Wednesday, February 03, 2010
*Beyond The Disaster In Haiti- A Historical View- A Guest Commentary
Click on the title to link a "Workers Vanguard" article, dated January 29, 2010, giving some historical perspective in the aftermath of the disastrous and deadly earthquake in Haiti.
*From The "Veterans And Service Members Task Force" Of The ANSWER Coalition- A Ten-Point Program
Click on the title to link to the "Veterans And Service Members Task Force" Of The ANSWER Coalition Website.
Markin comment:
I have placed this ten-point program here in order to generate a little discussion about the kind of demands and slogans that we should be educating service members around. My first impression, after looking at this program, was that ten points is too many for starters. But that is a little quirk of mine about "keeping it simple" with programmatic demands, especially when making propaganda for those who may not be that politically sophisticated starting out. Many of the demands are supportable but I question why they would be in a program that is trying to reach rank and file service members today.
This program is a lot to chew at one sitting, especially that point about abolishing the officers corps. That is an excellent point but it is also, practically speaking, the call to split the army more appropriately made (other than for propaganda purposes)in a revolutionary situation. If not, in essence, it is merely a call for rank and file control of the existing military that is akin to the call for workers control of production in a non-revolutionary situation. I believe that is no something that we want to advocate. We do not want to take administrative responsibility for running the imperial state, period.
Secondly, and this is probably a greater objection, some of the demands on their face are more utopian than even our little civilian demands for a workers party that fights for a workers government. Things like dismantling the military-industrial complex, reparations to victims, indictments of war criminals and profiteers are tasks that we will be more than happy to take up on "Day One" of workers power but, at least in my reading of the program there appears to be a belief that this can be done, or should be done by the current imperial rulers. Ask Commander-in-Chief of Obama if he is interested in redressing many historic wrongs? Is that the plan here? The question posed that way gives the answer.
Finally, I note there is no call for a rank and file service members union in the program. A ranks-based service members union is somewhat analogous to a workers union in concept in that it is an important way to gain unity for collective action in "on the job" rank and file matters like those questions of racial, sexual and homophobic harassment, job assignments, etc. mentioned in the program. And the military bosses will hate it as much as civilian employers hate workers unions. More later.
***********
March Forward!- Veterans and Services Members Task Force Of The ANSWER Coalition
10 Point Program for Struggle
1
We demand the right to refuse illegal and immoral orders.
Service members should no longer be bound to carry out the plans of the Pentagon and Wall Street in violation of U.S. law, international law and people’s right to self-determination. Service members deserve the right to resist, without persecution, orders that conflict with internationally recognized laws or that conflict with their own conscience.
2
We demand an immediate end to the criminal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Service members should no longer be sent to fight, kill, die, be seriously wounded and/or psychologically scarred furthering the domination of U.S. corporations over other nations. We have nothing to gain from these wars. The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan serve only the interests of the rich, not the service personnel who are sent over and over to repress people who have the right to determine their own destiny. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan are not our enemies. The more than 800 U.S. bases in 130 countries around the world should be shut down and the troops, fleets and air power brought home.
3
We demand an end to the existing officer corps.
The existing class stratification in the military must end. Officers—who are overwhelmingly from more privileged sectors of society—enjoy a much higher standard of living. They are paid significantly more, are provided much higher quality housing, and have access to services not available to enlisted personnel. Officers advance their careers on the backs of enlisted personnel, going so far as to send their troops into harm’s way for the good of their résumés. The existing officer corps should be dismantled and replaced by enlisted service members who are democratically elected by their units and who are subject to recall at anytime. Officers should no longer enjoy special privileges, including hand salutes. We also demand the right for lower enlisted ranks to unionize and form committees to address grievances with the chain of command, the unit and the military.
4
We demand an end to racism, sexism and homophobia prevalent in the military.
These are intentional barriers to rank-and-file unity against the will of the Pentagon, and must be eliminated through comprehensive education and strict disciplinary action. We demand an end to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and all other discriminatory measures against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender individuals.
5
We demand adequate funding for The Department of Veterans Affairs.
Veterans should have full access to quality health care. Services should be drastically expanded to meet the real physical and mental health needs of veterans and their families. Independent medical investigations should be initiated to research the effects of potentially harmful experimental drugs and chemical, biological and nuclear agents to which service members have been exposed. Any service member who has served in a combat theater should automatically receive lifetime compensation from the VA for being forced to suffer or inflict physical and/or psychological harm in advancing the interests of U.S. corporations.
6
We demand the right to a job, housing, health care and education for all.
Service members are lured into the military with the hopes of escaping economic hardship as a civilian, and to obtain education benefits and job training. Yet thousands of service members must remain in the military, literally trapped due to the lack of opportunities in the civilian world. No service member should have to choose between military service and poverty. Housing, a job, and access to free quality education and job training should be a right for everyone.
7
We demand the immediate end to all military aid to governments in service of US imperialism.
U.S. domination is not only exercised through direct military involvement, but also through a myriad of brutal client regimes and comprador governments that are funded, supported and directed by the U.S. government. Service members should not have to serve a military that uses billions of dollars in funds and weapons to prop up governments that are guilty of committing war crimes or repressing their citizens for the interests of the Pentagon and Wall Street. Aid to such countries as Israel, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, South Korea, Uganda and Egypt should be immediately cut off. All remaining funds, military equipment and weapons should be repossessed. Reparations should be paid to the populations that the military aid was used to repress.
8
We demand the immediate dismantling of the permanent military-industrial complex.
As long as there is a system in place that allows U.S. corporations to reap massive profits from going to war, there will be war for profit. The domination of the military-industrial complex has caused the death of tens of thousands of service personnel, and millions of innocent people—all in the name of profit. All private military corporations should be shut down or nationalized. The more than 1 trillion dollars a year that feeds the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex should be used to meet people’s needs.
9
We demand that all those involved in pursuing war for profit be indicted.
To ensure that service personnel no longer have to fight for the interests of the rich, all those responsible must be held accountable. Politicians, policy makers, lobbyists, CEOs and others involved in pursuing warfare—both military and economic—as a means to reap profit should be indicted for war crimes. Media outlets involved in disseminating false information in support of these plans should also be held accountable.
10
We demand full reparations paid, with interest, to all victims of the U.S. military.
As service members in the U.S. military, we have been told that our enemy is the poor and oppressed abroad. But they are not our enemies. To begin to undo the injustices in which we have been forced to take part, the U.S. government should pay for the rebuilding of every structure bombed, compensating families for every person killed and providing a lifetime of health care and disability benefits for every individual wounded, including resistance fighters who took up arms against the U.S. military.
Markin comment:
I have placed this ten-point program here in order to generate a little discussion about the kind of demands and slogans that we should be educating service members around. My first impression, after looking at this program, was that ten points is too many for starters. But that is a little quirk of mine about "keeping it simple" with programmatic demands, especially when making propaganda for those who may not be that politically sophisticated starting out. Many of the demands are supportable but I question why they would be in a program that is trying to reach rank and file service members today.
This program is a lot to chew at one sitting, especially that point about abolishing the officers corps. That is an excellent point but it is also, practically speaking, the call to split the army more appropriately made (other than for propaganda purposes)in a revolutionary situation. If not, in essence, it is merely a call for rank and file control of the existing military that is akin to the call for workers control of production in a non-revolutionary situation. I believe that is no something that we want to advocate. We do not want to take administrative responsibility for running the imperial state, period.
Secondly, and this is probably a greater objection, some of the demands on their face are more utopian than even our little civilian demands for a workers party that fights for a workers government. Things like dismantling the military-industrial complex, reparations to victims, indictments of war criminals and profiteers are tasks that we will be more than happy to take up on "Day One" of workers power but, at least in my reading of the program there appears to be a belief that this can be done, or should be done by the current imperial rulers. Ask Commander-in-Chief of Obama if he is interested in redressing many historic wrongs? Is that the plan here? The question posed that way gives the answer.
Finally, I note there is no call for a rank and file service members union in the program. A ranks-based service members union is somewhat analogous to a workers union in concept in that it is an important way to gain unity for collective action in "on the job" rank and file matters like those questions of racial, sexual and homophobic harassment, job assignments, etc. mentioned in the program. And the military bosses will hate it as much as civilian employers hate workers unions. More later.
***********
March Forward!- Veterans and Services Members Task Force Of The ANSWER Coalition
10 Point Program for Struggle
1
We demand the right to refuse illegal and immoral orders.
Service members should no longer be bound to carry out the plans of the Pentagon and Wall Street in violation of U.S. law, international law and people’s right to self-determination. Service members deserve the right to resist, without persecution, orders that conflict with internationally recognized laws or that conflict with their own conscience.
2
We demand an immediate end to the criminal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Service members should no longer be sent to fight, kill, die, be seriously wounded and/or psychologically scarred furthering the domination of U.S. corporations over other nations. We have nothing to gain from these wars. The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan serve only the interests of the rich, not the service personnel who are sent over and over to repress people who have the right to determine their own destiny. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan are not our enemies. The more than 800 U.S. bases in 130 countries around the world should be shut down and the troops, fleets and air power brought home.
3
We demand an end to the existing officer corps.
The existing class stratification in the military must end. Officers—who are overwhelmingly from more privileged sectors of society—enjoy a much higher standard of living. They are paid significantly more, are provided much higher quality housing, and have access to services not available to enlisted personnel. Officers advance their careers on the backs of enlisted personnel, going so far as to send their troops into harm’s way for the good of their résumés. The existing officer corps should be dismantled and replaced by enlisted service members who are democratically elected by their units and who are subject to recall at anytime. Officers should no longer enjoy special privileges, including hand salutes. We also demand the right for lower enlisted ranks to unionize and form committees to address grievances with the chain of command, the unit and the military.
4
We demand an end to racism, sexism and homophobia prevalent in the military.
These are intentional barriers to rank-and-file unity against the will of the Pentagon, and must be eliminated through comprehensive education and strict disciplinary action. We demand an end to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and all other discriminatory measures against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender individuals.
5
We demand adequate funding for The Department of Veterans Affairs.
Veterans should have full access to quality health care. Services should be drastically expanded to meet the real physical and mental health needs of veterans and their families. Independent medical investigations should be initiated to research the effects of potentially harmful experimental drugs and chemical, biological and nuclear agents to which service members have been exposed. Any service member who has served in a combat theater should automatically receive lifetime compensation from the VA for being forced to suffer or inflict physical and/or psychological harm in advancing the interests of U.S. corporations.
6
We demand the right to a job, housing, health care and education for all.
Service members are lured into the military with the hopes of escaping economic hardship as a civilian, and to obtain education benefits and job training. Yet thousands of service members must remain in the military, literally trapped due to the lack of opportunities in the civilian world. No service member should have to choose between military service and poverty. Housing, a job, and access to free quality education and job training should be a right for everyone.
7
We demand the immediate end to all military aid to governments in service of US imperialism.
U.S. domination is not only exercised through direct military involvement, but also through a myriad of brutal client regimes and comprador governments that are funded, supported and directed by the U.S. government. Service members should not have to serve a military that uses billions of dollars in funds and weapons to prop up governments that are guilty of committing war crimes or repressing their citizens for the interests of the Pentagon and Wall Street. Aid to such countries as Israel, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, South Korea, Uganda and Egypt should be immediately cut off. All remaining funds, military equipment and weapons should be repossessed. Reparations should be paid to the populations that the military aid was used to repress.
8
We demand the immediate dismantling of the permanent military-industrial complex.
As long as there is a system in place that allows U.S. corporations to reap massive profits from going to war, there will be war for profit. The domination of the military-industrial complex has caused the death of tens of thousands of service personnel, and millions of innocent people—all in the name of profit. All private military corporations should be shut down or nationalized. The more than 1 trillion dollars a year that feeds the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex should be used to meet people’s needs.
9
We demand that all those involved in pursuing war for profit be indicted.
To ensure that service personnel no longer have to fight for the interests of the rich, all those responsible must be held accountable. Politicians, policy makers, lobbyists, CEOs and others involved in pursuing warfare—both military and economic—as a means to reap profit should be indicted for war crimes. Media outlets involved in disseminating false information in support of these plans should also be held accountable.
10
We demand full reparations paid, with interest, to all victims of the U.S. military.
As service members in the U.S. military, we have been told that our enemy is the poor and oppressed abroad. But they are not our enemies. To begin to undo the injustices in which we have been forced to take part, the U.S. government should pay for the rebuilding of every structure bombed, compensating families for every person killed and providing a lifetime of health care and disability benefits for every individual wounded, including resistance fighters who took up arms against the U.S. military.
*The Latest From The "Carnival of Socialism" Blog- Number 47 Is Out
Click on the title to link to the Website mentioned in the headline.
*The Latest From The "Green Left Global News" Blog- A Socialist Upsurge?
Click on the title to link to the Website mentioned in the headline.
Markin comment:
Be still my heart. Read Richard Seymour's "Lenin's Tomb" article of February 6, 2010 for an update on the poll numbers for positive responses to socialist notions. Now all we need is the revolutionary party, some class conscious workers, some allies from others classes, a little weakness from the ruling class and ....... well, that is enough for now. Let's get that first step done, the party, and the rest will follow in due course.
Markin comment:
Be still my heart. Read Richard Seymour's "Lenin's Tomb" article of February 6, 2010 for an update on the poll numbers for positive responses to socialist notions. Now all we need is the revolutionary party, some class conscious workers, some allies from others classes, a little weakness from the ruling class and ....... well, that is enough for now. Let's get that first step done, the party, and the rest will follow in due course.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
*Honor The Heroic North Carolina A&T Student Participants On The 50th Anniversary Of The Greensboro Sit-Ins
Click on the title to link to a "Wikipedia" entry for the "Greensboro February 1,1960 Woolworth's sit-in participants being honored today.
February Is Black History Month
Markin comment:
I was a little too young to be very conscious of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycotts and other events in the struggle against Jim Crow in the South in the late 1950s. I, however, was fully aware of the sit-ins in Greensboro in 1960 and other locales and supported actions here in the North against Woolworth's policies in the South. I do not believe that the Greensboro actions fully defined my commitment to the black liberation struggle at the time. I think the later cases of Medgar Evers, of James Meridith trying to desegregate Ole Miss, and Birmingham and the Bull Connor-led police reaction there were more decisive. However Greensboro was definitely the catalyst. Hats off to the sit-in participants.
February Is Black History Month
Markin comment:
I was a little too young to be very conscious of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycotts and other events in the struggle against Jim Crow in the South in the late 1950s. I, however, was fully aware of the sit-ins in Greensboro in 1960 and other locales and supported actions here in the North against Woolworth's policies in the South. I do not believe that the Greensboro actions fully defined my commitment to the black liberation struggle at the time. I think the later cases of Medgar Evers, of James Meridith trying to desegregate Ole Miss, and Birmingham and the Bull Connor-led police reaction there were more decisive. However Greensboro was definitely the catalyst. Hats off to the sit-in participants.
*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-"We Shall Overcome"
Click on the title to link a "YouTube" film clip of Mahalia Jackson performing "We Shall Overcome".
February Is Black History Month
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
We Shall Overcome
Lyrics derived from Charles Tindley's gospel song "I'll Overcome Some Day" (1900), and opening and closing melody from the 19th-century spiritual "No More Auction Block for Me" (a song that dates to before the Civil War). According to Professor Donnell King of Pellissippi State Technical Community College (in Knoxville, Tenn.), "We Shall Overcome" was adapted from these gospel songs by "Guy Carawan, Candy Carawan, and a couple of other people associated with the Highlander Research and Education Center, currently located near Knoxville, Tennessee. I have in my possession copies of the lyrics that include a brief history of the song, and a notation that royalties from the song go to support the Highlander Center."
1.
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
CHORUS:
Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome some day
2.
We'll walk hand in hand
We'll walk hand in hand
We'll walk hand in hand some day
CHORUS
3.
We shall all be free
We shall all be free
We shall all be free some day
CHORUS
4.
We are not afraid
We are not afraid
We are not afraid some day
CHORUS
5.
We are not alone
We are not alone
We are not alone some day
CHORUS
6.
The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around some day
CHORUS
7.
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
CHORUS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCES:
Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History, Second Edition (Norton, 1971): 546-47, 159-60
February Is Black History Month
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
We Shall Overcome
Lyrics derived from Charles Tindley's gospel song "I'll Overcome Some Day" (1900), and opening and closing melody from the 19th-century spiritual "No More Auction Block for Me" (a song that dates to before the Civil War). According to Professor Donnell King of Pellissippi State Technical Community College (in Knoxville, Tenn.), "We Shall Overcome" was adapted from these gospel songs by "Guy Carawan, Candy Carawan, and a couple of other people associated with the Highlander Research and Education Center, currently located near Knoxville, Tennessee. I have in my possession copies of the lyrics that include a brief history of the song, and a notation that royalties from the song go to support the Highlander Center."
1.
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
CHORUS:
Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome some day
2.
We'll walk hand in hand
We'll walk hand in hand
We'll walk hand in hand some day
CHORUS
3.
We shall all be free
We shall all be free
We shall all be free some day
CHORUS
4.
We are not afraid
We are not afraid
We are not afraid some day
CHORUS
5.
We are not alone
We are not alone
We are not alone some day
CHORUS
6.
The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around some day
CHORUS
7.
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
CHORUS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCES:
Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History, Second Edition (Norton, 1971): 546-47, 159-60
*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-"Keep Your Eyes On The Prize"
Click on the title to link a "YouTube" film clip of Bruce Springsteen performing "Keep Your Eyes On The Prize"
February Is Black History Month
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
Mavis Staples - Eyes on the Prize Lyrics
Paul and Silas, bound in jail
Had no money for to go their bail
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Paul and Silas began to shout
Doors popped open, and they walked out
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Well, the only chains that we can stand
Are the chains of hand in hand
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Got my hand on the freedom plow
Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your Eyes on the Prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
(Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on)
(Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on)
(Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on)
February Is Black History Month
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
Mavis Staples - Eyes on the Prize Lyrics
Paul and Silas, bound in jail
Had no money for to go their bail
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Paul and Silas began to shout
Doors popped open, and they walked out
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Well, the only chains that we can stand
Are the chains of hand in hand
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Got my hand on the freedom plow
Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your Eyes on the Prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
Hold on, (hold on), hold on, (hold on)
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!
(Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on)
(Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on)
(Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on)
*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-"We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder"
Click on the title to link a "YouTube" film clip of a performance of "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder".
February Is Black History Month
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,
Soldiers of the cross.
Every round goes higher, higher,
Every round goes higher, higher,
Every round goes higher, higher,
Soldiers of the cross.
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Soldiers of the cross.
If you love Him, why not serve Him?
If you love Him, why not serve Him?
If you love Him, why not serve Him?
Soldiers of the cross.
February Is Black History Month
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,
Soldiers of the cross.
Every round goes higher, higher,
Every round goes higher, higher,
Every round goes higher, higher,
Soldiers of the cross.
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Soldiers of the cross.
If you love Him, why not serve Him?
If you love Him, why not serve Him?
If you love Him, why not serve Him?
Soldiers of the cross.
*Films to While The Class Stuggle Away By- "February One: The Story Of The Greensboro Four"
Click on the title to link to the "Independent Lens" Website for more information on the film "February One: The Story Of The Greensboro Four" that is about the heroic black North Carolina A&T students who sat in at the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's in 1960.
February Is Black History Month
Markin comment:
I have not seen this film yet. I will have commentary when I do.
February Is Black History Month
Markin comment:
I have not seen this film yet. I will have commentary when I do.
Monday, February 01, 2010
*From The Archives Of Bolshevik Anti-War Work- V.I. Lenin On Imperialist War And The Tasks Of Socialists-Heading To October
Click on the title to link to an important political polemic by Vladimir Lenin concerning the fight against imperialist war and the tasks of socialists.
*From The Archives Of Bolshevik Anti-War Work- V.I. Lenin On Imperialist War And The Tasks Of Socialists-"Appeal To All Soldiers"
Click on the title to link to an important political polemic by Vladimir Lenin concerning the fight against imperialist war and the tasks of socialists.
*From The Archives Of Bolshevik Anti-War Work- V.I. Lenin On Imperialist War And The Tasks Of Socialists- "To The Soldiers And Sailors"
Click on the title to link to an important political polemic by Vladimir Lenin concerning the fight against imperialist war and the tasks of socialists.
*From The Archives Of Bolshevik Anti-War Work- V.I. Lenin On Imperialist War And The Tasks Of Socialists
Click on the title to link to an important political polemic by Vladimir Lenin concerning the fight against imperialist war and the tasks of socialists.
*From The Archives Of Bolshevik Anti-War Work- V.I. Lenin On Imperialist War And The Tasks Of Socialists
Click on the title to link to an important political polemic by Vladimir Lenin concerning the fight against imperialist war and the tasks of socialists.
*From The Archives Of Bolshevik Anti-War Work- V.I. Lenin On Imperialist War And The Tasks Of Socialists
Click on the title to link to an important political polemic by Vladimir Lenin concerning the fight against imperialist war and the tasks of socialists.
*From The Archives Of Bolshevik Anti-War Work- V.I. Lenin On Imperialist War And The Tasks Of Socialists
Click on the title to link to an important political polemic by Vladimir Lenin concerning the fight against imperialist war and the tasks of socialists.
*From The Archives Of Bolshevik Anti-War Work- V.I. Lenin On Imperialist War And The Tasks Of Socialists-The Zimmerwald Manifesto
Click on the title to link to an important political polemic by Vladimir Lenin concerning the fight against imperialist war and the tasks of socialists.
*The Lessons Of Anti-War History- The Way That A People's Representative Should Act On The War Question, And How He Or She Shouldn't
Click on the title to link to a "Lenin Internet Archives" entry entitled "What Has Been Revealed By the Trial of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Duma Group", dated March 19, 1915, that is a useful contrast to the entry below taken from a recent "Progressive Democrats of America" blog entry.
Markin comment:
The two counter-posed entries speak for themselves. I would only add, since the word has reemerged recently in political talk, that we could certainly use a few more Bolsheviks to fight forthrightly on the parliamentary level against Obama's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
************************
From "Progressive Democrats Of America" Website home page.
Congressman Payne: I Won't Oppose War Money Because Obama's President
By David Swanson
January 31, 2010, New Brunswick, NJ
Rep. Donald PayneTake Action: Tell Congress "Stop funding war"
My encounter with Congressman Payne at the PDA-NJ Statewide Conference
Congressman Donald Payne (D., N.J.) has voted against war funding bills for years. Last summer he was one of 32 heroes to vote No under intense pressure from the White House to vote Yes. When I asked him a couple of years ago to sign onto impeaching Bush he immediately said "Sure!" and he did it.
Today I asked him if he would commit to voting No on the next $33 billion for war. I asked him privately, just after he'd given a long speech to a Progressive Democrats of America conference in New Jersey, a speech about how much he opposes the wars.
Payne told me that he didn't want to commit to voting No on the next "emergency war supplemental" because Obama is president, echoing Jan Schakowsky's comments last June when she made a similar reversal.
"Congressman Payne," I said, "aren't the bombs the same? Isn't the dying the same?" He agreed and told me I was preaching to the choir.
"And is the only difference that a different person is president?" I asked. "Yes," he replied.
When I had prefaced my question with praising him for standing strong last June, I had referenced the major promises and threats that other congressmembers had reported receiving from the White House. Payne said he had experienced the same. Yet somehow he had resisted, but is unsure about resisting further.
Earlier in the day, another Democratic congressman from New Jersey, Frank Pallone, had spoken to the PDA conference, and both PDA's national director Tim Carpenter and I had asked him publicly to commit to voting No on the war money.
I thanked Pallone for voting No on war supplementals in 2004 and 2005 and expressed disappointment that he had voted Yes last June. He refused to commit to voting No, with the excuse that something good might be attached to the war money. Yet he had voted No in the past, despite the fact that good hard-to-oppose measures were always applied as lipstick on these bills.
Was Pallone's real thinking that he wanted to obey the president? I can't say for sure, but I can say that he took a lot of questions from PDA members about his positions, and he tended to answer by explaining what Obama's positions are. And I can say that Pallone raised lots of rightwing reasons for not being stronger on issues like healthcare, and other members of the panel he was part of decisively refuted each point but had no impact on the congressman's position whatsoever.
Joining Pallone on the panel were Carpenter and PDA board member Steve Cobble, Co-Chair of PDA's Healthcare Not Warfare campaign Donna Smith, and the president of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council Ray Stever. They laid out the case and the strategy for shifting our resources from wars to human needs, especially single-payer healthcare.
The conference rooms were packed, and everyone involved was eager to get to work, including a lot of people new to PDA's organizing. Joanne O'Neil and the other leaders of New Jersey PDA were pleased with the conference, but far from satisfied with the positions of the two congress members who attended.
To their credit, however, everyone was focused on lobbying, challenging, and pressuring until their representatives agree to represent the people of New Jersey rather than taking their orders from a president who has three more years in office even if his followers get themselves voted out this November.
I expect more congress members from New Jersey, possibly even Payne and Pallone, to be joining those committed to voting No on the wars they claim to oppose: http://defundwar.org.
Markin comment:
The two counter-posed entries speak for themselves. I would only add, since the word has reemerged recently in political talk, that we could certainly use a few more Bolsheviks to fight forthrightly on the parliamentary level against Obama's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
************************
From "Progressive Democrats Of America" Website home page.
Congressman Payne: I Won't Oppose War Money Because Obama's President
By David Swanson
January 31, 2010, New Brunswick, NJ
Rep. Donald PayneTake Action: Tell Congress "Stop funding war"
My encounter with Congressman Payne at the PDA-NJ Statewide Conference
Congressman Donald Payne (D., N.J.) has voted against war funding bills for years. Last summer he was one of 32 heroes to vote No under intense pressure from the White House to vote Yes. When I asked him a couple of years ago to sign onto impeaching Bush he immediately said "Sure!" and he did it.
Today I asked him if he would commit to voting No on the next $33 billion for war. I asked him privately, just after he'd given a long speech to a Progressive Democrats of America conference in New Jersey, a speech about how much he opposes the wars.
Payne told me that he didn't want to commit to voting No on the next "emergency war supplemental" because Obama is president, echoing Jan Schakowsky's comments last June when she made a similar reversal.
"Congressman Payne," I said, "aren't the bombs the same? Isn't the dying the same?" He agreed and told me I was preaching to the choir.
"And is the only difference that a different person is president?" I asked. "Yes," he replied.
When I had prefaced my question with praising him for standing strong last June, I had referenced the major promises and threats that other congressmembers had reported receiving from the White House. Payne said he had experienced the same. Yet somehow he had resisted, but is unsure about resisting further.
Earlier in the day, another Democratic congressman from New Jersey, Frank Pallone, had spoken to the PDA conference, and both PDA's national director Tim Carpenter and I had asked him publicly to commit to voting No on the war money.
I thanked Pallone for voting No on war supplementals in 2004 and 2005 and expressed disappointment that he had voted Yes last June. He refused to commit to voting No, with the excuse that something good might be attached to the war money. Yet he had voted No in the past, despite the fact that good hard-to-oppose measures were always applied as lipstick on these bills.
Was Pallone's real thinking that he wanted to obey the president? I can't say for sure, but I can say that he took a lot of questions from PDA members about his positions, and he tended to answer by explaining what Obama's positions are. And I can say that Pallone raised lots of rightwing reasons for not being stronger on issues like healthcare, and other members of the panel he was part of decisively refuted each point but had no impact on the congressman's position whatsoever.
Joining Pallone on the panel were Carpenter and PDA board member Steve Cobble, Co-Chair of PDA's Healthcare Not Warfare campaign Donna Smith, and the president of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council Ray Stever. They laid out the case and the strategy for shifting our resources from wars to human needs, especially single-payer healthcare.
The conference rooms were packed, and everyone involved was eager to get to work, including a lot of people new to PDA's organizing. Joanne O'Neil and the other leaders of New Jersey PDA were pleased with the conference, but far from satisfied with the positions of the two congress members who attended.
To their credit, however, everyone was focused on lobbying, challenging, and pressuring until their representatives agree to represent the people of New Jersey rather than taking their orders from a president who has three more years in office even if his followers get themselves voted out this November.
I expect more congress members from New Jersey, possibly even Payne and Pallone, to be joining those committed to voting No on the wars they claim to oppose: http://defundwar.org.
*From The Archives Of Bolshevik Anti-War Work- V.I. Lenin On Imperialist War And The Tasks Of Socialists
Click on the title to link to an important political polemic by Vladimir Lenin concerning the fight against imperialist war and the tasks of socialists.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
*Barack Obama Ain't No Bolshevik, He Ain't Even A Menshevik
Click on the title to link to a "The Boston Globe" article, dated January 30, 2010, in which American President Barack Obama defends himself against Republican charges that his ill-fated (and totally inadequate) health care program is a "Bolshevik plot".
Markin comment:
“A specter is haunting Europe- the specter of communism … "(from the start of the Marxist classic, “The Communist Manifesto”)
Most of the time the entries in this blog, givens its purposes, require me to think about some long lost historical event that needs to be mentioned or to recall some political memory that may be of help in today’s struggle for our communist future. Every once in a while though, and fairly infrequently of late, the daily news serves that purpose. The latest internal capitalist ruling class squabble between President Barack Obama and a caucus of Republican congressmen down in Baltimore the other day is a case in point. As part of the proceedings Mr. Obama felt the need to defend himself from the crackpot old-time Cold War charges of being a “Bolshevik”. This comment will serve as a certificate of authenticity that, indeed, President Obama is not a Bolshevik, has never been a Bolshevik, and has never knowingly uttered the names Vladimir Lenin or Leon Trotsky in mixed company, or in his sleep.
Actually, my first reaction on reading the “news” of “comrade” Imperial Commander-in-Chief Obama’s conversion to hard communist politics was to question the quality of the drinking water in Maryland, or the quality of the dope and booze, or the air ventilation system down at that resort. The last time anyone used the word “Bolshevik” in American presidential politics was probably back in Woodrow Wilson’s time, around the time of the Russian October Revolution of 1917, and then only to justify running every known red, radical or Wobblie they could get their hands on out of the country. That happened in a capitalist reactionary panic but things settled down a little shortly thereafter as the American republic entered the “Jazz Age”. Today, twenty years after the demise of the Soviet Union, that characterization in “high” bourgeois politics is crazy, right? All this brouhaha has done is increased exponentially the number of hits on the “Wikipedia” site for the “Bolshevik” entry for those millions of people who are clueless about what the reference is all about.
I will just give, for the readers here who may not know, a very quick snapshot of what a Bolshevik is and see if the shoe fits the President. A Bolshevik is from that wing (the Leninist wing) of the pre-World War I Russian social-democracy that stood on the ground, one way or the other, that the workers, supported by the peasants, would lead the impeding social revolution. The Mensheviks, and I mean no dishonor to one of the left leaders of that wing of Russian social democracy, Julius Martov, who would, like Lenin and Trotsky, turn over in his grave to be compared to a two-bit bourgeois politician like Obama, preferred that the liberal capitalists lead the revolution in economically backward Russia. Does that dispute within the Russian social democracy over the stages of the course of REVOLUTION sound anything like any of the sound bites coming out of Maryland? Or Washington?
Additionally, the Bolsheviks, when the deal went down in 1917, stood for the expropriation of the banks, not bailing them out. For worker control of socialized industrial, leaving the capitalist owners to cooperate or leave. For land to the tiller including the breakup of the large landed estates, with or without the landlord’s consent. For free, quality health care for all, not a bonanza for the insurance industry. And, most importantly, for our immediate tasks here today in America, an end to Russian participation in the imperial slaughter that was World War I, not sending troops to all four corners of the globe in the interests of the American imperial state. Not only does one Barack Obama not stand for those political propositions I do not believe that he is intellectually or emotionally capable of, and certainly his Republican opponents are not, of comprehending such a program.
President Obama can thus plead with a true heart “not guilty” (we will not accept that “no lo” plea that is the natural refuge of bourgeois politicians) to any such thoughts. In fact, the only nodding acquaintance that any of the parties in this current flare-up might have with Bolshevik practice is their version of the organizational principle of democratic centralism, that is once a decision is made by the group then publicly its stand behind that one line. The one line here that these two wings of the capitalist class agree on is- capitalism must be defended to the bitter end. So there is a little modicum of rationality to their worry about Bolshevism but it is not from the Obama White House. That will come from those red flag-draped masses, now beaten down, isolated, and frustrated, that will be coming to their doors if they decide to get in our way when the time for real Bolsheviks to show their stuff comes around.
Markin comment:
“A specter is haunting Europe- the specter of communism … "(from the start of the Marxist classic, “The Communist Manifesto”)
Most of the time the entries in this blog, givens its purposes, require me to think about some long lost historical event that needs to be mentioned or to recall some political memory that may be of help in today’s struggle for our communist future. Every once in a while though, and fairly infrequently of late, the daily news serves that purpose. The latest internal capitalist ruling class squabble between President Barack Obama and a caucus of Republican congressmen down in Baltimore the other day is a case in point. As part of the proceedings Mr. Obama felt the need to defend himself from the crackpot old-time Cold War charges of being a “Bolshevik”. This comment will serve as a certificate of authenticity that, indeed, President Obama is not a Bolshevik, has never been a Bolshevik, and has never knowingly uttered the names Vladimir Lenin or Leon Trotsky in mixed company, or in his sleep.
Actually, my first reaction on reading the “news” of “comrade” Imperial Commander-in-Chief Obama’s conversion to hard communist politics was to question the quality of the drinking water in Maryland, or the quality of the dope and booze, or the air ventilation system down at that resort. The last time anyone used the word “Bolshevik” in American presidential politics was probably back in Woodrow Wilson’s time, around the time of the Russian October Revolution of 1917, and then only to justify running every known red, radical or Wobblie they could get their hands on out of the country. That happened in a capitalist reactionary panic but things settled down a little shortly thereafter as the American republic entered the “Jazz Age”. Today, twenty years after the demise of the Soviet Union, that characterization in “high” bourgeois politics is crazy, right? All this brouhaha has done is increased exponentially the number of hits on the “Wikipedia” site for the “Bolshevik” entry for those millions of people who are clueless about what the reference is all about.
I will just give, for the readers here who may not know, a very quick snapshot of what a Bolshevik is and see if the shoe fits the President. A Bolshevik is from that wing (the Leninist wing) of the pre-World War I Russian social-democracy that stood on the ground, one way or the other, that the workers, supported by the peasants, would lead the impeding social revolution. The Mensheviks, and I mean no dishonor to one of the left leaders of that wing of Russian social democracy, Julius Martov, who would, like Lenin and Trotsky, turn over in his grave to be compared to a two-bit bourgeois politician like Obama, preferred that the liberal capitalists lead the revolution in economically backward Russia. Does that dispute within the Russian social democracy over the stages of the course of REVOLUTION sound anything like any of the sound bites coming out of Maryland? Or Washington?
Additionally, the Bolsheviks, when the deal went down in 1917, stood for the expropriation of the banks, not bailing them out. For worker control of socialized industrial, leaving the capitalist owners to cooperate or leave. For land to the tiller including the breakup of the large landed estates, with or without the landlord’s consent. For free, quality health care for all, not a bonanza for the insurance industry. And, most importantly, for our immediate tasks here today in America, an end to Russian participation in the imperial slaughter that was World War I, not sending troops to all four corners of the globe in the interests of the American imperial state. Not only does one Barack Obama not stand for those political propositions I do not believe that he is intellectually or emotionally capable of, and certainly his Republican opponents are not, of comprehending such a program.
President Obama can thus plead with a true heart “not guilty” (we will not accept that “no lo” plea that is the natural refuge of bourgeois politicians) to any such thoughts. In fact, the only nodding acquaintance that any of the parties in this current flare-up might have with Bolshevik practice is their version of the organizational principle of democratic centralism, that is once a decision is made by the group then publicly its stand behind that one line. The one line here that these two wings of the capitalist class agree on is- capitalism must be defended to the bitter end. So there is a little modicum of rationality to their worry about Bolshevism but it is not from the Obama White House. That will come from those red flag-draped masses, now beaten down, isolated, and frustrated, that will be coming to their doors if they decide to get in our way when the time for real Bolsheviks to show their stuff comes around.
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