AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Friday, August 06, 2010

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "Citizen Soldier" Website

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline.

*From The PFC Bradley Manning Defense Website- Rally August 8th In Quantico, Va.- Blessed Are The Whistleblowers

Click on the headline to link to a Bradley Manning Support Network website notice of a support rally in Quantico, Virginia on Sunday, August 8, 2010 at noon.

Markin comment:

I recently made the point (see, Wednesday, July 28, 2010
*A Tip Of The Hat To "Wikileaks"- Blessed Are The Whistleblowers- Troops Out Of Afghanistan Now!)that are important in whistleblower Manning's case in a commentary on the Wikileaks revelations reposted below. Free PFC Manning Now!

No bourgeois government, liberal, conservative, centrist or what not likes whistleblowers, in any shape, size or form, period, although we of the extra-parliamentary left certainly do if for no other reason that to see just how grimy and bad the inner workings of the governments we oppose propagandistically day in and day out really are. The Stalinists, as we also know were, and in places like China and Cuba today, are just slightly behind in their scornful attitude toward the species. Nevertheless more knowledge is always a good thing. As 19th century revolutionary, Karl Marx, was fond of saying, “ignorance never did anybody any good.” A very worthy tip of the hat to Wikileaks and to their whistleblowers.

Of course, that is not the end of the matter. The material provided here, unlike the Daniel Ellsberg-leaked Pentagon Papers during the height of the struggle against the Vietnam War, is not an expose of the Bush and Obama administrations' high inner-circle deliberations about the direction of the Afghan War. But, we will take what we can get. On the surface, at least, this material gives us plenty of ammunition to expose the duplicity of the Americans, the Pakistanis, and all factions of the Afghanis (including the Taliban) and, when the deal is finished, who knows who else. But here is the clincher- None of that material does us any good, or little good, if we don’t get a massive opposition organized (something coming off of last spring’s anti-war drive in Washington, D.C. on March 20th we have not done yet) to the Obama/Allied Afghan War policies. Thus- Obama- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan (And Iraq)!

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Phil Och's "There But For Fortune"

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. Markin.

***********

Markin comment:

This is a continuation of entries for folksinger/songwriter Phil Och's who back in the early 1960s stood right up there with Bob Dylan in the protest songwriting category. The entries on this date testify to that. However, early on I sensed something special about Dylan and never really warmed up to Ochs. His singing style did not "move" me and that counted for a lot in those days. The rest just turned on preference.

********

There but for Fortune Lyrics

Intro: G Cm G Cm G Cm

G Cm G Cm
Show me a prison, show me a jail,

G Em Am D
Show me a prisoner whose face has gone pale

Em C Am
And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why
Bm G Am D
And there but for fortune, may go you or I

Show me the alley, show me the train,
Show me a hobo who sleeps out in the rain,
And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, may go you or go I -- you and I.

Show me the whiskey stains on the floor,
Show me the dunken man as he stumbles out the door,
And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, may go you or go I -- you and I.

[Extra verse... written by Noel Paul Stookey]
Show me the famine, show me the frail
Eyes with no future that show how we failed
And I'll show you the children with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or I.

Show me the country where bombs had to fall,
Show me the ruins of buildings once so tall,
And I'll show you a young land with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I -- you and I.
You and I,
There but for fortune, go you or go I -- you and I.

Here it is in French (supplied by William Curtis):

Je vois le prison
Je vois la nuit
Je vois le prisonnier qui pleure sa vie

Et je me dis souvent
Quand je m'endors dans tes bras
Ou va la chance, a toi ? a moi ?

Je vois des blessures
Jamais gueries
Je vois le vagabond
Quit dort sous la pluie

Je vois cet homme
Au coeur perdu
Qui boit pour ne plus voir
Ce qu'il est devenu

Je vois des villes
Dont les maisons
Un jour sous la guerre
Ont croule sans raison

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Phil Och's "Love Me, I'm A Liberal"- Some Songs Are Timeless-Ouch, Phil!

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. Markin.

***********

Markin comment:

This is a continuation of entries for folksinger/songwriter Phil Och's who back in the early 1960s stood right up there with Bob Dylan in the protest songwriting category. The entries on this date testify to that. However, early on I sensed something special about Dylan and never really warmed up to Ochs. His singing style did not "move" me and that counted for a lot in those days. The rest just turned on preference.

********
This may not be Phil's best song but time has done nothing to diminish its razor-edged point.

Love Me, I'm a Liberal Lyrics

E A E A
I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
E C#m
Tears ran down my spine
E A E
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
F#7 B7
As though I'd lost a father of mine
E A E
But Malcolm X got what was coming
G#m A
He got what he asked for this time
E C#m A B7 E
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democtratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Phil Och's "Going Down To Mississippi"

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. Markin.

***********

Markin comment:

This is a continuation of entries for folksinger/songwriter Phil Och's who back in the early 1960s stood right up there with Bob Dylan in the protest songwriting category. The entries on this date testify to that. However, early on I sensed something special about Dylan and never really warmed up to Ochs. His singing style did not "move" me and that counted for a lot in those days. The rest just turned on preference.

********

Going Down To Mississipi Lyrics

I'm going down to Mississipi
I'm going down a southern road
And if you never see me again
Remember that I had to go
Remember that I had to go

It's a long road down to Mississipi
It's a short road back the other way
If the cops pull you over to the side of the road
You won't have nothing to say
No, you won't have nothing to say

There's a man waiting down in Mississippi
And he's waiting with a rifle in his hand
And he's looking down the road for an out-of-state car
And he thinks he's fighting for his land
Yes, he thinks he's fighting for his land

And he won't know the clothes I'm wearing
And he doesn't know the name that I own
But his gun is large and his hate is hard
And he knows I'm coming down the road
Yes, he knows I'm coming down the road

It's not for the glory that I'm leaving
It's not trouble that I'm looking for
But there's lots of good work calling me down
And The waiting won't do no more
No, The waiting won't do no more

Don't call me the brave one for going
No, don't pin a medal to my name
For even if there was any choice to make
I'd be going down just the same
I'd be going down just the same

For someone's got to go to mississipi
Just as sure as there's a right and there's a wrong
Even though you say the time will change
That time is just too long
That time is just too long

So I'm going down to Mississipi
I'm going down a southern road
And if you never see me again
Remember that I had to go
Remember that I had to go

***Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Phil Och's "Here's To The State Of Mississippi"-Mississippi Goddam, Once Again

Click on the title to link to YouTube to hear the above-mentioned Phil Ochs song.

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. Markin.

***********

Markin comment:

This is a continuation of entries for folksinger/songwriter Phil Och's who back in the early 1960s stood right up there with Bob Dylan in the protest songwriting category. The entries on this date testify to that. However, early on I sensed something special about Dylan and never really warmed up to Ochs. His singing style did not "move" me and that counted for a lot in those days. The rest just turned on preference.

********

Here's to the State of Mississippi Lyrics

G Em D
Here's to the state of Mississippi,
G F
For Underheath her borders, the devil draws no lines,
G F
If you drag her muddy river, nameless bodies you will find.
G F
whoa the fat trees of the forest have hid a thousand crimes,
G Em Am D
the calender is lyin' when it reads the present time.
G Em C G
Whoa here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
G Em D G
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of!

Here's to the people of Mississippi
Who say the folks up north, they just don't understand
And they tremble in their shadows at the thunder of the Klan
The sweating of their souls can't wash the blood from off their hands
They smile and shrug their shoulders at the murder of a man
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

Here's to the schools of Mississippi
Where they're teaching all the children that they don't have to care
All of rudiments of hatred are present everywhere
And every single classroom is a factory of despair
There's nobody learning such a foreign word as fair
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

Here's to the cops of Mississippi
They're chewing their tobacco as they lock the prison door
Their bellies bounce inside them as they knock you to the floor
No they don't like taking prisoners in their private little war
Behind their broken badges there are murderers and more
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And, here's to the judges of Mississippi
Who wear the robe of honor as they crawl into the court
They're guarding all the bastions with their phony legal fort
Oh, justice is a stranger when the prisoners report
When the black man stands accused the trial is always short
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the government of Mississippi
In the swamp of their bureaucracy they're always bogging down
And criminals are posing as the mayors of the towns
They're hoping that no one sees the sights and hears the sounds
And the speeches of the governor are the ravings of a clown
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the laws of Mississippi
Congressmen will gather in a circus of delay
While the Constitution is drowning in an ocean of decay
Unwed mothers should be sterilized, I've even heard them say
Yes, corruption can be classic in the Mississippi way
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the churches of Mississippi
Where the cross, once made of silver, now is caked with rust
And the Sunday morning sermons pander to their lust
The fallen face of Jesus is choking in the dust
Heaven only knows in which God they can trust
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Phil Och's "A.M.A." Song"

Thursday, August 05, 2010

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-Liverpool: A City That Dared to Fight- A Review

Click on the headline to link to the “Revolutionary History” Journal entry listed in the title.

Markin comment:

This is an excellent documentary source for today’s militants to “discovery” the work of our forbears, whether we agree with their programs or not. Mainly not, but that does not negate the value of such work done under the pressure of revolutionary times. Hopefully we will do better when our time comes.

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-French Trotskyism in the Second World War

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-Trotskyism in India

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "By Any Means Necessary" Website

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

Once More Around the Bloc: Tactics, Democracy, and Mass Politics‘If Protesting is a Conspiracy, Then We are All Proud to Conspire!’
Posted by rowlandkeshena on July 29, 2010

By Derrick O’Keefe. This appeared on Socialist Voice.

On July 17, 200 people marched and rallied in Vancouver, Canada to protest the police repression of protests during the G8/G20 summit meetings in Toronto June 25-27.

Speakers at the rally included representatives of Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, Derrick O’Keefe of the Vancouver Stopwar coalition, and New Democratic Party MP Don Davies.

Also speaking were three young people who took part in the protests and were arrested, including Montreal resident Natalie Gray, who was shot twice by police rubber bullets then detained and abused for 30 hours. Gray has retained noted civil rights lawyer Clayton Ruby and is suing the Toronto Police. Her talk at the July 17 rally has been published by rabble.ca.

All speakers delivered powerful affirmations of the right to speak out and organize against the policies of the G8/G20 summit gatherings, including the call by Toronto protest organizers and participants for a full and independent public inquiry into the police operation that cost more than $1 billion and incarcerated some 1,000 people.

The following is Derrick O’Keefe’s talk to the Vancouver rally.

hanks to everyone for coming out today. There are rallies like this one across the country today. There is a rally in Toronto, and I’ve heard that there are a lot of bubbles in the air heading over the police’s heads at this rally. Did you hear about this? A young woman was arrested in Toronto during the G20 summit for blowing bubbles, if you can believe that. What do we think of that? ["Shame!"]

Our idea of free speech includes bubble blowing – it’s not a chemical weapon. And this just gives you an idea of what happened in Toronto and what the atmosphere was. I went out to Toronto with the Canadian Peace Alliance. On my first night there, I spoke at a forum about Canadian foreign policy in Afghanistan and in Palestine. I was speaking on a panel with a journalist who writes for The Guardian, named Jesse Rosenfeld.

While we were having this ordinary public forum in a small art space on Bloor Street, we noticed there were police peeking through the windows, about six of them. Someone went out to ask the police, “What are you doing? This is a public forum.” They asked, “Are there any protesters inside?”

So they were treating everyone in Toronto that week as a potential protester, as a potential dissident and therefore as a criminal. This was the climate that was created, and it was obvious. They didn’t need any pretext, they didn’t need anything to justify what they did. This was planned. You could see in the days leading up to the weekend of protest that there were going to be mass arrests. There were 20,000 police officers in Toronto, that’s more than one for every protester who was out for the big day of action on Saturday, June 26.

What do we say about turning a major Canadian city into a police state? ["Shame!"]

What do we say about spending 1.3 billion dollars for a week-end of photo-ops for some of the biggest thugs and war criminals in the world? ["Shame!"]

What do we say to a government that would be party to ordering the biggest mass arrest in Canadian history and then stonewall and deny a full public inquiry?["Shame!"]

That’s why we’re here today.

I know some people have said that the police weren’t really doing their job, but if you think about it, in a society like ours with so many injustices, the police were doing their job, just in a little more over-the-top way than normal.

They were serving and protecting, but who were they serving and protecting at the G20?

They were protecting the criminals who were inside the fence, the criminals who are destroying our environment, the criminals who are waging illegal wars abroad, and the criminals who are attacking your rights every single day, who are attacking the poor people right across the country!

It wasn’t enough that they arrested over 1000 people. They arrested journalists. They arrested Jesse Rosenfeld, the young guy on the forum panel with me; on Saturday night, they punched him in the gut and hauled him away for witnessing a peaceful sit-in in front of the Novotel hotel where G20 delegates were staying.

They arrested bystanders who had just walked out of their homes to see what was going on.

And they even arrested some corporate media reporters live on the air – which helped the media coverage quality. But that is a real shame and an attack on free speech.

It wasn’t enough that they did these mass arrests – today there are still people in jail. I think it’s about a dozen people, facing conspiracy charges. I suppose that’s appropriate, because there was once a time in this country where you could be charged with criminal conspiracy just for getting together and talking about organizing a union. You could be charged with criminal conspiracy if you were a group of women getting together and talking about the fight for the right to vote, or the right to choose. They have always tried to criminalize dissent when people get together and fight for their rights.

We’re here to say that if organizing for social justice, if dissenting, if protesting is a conspiracy – then we are all conspirators, and we are proud to conspire! [Cheers, applause]

And as long as any one of our comrades, as long as any social justice activist is in jail in this country for organizing, we are going to continue to conspire, we are going to continue to protest, and we are going to continue to stand up for our rights! [Cheers, applause]

So let’s continue pushing for a public inquiry, but more importantly, let’s continue asserting our rights. Because you don’t win anything without constant protest, without constant vigilance. Every right that we have won has involved people going to jail, it has involved people going outside of the laws of day sometimes when those laws were unjust, and that continues to be the case today! [Cheers, applause]

We don’t have to beg for our right to protest, we don’t even have to politely ask. Everything we have in that Charter of Rights and Freedoms was demanded, was fought for, and was taken from the government of Canada. We will continue, every day if we have to, to take our rights and to assert our free speech from coast to coast to coast! [Cheers, applause]

So let’s finish up with a little more of that slogan, “This is what democracy looks like! Because this is what democracy looks like, and this is what political participation looks like!”

[Chants: This is what democracy looks like!]

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace- The Latest From The "Socialist Appeal" Website-“Socialism” No Longer a Dirty Word

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

Socialism” No Longer a Dirty Word
Written by Socialist Appeal
Tuesday, 06 July 2010

A recent Pew Research Center poll, arguably by the most respected polling company in the country, asked over 1,500 randomly selected Americans to describe their reactions to terms such as “capitalism” and “socialism.” Pew summarized the results of the poll with the title: “Socialism not so negative; capitalism not so positive.”

Only a narrow majority of 52% of all Americans react positively to “capitalism.” Thirty-seven percent say they have a negative reaction and the rest aren’t sure.

Among the “millennial generation,” those currently between 18 and 30, just 43% of Americans describe “capitalism” as positive, while 43%, describe “socialism” as positive. In other words, young people are equally divided between capitalism and socialism.

Among Democrats, 47% see capitalism as positive, while 44% see socialism positively. While it is impossible to know just what people understand by these terms, it is clear that interest in socialism is rising.

According to Boston College professor Charles Derber: “On nearly every major issue, from support minimum wage and unions, preference for diplomacy over force, deep concern for the environment, belief that big business is corrupting democracy, and support for many major social programs including Social Security and Medicare, the progressive position has been strong and relatively stable. If “socialism” means support for these issues, the interpretation of the Pew poll is a Center-Left country. If socialism means a search for a genuine systemic alternative, then America, particularly its youth, is emerging as a majoritarian social democracy, or in a majoritarian search for a more cooperativist, green, and more peaceful and socially just order.”

This comes at a time when the media tells us that the “Tea Party” represents the true face of protest and frustration in the U.S. The last thing they want is to give anyone the idea that the pent-up discontent can be expressed in a leftward direction. But sooner, rather than later, we can be sure it will, and in a big way.

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-Dutch Trotskyism during the Occupation

*Not Ready For Prime Time Class Struggle- Greg Brown's "Marriage Chant"

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Greg Brown and Ani Difranco performing his Marriage Chant.

Markin comment:

On a day when the question of marriage is in the air (the favorable decision in the California Proposition 8 case) I cannot resist the urge to throw out this Greg Brown number. Although I, personally, have had more than my fair share of the marriage ups and downs, the details of which need not detain us here, and thus some of Greg's lyric do not "speak" to me that's okay today. Remember your mother's advise though -Just look before you leap, okay? By the way, change the lyrics here to fit your particular "predicament", (oops) sexual preference.

Marriage ChantGreg Brown Lyrics from his Convenant album

marriage is impossible marriage is dull
your dance card is empty your plate is too full
it's something no sensible person would do
i wish i was married i wish I was married
i wish i was married to you

marriage is unnatural marriage is hard
you rotate your tires you work in the yard
you fight about nothing every hour or two
i wish i was married i wish i was married
i wish i was married to you

the children throw fits in airports & such
they projectile vomit on aunt ruthie at lunch
& your in-laws know just what you should do
but i wish i was married i wish i was married
i wish i was married to you

i'd like to fix you my special broth when you're sick
i'd like to fight with you when you're bein' real thick
there is no end to what i would like to do
i wish i was married i wish i was married
i wish i was married to you

i like the roll in rock & roll
& all i know is you're the sister of my soul
& we make a circle just we two
& i wish i was married i wish i was married
i wish i was married to you

the sky unpredictable mysterious the sea
do we wish most for what never can be
it never can be i guess that's true
but i wish i was married i wish i was married
i wish i was uh huh huh to you

the grass is always greener is what they say to me
if I was your husband maybe I'd agree
i like brown grass & vows that stay true
& i wish i was married i wish i was married
i wish i was married to you to you to you mmhmm to you

Transcribed by Shirley Cottle.

* A Nice Legal Victory, For Now, For Gay Marriage Rights-Down With California Prop 8

Click on the headline to link a Good As You Are website online copy of the Federal District Court judge's decision in Perry et. al v. Schwarznegger (the California Proposition 8 case).

Markin comment:

We will take our simple, democratic, do the right thing, get the state and federal government out of the marriage-deciding business anyway, whenever we can. This issue, the issue of gay marriage rights, seems to be gaining traction mainly through the the legal process in the states (and, as here, in the lower federal courts). State voters are behind the curve on this one. So be it-but we will defend this gay rights issue in the streets, if necessary. If the decision in California, the most populous state, finally holds that would be a big, big step in turning this issue around nationwide, especially the way legal decisions get made and law get pushed forward (a little). (Remember Brown v. School Board and Roe v. Wade.) Caveat: the judge stayed the order so there will be further wrangling over the appeals process. Drop the stay and let California gays and lesbians marry right now. Get the bouquets ready to throw.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

*From The Archives Of The "Spartacist" Journal- "Terrorism And Communism"- A Guest Commentary

Click on the headline to link to a Spartacist theoretical journal entry (August-September 1970) from The International Communist League (via the International Bolshevik Tendency website) on Terrorism and Communism.

Markin comment:

This above-linked article is still a pretty good general Communist exposition on this subject.

Note: In the interest of political clarity please be aware that the material provided here from the early issues of the Spartacist theoretical journal archives of what is now the International Communist League (ICL, formerly International Spartacist Tendency, ISpT) is posted via the International Bolshevik Tendency website. I am not a political supporter of either organization in the accepted Leninist sense of that term, although, more often than not, and at times and on certain questions very much more often than not, my own political views and those of the International Communist League coincide. I am, and I make no bones about it, a fervent supporter of the Partisan Defense Committee, a social and legal defense organization linked to the ICL and committed, in the traditions of the IWW, the early International Labor Defense- legal defense arm of the Communist International, and the early defense work of the American Socialist Workers Party, to the struggles for freedom of all class-war prisoners and defense of other related social struggles.

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "International Bolshevik Tendency" Website- On The Black Bloc

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

Letter to Fightback (IMT)
on the Black Bloc et al
3 July 2010

Toronto

Comrades,

On 30 June, four supporters of the International Bolshevik Tendency attended the “townhall” meeting on police repression during the G-20 that you co-sponsored with the Esplanade Community Group and the Toronto Young New Democrats. As we were not called on during the discussion round, we are writing to clarify our rather sharp differences with the leadership of Fightback and the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) on this important question.

To begin with the obvious: the crackdown on dissent we have witnessed in the past week powerfully vindicates the Marxist proposition that the capitalist state is essentially a weapon wielded by the exploiters against their victims. The police aggression toward bystanders and protesters alike—with Québécois youth particularly targeted—was the largest display of state repression seen in Canada for decades. Tens of thousands of people have seen with their own eyes how the “fundamental rights and freedoms” supposedly guaranteed by law can be arbitrarily (and secretly) shredded at the whim of the ruling class.

The duty of the left and workers’ movement is to demand the freedom of all those arrested and thrown into the overcrowded cages at the “Torontonamo” detention center and the dropping of all charges—including those laid for breaking windows or torching cop cars. Marxists do not share the illusion that trashing a few symbols of corporate and/or state power will somehow pave the way for a revolutionary challenge to capitalism. But we understand the anger against the manifest injustice of the capitalist world order that motivates young militants, and we seek to win the best of them to a strategy that can actually succeed.

Echoing Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who denounced “Black Bloc terrorists” for the trivial property damage (Toronto Sun, 29 June), various liberal commentators have decried the “violence” and criticized the cops for not going after the Black Bloc “hooligans” hard enough. At the Monday, 28 June rally to demand the release of the prisoners, Naomi Klein told the cops: “Don’t play public relations—do your goddamned job!” NDP leader Jack Layton earlier declared that “vandalism is criminal and totally unacceptable” (National Post, 27 June).

Marxists do not advocate the tactics of the Black Bloc because, however emotionally fulfilling for the individuals involved, they are at bottom an expression of frustration by powerless and socially isolated (if personally courageous) militants. Their focus on striking symbolic blows against the oppressors is conditioned by the absence of a mass working-class movement with a level of political consciousness sufficient to potentially overturn capitalist rule.

This issue has a history that stretches back to the anarchist “propaganda of the deed” notion of the late 19th century. Then, as now, the capitalist rulers made use of isolated actions by individual militants (sometimes instigated by police agents provocateurs) as a justification for repression. Yet anyone with an ounce of revolutionary commitment knows that the real criminals are the imperialist mass murderers who were wined and dined behind the G-20 security fence, and that the young militants who aspired to pull it down are on our side of the class line.

The Marxist position on isolated acts of “left-wing terrorism”—a category that could hardly be stretched to include the relatively minor property damage that took place during the G-20—was summed up by Leon Trotsky as follows:

“We Marxists consider the tactic of individual terror inexpedient in the tasks of the liberating struggle of the proletariat as well as oppressed nationalities. A single isolated hero cannot replace the masses. But we understand only too clearly the inevitability of such convulsive acts of despair and vengeance. All our emotions, all our sympathies are with the self-sacrificing avengers even though they have been unable to discover the correct road.”
—“For Grynszpan,” February 1939
The response of much of the self-proclaimed “revolutionary” left to the recent events in Toronto has been rather different. A Socialist Action leaflet observed:

“The anger of the Bloc-istas against the social injustices perpetuated by the G20 is understandable. But their tactics are worse than deplorable. They proved to be straight men for Harper’s predictable punch lines about how ‘security’ spending was justified. The Bloc-istas also gave the cops ammunition to brutalize and jail over 900 innocents, using expanded police powers of search and arrest granted by a secret Ontario Liberal Cabinet decision just weeks prior to the summits.
“Now that a majority of the 900-plus detainees have been released without charge, questions are multiplying. Why did 20,000 cops, including literally hundreds of them within spitting distance of burning vehicles and shattering store windows, just let it happen? Was it an exercise in policing or PR? And if cop claims are true that they had infiltrated the Bloc-istas, how many police were involved in prompting, as opposed to just spying on, the planners of mayhem? NDP and Labour leaders should be expressing rage over these issues instead of obsessing over petty property damage.”
—“Summits of Deceit and Repression,” distributed on 30 June
The description of the Black Bloc’s actions as “worse than deplorable,” because the cops used them as a pretext for rounding up “innocents,” aligns Socialist Action’s position with Jack Layton’s denunciation of “criminal” behavior. There is a logic to politics, and the NDP’s role as a prop for the capitalist status quo requires those who want to find a home in the party of the labor aristocracy to accept its bourgeois distinction between “innocents” and “criminals” among the protesters.

The leadership of Fightback has been even worse than Socialist Action in its repudiation of the young militants: “The labour movement must now fully denounce the black blockers and draw a dividing line—they are not welcome in our movement or on our demonstrations” (www.marxist.ca, 27 June). A few days later you went further: “We state that the Black Bloc are not part of our movement and there is no difference between them and police provocateurs. As seen in other protests, some of them may in fact be police agents” (www.marxist.ca, 30 June). In your 27 June statement you even claimed that: “The workers at Novotel, the trade unionists at Queen’s Park, and the peaceful demonstrators downtown were all beaten, abused, and arrested because of the black bloc…” (emphasis added). Suggesting that, without the Black Bloc, the police would have respected everyone’s “civil rights” can only sow dangerous illusions in the bourgeois state. Marxism teaches that the way the police treat strikers, minorities, leftists, etc. is not determined by legal niceties but rather by the exigencies of maintaining capitalist domination and control.

Fightback’s apparent willingness to blame the Black Bloc for the behavior of the cops contrasts with various accounts in the right-wing press. A columnist in the Toronto Sun (30 June) headlined her report of how a bicycle cop gave her a “bruised elbow and tricep” at the peaceful 28 June demonstration: “Police brutality—on 2 wheels.” The “Report on Business” section of the Globe and Mail (28 June) contained an article in which the author, complaining that the police heavy-handedness was “bad for business,” sardonically commented:

“Come to Toronto, for work or pleasure, and enjoy having your civil liberties trampled and your right to free expression stifled. Avail yourself of our hospitality in a crowded detention pen, with free stale buns and water when (or if) your hosts get around to it. Partake of an invigorating massage, courtesy of police officers wielding truncheons. The best part—there’s no charge! Except that seems to mean the cops will pick you up, hold you, then let you go without ever following through criminal charges or prosecution, suggesting they had nothing on you in the first place.”
The refusal to defend the Black Bloc is particularly scandalous in light of the IMT’s history of supporting police “unions” and “strikes.” A year ago, Fightback’s own Alex Grant wrote that the “lower ranks of the police and army are made up of working class boys in uniform” (www.marxist.ca, 28 May 2009). Rob Sewell, a leading member of the IMT’s British section, spoke glowingly of a “sea of burly blokes with white base-ball caps” in describing a march by London police to demand higher wages for their thuggery (www.marxist.com, 29 January 2008). The IMT’s view of cops as “workers in uniform” is not only a difficult pill to swallow for those protesters who fell under their batons—it flatly contradicts Trotsky’s position that a “worker who becomes a policeman in the service of the capitalist state is a bourgeois cop, not a worker” (What Next? Vital Questions for the German Proletariat, January 1932).

Your demand that the subjectively revolutionary youths who smashed a few windows during the G-20 be driven out of the movement is as alien to Marxism as your claim that the cops who rounded up and imprisoned protesters are simply “workers in uniform.” This is not Leninism, but social-democratic reformism. The first step for members of Fightback who are serious about building a revolutionary socialist party is to renounce this position and demand that all charges against all G-20 protesters be dropped immediately.

Trotskyist Greetings,
Josh Decker
for the International Bolshevik Tendency

*From "The Rag Blog"- Recent Class-War Prisoner Marilyn Buck Passes On- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!

Click on the headline to link to a The Rag Blog entry- Recent Class-War Prisoner Marilyn Buck Passes On

Markin comment:

I will just repeat here a comment that I have made previously on an entry on "The Rag Blog" on Marilyn Buck's case:

"Every young leftist militant, hell, every old leftist militant and even those who have lost their way since the 1960s and forgot what we were fighting for then, and now, should read this story. It tells two tales- if you go up against the American imperial state you better be ready to win, or else. And it also tells that there really was some very, very good human material, like Marilyn Buck, in the 1960s with which we could have built that better world we were fighting for if we could have understood the first tale better. I wish, and I wish like crazy, that we had a few more, actually quite a few more, militants like Marilyn Buck these days. Let's get moving. All honor to Marilyn Buck and the other fighters, like Mumia, still behind bars for "seeking that newer world."

Farewell, fellow liberation fighter.

**************

Thursday, September 27, 2007 Bob Feldman

`Marilyn Buck'

Way out in California
Is where they have her locked
For she is strong and beautiful
And her name is Marilyn Buck.

They sentenced her to eighty years
Because she is morally tough
Her rebel soul they cannot break
And her name is Marilyn Buck.

From Texas to Chicago
The War she tried to stop
She fought alongside Black comrades
And her name is Marilyn Buck.

Assata Shakur, from prison freed,
Did give them all a shock
And another rebel they could not find
Her name was Marilyn Buck.

The Capitol bombed, where the Congress met
To finance CIA plots
And one of the resisters charged
Her name was Marilyn Buck.

Political prisoners still locked up
The list is very long
There’s Mutulu Shakur and Sekou Odinga
And each one deserves their own song.

There’s Sundiata Acoli and Mumia
And Herman Bell and Robert Seth Hayes
And Jamil Al-Amin and the Africas
And Carlos Alberto Torres.

So if you get discouraged
And wish you had more luck
Remember the freedom fighters
And the soulful Marilyn Buck.

Yes, way out in California
Is where they have her locked
For she is strong and beautiful
And her name is Marilyn Buck.

To listen to this protest folk song, you can go to the following music site link:
http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+A.+Feldman/Biographical+Folk+Songs/Marilyn+Buck

The Marilyn Buck protest folk song is sung to the tune of the traditional folk song, “Mary Hamilton.” Marilyn Buck ( http://www.prisonactivist.org/pps+pows/marilynbuck/ is currently imprisoned in the Pleasanton federal prison in Dublin, California. For more information about the current situation of U.S. political prisoners like Mutulu Shakur, Sekou Odinga, Sundiata Acoli, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Herman Bell, Robert Seth Hayes, Jamil Al-Amin (f/k/a H.Rap Brown), the Africas and Carlos Alberto Torres, you can check out the Jericho Amnesty Movement site at http://www.thejerichomovement.com/ and the Prison Activist Resource Center at www.prisonactivist.org/pps+pows/ .

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-Phil Och's "Sailors And Soldiers Song"

Click on the title to link to a site to hear Phil Och's Sailors and Soldiers Song.

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. Markin.

**********

Sailors and Soldiers Lyrics
Phil Ochs

Sailors and soldiers
uniformed shoulders
they're growing older
over the sea

The troops they are leaving
firmly believing
no reason for greiving

Far from the banners,
Far from the glamour,
Far from the planners,
Who sent them to die

herded like cattle
they head for the battle
their rifles will rattle
over the sea

Too young to be shaving
yet the flags they are waving
for the fury they are braving
over the sea

proudly parading
with their medals they are
but their glory is fading
over the sea

Sailors and soldiers
Sailors and soldiers
Sailors and soldiers
&c...

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-Pete Seeger's "Turn, Turn, Turn"

Click on the title to link a YouTube film clip of Pete Seeger and Judy Collins perfroming Turn, Turn, Turn from his 1960s Rainbow Quest television show.

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. Markin.

********

Markin comment:

I would add here, if I were a song writer- a time for class struggle and a time for anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle. You figure out the melody, okay.

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)-Pete Seeger lyrics

There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late