect back to a time when the Republican party actually stood for some semblance of human progress. That party is a classic case study in the degeneration of political organizations whose time has past. Here is a book review that deals in a time when that party was a beacon to most progressives. The irony is that then most of us would, or should, have been knocking down the doors to get into that Republican Party. Weird, right? Do not worry I will have something to say about the degeneration of the Democratic Party, shortly.
BOOK REVIEW
FREE SOIL, FREE LABOR, FREE MEN: THE IDEOLOGY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR, ERIC FONER, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK, 1970
In the year 2007 it is quite easy to dismiss the American Republican Party of one George Bush and his cabal out of hand as a gang of yahoos and incompetents. And one, frankly, would be right in those characterizations. But the book under review tells a tale of a different Republican Party, a party forged among other things in the crucible of the battle against slavery in the immediate pre-Civil War period. That party of Lincoln (although he was ultimately merely the most famous of an outstanding group of men, like Willim Seward, Solomon Chase and Gideon Welles that Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote about in her recent book on Lincoln and his coterie , who forged that party) was one that modern leftists can proudly claim as our own. Karl Marx was not wrong in his appreciation of Lincoln and of the Republican Party in its struggle against slavery and for the unification of the country. Eric Foner tells the story of how all of the forces finally coalesced in 1856 to create that party and of its first national success in 1860.
A number of commentators, including this writer, have over the years argued that a political realignment and separation of the various political tendencies in this country is long, too long overdue. What others mean by that realignment I will leave to them. For myself, I make no bones that we need a workers party to directly represent the political interests of the working masses and their allies. On the other side some argue that America has always been, more or less, well served by the two-party system. And that is really my point. In the period from about 1840 to that decisive 1860 election there was the kind of turmoil that created the necessary realignment of that two- party system. The old two- party system just could not hold the forces that were splitting the country. In the end the formerly powerful Whig Party and vital parts of the Northern Democratic Party went down with barely a whimper. The Republican Party gathered together all those forces that were interested in ending slavery and creating a unified, efficient capitalist system. That in the end it all turned to dross in a fairly short time after the Civil War does not take away from the grandeur of the effort and its necessity.
I would point out to readers that Professor Foner does a very credible job of showing the numerous and sometimes counterposed strategies that the various anti-slavery forces from the Garrisonians to the Free Soil Party supporters put forth. He pays attention to the various forces, including the little studied Liberty and Free Soil parties, the Barnburner Democrats, Conscience Whigs and others who coalesced in the Republican Party. He also details the strategies of the conservative elements that would latter dominate the post-war Republican party as well as the strain of nativism (exemplified by the explosive, if short-lived, development of the Know-Nothing party) that one can still see in that party today, for example, on the immigration question. In all, this is a well-researched and footnoted academic work that can serve a as jumping off point for making our arguments today for that desperately needed realignment of American politics.
BOOK REVIEW
FREE SOIL, FREE LABOR, FREE MEN: THE IDEOLOGY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR, ERIC FONER, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK, 1970
In the year 2007 it is quite easy to dismiss the American Republican Party of one George Bush and his cabal out of hand as a gang of yahoos and incompetents. And one, frankly, would be right in those characterizations. But the book under review tells a tale of a different Republican Party, a party forged among other things in the crucible of the battle against slavery in the immediate pre-Civil War period. That party of Lincoln (although he was ultimately merely the most famous of an outstanding group of men, like Willim Seward, Solomon Chase and Gideon Welles that Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote about in her recent book on Lincoln and his coterie , who forged that party) was one that modern leftists can proudly claim as our own. Karl Marx was not wrong in his appreciation of Lincoln and of the Republican Party in its struggle against slavery and for the unification of the country. Eric Foner tells the story of how all of the forces finally coalesced in 1856 to create that party and of its first national success in 1860.
A number of commentators, including this writer, have over the years argued that a political realignment and separation of the various political tendencies in this country is long, too long overdue. What others mean by that realignment I will leave to them. For myself, I make no bones that we need a workers party to directly represent the political interests of the working masses and their allies. On the other side some argue that America has always been, more or less, well served by the two-party system. And that is really my point. In the period from about 1840 to that decisive 1860 election there was the kind of turmoil that created the necessary realignment of that two- party system. The old two- party system just could not hold the forces that were splitting the country. In the end the formerly powerful Whig Party and vital parts of the Northern Democratic Party went down with barely a whimper. The Republican Party gathered together all those forces that were interested in ending slavery and creating a unified, efficient capitalist system. That in the end it all turned to dross in a fairly short time after the Civil War does not take away from the grandeur of the effort and its necessity.
I would point out to readers that Professor Foner does a very credible job of showing the numerous and sometimes counterposed strategies that the various anti-slavery forces from the Garrisonians to the Free Soil Party supporters put forth. He pays attention to the various forces, including the little studied Liberty and Free Soil parties, the Barnburner Democrats, Conscience Whigs and others who coalesced in the Republican Party. He also details the strategies of the conservative elements that would latter dominate the post-war Republican party as well as the strain of nativism (exemplified by the explosive, if short-lived, development of the Know-Nothing party) that one can still see in that party today, for example, on the immigration question. In all, this is a well-researched and footnoted academic work that can serve a as jumping off point for making our arguments today for that desperately needed realignment of American politics.
A MODEST LABOR PROPOSAL-RECRUIT, RUN INDEPENDENT LABOR MILITANTS IN THE 2008 ELECTIONS.
RECRUIT, RUN INDEPENDENT LABOR MILITANTS IN THE 2008 ELECTIONS.
IN THIS TIME OF THE ‘GREAT FEAR’ WE NEED CANDIDATES TO FIGHT FOR A WORKERS GOVERNMENT.
FORGET DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS AND GREENS- BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!
In the summer of 2006 I wrote the following commentary (updated a little for today’s purpose) urging the recruitment of independent labor militants as write-in candidates for the mid-term 2006 congressional elections based on a workers party program. (See July 2006 archives). With the hoopla already in full gear for the 2008 election cycle I repost that commentary below with that same intention of getting thoughtful leftists to use the 2008 campaign to further our propagandistic fight for a workers party that fights for a workers government.
A MODEST PROPOSAL-RECRUIT, RUN INDEPENDENT LABOR MILITANTS IN THE 2006 ELECTIONS. (UPDATED SEPTEMBER 1, 2007)
All “anti-parliamentarian”, “anti-state”, “non-political” anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist brothers and sisters need read no further. This writer does not want to sully the purity of your politics with the taint of parliamentary electoral politics. Although I might remind you, as we remember the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Barcelona Uprising, that your political ancestors in Spain were more than willing to support the state and enter the government when they got the chance- the bourgeois government of a bourgeois state. But, we can fight that issue out later. We will, hopefully, see you on the barricades with us when the time comes.
As for other militants- here is my modest proposal. Either recruit fellow labor militants or present yourselves as candidates to run for public office, especially for Congress, during the 2008 election cycle. Why? Even a quick glance at the news of the day is calculated to send the most hardened politico screaming into the night. The quagmire in Iraq, immigration walls, flag-burning amendments, anti same-sex marriage amendments, the threat to separation of church state raised by those who would impose a fundamentalist Christian theocracy on the rest of us, and the attacks on the hard fought gains of the Enlightenment posed by bogus theories such as ‘intelligent design’. And that is just an average day. Therefore, this election cycle provides militants, at a time when the dwindling electorate is focused on politics, a forum to raise our program and our ideas. We use this as a tool, like leaflets, petitions, meetings, demonstrations, etc. to get our message across. Why should the Donkeys, Elephants, and Greens have a monopoly on the public square?
I mentioned in the last paragraph the idea of program. Let us face it if we do not have a program to run on then it makes no sense for militants to run for public office. Given the political climate our task at this time is to fight an exemplary propaganda campaign. Our program is our banner in that fight. The Democrats and Republicans DO NOT RUN on a program. The sum of their campaigns is to promise not to steal from the public treasury (or at least not too much), beat their husbands or wives or grossly compromise themselves in any manner. On second thought, given today’s political climate, they may not promise not to beat their husbands or wives or compromise themselves in any untoward manner. You, in any case, get the point. Damn, even the weakest neophyte labor militant can make a better presentation before working people that this crowd. This writer presents a five point program (you knew that was coming, right?) that labor militants can run on. As point five makes clear this is not a ‘minimum’ program but a program based on our need to fight for power.
1. FIGHT FOR THE IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST NOW (OR BETTER YET, YESTERDAY)! U.S. HANDS OFF THE WORLD! VOTE NO ON THE WAR BUDGET! The quagmire in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East (Palestine, Iran) is the fault line of American politics today. Every bourgeois politician has to have his or her feet put to the fire on this one. Not on some flimsy ‘sense of the Congress’ softball motion for withdrawal next, year, in two years, or (my favorite) when the situation is stable. Moreover, on the parliamentary level the only real vote that matters is the vote on the war budget. All the rest is fluff. Militants should make a point of trying to enter Congressional contests where there are so-called anti-war Democrats or Republicans (an oxymoron, I believe) running to make that programmatic contrast vivid.
But, one might argue, that would split the ‘progressive’ forces. Grow up, please! That argument has grown stale since it was first put forth in the ‘popular front’ days of the 1930’s. If you want to end the war in Iraq fight for this position on the war budget. Otherwise the same people (yes, those 'progressive Democrats') who unanimously voted for the last war budget get a free ride on the cheap. Senator Hillary “Hawk” Clinton desperately needs to be opposed by labor militants. Closet Republican, Democratic (now Independent Democrat) Senator Lieberman of Connecticut should not take his richly deserved beating on the war issue from a dissident Democrat. By rights this is our issue. Let us take it back.
2. FIGHT FOR A LIVING WAGE AND WORKING CONDITIONS-UNIVERSAL FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL. It is a ‘no-brainer’ that no individual, much less a family can live on the minimum wage of $5/hr. (now $7/hr). What planet do these politicians live on? We need an immediate fight for a living wage, full employment and decent working conditions. We need universal free health care for all. End of story. The organized labor movement must get off its knees and fight to organize Wal-Mart and the South. A boycott of Wal-Mart is not enough. A successful organizing drive will, like in the 1930’s, go a long way to turning the conditions of labor around.
3. FIGHT THE ATTACKS ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT. Down with the Death Penalty! Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants who make it here! Stop the Deportations! For the Separation of Church and State! Defend abortion rights! Down with anti-same sex marriage legislation! Full public funding of education! Stop the ‘war on drugs’, basically a war on blacks and minority youth-decriminalize drugs! Defend political prisoners! This list of demands hardly exhausts the “culture war” issues we defend. It is hard to believe that in the year 2007 over 200 years after the American Revolution and the French Revolution we are fighting desperately to preserve many of the same principles that militants fought for in those revolutions. But, so be it.
4. FIGHT FOR A WORKERS PARTY. The Donkeys, Elephants and Greens have had their chance. Now is the time to fight for our own party and for the interests of our own class, the working class. Any campaigns by independent labor militants must highlight this point. And any campaigns can also become the nucleus of a workers party network until we get strong enough to form at least a small party. None of these other parties, and I mean none, are working in the interests of working people and their allies. The following great lesson of politic today must be hammered home. Break with the Democrats, Republicans and Greens!
5. FIGHT FOR A WORKERS AND XYZ GOVERNMENT. THIS IS THE DEMAND THAT SEPARATES THE MILITANTS FROM THE FAINT-HEARTED REFORMISTS. We need our own form of government. In the old days the bourgeois republic was a progressive form of government. Not so any more. That form of government ran out of steam about one hundred years ago. We need a Workers Republic. We need a government based on workers councils with a ministry (I do not dare say commissariat in case any stray anarchists are still reading this) responsible to it. Let us face it if we really want to get any of the good and necessary things listed above accomplished we are not going to get it with the current form of government.
Why the XYZ part? What does that mean? No, it is not part of an algebra lesson. What it reflects is that while society is made up mainly of workers (of one sort or another) there are other classes (and parts of classes) in society that we seek as allies and could benefit from a workers government. Examples- small independent contractors, intellectuals, the dwindling number of small farmers, and some professionals like dentists. Yes, with my tongue in cheek, I like the idea of a workers and dentists government. The point is how ever you formulate it you have got to fight for it.
Obviously any campaign based on this program will be an exemplary propaganda campaign for the foreseeable future. But we have to start now. Continuing to support or not challenging the bourgeois parties does us no good. That is for sure. While bourgeois electoral laws do not favor independent candidacies write-in campaigns are possible. ROLL UP YOUR SHEEVES! GET THOSE PETITIONS SIGNED! PRINT OUT THE LEAFLETS! PAINT THOSE BANNERS! GET READY TO SHAKE HANDS AND KISS BABIES.
THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THE 2006-2008 ELECTION CYCLE UNDER THE HEADLINE- FORGET THE DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS, GREENS-BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!
IN THIS TIME OF THE ‘GREAT FEAR’ WE NEED CANDIDATES TO FIGHT FOR A WORKERS GOVERNMENT.
FORGET DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS AND GREENS- BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!
In the summer of 2006 I wrote the following commentary (updated a little for today’s purpose) urging the recruitment of independent labor militants as write-in candidates for the mid-term 2006 congressional elections based on a workers party program. (See July 2006 archives). With the hoopla already in full gear for the 2008 election cycle I repost that commentary below with that same intention of getting thoughtful leftists to use the 2008 campaign to further our propagandistic fight for a workers party that fights for a workers government.
A MODEST PROPOSAL-RECRUIT, RUN INDEPENDENT LABOR MILITANTS IN THE 2006 ELECTIONS. (UPDATED SEPTEMBER 1, 2007)
All “anti-parliamentarian”, “anti-state”, “non-political” anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist brothers and sisters need read no further. This writer does not want to sully the purity of your politics with the taint of parliamentary electoral politics. Although I might remind you, as we remember the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Barcelona Uprising, that your political ancestors in Spain were more than willing to support the state and enter the government when they got the chance- the bourgeois government of a bourgeois state. But, we can fight that issue out later. We will, hopefully, see you on the barricades with us when the time comes.
As for other militants- here is my modest proposal. Either recruit fellow labor militants or present yourselves as candidates to run for public office, especially for Congress, during the 2008 election cycle. Why? Even a quick glance at the news of the day is calculated to send the most hardened politico screaming into the night. The quagmire in Iraq, immigration walls, flag-burning amendments, anti same-sex marriage amendments, the threat to separation of church state raised by those who would impose a fundamentalist Christian theocracy on the rest of us, and the attacks on the hard fought gains of the Enlightenment posed by bogus theories such as ‘intelligent design’. And that is just an average day. Therefore, this election cycle provides militants, at a time when the dwindling electorate is focused on politics, a forum to raise our program and our ideas. We use this as a tool, like leaflets, petitions, meetings, demonstrations, etc. to get our message across. Why should the Donkeys, Elephants, and Greens have a monopoly on the public square?
I mentioned in the last paragraph the idea of program. Let us face it if we do not have a program to run on then it makes no sense for militants to run for public office. Given the political climate our task at this time is to fight an exemplary propaganda campaign. Our program is our banner in that fight. The Democrats and Republicans DO NOT RUN on a program. The sum of their campaigns is to promise not to steal from the public treasury (or at least not too much), beat their husbands or wives or grossly compromise themselves in any manner. On second thought, given today’s political climate, they may not promise not to beat their husbands or wives or compromise themselves in any untoward manner. You, in any case, get the point. Damn, even the weakest neophyte labor militant can make a better presentation before working people that this crowd. This writer presents a five point program (you knew that was coming, right?) that labor militants can run on. As point five makes clear this is not a ‘minimum’ program but a program based on our need to fight for power.
1. FIGHT FOR THE IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST NOW (OR BETTER YET, YESTERDAY)! U.S. HANDS OFF THE WORLD! VOTE NO ON THE WAR BUDGET! The quagmire in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East (Palestine, Iran) is the fault line of American politics today. Every bourgeois politician has to have his or her feet put to the fire on this one. Not on some flimsy ‘sense of the Congress’ softball motion for withdrawal next, year, in two years, or (my favorite) when the situation is stable. Moreover, on the parliamentary level the only real vote that matters is the vote on the war budget. All the rest is fluff. Militants should make a point of trying to enter Congressional contests where there are so-called anti-war Democrats or Republicans (an oxymoron, I believe) running to make that programmatic contrast vivid.
But, one might argue, that would split the ‘progressive’ forces. Grow up, please! That argument has grown stale since it was first put forth in the ‘popular front’ days of the 1930’s. If you want to end the war in Iraq fight for this position on the war budget. Otherwise the same people (yes, those 'progressive Democrats') who unanimously voted for the last war budget get a free ride on the cheap. Senator Hillary “Hawk” Clinton desperately needs to be opposed by labor militants. Closet Republican, Democratic (now Independent Democrat) Senator Lieberman of Connecticut should not take his richly deserved beating on the war issue from a dissident Democrat. By rights this is our issue. Let us take it back.
2. FIGHT FOR A LIVING WAGE AND WORKING CONDITIONS-UNIVERSAL FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL. It is a ‘no-brainer’ that no individual, much less a family can live on the minimum wage of $5/hr. (now $7/hr). What planet do these politicians live on? We need an immediate fight for a living wage, full employment and decent working conditions. We need universal free health care for all. End of story. The organized labor movement must get off its knees and fight to organize Wal-Mart and the South. A boycott of Wal-Mart is not enough. A successful organizing drive will, like in the 1930’s, go a long way to turning the conditions of labor around.
3. FIGHT THE ATTACKS ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT. Down with the Death Penalty! Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants who make it here! Stop the Deportations! For the Separation of Church and State! Defend abortion rights! Down with anti-same sex marriage legislation! Full public funding of education! Stop the ‘war on drugs’, basically a war on blacks and minority youth-decriminalize drugs! Defend political prisoners! This list of demands hardly exhausts the “culture war” issues we defend. It is hard to believe that in the year 2007 over 200 years after the American Revolution and the French Revolution we are fighting desperately to preserve many of the same principles that militants fought for in those revolutions. But, so be it.
4. FIGHT FOR A WORKERS PARTY. The Donkeys, Elephants and Greens have had their chance. Now is the time to fight for our own party and for the interests of our own class, the working class. Any campaigns by independent labor militants must highlight this point. And any campaigns can also become the nucleus of a workers party network until we get strong enough to form at least a small party. None of these other parties, and I mean none, are working in the interests of working people and their allies. The following great lesson of politic today must be hammered home. Break with the Democrats, Republicans and Greens!
5. FIGHT FOR A WORKERS AND XYZ GOVERNMENT. THIS IS THE DEMAND THAT SEPARATES THE MILITANTS FROM THE FAINT-HEARTED REFORMISTS. We need our own form of government. In the old days the bourgeois republic was a progressive form of government. Not so any more. That form of government ran out of steam about one hundred years ago. We need a Workers Republic. We need a government based on workers councils with a ministry (I do not dare say commissariat in case any stray anarchists are still reading this) responsible to it. Let us face it if we really want to get any of the good and necessary things listed above accomplished we are not going to get it with the current form of government.
Why the XYZ part? What does that mean? No, it is not part of an algebra lesson. What it reflects is that while society is made up mainly of workers (of one sort or another) there are other classes (and parts of classes) in society that we seek as allies and could benefit from a workers government. Examples- small independent contractors, intellectuals, the dwindling number of small farmers, and some professionals like dentists. Yes, with my tongue in cheek, I like the idea of a workers and dentists government. The point is how ever you formulate it you have got to fight for it.
Obviously any campaign based on this program will be an exemplary propaganda campaign for the foreseeable future. But we have to start now. Continuing to support or not challenging the bourgeois parties does us no good. That is for sure. While bourgeois electoral laws do not favor independent candidacies write-in campaigns are possible. ROLL UP YOUR SHEEVES! GET THOSE PETITIONS SIGNED! PRINT OUT THE LEAFLETS! PAINT THOSE BANNERS! GET READY TO SHAKE HANDS AND KISS BABIES.
THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THE 2006-2008 ELECTION CYCLE UNDER THE HEADLINE- FORGET THE DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS, GREENS-BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!
REINSTATE PROFESSOR NORMAN FINKELSTEIN
COMMENTARY
CONTROVERSIAL PROFESSOR FIRED BY DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
Hey, the situation in the so-called hallowed groves of academia is getting a little tense this summer, to say the least. First, they finally got controversial University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill. In July the Colorado Board of Regents acting on a recommendation by the school voted 8-1 to fire him. Ostensibly, as always, it was for some academic infractions but we know the real reason.
Now Professor Norman Finkelstein has had his contract with DePaul University canceled. Ostensibly for being ‘too controversial’. Where have we heard that before? The professor, son of Holocaust survivors, is known for his forthright views, as stated in his book Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, that the State of Israel and others have used the Holocaust as a bloody flag to justify any and all repressive policies, including denial of the rights of Palestinians in Israel, the West Back and Gaza.
What is important here is that speech, academic speech in this case, is really what drove the DePaul Administration’s decision, as it did in the Churchill case. Aided here, no doubt, by the smear campaign of one Zionist zealot Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz. Free speech is the real issue and the one that all militants, leftists, and just plain old ordinary garden variety democrats should be howling to the rooftops over. One does not have to be in political agreement with the good professor to know that the whole point of the vaunted freedom of expression that we are desperately trying to defend against the yahoos only works when controversial expression is safeguarded. Otherwise it is just something nice for the bourgeois democrats to point to in their constitution. Thus, the spearhead of the free speech fight right now is to defend Professor Finkelstein. Reinstate Professor Finkelstein! Send messages of solidarity and support to Professor Finkelstein and to the DePaul University Administration now.
CONTROVERSIAL PROFESSOR FIRED BY DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
Hey, the situation in the so-called hallowed groves of academia is getting a little tense this summer, to say the least. First, they finally got controversial University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill. In July the Colorado Board of Regents acting on a recommendation by the school voted 8-1 to fire him. Ostensibly, as always, it was for some academic infractions but we know the real reason.
Now Professor Norman Finkelstein has had his contract with DePaul University canceled. Ostensibly for being ‘too controversial’. Where have we heard that before? The professor, son of Holocaust survivors, is known for his forthright views, as stated in his book Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, that the State of Israel and others have used the Holocaust as a bloody flag to justify any and all repressive policies, including denial of the rights of Palestinians in Israel, the West Back and Gaza.
What is important here is that speech, academic speech in this case, is really what drove the DePaul Administration’s decision, as it did in the Churchill case. Aided here, no doubt, by the smear campaign of one Zionist zealot Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz. Free speech is the real issue and the one that all militants, leftists, and just plain old ordinary garden variety democrats should be howling to the rooftops over. One does not have to be in political agreement with the good professor to know that the whole point of the vaunted freedom of expression that we are desperately trying to defend against the yahoos only works when controversial expression is safeguarded. Otherwise it is just something nice for the bourgeois democrats to point to in their constitution. Thus, the spearhead of the free speech fight right now is to defend Professor Finkelstein. Reinstate Professor Finkelstein! Send messages of solidarity and support to Professor Finkelstein and to the DePaul University Administration now.
SEX AND THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, PART II
COMMENTARY
THE HYPOCRISY OF BOURGEOIS POLITICS
IDAHO SENATOR LARRY CRAIG GETS THE AX BY BROTHER ROMNEY
Earlier this summer I made comment on a small controversy that flared up between straight-laced Republican presidential candidate ex-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and fellow presidential aspirant Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama over the appropriate age to begin sex education in the public schools. I have reposted that commentary below. Why? This week, the week of August 27, 2007, long time Idaho Senator Larry Craig a leading senatorial supporter of one Mitt Romney’s bid was unceremoniously canned from that campaign for some men’s room misconduct. Now we have become fairly inured to these sexual escapades,one sort or another, by politicians from both major bourgeois parties but the hypocrisy involved by those who would deny gays and lesbains equal rights makes small comment necessary here.
This writer made the point in the commentary below that given the haphazard nature of sexual education in late capitalist society that more and earlier sex education is the beginning of wisdom. The bizarre nature of the particulars in this case and last year’s Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley’s case only add fuel to that observation. To speak nothing of poor proto-Victorian Romney’s response. Indeed, as I observed below, this issue cannot wait for the introduction of socialism. Again-for now the more real sex education the better.
SEX AND THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN (PART I)
COMMENTARY
OBAMA AND MITT DUKE IT OUT OVER SEX EDUCATION
For those who expected some lurid copy about the behind the scenes sex lives of the above-mentioned candidates, forget it. This is much more prosaic. It is hard to believe but in the year 2007 this writer is compelled to make a few comments on the latest 'tempest in a teapot' on the campaign trail over the question of the appropriate age at which public institutions, mainly the schools, should make children aware of sexual issues. Mitt Romney, staking himself out as the king of ‘family value' issues in order to cozy up to the social conservatives, believes that sex and kindergarten students do not mix. Obama, rightly in this case, believes that age appropriate sex education can be started at that age.
Mainly this is a question of public policy guidelines and as is the case with most current state-mandated sex education programs aimed at the youth there are opt out procedures for those adults unconformable with public institutions teaching their children about sex. That, however, is not the real political or cultural question. For those of us who learned about sex the hard way on the streets or have been stuffed with erroneous knowledge about sex or have had to face the sometimes bizarre nature of sexual mores under capitalism without much guidance early sex education would seem to be the beginning of wisdom. Ignorance never did anyone any good. This simply program, moreover, is not something that has to wait until we are in a socialist society. Trotsky reputedly once spoke of the three great tragedies of life- hunger, sex and death. He noted that Marxists had staked out the struggle against hunger as the axis on which they would fight. But he also noted that these other issues would be addressed most fully under socialism. And they will. But for now- the more real sex education the better.
THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THE 2006-2008 ELECTION CYCLE UNDER THE HEADLINE- FORGET THE DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS, GREENS-BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!
THE HYPOCRISY OF BOURGEOIS POLITICS
IDAHO SENATOR LARRY CRAIG GETS THE AX BY BROTHER ROMNEY
Earlier this summer I made comment on a small controversy that flared up between straight-laced Republican presidential candidate ex-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and fellow presidential aspirant Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama over the appropriate age to begin sex education in the public schools. I have reposted that commentary below. Why? This week, the week of August 27, 2007, long time Idaho Senator Larry Craig a leading senatorial supporter of one Mitt Romney’s bid was unceremoniously canned from that campaign for some men’s room misconduct. Now we have become fairly inured to these sexual escapades,one sort or another, by politicians from both major bourgeois parties but the hypocrisy involved by those who would deny gays and lesbains equal rights makes small comment necessary here.
This writer made the point in the commentary below that given the haphazard nature of sexual education in late capitalist society that more and earlier sex education is the beginning of wisdom. The bizarre nature of the particulars in this case and last year’s Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley’s case only add fuel to that observation. To speak nothing of poor proto-Victorian Romney’s response. Indeed, as I observed below, this issue cannot wait for the introduction of socialism. Again-for now the more real sex education the better.
SEX AND THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN (PART I)
COMMENTARY
OBAMA AND MITT DUKE IT OUT OVER SEX EDUCATION
For those who expected some lurid copy about the behind the scenes sex lives of the above-mentioned candidates, forget it. This is much more prosaic. It is hard to believe but in the year 2007 this writer is compelled to make a few comments on the latest 'tempest in a teapot' on the campaign trail over the question of the appropriate age at which public institutions, mainly the schools, should make children aware of sexual issues. Mitt Romney, staking himself out as the king of ‘family value' issues in order to cozy up to the social conservatives, believes that sex and kindergarten students do not mix. Obama, rightly in this case, believes that age appropriate sex education can be started at that age.
Mainly this is a question of public policy guidelines and as is the case with most current state-mandated sex education programs aimed at the youth there are opt out procedures for those adults unconformable with public institutions teaching their children about sex. That, however, is not the real political or cultural question. For those of us who learned about sex the hard way on the streets or have been stuffed with erroneous knowledge about sex or have had to face the sometimes bizarre nature of sexual mores under capitalism without much guidance early sex education would seem to be the beginning of wisdom. Ignorance never did anyone any good. This simply program, moreover, is not something that has to wait until we are in a socialist society. Trotsky reputedly once spoke of the three great tragedies of life- hunger, sex and death. He noted that Marxists had staked out the struggle against hunger as the axis on which they would fight. But he also noted that these other issues would be addressed most fully under socialism. And they will. But for now- the more real sex education the better.
THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THE 2006-2008 ELECTION CYCLE UNDER THE HEADLINE- FORGET THE DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS, GREENS-BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!
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