IN THIS TIME OF THE ‘GREAT FEAR’ WE NEED CANDIDATES TO FIGHT FOR A WORKERS GOVERNMENT.
FORGET DONKEYS AND ELEPHANTS - BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!
In the summer of 2006 I originally wrote the following commentary (used in subsequent election cycles and updated a little for today’s purpose) urging the recruitment of independent labor militants as write-in candidates for the mid-term 2006 congressional elections based on a workers party program. With the hoopla already in full gear for the 2012 election cycle I repost that commentary below with that same intention of getting thoughtful leftists to use the 2012 campaign to further our propagandistic fight for a workers’ party that fights for a workers government.
A Modest Proposal-Recruit, Run Independent Labor Militants In The 2012 Elections
All “anti-parliamentarian”, “anti-state”, “non-political” anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist brothers and sisters need read no further. This writer does not want to sully the purity of your politics with the taint of parliamentary electoral politics. Although I might remind you, as we remember the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Barcelona Uprising, that your political ancestors in Spain were more than willing to support the state and enter the government when they got the chance- the bourgeois government of a bourgeois state. But, we can fight that issue out later. We will, hopefully, see you on the barricades with us when the time comes.
As for other militants- here is my modest proposal. Either recruit fellow labor militants or present yourselves as candidates to run for public office, especially for Congress, during the 2012 election cycle. Why? Even a quick glance at the news of the day is calculated to send the most hardened politico screaming into the night. The quagmire in Afghanistan (and unfinished business in Iraq and threats to Iran), immigration walls, flag-burning amendments, anti -same-sex marriage amendments, the threat to separation of church state raised by those who would impose a fundamentalist Christian theocracy on the rest of us, and the attacks on the hard fought gains of the Enlightenment posed by bogus theories such as ‘intelligent design.’ And that is just an average day. Therefore, this election cycle provides militants, at a time when the dwindling electorate is focused on politics, a forum to raise our program and our ideas. We use this as a tool, like leaflets, petitions, meetings, demonstrations, etc. to get our message across. Why should the Donkeys, Elephants, and the other smaller bourgeois parties have a monopoly on the public square?
I mentioned in the last paragraph the idea of program. Let us face it if we do not have a program to run on then it makes no sense for militants to run for public office. Given the political climate our task at this time is to fight an exemplary propaganda campaign. Our program is our banner in that fight. The Democrats and Republicans DO NOT RUN on a program. The sum of their campaigns is to promise not to steal from the public treasury (or at least not too much), beat their husbands or wives, or grossly compromise themselves in any manner. On second thought, given today’s political climate, they may not promise not to beat their husbands or wives or not compromise themselves in any untoward manner. You, in any case, get the point. Damn, even the weakest neophyte labor militant can make a better presentation before working people that this crowd. This writer presents a five point program (you knew that was coming, right?) that labor militants can run on. As point five makes clear this is not a ‘minimum’ program but a program based on our need to fight for power.
1. FIGHT FOR THE IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST NOW (OR BETTER YET, YESTERDAY)! U.S. HANDS OFF THE WORLD! VOTE NO ON THE WAR BUDGET!
The quagmire in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East (Iraq, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Iran) is the fault line of American politics today. Every bourgeois politician has to have his or her feet put to the fire on this one. Not on some flimsy ‘sense of the Congress’ softball motion for withdrawal next, year, in two years, or (my favorite) when the situation is stable. Moreover, on the parliamentary level the only real vote that matters is the vote on the war budget. All the rest is fluff. Militants should make a point of trying to enter Congressional contests where there are so-called anti-war Democrats or Republicans (an oxymoron, I believe) running to make that programmatic contrast vivid.
But, one might argue, that would split the ‘progressive’ forces. Grow up, please! That argument has grown stale since it was first put forth in the “popular front” days of the 1930’s. If you want to end the wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere fight for this position on the war budget. Otherwise the same people (yes, those 'progressive Democrats') who almost unanimously voted for the last war budget get a free ride on the cheap. War President Barack Obama desperately needs to be opposed by labor militants. By rights this is our issue. Let us take it back.
2. FIGHT FOR A LIVING WAGE AND WORKING CONDITIONS-UNIVERSAL FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL.
It is a ‘no-brainer’ that no individual, much less a family can live on the minimum wage (now $7/hr. or so). What planet do these politicians live on? We need an immediate fight for a living wage, full employment and decent working conditions. We need universal free health care for all. End of story. The organized labor movement must get off its knees and fight to organize Wal-Mart and the South. A boycott of Wal-Mart is not enough. A successful organizing drive will, like in the 1930’s; go a long way to turning the conditions of labor around.
3. FIGHT THE ATTACKS ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT.
Down with the Death Penalty! Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants who make it here! Stop the Deportations! For the Separation of Church and State! Defend abortion rights! Down with anti-same sex marriage legislation! Full public funding of education! Stop the ‘war on drugs’, basically a war on blacks and minority youth-decriminalize drugs! Defend political prisoners! This list of demands hardly exhausts the “culture war” issues we defend. It is hard to believe that in the year 2012 over 200 years after the American Revolution and the French Revolution we are fighting desperately to preserve many of the same principles that militants fought for in those revolutions. But so be it.
4. FIGHT FOR A WORKERS PARTY.
The Donkeys, Elephants and other smaller bourgeois parties have had their chance. Now is the time to fight for our own party and for the interests of our own class, the working class. Any campaigns by independent labor militants must highlight this point. And any campaigns can also become the nucleus of a workers’ party network until we get strong enough to form at least a small party. None of these other parties, and I mean none, are working in the interests of working people and their allies. The following great lesson of politic today must be hammered home. Break with the Democrats, Republicans!
5. FIGHT FOR A WORKERS AND XYZ GOVERNMENT. THIS IS THE DEMAND THAT SEPARATES THE MILITANTS FROM THE FAINT-HEARTED REFORMISTS.
We need our own form of government. In the old days the bourgeois republic was a progressive form of government. Not so any more. That form of government ran out of steam about one hundred years ago. We need a Workers Republic. We need a government based on workers councils with a ministry (I do not dare say commissariat in case any stray anarchists are still reading this) responsible to it. Let us face it if we really want to get any of the good and necessary things listed above accomplished we are not going to get it with the current form of government.
Why the XYZ part? What does that mean? No, it is not part of an algebra lesson. What it reflects is that while society is made up mainly of workers (of one sort or another) there are other classes (and parts of classes) in society that we seek as allies and could benefit from a workers government. Examples- small independent contractors, intellectuals, the dwindling number of small farmers, and some professionals like dentists. Yes, with my tongue in my cheek after all my dental bills, I like the idea of a workers and dentists government. The point is however you formulate it you have got to fight for it.
Obviously any campaign based on this program will be an exemplary propaganda campaign for the foreseeable future. But we have to start now. Continuing to support or not challenging the bourgeois parties does us no good. That is for sure. While bourgeois electoral laws do not favor independent candidacies write-in campaigns are possible. ROLL UP YOUR SHEEVES! GET THOSE PETITIONS SIGNED! PRINT OUT THE LEAFLETS! PAINT THOSE BANNERS! GET READY TO SHAKE HANDS AND KISS BABIES.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEPTEMBER 6, 2012-2 PM
Click on headline to link to Bradley Manning Rally Facebook event page.
RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEPTEMBER 6, 2012-2 PM
DATE: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
TIME: STARTING AT 2:00 PM (People will be leafleting downtown from about 11:00 AM and we will stay until about 5:00 PM so join us anytime you can to show your solidarity.)
PLACE: DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HEADQUARTERS AT 77 SUMMER STREET (NEAR THE DOWNTOWN CROSSING STOP ON THE RED AND ORANGE LINES)
The Boston Smedley Butler Brigade and Samantha Chapter- Veterans for Peace, the Boston Bradley Manning Support Network , Somerville Manning Square Committee and other social activists and concerned citizens support the call by the National Bradley Manning Support Network and others to rally nationwide at local Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6, 2012, the day President Obama is scheduled accept the Democratic Party nomination of president, to call for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. We also will be calling on the president to use his constitutional authority to pardon Private Manning now.
Contact: Pat Scanlon (VN 69’)-Coordinator, VFP Chapter 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com or Al Johnson-Event Coordinator -alfredjohnson34@comcast.net
FREE BRADLEY MANNING-PRESIDENT OBAMA PARDON BRADLEY MANNING NOW!
Check our Facebook event page –Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support Rally-September 6th- http://www.facebook.com/events/439879979398064/
Labor donated
Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC
The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!
Since Army PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the “Collateral Murder” video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, “Why isn’t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?”
After all, it was President Obama who in May 2011 declared with regards to protests in the Middle East,
“In the 21st Century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens.”
On Thursday, August 16, US military veterans in Portland OR, Oakland CA, and Los Angeles CA, occupied Obama 2012 campaign offices and faxed a letter of demands to the Obama campaign’s central office. Those letters began:
As those who have spent years serving our country, we have faith that as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama will do the right thing in answering our request.
The letter went on to list the following demands:
That President Obama retract and apologize for remarks made in April 2011, in which he said Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Because President Obama is commander-in-chief, this constitutes unlawful command influence, violating Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and prevents Bradley from receiving a fair trial.
That President Obama pardon the accused whistle-blower, taking into consideration his 800 days of pretrial confinement. UN torture chief Juan Mendez called Manning’s treatment “cruel and inhuman,” as it included nine months of solitary confinement at Quantico despite Brig psychiatrists recommending relaxed conditions.
The Bradley Manning Support Network maintains hope that justice will prevail and that President Obama can be the vehicle of change on this issue, but first he needs to hear loud and clear from veterans and civilians across the country that the American people want amends for the unlawful torture of Bradley Manning, and believe he should be freed.
Organizers of the August 16 West Coast actions are now urging others to join them in a nationwide effort to hold actions at many more local Obama campaign offices on September 6th, the day of candidate’s nomination acceptance speech. We want to share messages of support for Bradley with Obama campaign offices from coast to coast.
Please contact emma@bradleymanning.org for more information about attending and/or organizing an event.
RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEPTEMBER 6, 2012-2 PM
DATE: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
TIME: STARTING AT 2:00 PM (People will be leafleting downtown from about 11:00 AM and we will stay until about 5:00 PM so join us anytime you can to show your solidarity.)
PLACE: DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HEADQUARTERS AT 77 SUMMER STREET (NEAR THE DOWNTOWN CROSSING STOP ON THE RED AND ORANGE LINES)
The Boston Smedley Butler Brigade and Samantha Chapter- Veterans for Peace, the Boston Bradley Manning Support Network , Somerville Manning Square Committee and other social activists and concerned citizens support the call by the National Bradley Manning Support Network and others to rally nationwide at local Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6, 2012, the day President Obama is scheduled accept the Democratic Party nomination of president, to call for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. We also will be calling on the president to use his constitutional authority to pardon Private Manning now.
Contact: Pat Scanlon (VN 69’)-Coordinator, VFP Chapter 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com or Al Johnson-Event Coordinator -alfredjohnson34@comcast.net
FREE BRADLEY MANNING-PRESIDENT OBAMA PARDON BRADLEY MANNING NOW!
Check our Facebook event page –Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support Rally-September 6th- http://www.facebook.com/events/439879979398064/
Labor donated
Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC
The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!
Since Army PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the “Collateral Murder” video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, “Why isn’t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?”
After all, it was President Obama who in May 2011 declared with regards to protests in the Middle East,
“In the 21st Century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens.”
On Thursday, August 16, US military veterans in Portland OR, Oakland CA, and Los Angeles CA, occupied Obama 2012 campaign offices and faxed a letter of demands to the Obama campaign’s central office. Those letters began:
As those who have spent years serving our country, we have faith that as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama will do the right thing in answering our request.
The letter went on to list the following demands:
That President Obama retract and apologize for remarks made in April 2011, in which he said Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Because President Obama is commander-in-chief, this constitutes unlawful command influence, violating Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and prevents Bradley from receiving a fair trial.
That President Obama pardon the accused whistle-blower, taking into consideration his 800 days of pretrial confinement. UN torture chief Juan Mendez called Manning’s treatment “cruel and inhuman,” as it included nine months of solitary confinement at Quantico despite Brig psychiatrists recommending relaxed conditions.
The Bradley Manning Support Network maintains hope that justice will prevail and that President Obama can be the vehicle of change on this issue, but first he needs to hear loud and clear from veterans and civilians across the country that the American people want amends for the unlawful torture of Bradley Manning, and believe he should be freed.
Organizers of the August 16 West Coast actions are now urging others to join them in a nationwide effort to hold actions at many more local Obama campaign offices on September 6th, the day of candidate’s nomination acceptance speech. We want to share messages of support for Bradley with Obama campaign offices from coast to coast.
Please contact emma@bradleymanning.org for more information about attending and/or organizing an event.
***From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin- Handsome Johnnie’s Revenge –Alfred Hitchcock’s “Suspicion”
Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion.
DVD Review
Suspicion, starring Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, RKO Radio Pictures, 1941
Everybody knows, well, knows since Dorothy Parker uttered the words, that gentlemen don’t make passes at girls that wear glasses. Period. Well, period, except hard up ne’er-do- well besotted, benighted, be-, well, bedeviled and be done with it, handsome Johnnies gents who are slightly arrears on their rent or I.O.U. obligation to their bookmakers. They glasses, four-eyes, six-eyes, hell, threes eyes are in play then especially if they are well brought up love-starved country gentry daughters with a little dowry, or hopes of one. And especially when that certain girl, woman, when she takes off said glasses is well, by the ugly duckling turning camera magic, fetching. And that in a nutshell is the lead-up to this early Alfred Hitchcock classic under review, Suspicion.
A few details will help to tell why there is suspense in Suspicion (although not as much as in say the later Psycho, etc. when Hitchcock went over the edge and started to scare the bejesus out of every brave pre-teen and teen boy and girl on the earth by NOT showing us what evil lurked in the hearts of men). Johnnie, well-mannered but broke Johnnie (played by Cary Grant, who else would fit as the downwardly mobile British gent), “courts” one plain jane (don’t be deceived like I was at first by the glasses) country house gentry (meaning in those days running after foxes, et. al) daughter Lina (played by Academy Award-winning Joan Fontaine), wins her over and they are married. He has no illusions in what he is doing (mainly male gold-digging in order to maintain a studious avoidance of anything that smacks of work and anything that doesn’t smack of making a sure thing bet on race day) she, intelligent enough although not really world-wary has more than a few.
Up until that point, and somewhat beyond that point, this film is basically a comedy of manners in the old fashion sense. But eventually Johnnie’s gambling debts and thefts start to crowd in on him, and her. And a whole series of events occur that make Lina, well, suspicious that dear old bean Johnnie boy might just get under from under his obligations by putting her under, under the ground. Murder, murder and nothing else is surly in the air. The problem, or really two problems, though are no way, no way in hell can one make playboy Johnnie out as a murder one guy, and problem number two no way, no way in hell, once you take the glasses off, is fetching Lina slated for an early visit to the morgue. Like the title says suspicion, nothing to it but suspicion as the lovers reconcile.
DVD Review
Suspicion, starring Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, RKO Radio Pictures, 1941
Everybody knows, well, knows since Dorothy Parker uttered the words, that gentlemen don’t make passes at girls that wear glasses. Period. Well, period, except hard up ne’er-do- well besotted, benighted, be-, well, bedeviled and be done with it, handsome Johnnies gents who are slightly arrears on their rent or I.O.U. obligation to their bookmakers. They glasses, four-eyes, six-eyes, hell, threes eyes are in play then especially if they are well brought up love-starved country gentry daughters with a little dowry, or hopes of one. And especially when that certain girl, woman, when she takes off said glasses is well, by the ugly duckling turning camera magic, fetching. And that in a nutshell is the lead-up to this early Alfred Hitchcock classic under review, Suspicion.
A few details will help to tell why there is suspense in Suspicion (although not as much as in say the later Psycho, etc. when Hitchcock went over the edge and started to scare the bejesus out of every brave pre-teen and teen boy and girl on the earth by NOT showing us what evil lurked in the hearts of men). Johnnie, well-mannered but broke Johnnie (played by Cary Grant, who else would fit as the downwardly mobile British gent), “courts” one plain jane (don’t be deceived like I was at first by the glasses) country house gentry (meaning in those days running after foxes, et. al) daughter Lina (played by Academy Award-winning Joan Fontaine), wins her over and they are married. He has no illusions in what he is doing (mainly male gold-digging in order to maintain a studious avoidance of anything that smacks of work and anything that doesn’t smack of making a sure thing bet on race day) she, intelligent enough although not really world-wary has more than a few.
Up until that point, and somewhat beyond that point, this film is basically a comedy of manners in the old fashion sense. But eventually Johnnie’s gambling debts and thefts start to crowd in on him, and her. And a whole series of events occur that make Lina, well, suspicious that dear old bean Johnnie boy might just get under from under his obligations by putting her under, under the ground. Murder, murder and nothing else is surly in the air. The problem, or really two problems, though are no way, no way in hell can one make playboy Johnnie out as a murder one guy, and problem number two no way, no way in hell, once you take the glasses off, is fetching Lina slated for an early visit to the morgue. Like the title says suspicion, nothing to it but suspicion as the lovers reconcile.
Friday, August 24, 2012
From #Un-Occupied Boston (#Un-Tomemonos Boston)-What Happens When We Do Not Learn The Lessons Of History- The Pre-1848 Socialist Movement-Auguste Blanqui 1849-To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its True Heirs!
Click on the headline to link to the Occupy Boston General Assembly Minutes website. Occupy Boston started at 6:00 PM, September 30, 2011.
Markin comment:
I will post any updates from that Occupy Boston site if there are any serious discussions of the way forward for the Occupy movement or, more importantly, any analysis of the now atrophied and dysfunctional General Assembly concept. In the meantime I will continue with the “Lessons From History ’’series started in the fall of 2011 with Karl Marx’s The Civil War In France-1871 (The defense of the Paris Commune). Right now this series is focused on the European socialist movement before the Revolutions of 1848.
****
An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend The Occupy Movement And All Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against All Occupy Protesters Everywhere!
********
Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
********
A Five-Point Program As Talking Points
*Jobs For All Now!-“30 For 40”- A historic demand of the labor movement. Thirty hours work for forty hours pay to spread the available work around. Organize the unorganized- Organize the South- Organize Wal-Mart- Defend the right for public and private workers to unionize.
* Defend the working classes! No union dues for Democratic (or the stray Republican) candidates. Spent the dough instead on organizing the unorganized and on other labor-specific causes (good example, the November, 2011 anti-union recall referendum in Ohio, bad example the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall race in June 2012).
*End the endless wars!- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops (And Mercenaries) From Afghanistan! Hands Off Pakistan! Hands Off Iran! U.S. Hands Off The World!
*Fight for a social agenda for working people!. Quality Healthcare For All! Nationalize the colleges and universities under student-teacher-campus worker control! Forgive student debt! Stop housing foreclosures!
*We created the wealth, let’s take it back. Take the struggle for our daily bread off the historic agenda. Build a workers party that fights for a workers government to unite all the oppressed.
Emblazon on our red banner-Labor and the oppressed must rule!
***************
Auguste Blanqui 1849-To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its True Heirs!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Banquet des Travailleurs Socialistes. Chez Pages, Paris, 1849;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2010.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Socialist Worker’s Banquet took place Sunday December 3, 1848 at exactly noon at the Association of Cooks, 36 Barrière du Maine. 1,000 guests and 300-400 of the curious – 1,500 in all, among them 400-500 women, participated. The name of the Chairman of the banquet, Citizen A. Blanqui, held in the dungeon of Vincennes, could be read on the tribune across from the name of the candidate of the republican socialists, F-V Raspail. There could also be read on signs the names of those outlawed by reaction who are the most beloved of the people: Louis Blanc, Barbès, Albert.
Citizen Salières opened the session with these few words:
Citizens:
The Commission of the Socialist Worker’s banquet has chosen as its Chairman Citizen Auguste Blanqui, held in the dungeon of Vincennes (applause).
This commission, composed of workers, calling workers to this fraternal banquet wants to testify in their name to its gratitude to this indefatigable combatant for democracy, this man who is the incessant victim of persecution because of his defense of the most noble of causes, whose pure devotion has been repaid with persecution and calumny.
Citizens, you know how overwhelmed socialism today is. The very people who, if socialism could be personified in one man, would attempt to cross that man from the book of life, these very people proclaim themselves to be socialists. They say they are its adherents and reject its true principles. This presents a great danger for us. The history of the ideas that in all eras have served to tie men together shows us that it is the same lovers of the form who have often stifled the idea, or at least have reduced it to petty proportions. And so we proletarians, we for whom the word “socialism” is synonymous with that of “liberation,” have come here to present the true idea, the principle of socialism. We will do it in our way, with our hearts. We hope that you will take account of our efforts (Yes! Yes!)
After these words Citizen Salières read the prisoner’s toast:
To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its true heirs!
Citizens, the Mountain had sublime inspirations, daughters of the gospels and philosophy. But it never possessed those positive theories that only grow slowly from a close analysis of the social body, just as the art of healing is born of the revelations of anatomy.
Nevertheless, if it was lacking in the organizing force of science, the impulses of the heart sufficed to dictate to it the immortal slogan of the future: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and that admirable symbol, the Declaration of Rights, which broadly interpreted contains the seed of all that will come in the future society. Unfortunately, it’s the fate of the works of genius that have shaken the world to perish asphyxiated under the clouds of incense under which superstitious admirers drown them. The vivifying spirit of the master dies suffocated by the narrow observance of the text. The Law of Moses succumbed to the desperate embrace of the Pharisees. The Koran will be extinguished, turned into stone by the immobility of its imbecilic sectarians. And the Gospels themselves would have been sealed in their tomb by the idolatrous hands of its disciples – who had become its gravediggers – if their immortal ideas, escaping from the icy corpse around which they knelt, had not reappeared ever more shining in the new incarnation that will perpetuate them among humanity.
The Declaration of Rights, a formula born yesterday, is already suffering the fate of the old dogmas which in their period of decrepitude almost always become instruments of reaction against the redemptory labors of their revealers. The Judaic cult of the letter killed the revolutionary spirit of the symbol.
The militant life of the Mountain was brief, and like that of Christ ended on Golgotha. But its acts are a sparkling commentary on its words and provide the true meaning of the teachings it spread around the world.
Like Jesus, the consoler of the poor, the enemy of the powerful, the Mountain loved those who suffer and hated those who caused suffering. The salient element of its existence was its intimate alliance with the Parisian proletariat, not because it only felt the pain of one city, but because among so many populations equally bent down by suffering it found this energetic group ready at hand for the fight, for it was moved by the consciousness of its sufferings, and it made of them the liberating army of the human race.
From August 10, the date of the fall of the monarchy, until 4 Prairial, the final convulsion of the faubourgs, the people and the Mountain marched as one across the revolution, inseparable in victory and defeat. What a marvelous role to assume again! And one all the easier because the fight of 1793 was taken up again in 1848, on the same battlefield between the same combatants and , strange as it might seem, with almost the same incidents.
What do we see? As in 1793 privilege in combat with equality, and as their champions in combat a reactionary legislative majority colliding with the masses of Parisian democracy.
Will we also again find the Mountain and its faithful brotherhood in arms with the people?
And in fact, the name has reappeared! All the soldiers of the young phalanx bear it with pride and swear to bravely follow the steps of their predecessors.
Silence! The gates swing open and the action begins.
What do I hear! Under the pretext of fraternity M. Ledru-Rollin, the new leader of the Holy Mountain imperiously demands the return of the troops to the capitol against the will of the people. Is this in any way the tradition of the Mountain? I open my history book and I read that the Gironde, trembling in anger and fright before the pressure of the faubourgs, having demanded the formation of a camp of 20,000 men at the city gates to cover the national representatives, the Mountain rose up against this project fatal to freedom, set the multitude in motion, threatened the majority, and finally gained victory in this life or death question. Paris remained free.
We were less fortunate. And yet, turning the soldiers away from the bloody arena of civil war, where they could only harvest hatred and death, signified treating them as brothers. The men of the Mountain preferred fraternization in the streets.
What do we see now? The people marching in columns from the Champ de Mars to the Hotel de Ville and M. Ledru-Rollin, leader of the Mountain, has them run the gauntlet between two ranks of bayonets. And then he sets counter-revolution on the anarchists. I never saw this maneuver in either Marat’s or Danton’s campaigns. On that day did the hero of the recall of the troops incorrectly read his Montagnard theory?
And then there was another adventure. Who is that on horseback at the head of the National Guard? It’s M. Ledru-Rollin, leader of the Mountain leading victorious reaction to the Hotel de Ville and the patriot prisoners to the dungeon of Versailles.
Is it possible? Is it also M. Ledru-Rollin who presents and the Mountain who vote the draconian law against public gatherings? It is!
Good god! Are these Montagnards nothing but Girondins? But I read the name of Robespierre on their hats.
Be patient. Faithful to the parallels, no scene of the past will be missing from today’s drama. As in the past the mounting tide of hostilities between a reactionary majority and the Parisian workers must inevitably lead to a May 31. It broke out not on May 15, a grotesque day, but on June 23.
The army of the Mountain was ready on that day. And what did we see? Our monkeys of the Mountain throwing away their liberty bonnets and other revolutionary garb, inciting from the four corners all the stored up anger of the federalists, and like an avalanche, precipitating the counter-revolutionary masses on Paris.
The affront of May 31 was avenged; the rebellious Babylon punished. And by whom? By the Mountain!
Woe on the defeated. Those of June drank the chalice to the dregs. Crimes are eagerly being imputed to them. Had they emerged victorious everyone would have asked for a place of honor behind their flag. They are dead, and everyone spits anathema on them. Reaction says they are escapees from penal colonies and the Mountain says they are in the pay of monarchism.
What was the point of this last outrage? What is the goal of the fable of Russian gold and the ridiculous voyage in search of dynastic employment? As if royalty could today move a single paving stone. Why this pathetic tactic which makes friends and enemies laugh with pity? Most likely to prevent any solidarity with the defeated. But everyone knows there is nothing in common between you and them. Your artillery has sufficiently proved your innocence. Perhaps your artillery has to be justified in the eyes of some others, and so you go seeking imaginary leaders at the expense of the honor of the dead.
You dare to say that the Parisian people, the precursors of the future, are nothing but a herd of animals that Pitt and Cobourg lead to the slaughterhouse with a handful of salt. And all this because it pleased M. Ledru-Rolin to harangue them in the form of cannon fire. Fire, gentlemen, but don’t slander. June 26 is one of those ill-fated days that the revolution takes credit for in tears, just as a mother calls for the corpse of her son.
All of you, you great unknowns, who are swallowed up by the mass graves, poor Lazaruses fallen before the bullets in the great hunt for those in rags, you were nothing but the tools and mercenaries of royalism! You too, monuments to the justice and the clemency of our masters, unfortunate victims of prison ships. Colfavru, Thuillier, writers struck from behind, noble martyrs of the press for whom the press had not one word of protection or farewell. And you my old companions of Mont Saint Michel: Jarasse, Herbulet, Pétremann, valiant soldiers of May and February, thrice guilty of the crime of lack of respect for the army, know there in your lion’s pit that the kabyle razzia swept you up as enemies of the republic.
And the saviors of the republic, the Brutuses and Scaevolas are the generals and aides-de-camp of Louis-Philippe, the marquis of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, the holy militias of the congregations. But also the glorious decorated of June, all of them furious newly-minted royalists, the princes and dukes, intrepid leaders of the rural National Guard. And finally, there’s the Chouans who rose up en masse at the call of their priests to attack Paris. Did they do this to avenge ‘93, to avenge the old insults of the impious city? Not at all! It was to defend the republic against the Parisian royalist brigands!
O old formulas! Will of the wisps that cause the mountains to sink into the marshes. This is the result of your blows! You’ve turned our senators into vicars and marabouts murmuring prayers they no longer understand. But this isn’t your fault. You have always been clear about things, but the Mountain’s senses have been weakened.
The world has moved on in fifty years, but they have remained immobile. Science has forged more certain weapons, cleared a wider and more direct road. But the Mountain persists in walking down the paths of the past in old worn out attire, and they cry out against any novelty unknown to our fathers. These Epimenides fell asleep during a session of the Convention and upon awakening inadvertently took their place on the benches of the right. And then there they come, playing the year 1793 before the public, with its words, costumes and decors, everything except the play’s meaning, like those Ellevious and Malibran of Quimper-Corentin who think they’ll find the voices they need in the costume room.
The first act opened with the decree of vests à la Robespierre. The show goes on, and we will be spared not a couplet or a line. The least change in the script will result in its criminal author being sent before the revolutionary tribunal.
Our Epimenides recognize no other living beings than the dead of 1793, and whether they want it or not they assign everyone a role in their play. At the current moment it’s the second Cordelier Club that’s on stage. A deputy (infinitely newer in the Taitbout Room than today on Rue Taitbout) having gotten sensed the presence of the first version and denounced a Hébertist conspiracy, the men of the Mountain immediately set out on their trail.
They swear that in order to fool the bloodhounds who are after them the guilty have changed their names; that Hébert is now called Proudhon and Chaumette Raspail. They are searching everywhere for disguised versions of Ronsin, Momoro, Vincent, Anacharsis Cloots, Bishop Gobel. Watch out for the priest of Saint Eustache, who is a socialist. I advise him if he falls into their hands that if he wants to come out of this safe to protest that he is not Father Gobel, but rather the abbot Gregoire, and then he’ll be smothered in excuses and caresses.
The Jacobins asked M. Buchez to illuminate their searches with his parliamentary history lantern. Imagine their surprise when he angrily answered them: “There’s no need to seek; it is you who are the Hébertists since you don’t admire the Saint Bartholomew’s massacre.”
It appears that at the moment of the abrupt awakening of February 24 all of the sleepers carried out a confused exchange of heads, to such an extent that in the midst of this chaos of unmatched physiognomies the disoriented M. Buchez takes Girondins for Hébertists, the former thinking themselves to be men of the Mountain.
People then ran to seek information from Pierre Leroux, the author of the “Renaissance dans l’Humanité.” But the good patriarch gently told his questioners that without any doubt individuals are indefinitely reborn from generation to generation, but perfected and better; that consequently there were no more, there could no longer be, either Girondins, men of the Mountain, or Hébertists.
The response convinced no one and the searches are actively continuing. We already have proof that “Le Peuple” the newspaper of Hébert-Proudhon is nothing but the former “Père Duchêne” disguising its style.
These buffooneries would be funny if they hadn’t become tragic. Unfortunately, in this play every scene of uncontrollable laughter immediately engenders a scene of tears and blood. The actors themselves don’t know the denouement of their performance. In all good faith they thought they were presenting it for the profit and not at the expense of the workers. They will perhaps console themselves for the misadventure with the thought that they were performing in a play with two ends, one happy and the other sad, and that all that is wrong flows from an error in the variant.
But this mass of unexpected incidents, of situations improvised outside and against the libretto, seriously demoralizes them and leads them to dream about the fickleness of the public. Political romanticism has most decidedly perverted people’s spirits. In no condition to resist the torrent and maintain the classical tradition in its integrity, the academicians of the Mountain painfully resign themselves to make a sacrifice to the folly of the day and dress the old repertoire in the taste of today.
Rags cut from Proudhon, Leroux, Cabet and Fourier have been sewed onto Robespierre’s worn out coat, and from this variety they’ve put together the most eclectic of picturesque and vulgar costumes, a harlequin’s costume, now hung as a sign at the doors of the theater and carried in great pomp around the streets for the edification of the crowd.
On the breast of the mannequin, spread in trompe l’oeil, shine the socialist labels, to the great chagrin of their legitimate owners, the innovators who see their formulas turned into advertisements for the Hotel des Invalides.
These fraudulent borrowings force us to lengthen our motto with endless epithets. Is it not disastrous to call oneself by a name more interminable than that of a Spanish grandee and to need a half an hour to issue one’s rallying cry?
We are victims of the most abominable of ambushes. It is we socialists, the so-called despoilers, who everyone despoils at will and with no shame. Even our name has been taken from us, and soon our shadows will be stolen. What is more, the men of the Mountain, reaction’s youngest children, in pillaging us have done nothing but follow the example of their elders. If today they steal our title of socialist, yesterday the others wrested our title of republican.
Yes, this noble name of republican, outlawed and ridiculed by the counter revolution, was imprudently stolen by them so they could crown themselves with the laurel of our victory. With the same audacity they stole from us our sublime slogan of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, so long insulted and covered with mud by them as the symbol of blood and death.
Fortunately it rejected our flag... This was a mistake: It remains ours.
Citizens, the Mountain is dead!
To socialism, its sole heir!
This speech, religiously listened to, at various points incited unanimous applause among the listeners.
Markin comment:
I will post any updates from that Occupy Boston site if there are any serious discussions of the way forward for the Occupy movement or, more importantly, any analysis of the now atrophied and dysfunctional General Assembly concept. In the meantime I will continue with the “Lessons From History ’’series started in the fall of 2011 with Karl Marx’s The Civil War In France-1871 (The defense of the Paris Commune). Right now this series is focused on the European socialist movement before the Revolutions of 1848.
****
An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend The Occupy Movement And All Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against All Occupy Protesters Everywhere!
********
Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
********
A Five-Point Program As Talking Points
*Jobs For All Now!-“30 For 40”- A historic demand of the labor movement. Thirty hours work for forty hours pay to spread the available work around. Organize the unorganized- Organize the South- Organize Wal-Mart- Defend the right for public and private workers to unionize.
* Defend the working classes! No union dues for Democratic (or the stray Republican) candidates. Spent the dough instead on organizing the unorganized and on other labor-specific causes (good example, the November, 2011 anti-union recall referendum in Ohio, bad example the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall race in June 2012).
*End the endless wars!- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops (And Mercenaries) From Afghanistan! Hands Off Pakistan! Hands Off Iran! U.S. Hands Off The World!
*Fight for a social agenda for working people!. Quality Healthcare For All! Nationalize the colleges and universities under student-teacher-campus worker control! Forgive student debt! Stop housing foreclosures!
*We created the wealth, let’s take it back. Take the struggle for our daily bread off the historic agenda. Build a workers party that fights for a workers government to unite all the oppressed.
Emblazon on our red banner-Labor and the oppressed must rule!
***************
Auguste Blanqui 1849-To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its True Heirs!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Banquet des Travailleurs Socialistes. Chez Pages, Paris, 1849;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2010.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Socialist Worker’s Banquet took place Sunday December 3, 1848 at exactly noon at the Association of Cooks, 36 Barrière du Maine. 1,000 guests and 300-400 of the curious – 1,500 in all, among them 400-500 women, participated. The name of the Chairman of the banquet, Citizen A. Blanqui, held in the dungeon of Vincennes, could be read on the tribune across from the name of the candidate of the republican socialists, F-V Raspail. There could also be read on signs the names of those outlawed by reaction who are the most beloved of the people: Louis Blanc, Barbès, Albert.
Citizen Salières opened the session with these few words:
Citizens:
The Commission of the Socialist Worker’s banquet has chosen as its Chairman Citizen Auguste Blanqui, held in the dungeon of Vincennes (applause).
This commission, composed of workers, calling workers to this fraternal banquet wants to testify in their name to its gratitude to this indefatigable combatant for democracy, this man who is the incessant victim of persecution because of his defense of the most noble of causes, whose pure devotion has been repaid with persecution and calumny.
Citizens, you know how overwhelmed socialism today is. The very people who, if socialism could be personified in one man, would attempt to cross that man from the book of life, these very people proclaim themselves to be socialists. They say they are its adherents and reject its true principles. This presents a great danger for us. The history of the ideas that in all eras have served to tie men together shows us that it is the same lovers of the form who have often stifled the idea, or at least have reduced it to petty proportions. And so we proletarians, we for whom the word “socialism” is synonymous with that of “liberation,” have come here to present the true idea, the principle of socialism. We will do it in our way, with our hearts. We hope that you will take account of our efforts (Yes! Yes!)
After these words Citizen Salières read the prisoner’s toast:
To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its true heirs!
Citizens, the Mountain had sublime inspirations, daughters of the gospels and philosophy. But it never possessed those positive theories that only grow slowly from a close analysis of the social body, just as the art of healing is born of the revelations of anatomy.
Nevertheless, if it was lacking in the organizing force of science, the impulses of the heart sufficed to dictate to it the immortal slogan of the future: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and that admirable symbol, the Declaration of Rights, which broadly interpreted contains the seed of all that will come in the future society. Unfortunately, it’s the fate of the works of genius that have shaken the world to perish asphyxiated under the clouds of incense under which superstitious admirers drown them. The vivifying spirit of the master dies suffocated by the narrow observance of the text. The Law of Moses succumbed to the desperate embrace of the Pharisees. The Koran will be extinguished, turned into stone by the immobility of its imbecilic sectarians. And the Gospels themselves would have been sealed in their tomb by the idolatrous hands of its disciples – who had become its gravediggers – if their immortal ideas, escaping from the icy corpse around which they knelt, had not reappeared ever more shining in the new incarnation that will perpetuate them among humanity.
The Declaration of Rights, a formula born yesterday, is already suffering the fate of the old dogmas which in their period of decrepitude almost always become instruments of reaction against the redemptory labors of their revealers. The Judaic cult of the letter killed the revolutionary spirit of the symbol.
The militant life of the Mountain was brief, and like that of Christ ended on Golgotha. But its acts are a sparkling commentary on its words and provide the true meaning of the teachings it spread around the world.
Like Jesus, the consoler of the poor, the enemy of the powerful, the Mountain loved those who suffer and hated those who caused suffering. The salient element of its existence was its intimate alliance with the Parisian proletariat, not because it only felt the pain of one city, but because among so many populations equally bent down by suffering it found this energetic group ready at hand for the fight, for it was moved by the consciousness of its sufferings, and it made of them the liberating army of the human race.
From August 10, the date of the fall of the monarchy, until 4 Prairial, the final convulsion of the faubourgs, the people and the Mountain marched as one across the revolution, inseparable in victory and defeat. What a marvelous role to assume again! And one all the easier because the fight of 1793 was taken up again in 1848, on the same battlefield between the same combatants and , strange as it might seem, with almost the same incidents.
What do we see? As in 1793 privilege in combat with equality, and as their champions in combat a reactionary legislative majority colliding with the masses of Parisian democracy.
Will we also again find the Mountain and its faithful brotherhood in arms with the people?
And in fact, the name has reappeared! All the soldiers of the young phalanx bear it with pride and swear to bravely follow the steps of their predecessors.
Silence! The gates swing open and the action begins.
What do I hear! Under the pretext of fraternity M. Ledru-Rollin, the new leader of the Holy Mountain imperiously demands the return of the troops to the capitol against the will of the people. Is this in any way the tradition of the Mountain? I open my history book and I read that the Gironde, trembling in anger and fright before the pressure of the faubourgs, having demanded the formation of a camp of 20,000 men at the city gates to cover the national representatives, the Mountain rose up against this project fatal to freedom, set the multitude in motion, threatened the majority, and finally gained victory in this life or death question. Paris remained free.
We were less fortunate. And yet, turning the soldiers away from the bloody arena of civil war, where they could only harvest hatred and death, signified treating them as brothers. The men of the Mountain preferred fraternization in the streets.
What do we see now? The people marching in columns from the Champ de Mars to the Hotel de Ville and M. Ledru-Rollin, leader of the Mountain, has them run the gauntlet between two ranks of bayonets. And then he sets counter-revolution on the anarchists. I never saw this maneuver in either Marat’s or Danton’s campaigns. On that day did the hero of the recall of the troops incorrectly read his Montagnard theory?
And then there was another adventure. Who is that on horseback at the head of the National Guard? It’s M. Ledru-Rollin, leader of the Mountain leading victorious reaction to the Hotel de Ville and the patriot prisoners to the dungeon of Versailles.
Is it possible? Is it also M. Ledru-Rollin who presents and the Mountain who vote the draconian law against public gatherings? It is!
Good god! Are these Montagnards nothing but Girondins? But I read the name of Robespierre on their hats.
Be patient. Faithful to the parallels, no scene of the past will be missing from today’s drama. As in the past the mounting tide of hostilities between a reactionary majority and the Parisian workers must inevitably lead to a May 31. It broke out not on May 15, a grotesque day, but on June 23.
The army of the Mountain was ready on that day. And what did we see? Our monkeys of the Mountain throwing away their liberty bonnets and other revolutionary garb, inciting from the four corners all the stored up anger of the federalists, and like an avalanche, precipitating the counter-revolutionary masses on Paris.
The affront of May 31 was avenged; the rebellious Babylon punished. And by whom? By the Mountain!
Woe on the defeated. Those of June drank the chalice to the dregs. Crimes are eagerly being imputed to them. Had they emerged victorious everyone would have asked for a place of honor behind their flag. They are dead, and everyone spits anathema on them. Reaction says they are escapees from penal colonies and the Mountain says they are in the pay of monarchism.
What was the point of this last outrage? What is the goal of the fable of Russian gold and the ridiculous voyage in search of dynastic employment? As if royalty could today move a single paving stone. Why this pathetic tactic which makes friends and enemies laugh with pity? Most likely to prevent any solidarity with the defeated. But everyone knows there is nothing in common between you and them. Your artillery has sufficiently proved your innocence. Perhaps your artillery has to be justified in the eyes of some others, and so you go seeking imaginary leaders at the expense of the honor of the dead.
You dare to say that the Parisian people, the precursors of the future, are nothing but a herd of animals that Pitt and Cobourg lead to the slaughterhouse with a handful of salt. And all this because it pleased M. Ledru-Rolin to harangue them in the form of cannon fire. Fire, gentlemen, but don’t slander. June 26 is one of those ill-fated days that the revolution takes credit for in tears, just as a mother calls for the corpse of her son.
All of you, you great unknowns, who are swallowed up by the mass graves, poor Lazaruses fallen before the bullets in the great hunt for those in rags, you were nothing but the tools and mercenaries of royalism! You too, monuments to the justice and the clemency of our masters, unfortunate victims of prison ships. Colfavru, Thuillier, writers struck from behind, noble martyrs of the press for whom the press had not one word of protection or farewell. And you my old companions of Mont Saint Michel: Jarasse, Herbulet, Pétremann, valiant soldiers of May and February, thrice guilty of the crime of lack of respect for the army, know there in your lion’s pit that the kabyle razzia swept you up as enemies of the republic.
And the saviors of the republic, the Brutuses and Scaevolas are the generals and aides-de-camp of Louis-Philippe, the marquis of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, the holy militias of the congregations. But also the glorious decorated of June, all of them furious newly-minted royalists, the princes and dukes, intrepid leaders of the rural National Guard. And finally, there’s the Chouans who rose up en masse at the call of their priests to attack Paris. Did they do this to avenge ‘93, to avenge the old insults of the impious city? Not at all! It was to defend the republic against the Parisian royalist brigands!
O old formulas! Will of the wisps that cause the mountains to sink into the marshes. This is the result of your blows! You’ve turned our senators into vicars and marabouts murmuring prayers they no longer understand. But this isn’t your fault. You have always been clear about things, but the Mountain’s senses have been weakened.
The world has moved on in fifty years, but they have remained immobile. Science has forged more certain weapons, cleared a wider and more direct road. But the Mountain persists in walking down the paths of the past in old worn out attire, and they cry out against any novelty unknown to our fathers. These Epimenides fell asleep during a session of the Convention and upon awakening inadvertently took their place on the benches of the right. And then there they come, playing the year 1793 before the public, with its words, costumes and decors, everything except the play’s meaning, like those Ellevious and Malibran of Quimper-Corentin who think they’ll find the voices they need in the costume room.
The first act opened with the decree of vests à la Robespierre. The show goes on, and we will be spared not a couplet or a line. The least change in the script will result in its criminal author being sent before the revolutionary tribunal.
Our Epimenides recognize no other living beings than the dead of 1793, and whether they want it or not they assign everyone a role in their play. At the current moment it’s the second Cordelier Club that’s on stage. A deputy (infinitely newer in the Taitbout Room than today on Rue Taitbout) having gotten sensed the presence of the first version and denounced a Hébertist conspiracy, the men of the Mountain immediately set out on their trail.
They swear that in order to fool the bloodhounds who are after them the guilty have changed their names; that Hébert is now called Proudhon and Chaumette Raspail. They are searching everywhere for disguised versions of Ronsin, Momoro, Vincent, Anacharsis Cloots, Bishop Gobel. Watch out for the priest of Saint Eustache, who is a socialist. I advise him if he falls into their hands that if he wants to come out of this safe to protest that he is not Father Gobel, but rather the abbot Gregoire, and then he’ll be smothered in excuses and caresses.
The Jacobins asked M. Buchez to illuminate their searches with his parliamentary history lantern. Imagine their surprise when he angrily answered them: “There’s no need to seek; it is you who are the Hébertists since you don’t admire the Saint Bartholomew’s massacre.”
It appears that at the moment of the abrupt awakening of February 24 all of the sleepers carried out a confused exchange of heads, to such an extent that in the midst of this chaos of unmatched physiognomies the disoriented M. Buchez takes Girondins for Hébertists, the former thinking themselves to be men of the Mountain.
People then ran to seek information from Pierre Leroux, the author of the “Renaissance dans l’Humanité.” But the good patriarch gently told his questioners that without any doubt individuals are indefinitely reborn from generation to generation, but perfected and better; that consequently there were no more, there could no longer be, either Girondins, men of the Mountain, or Hébertists.
The response convinced no one and the searches are actively continuing. We already have proof that “Le Peuple” the newspaper of Hébert-Proudhon is nothing but the former “Père Duchêne” disguising its style.
These buffooneries would be funny if they hadn’t become tragic. Unfortunately, in this play every scene of uncontrollable laughter immediately engenders a scene of tears and blood. The actors themselves don’t know the denouement of their performance. In all good faith they thought they were presenting it for the profit and not at the expense of the workers. They will perhaps console themselves for the misadventure with the thought that they were performing in a play with two ends, one happy and the other sad, and that all that is wrong flows from an error in the variant.
But this mass of unexpected incidents, of situations improvised outside and against the libretto, seriously demoralizes them and leads them to dream about the fickleness of the public. Political romanticism has most decidedly perverted people’s spirits. In no condition to resist the torrent and maintain the classical tradition in its integrity, the academicians of the Mountain painfully resign themselves to make a sacrifice to the folly of the day and dress the old repertoire in the taste of today.
Rags cut from Proudhon, Leroux, Cabet and Fourier have been sewed onto Robespierre’s worn out coat, and from this variety they’ve put together the most eclectic of picturesque and vulgar costumes, a harlequin’s costume, now hung as a sign at the doors of the theater and carried in great pomp around the streets for the edification of the crowd.
On the breast of the mannequin, spread in trompe l’oeil, shine the socialist labels, to the great chagrin of their legitimate owners, the innovators who see their formulas turned into advertisements for the Hotel des Invalides.
These fraudulent borrowings force us to lengthen our motto with endless epithets. Is it not disastrous to call oneself by a name more interminable than that of a Spanish grandee and to need a half an hour to issue one’s rallying cry?
We are victims of the most abominable of ambushes. It is we socialists, the so-called despoilers, who everyone despoils at will and with no shame. Even our name has been taken from us, and soon our shadows will be stolen. What is more, the men of the Mountain, reaction’s youngest children, in pillaging us have done nothing but follow the example of their elders. If today they steal our title of socialist, yesterday the others wrested our title of republican.
Yes, this noble name of republican, outlawed and ridiculed by the counter revolution, was imprudently stolen by them so they could crown themselves with the laurel of our victory. With the same audacity they stole from us our sublime slogan of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, so long insulted and covered with mud by them as the symbol of blood and death.
Fortunately it rejected our flag... This was a mistake: It remains ours.
Citizens, the Mountain is dead!
To socialism, its sole heir!
This speech, religiously listened to, at various points incited unanimous applause among the listeners.
West Coast Bradley Manning Action At Obama Headquarters- August 17, 2012-Pardon Bradley Manning
The Boston Smedley Butler Brigade and Samantha Chapter- Veterans for Peace, the Boston Bradley Manning Support Network , Somerville Manning Square Committee and other social activists and concerned citizens support the call by the National Bradley Manning Support Network and others to rally nationwide at local Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6, 2012, the day President Obama is scheduled accept the Democratic Party nomination of president, to call for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. We also will be calling on the president to use his constitutional authority to pardon Private Manning now.
RALLY EN APOYO DE WIKILEAKS DENUNCIANTE ALEGA soldado Bradley Manning EN EL CENTRO DE LA CIUDAD DE BOSTON HDQTRS OBAMA.-SEPTEMBER 6,2012- 2 PM
RALLY EN APOYO DE WIKILEAKS DENUNCIANTE ALEGA soldado Bradley Manning EN EL CENTRO DE LA CIUDAD DE BOSTON HDQTRS OBAMA.-SEPTEMBER 6,2012- 2 PM
FECHA: Jueves 06 de septiembre 2012
HORA: (. Las personas serán el centro de distribución de panfletos de las 11:00 am y nos quedaremos hasta las 5:00 PM para unirse a nosotros en cualquier momento que podamos para mostrar su solidaridad) PUESTA A LAS 2:00 PM
LUGAR: CENTRO DE BOSTON OBAMA LA SEDE EN LA CALLE DE VERANO 77 (cerca de la parada de Downtown Crossing EN LAS LÍNEAS ROJAS Y NARANJA)
El Boston Smedley Butler Brigada y Samantha capítulo-Veteranos por la Paz, la Red de Apoyo a Bradley Boston Manning, Manning Square Somerville Comité y otros activistas sociales y ciudadanos interesados apoyar el llamamiento de la Red Nacional de Apoyo Bradley Manning y otros, para manifestación nacional en el ámbito local sede Obama el jueves 6 de septiembre de 2012, el día que el presidente Obama está previsto aceptar la nominación del Partido Demócrata del presidente, para pedir la libertad de denunciante WikiLeaks supuesto, el Ejército de soldado de primera clase Bradley Manning. También se pide al presidente a usar su autoridad constitucional de indultar a soldado Manning ahora.
Contacto: Pat Scanlon (VN 69 ')-Coordinador, VFP Capítulo 9, Smedley Butler Brigada patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com o Al Johnson, Coordinadora de Eventos -alfredjohnson34 @ comcast.net
FREE Bradley Manning-PRESIDENTE OBAMA PERDÓN Bradley Manning AHORA!
Visita nuestra página de Facebook-Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support Rally-06 de septiembre- http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally #! / BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th
Trabajo donado llamada a la acción a Obama 2.012 oficinas a nivel nacional 06 de septiembre durante la DNC La Red de Apoyo a Bradley Manning, los afganos por la Paz y Veteranos de Bahía de SF de Irak contra la Guerra de llamada para las acciones de Nationwide en las oficinas locales de la campaña de Obama 06 de septiembre 2012 durante la Convención Nacional Demócrata! Free Bradley Manning!
Desde el arresto de Ejército PFC Bradley Manning en mayo de 2010 por supuestamente compartir las "Asesinato Colateral" video y otras pruebas de crímenes de guerra y la corrupción del gobierno con los sitios web WikiLeaks denunciantes-, progresistas y activistas de derechos humanos han estado preguntando, "¿Por qué no es el presidente Obama interviniendo para ayudar a Bradley? "
Después de todo, fue el presidente Obama quien mayo 2011 declaró con respecto a las protestas en Oriente Medio,
"En el siglo 21, la información es poder, la verdad no puede ocultarse, y la legitimidad de los gobiernos en última instancia dependerá de ciudadanos activos e informados".
El jueves, 16 de agosto de veteranos militares de EE.UU. en Portland OR, CA Oakland y Los Angeles CA, ocuparon las oficinas de campaña de Obama 2012 y enviado por fax una carta de demandas a la oficina central de la campaña de Obama. Esas cartas se inició:
Como aquellos que llevan años sirviendo a nuestro país, tenemos fe en que como Comandante en Jefe, el Presidente Obama haga lo correcto al responder a nuestra petición.
La carta pasó a enumerar las siguientes demandas:
Que el Presidente Obama retractarse y disculparse por declaraciones formuladas en abril de 2011, en la que dijo Bradley Manning "violó la ley." Porque el presidente Obama es el comandante en jefe, se está ante la influencia de comando ilegal, violando el artículo 37 del Código Uniforme de Justicia Militar Justicia (UCMJ), y evita que Bradley reciba un juicio justo.
Ese indulto del presidente Obama la acusó de denuncia, teniendo en cuenta sus 800 días de reclusión preventiva. Naciones Unidas tortura jefe Juan Méndez llama tratamiento de Manning "cruel e inhumano", ya que incluía nueve meses de confinamiento solitario en Quantico a pesar de psiquiatras Brig recomendando condiciones relajadas.
La Red de Apoyo a Bradley Manning mantiene la esperanza de que prevalecerá la justicia y que el presidente Obama puede ser el vehículo del cambio en este tema, pero primero tiene que oír alto y claro de los veteranos y civiles de todo el país que el pueblo estadounidense quiere reparar la ilegalidad la tortura de Bradley Manning, y creo que debe ser liberado.
Los organizadores de las acciones 16 agosto Costa Oeste están instando a otros a que se sumen a un esfuerzo nacional para sostener las acciones en muchas oficinas de campaña de Obama más locales el 6 de septiembre, el día del discurso de aceptación del candidato candidatura. Queremos compartir mensajes de apoyo a Bradley con oficinas de campaña de Obama, de costa a costa.
Por favor, póngase en contacto con emma@bradleymanning.org para más información sobre la asistencia y / o la organización de un evento.
FECHA: Jueves 06 de septiembre 2012
HORA: (. Las personas serán el centro de distribución de panfletos de las 11:00 am y nos quedaremos hasta las 5:00 PM para unirse a nosotros en cualquier momento que podamos para mostrar su solidaridad) PUESTA A LAS 2:00 PM
LUGAR: CENTRO DE BOSTON OBAMA LA SEDE EN LA CALLE DE VERANO 77 (cerca de la parada de Downtown Crossing EN LAS LÍNEAS ROJAS Y NARANJA)
El Boston Smedley Butler Brigada y Samantha capítulo-Veteranos por la Paz, la Red de Apoyo a Bradley Boston Manning, Manning Square Somerville Comité y otros activistas sociales y ciudadanos interesados apoyar el llamamiento de la Red Nacional de Apoyo Bradley Manning y otros, para manifestación nacional en el ámbito local sede Obama el jueves 6 de septiembre de 2012, el día que el presidente Obama está previsto aceptar la nominación del Partido Demócrata del presidente, para pedir la libertad de denunciante WikiLeaks supuesto, el Ejército de soldado de primera clase Bradley Manning. También se pide al presidente a usar su autoridad constitucional de indultar a soldado Manning ahora.
Contacto: Pat Scanlon (VN 69 ')-Coordinador, VFP Capítulo 9, Smedley Butler Brigada patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com o Al Johnson, Coordinadora de Eventos -alfredjohnson34 @ comcast.net
FREE Bradley Manning-PRESIDENTE OBAMA PERDÓN Bradley Manning AHORA!
Visita nuestra página de Facebook-Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support Rally-06 de septiembre- http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally #! / BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th
Trabajo donado llamada a la acción a Obama 2.012 oficinas a nivel nacional 06 de septiembre durante la DNC La Red de Apoyo a Bradley Manning, los afganos por la Paz y Veteranos de Bahía de SF de Irak contra la Guerra de llamada para las acciones de Nationwide en las oficinas locales de la campaña de Obama 06 de septiembre 2012 durante la Convención Nacional Demócrata! Free Bradley Manning!
Desde el arresto de Ejército PFC Bradley Manning en mayo de 2010 por supuestamente compartir las "Asesinato Colateral" video y otras pruebas de crímenes de guerra y la corrupción del gobierno con los sitios web WikiLeaks denunciantes-, progresistas y activistas de derechos humanos han estado preguntando, "¿Por qué no es el presidente Obama interviniendo para ayudar a Bradley? "
Después de todo, fue el presidente Obama quien mayo 2011 declaró con respecto a las protestas en Oriente Medio,
"En el siglo 21, la información es poder, la verdad no puede ocultarse, y la legitimidad de los gobiernos en última instancia dependerá de ciudadanos activos e informados".
El jueves, 16 de agosto de veteranos militares de EE.UU. en Portland OR, CA Oakland y Los Angeles CA, ocuparon las oficinas de campaña de Obama 2012 y enviado por fax una carta de demandas a la oficina central de la campaña de Obama. Esas cartas se inició:
Como aquellos que llevan años sirviendo a nuestro país, tenemos fe en que como Comandante en Jefe, el Presidente Obama haga lo correcto al responder a nuestra petición.
La carta pasó a enumerar las siguientes demandas:
Que el Presidente Obama retractarse y disculparse por declaraciones formuladas en abril de 2011, en la que dijo Bradley Manning "violó la ley." Porque el presidente Obama es el comandante en jefe, se está ante la influencia de comando ilegal, violando el artículo 37 del Código Uniforme de Justicia Militar Justicia (UCMJ), y evita que Bradley reciba un juicio justo.
Ese indulto del presidente Obama la acusó de denuncia, teniendo en cuenta sus 800 días de reclusión preventiva. Naciones Unidas tortura jefe Juan Méndez llama tratamiento de Manning "cruel e inhumano", ya que incluía nueve meses de confinamiento solitario en Quantico a pesar de psiquiatras Brig recomendando condiciones relajadas.
La Red de Apoyo a Bradley Manning mantiene la esperanza de que prevalecerá la justicia y que el presidente Obama puede ser el vehículo del cambio en este tema, pero primero tiene que oír alto y claro de los veteranos y civiles de todo el país que el pueblo estadounidense quiere reparar la ilegalidad la tortura de Bradley Manning, y creo que debe ser liberado.
Los organizadores de las acciones 16 agosto Costa Oeste están instando a otros a que se sumen a un esfuerzo nacional para sostener las acciones en muchas oficinas de campaña de Obama más locales el 6 de septiembre, el día del discurso de aceptación del candidato candidatura. Queremos compartir mensajes de apoyo a Bradley con oficinas de campaña de Obama, de costa a costa.
Por favor, póngase en contacto con emma@bradleymanning.org para más información sobre la asistencia y / o la organización de un evento.
RALLY DE APOIO ALEGADA WIKILEAKS denunciante Bradley Manning PRIVADO NO centro de Boston OBAMA HDQTRS. -September 6th-2 PM
RALLY DE APOIO ALEGADA WIKILEAKS denunciante Bradley Manning PRIVADO NO centro de Boston OBAMA HDQTRS.
DATA: quinta-feira 06 de setembro de 2012
TEMPO: (. Pessoas serão panfletagem no centro de cerca de 11:00 e vamos ficar até cerca de 17:00 para se juntar a nós a qualquer hora que puder para mostrar sua solidariedade) A partir de 02:00
LOCAL: Centro de Boston SEDE DE OBAMA EM RUA 77 DE VERÃO (perto da paragem de Downtown Crossing NA LINHA VERMELHA E LARANJA)
O Boston Smedley Butler Brigada e Samantha Capítulo-Veteranos pela Paz, o Boston Bradley Manning Support Network, Somerville Manning Praça Comitê e outros ativistas sociais e cidadãos preocupados apoiar o apelo pela Rede Nacional de Apoio Bradley Manning e outros em todo o país para reunir na sede Obama locais na quinta-feira 06 de setembro de 2012, o dia o presidente Obama está programado aceitar a nomeação do Partido Democrata do presidente, para pedir a liberdade de denúncia WikiLeaks alegada, Exército soldado de primeira classe Bradley Manning. Também será convidando o presidente a usar sua autoridade constitucional para perdoar Manning privados agora.
Contato: Pat Scanlon (VN 69 ')-Coordenador, VFP Capítulo 9, Smedley Butler Brigada patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com ou Al Johnson-Coordenador de Eventos -alfredjohnson34 @ comcast.net
GRÁTIS Bradley Manning-PRESIDENTE OBAMA PERDÃO Bradley Manning AGORA!
Confira nossa página do Facebook Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Suporte Rally-06 de setembro- http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally #! / BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th
Trabalho doado chamada para a ação em Obama 2.012 escritórios em todo o país 06 de setembro durante DNC O Bradley Manning Support Network, os afegãos Pela Paz e da Baía de SF Veteranos do Iraque Contra a Guerra Chamada para Ações de âmbito nacional em escritórios locais da campanha de Obama 6 de setembro de 2012 durante a Convenção Nacional Democrata! Bradley Manning livre!
Desde a prisão do Exército Bradley Manning PFC maio 2010 por supostamente compartilhando a "Assassinato Colateral" de vídeo e outras evidências de crimes de guerra e corrupção do governo com as WikiLeaks delator site, progressistas e ativistas de direitos humanos foram perguntando: "Por que não é presidente Obama entra para a ajudar Bradley? "
Afinal, foi o presidente Obama que maio 2011 declarou com relação a protestos no Oriente Médio,
"No século 21, a informação é poder, a verdade não pode ser escondida e a legitimidade dos governos vai depender cidadãos ativos e informados."
Na quinta-feira, 16 de agosto de veteranos militares dos EUA em Portland OR, CA Oakland e Los Angeles CA, ocuparam Obama 2.012 escritórios de campanha e enviado por fax uma carta de reivindicações para o escritório central da campanha de Obama. Essas cartas começou:
Como aqueles que passaram anos servindo nosso país, temos fé que, como comandante-em-chefe, o presidente Obama irá fazer a coisa certa em responder a nosso pedido.
A carta passou a listar as seguintes exigências:
Que o presidente Obama retratar e se desculpar por observações feitas em abril de 2011, na qual ele disse Bradley Manning "violou a lei." Como o presidente Obama é o comandante-em-chefe, isso constitui a influência de comando ilegal, violando o artigo 37 do Código Uniforme de militar Justiça (UCMJ), Bradley e impede de receber um julgamento justo.
Que o presidente Obama perdão ao acusado delator, levando em consideração seus 800 dias de confinamento pré-julgamento. Tortura chefe da ONU Juan Mendez chamado de tratamento de Manning "cruel e desumano", já que incluía nove meses de confinamento solitário em Quantico, apesar psiquiatras Brig recomendando condições relaxado.
O Bradley Manning Support Network mantém a esperança de que a justiça vai prevalecer e que o presidente Obama pode ser o veículo de mudança sobre esta questão, mas primeiro ele precisa ouvir alto e claro de veteranos e civis de todo o país que o povo americano quer a reparação para o ilegal a tortura de Bradley Manning, e acredito que ele deve ser libertado.
Organizadores dos 16 ago ações da costa oeste estão agora pedindo outros para se juntar a eles em um esforço nacional para realizar ações em diversos escritórios de campanha mais locais de Obama em 6 de setembro, o dia do candidato discurso de aceitação de nomeação. Queremos compartilhar mensagens de apoio para Bradley, com escritórios de campanha de Obama, de costa a costa.
Entre em contato com emma@bradleymanning.org para mais informações sobre como participar e / ou organizar um evento.
DATA: quinta-feira 06 de setembro de 2012
TEMPO: (. Pessoas serão panfletagem no centro de cerca de 11:00 e vamos ficar até cerca de 17:00 para se juntar a nós a qualquer hora que puder para mostrar sua solidariedade) A partir de 02:00
LOCAL: Centro de Boston SEDE DE OBAMA EM RUA 77 DE VERÃO (perto da paragem de Downtown Crossing NA LINHA VERMELHA E LARANJA)
O Boston Smedley Butler Brigada e Samantha Capítulo-Veteranos pela Paz, o Boston Bradley Manning Support Network, Somerville Manning Praça Comitê e outros ativistas sociais e cidadãos preocupados apoiar o apelo pela Rede Nacional de Apoio Bradley Manning e outros em todo o país para reunir na sede Obama locais na quinta-feira 06 de setembro de 2012, o dia o presidente Obama está programado aceitar a nomeação do Partido Democrata do presidente, para pedir a liberdade de denúncia WikiLeaks alegada, Exército soldado de primeira classe Bradley Manning. Também será convidando o presidente a usar sua autoridade constitucional para perdoar Manning privados agora.
Contato: Pat Scanlon (VN 69 ')-Coordenador, VFP Capítulo 9, Smedley Butler Brigada patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com ou Al Johnson-Coordenador de Eventos -alfredjohnson34 @ comcast.net
GRÁTIS Bradley Manning-PRESIDENTE OBAMA PERDÃO Bradley Manning AGORA!
Confira nossa página do Facebook Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Suporte Rally-06 de setembro- http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally #! / BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th
Trabalho doado chamada para a ação em Obama 2.012 escritórios em todo o país 06 de setembro durante DNC O Bradley Manning Support Network, os afegãos Pela Paz e da Baía de SF Veteranos do Iraque Contra a Guerra Chamada para Ações de âmbito nacional em escritórios locais da campanha de Obama 6 de setembro de 2012 durante a Convenção Nacional Democrata! Bradley Manning livre!
Desde a prisão do Exército Bradley Manning PFC maio 2010 por supostamente compartilhando a "Assassinato Colateral" de vídeo e outras evidências de crimes de guerra e corrupção do governo com as WikiLeaks delator site, progressistas e ativistas de direitos humanos foram perguntando: "Por que não é presidente Obama entra para a ajudar Bradley? "
Afinal, foi o presidente Obama que maio 2011 declarou com relação a protestos no Oriente Médio,
"No século 21, a informação é poder, a verdade não pode ser escondida e a legitimidade dos governos vai depender cidadãos ativos e informados."
Na quinta-feira, 16 de agosto de veteranos militares dos EUA em Portland OR, CA Oakland e Los Angeles CA, ocuparam Obama 2.012 escritórios de campanha e enviado por fax uma carta de reivindicações para o escritório central da campanha de Obama. Essas cartas começou:
Como aqueles que passaram anos servindo nosso país, temos fé que, como comandante-em-chefe, o presidente Obama irá fazer a coisa certa em responder a nosso pedido.
A carta passou a listar as seguintes exigências:
Que o presidente Obama retratar e se desculpar por observações feitas em abril de 2011, na qual ele disse Bradley Manning "violou a lei." Como o presidente Obama é o comandante-em-chefe, isso constitui a influência de comando ilegal, violando o artigo 37 do Código Uniforme de militar Justiça (UCMJ), Bradley e impede de receber um julgamento justo.
Que o presidente Obama perdão ao acusado delator, levando em consideração seus 800 dias de confinamento pré-julgamento. Tortura chefe da ONU Juan Mendez chamado de tratamento de Manning "cruel e desumano", já que incluía nove meses de confinamento solitário em Quantico, apesar psiquiatras Brig recomendando condições relaxado.
O Bradley Manning Support Network mantém a esperança de que a justiça vai prevalecer e que o presidente Obama pode ser o veículo de mudança sobre esta questão, mas primeiro ele precisa ouvir alto e claro de veteranos e civis de todo o país que o povo americano quer a reparação para o ilegal a tortura de Bradley Manning, e acredito que ele deve ser libertado.
Organizadores dos 16 ago ações da costa oeste estão agora pedindo outros para se juntar a eles em um esforço nacional para realizar ações em diversos escritórios de campanha mais locais de Obama em 6 de setembro, o dia do candidato discurso de aceitação de nomeação. Queremos compartilhar mensagens de apoio para Bradley, com escritórios de campanha de Obama, de costa a costa.
Entre em contato com emma@bradleymanning.org para mais informações sobre como participar e / ou organizar um evento.
Rassemblement de soutien à ALLÉGUÉE WIKILEAKS DÉNONCIATION BRADLEY MANNING PRIVÉ AU CENTRE-VILLE DE BOSTON OBAMA Hdqtrs.
Rassemblement de soutien à ALLÉGUÉE WIKILEAKS DÉNONCIATION BRADLEY MANNING PRIVÉ AU CENTRE-VILLE DE BOSTON OBAMA Hdqtrs.
DATE: JEUDI 6 septembre 2012
HEURE: (. Personnes seront distribution de tracts du centre-ville d'environ 11:00 et nous y resterons jusqu'à environ 17h00 alors rejoignez-nous à tout moment vous pouvez montrer votre solidarité) À PARTIR DE 14h00
LIEU: CENTRE-VILLE DE BOSTON OBAMA SIÈGE à 77, rue SUMMER (près de l'arrêt Downtown Crossing SUR LES LIGNES ROUGES ET ORANGE)
Le Boston Smedley Butler brigade et Samantha Chapitre-Combattants pour la Paix, le Réseau de soutien Bradley Manning Boston, Somerville Manning Place Comité et d'autres militants sociaux et des citoyens intéressés soutenir l'appel lancé par le Réseau national de soutien Bradley Manning et d'autres pays à se rallier à Obama siège local le jeudi 6 Septembre 2012, jour où le Président Obama devrait accepter l'investiture du parti démocrate du président, d'appeler à la liberté de dénonciation WikiLeaks présumé, l'Armée soldat de première classe Bradley Manning. Nous allons également appeler le président à user de son pouvoir constitutionnel de gracier soldat Manning maintenant.
Personne-ressource: Pat Scanlon (VN 69 ')-coordonnateur, VFP chapitre 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com ou Al Johnson-Coordonnatrice des événements -alfredjohnson34 @ comcast.net
GRATUIT Bradley Manning-PRÉSIDENT OBAMA PARDON Bradley Manning MAINTENANT!
Visitez notre page Facebook-Downtown Boston Bradley Manning soutien de rallye-Septembre 6e http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally#!/ BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th
Travail bénévole Appel à l'action à Obama 2012 bureaux dans le pays pendant 6 septembre DNC Le Réseau Bradley Manning soutien, les Afghans pour la paix et SF Bay Vétérans d'Irak Contre la Guerre de l'appel pour des actions à l'échelle nationale des bureaux locaux de la campagne d'Obama le 6 septembre 2012 lors de la Convention nationale démocrate! Bradley Manning gratuit!
Depuis l'arrestation de l'Armée PFC Bradley Manning en mai 2010 pour avoir prétendument le partage de la «Assassiner Collateral" vidéo et autres preuves de crimes de guerre et la corruption gouvernementale avec le site Wikileaks dénonciateurs, les progressistes et les militants des droits humains ont demandé, "Pourquoi pas le Président Obama intervenir pour aider Bradley? "
Après tout, c'est le président Obama qui a déclaré mai 2011 en ce qui concerne les manifestations au Moyen-Orient,
«Au 21e siècle, l'information c'est le pouvoir, la vérité ne peut pas être cachée, et la légitimité des gouvernements dépendra en définitive de citoyens actifs et informés."
Jeudi, Août 16, États-Unis vétérans militaires à Portland OR, Oakland et Los Angeles CA, occupé les bureaux de campagne d'Obama en 2012 et a faxé une lettre de demande au bureau central de la campagne d'Obama. Ces lettres ont commencé:
Comme ceux qui ont passé des années à servir notre pays, nous avons la foi que commandant en chef, le président Obama fera la bonne chose à répondre à notre demande.
La lettre poursuit en énumérant les exigences suivantes:
Que le président Obama se rétracter et de s'excuser de propos tenus en Avril 2011, dans laquelle il a affirmé M. Bradley Manning "a enfreint la loi." Parce que le président Obama est le commandant en chef, ce qui constitue une influence ordre illégal, violant ainsi l'article 37 du Code uniforme de militaire Justice (UCMJ), et empêche Bradley bénéficié d'un procès équitable.
Que le pardon du président Obama à l'accusé dénonciateur, en tenant compte de ses 800 jours de détention préventive. Des Nations Unies torture chef Juan Mendez appelle le traitement de Manning "cruel et inhumain», comme on a inclus neuf mois d'isolement à Quantico en dépit psychiatres Brig recommandant des conditions détendues.
Le Réseau Bradley Manning support maintient l'espoir que la justice prévaudra et que le président Obama peut être le véhicule du changement sur cette question, mais d'abord il a besoin d'entendre haut et fort les anciens combattants et les civils dans tout le pays que le peuple américain veut réparer l'illégalité la torture de Bradley Manning, et je crois qu'il devrait être libéré.
Les organisateurs des 16 août actions de la côte Ouest sont maintenant exhortant les autres à se joindre à un effort national pour organiser des actions à beaucoup plus de bureaux locaux de campagne d'Obama le 6 Septembre, le jour du discours d'acceptation de candidature du candidat. Nous voulons partager des messages de soutien pour Bradley avec des bureaux de campagne d'Obama, d'un océan à l'autre.
S'il vous plaît contacter emma@bradleymanning.org pour plus d'informations à propos de présence et / ou l'organisation d'un événement.
DATE: JEUDI 6 septembre 2012
HEURE: (. Personnes seront distribution de tracts du centre-ville d'environ 11:00 et nous y resterons jusqu'à environ 17h00 alors rejoignez-nous à tout moment vous pouvez montrer votre solidarité) À PARTIR DE 14h00
LIEU: CENTRE-VILLE DE BOSTON OBAMA SIÈGE à 77, rue SUMMER (près de l'arrêt Downtown Crossing SUR LES LIGNES ROUGES ET ORANGE)
Le Boston Smedley Butler brigade et Samantha Chapitre-Combattants pour la Paix, le Réseau de soutien Bradley Manning Boston, Somerville Manning Place Comité et d'autres militants sociaux et des citoyens intéressés soutenir l'appel lancé par le Réseau national de soutien Bradley Manning et d'autres pays à se rallier à Obama siège local le jeudi 6 Septembre 2012, jour où le Président Obama devrait accepter l'investiture du parti démocrate du président, d'appeler à la liberté de dénonciation WikiLeaks présumé, l'Armée soldat de première classe Bradley Manning. Nous allons également appeler le président à user de son pouvoir constitutionnel de gracier soldat Manning maintenant.
Personne-ressource: Pat Scanlon (VN 69 ')-coordonnateur, VFP chapitre 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com ou Al Johnson-Coordonnatrice des événements -alfredjohnson34 @ comcast.net
GRATUIT Bradley Manning-PRÉSIDENT OBAMA PARDON Bradley Manning MAINTENANT!
Visitez notre page Facebook-Downtown Boston Bradley Manning soutien de rallye-Septembre 6e http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally#!/ BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th
Travail bénévole Appel à l'action à Obama 2012 bureaux dans le pays pendant 6 septembre DNC Le Réseau Bradley Manning soutien, les Afghans pour la paix et SF Bay Vétérans d'Irak Contre la Guerre de l'appel pour des actions à l'échelle nationale des bureaux locaux de la campagne d'Obama le 6 septembre 2012 lors de la Convention nationale démocrate! Bradley Manning gratuit!
Depuis l'arrestation de l'Armée PFC Bradley Manning en mai 2010 pour avoir prétendument le partage de la «Assassiner Collateral" vidéo et autres preuves de crimes de guerre et la corruption gouvernementale avec le site Wikileaks dénonciateurs, les progressistes et les militants des droits humains ont demandé, "Pourquoi pas le Président Obama intervenir pour aider Bradley? "
Après tout, c'est le président Obama qui a déclaré mai 2011 en ce qui concerne les manifestations au Moyen-Orient,
«Au 21e siècle, l'information c'est le pouvoir, la vérité ne peut pas être cachée, et la légitimité des gouvernements dépendra en définitive de citoyens actifs et informés."
Jeudi, Août 16, États-Unis vétérans militaires à Portland OR, Oakland et Los Angeles CA, occupé les bureaux de campagne d'Obama en 2012 et a faxé une lettre de demande au bureau central de la campagne d'Obama. Ces lettres ont commencé:
Comme ceux qui ont passé des années à servir notre pays, nous avons la foi que commandant en chef, le président Obama fera la bonne chose à répondre à notre demande.
La lettre poursuit en énumérant les exigences suivantes:
Que le président Obama se rétracter et de s'excuser de propos tenus en Avril 2011, dans laquelle il a affirmé M. Bradley Manning "a enfreint la loi." Parce que le président Obama est le commandant en chef, ce qui constitue une influence ordre illégal, violant ainsi l'article 37 du Code uniforme de militaire Justice (UCMJ), et empêche Bradley bénéficié d'un procès équitable.
Que le pardon du président Obama à l'accusé dénonciateur, en tenant compte de ses 800 jours de détention préventive. Des Nations Unies torture chef Juan Mendez appelle le traitement de Manning "cruel et inhumain», comme on a inclus neuf mois d'isolement à Quantico en dépit psychiatres Brig recommandant des conditions détendues.
Le Réseau Bradley Manning support maintient l'espoir que la justice prévaudra et que le président Obama peut être le véhicule du changement sur cette question, mais d'abord il a besoin d'entendre haut et fort les anciens combattants et les civils dans tout le pays que le peuple américain veut réparer l'illégalité la torture de Bradley Manning, et je crois qu'il devrait être libéré.
Les organisateurs des 16 août actions de la côte Ouest sont maintenant exhortant les autres à se joindre à un effort national pour organiser des actions à beaucoup plus de bureaux locaux de campagne d'Obama le 6 Septembre, le jour du discours d'acceptation de candidature du candidat. Nous voulons partager des messages de soutien pour Bradley avec des bureaux de campagne d'Obama, d'un océan à l'autre.
S'il vous plaît contacter emma@bradleymanning.org pour plus d'informations à propos de présence et / ou l'organisation d'un événement.
RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
DATE: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
TIME: STARTING AT 2:00 PM (People will be leafleting downtown from about 11:00 AM and we will stay until about 5:00 PM so join us anytime you can to show your solidarity.)
PLACE: DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HEADQUARTERS AT 77 SUMMER STREET (NEAR THE DOWNTOWN CROSSING STOP ON THE RED AND ORANGE LINES)
The Boston Smedley Butler Brigade and Samantha Chapter- Veterans for Peace, the Boston Bradley Manning Support Network , Somerville Manning Square Committee and other social activists and concerned citizens support the call by the National Bradley Manning Support Network and others to rally nationwide at local Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6, 2012, the day President Obama is scheduled accept the Democratic Party nomination of president, to call for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. We also will be calling on the president to use his constitutional authority to pardon Private Manning now.
Contact: Pat Scanlon (VN 69’)-Coordinator, VFP Chapter 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com or Al Johnson-Event Coordinator -alfredjohnson34@comcast.net
FREE BRADLEY MANNING-PRESIDENT OBAMA PARDON BRADLEY MANNING NOW!
Check our Facebook event page –Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support Rally-September 6th-
http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th#!/events/439879979398064/
Labor donated
Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC
The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!
Since Army PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the “Collateral Murder” video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, “Why isn’t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?”
After all, it was President Obama who in May 2011 declared with regards to protests in the Middle East,
“In the 21st Century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens.”
On Thursday, August 16, US military veterans in Portland OR, Oakland CA, and Los Angeles CA, occupied Obama 2012 campaign offices and faxed a letter of demands to the Obama campaign’s central office. Those letters began:
As those who have spent years serving our country, we have faith that as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama will do the right thing in answering our request.
The letter went on to list the following demands:
That President Obama retract and apologize for remarks made in April 2011, in which he said Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Because President Obama is commander-in-chief, this constitutes unlawful command influence, violating Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and prevents Bradley from receiving a fair trial.
That President Obama pardon the accused whistle-blower, taking into consideration his 800 days of pretrial confinement. UN torture chief Juan Mendez called Manning’s treatment “cruel and inhuman,” as it included nine months of solitary confinement at Quantico despite Brig psychiatrists recommending relaxed conditions.
The Bradley Manning Support Network maintains hope that justice will prevail and that President Obama can be the vehicle of change on this issue, but first he needs to hear loud and clear from veterans and civilians across the country that the American people want amends for the unlawful torture of Bradley Manning, and believe he should be freed.
Organizers of the August 16 West Coast actions are now urging others to join them in a nationwide effort to hold actions at many more local Obama campaign offices on September 6th, the day of candidate’s nomination acceptance speech. We want to share messages of support for Bradley with Obama campaign offices from coast to coast.
Please contact emma@bradleymanning.org for more information about attending and/or organizing an event.
DATE: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
TIME: STARTING AT 2:00 PM (People will be leafleting downtown from about 11:00 AM and we will stay until about 5:00 PM so join us anytime you can to show your solidarity.)
PLACE: DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HEADQUARTERS AT 77 SUMMER STREET (NEAR THE DOWNTOWN CROSSING STOP ON THE RED AND ORANGE LINES)
The Boston Smedley Butler Brigade and Samantha Chapter- Veterans for Peace, the Boston Bradley Manning Support Network , Somerville Manning Square Committee and other social activists and concerned citizens support the call by the National Bradley Manning Support Network and others to rally nationwide at local Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6, 2012, the day President Obama is scheduled accept the Democratic Party nomination of president, to call for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. We also will be calling on the president to use his constitutional authority to pardon Private Manning now.
Contact: Pat Scanlon (VN 69’)-Coordinator, VFP Chapter 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com or Al Johnson-Event Coordinator -alfredjohnson34@comcast.net
FREE BRADLEY MANNING-PRESIDENT OBAMA PARDON BRADLEY MANNING NOW!
Check our Facebook event page –Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support Rally-September 6th-
http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th#!/events/439879979398064/
Labor donated
Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC
The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!
Since Army PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the “Collateral Murder” video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, “Why isn’t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?”
After all, it was President Obama who in May 2011 declared with regards to protests in the Middle East,
“In the 21st Century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens.”
On Thursday, August 16, US military veterans in Portland OR, Oakland CA, and Los Angeles CA, occupied Obama 2012 campaign offices and faxed a letter of demands to the Obama campaign’s central office. Those letters began:
As those who have spent years serving our country, we have faith that as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama will do the right thing in answering our request.
The letter went on to list the following demands:
That President Obama retract and apologize for remarks made in April 2011, in which he said Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Because President Obama is commander-in-chief, this constitutes unlawful command influence, violating Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and prevents Bradley from receiving a fair trial.
That President Obama pardon the accused whistle-blower, taking into consideration his 800 days of pretrial confinement. UN torture chief Juan Mendez called Manning’s treatment “cruel and inhuman,” as it included nine months of solitary confinement at Quantico despite Brig psychiatrists recommending relaxed conditions.
The Bradley Manning Support Network maintains hope that justice will prevail and that President Obama can be the vehicle of change on this issue, but first he needs to hear loud and clear from veterans and civilians across the country that the American people want amends for the unlawful torture of Bradley Manning, and believe he should be freed.
Organizers of the August 16 West Coast actions are now urging others to join them in a nationwide effort to hold actions at many more local Obama campaign offices on September 6th, the day of candidate’s nomination acceptance speech. We want to share messages of support for Bradley with Obama campaign offices from coast to coast.
Please contact emma@bradleymanning.org for more information about attending and/or organizing an event.
From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin -The Songs Of The Pre-Rock Fifties-They Shoot Record Players, Don’t They? -
I am a child of rock ‘n’ roll, no question. And I have filled up many sketches in my notebooks with plenty of material about my likes and dislikes from the classic period of that genre, the mid-1950s, when we first heard that different jail-break beat, a beat our parents could not “hear,” as we of the generation of ’68 earned our spurs and started that long teenage angst and alienation process of going our own way. Still, as much as we were determined to have our own music on our own terms, wafting through every household, every household that had a radio in the background, and more importantly, had the emerging sounds from television in it was our parents’ music- the music, mainly of the surviving the Great Depression (the 1930s one not the one we are in now in 2012) and fighting (or frantically waiting at home for news) World War II period. And that is what Lena Horne’s Stormy Weather evokes in these ears as I write this sketch. Or click above in contrast and listen to Dinah Washington (apologies, okay Ms. D.) vanilla kitten croon (nice, huh) What A Difference A Day Makes.
In an earlier piece noted that some the World War II era music “spoke” to me, or at least it did not offend my ear (especially a classic like Lena Horne on Stormy Weather). Some later stuff, however, as it intersected my generation’s jail-breakout rock beat, or should I say interfered with that breakout, is something else again. This material was nothing but a rearguard action, for the most part, to keep everything quiet, to be nice and, to hope, hope to high heaven that they (and you know, if you are of a certain age, who the “they” were) didn’t drop the bomb and ruin a Saturday chaste date. The cover art featured on one such compilation had a boy and girl sitting dreamily in a car (maybe dad’s, maybe in discretionary dollars new teen America, his own, but his, one way or another) looking out at the expanse says it all. This ain’t some reckless little rock ‘n’ roll scene, not even sweet, beatified be-bop. This is the music of older, "square" brothers and sisters caught in between “jump” forties and “rock” mid-fifties.
It is almost impossible to do anything with certain songs except draw and quarter them and make apologies to someone like Tony Bennett who actually did some better stuff later but here is all I can even come close to advising anyone under the age of one hundred (today) to hear:
Memories Are Made Of This, Dean Martin (martini, or whatever, in hand, Dino ain’t rocking, he’ll leave that for his son); Just In Time, Tony Bennett (already noted above); What A Difference A Day Makes, Dinah Washington (Jesus, what is a serious, be-bop jazz singer, “torch” too, and with great phrasing doing in this thing-except to prove my overall point as the exception).
From The Pen Of Peter Paul Markin- From The Boyos- The Songs Of The Dubliners
Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of the Dubliners performing Raglan Road.
Since my youth I have had an ear for roots music, whether I was conscious of that fact or not. The original of that interest first centered on the blues, then early rock and roll and later, with the folk revival of the early 1960’s, folk music. I have often wondered about the source of this interest. I am, and have always been a city boy, and an Eastern city boy at that. Nevertheless, over time I have come to appreciate many more forms of roots music than in my youth. The subject of the following review, The Dubliners, is an example.
In a sense it would seem that the source of my interest in the Dubliners would be apparent. My mother’s people came over from Ireland to America on the famine ships in the 1840’s. Not so, in my youth the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Machem were all that I would listen to for Irish, and particularly Irish political, songs. The Dubliners were a later acquired taste as I delved more into Irish history several years ago. I believe that the Dubliners were a little better musically than the Clancys (and Tommy too) and certainly Luke Kelly added much with his deep whiskey-sodden voice to any song he leads.
Politically (and culturally), both groups cover many of the same songs- from traditional Croppy Boy, Boys of Wexford types to the songs of the Easter Uprising in 1916. The Dubliners, probably because they were based in and stayed in Ireland, have a bigger selection of songs reflecting the more current struggles for liberation up in the north. In short, the Dubliners measure up to my youthful standards for Irish political music. If you just want good old Irish sentimental material or party/bar music they have plenty of that too. Check out their A Pub With No Beer or Finnegan’s Wake.
Since my youth I have had an ear for roots music, whether I was conscious of that fact or not. The original of that interest first centered on the blues, then early rock and roll and later, with the folk revival of the early 1960’s, folk music. I have often wondered about the source of this interest. I am, and have always been a city boy, and an Eastern city boy at that. Nevertheless, over time I have come to appreciate many more forms of roots music than in my youth. The subject of the following review, The Dubliners, is an example.
In a sense it would seem that the source of my interest in the Dubliners would be apparent. My mother’s people came over from Ireland to America on the famine ships in the 1840’s. Not so, in my youth the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Machem were all that I would listen to for Irish, and particularly Irish political, songs. The Dubliners were a later acquired taste as I delved more into Irish history several years ago. I believe that the Dubliners were a little better musically than the Clancys (and Tommy too) and certainly Luke Kelly added much with his deep whiskey-sodden voice to any song he leads.
Politically (and culturally), both groups cover many of the same songs- from traditional Croppy Boy, Boys of Wexford types to the songs of the Easter Uprising in 1916. The Dubliners, probably because they were based in and stayed in Ireland, have a bigger selection of songs reflecting the more current struggles for liberation up in the north. In short, the Dubliners measure up to my youthful standards for Irish political music. If you just want good old Irish sentimental material or party/bar music they have plenty of that too. Check out their A Pub With No Beer or Finnegan’s Wake.
From the Pen Of Peter Paul Markin- Will The Circle Be Unbroken- The Songs Of The Carter Family
Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of the Carter Family performing the old-time Under The Weeping Willow Tree.
In my jaded youth I developed an ear for roots music, whether I was conscious of that fact or not. The origin of that interest first centered on the blues, country and city with the likes of Son House , Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James. Then early rock and roll, you know the rockabillies and R&B crowd, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Roy, Big Joe and Ike, and later, with the folk revival of the early 1960’s, folk music, especially the protest to high heaven sort, Bob Dylan, Dave Von Ronk, Joan Baez, etc.
I have often wondered about the source of this interest. I am, and have always been a city boy, and an Eastern city boy at that. Meaning rootless or not meaningfully rooted in any of the niches mentioned above, or others. Nevertheless, over time I have come to appreciate many more forms of roots music than in my youth. Cajun, Tex-Mex, old time dust bowl ballads a la Woody Guthrie, cowboy stuff with the likes of Bob Wills and Milton Brown, Carter Family-etched mountain music and so on. The subject of the following review, The Carter Family, and their influence on mountain music is an example.
With the relatively recent spate of mountain music films, George Clooney’s Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Song-catcher and the Johnny Cash movie biography Walk The Line the Carter Family has again come into greater public prominence. And rightly so. The original trio (A.P., Ruth, May belle) performed simple country (or better rural) music mainly composed by A.P. Carter that evoked, if not a simpler time, then in any case, a simpler type of music. While I cannot listen endlessly to such music at one sitting about one-half a CD at a time works. Why not the whole CD? There is a very similar melody and guitar line to their work in most songs. The value of each song sometimes gets lost in the basic repetition.
A note on subject matter- The bulk of the songs concern home, hearth lovesickness, the vagaries of nature (god’s nature) and religion as might be expected from mountain people (and not just mountain people come to think of it). And that is okay. This reviewer, although not a religious man, can appreciate the simple, fundamentalist but very personal religion evoked here. The god evoked against hard times, hard struggle and righteousness against a seemingly intractable land and forward, ever forward. Not to romanticize the simple rural folk of the past but I do not believe that the religious sentiments expressed in old time mountain music are the same as those of religious fundamentalists today who want to ram a theocracy down our throats in the United States today. Those were people awestruck by the tasks before them and did not need to be “born again” (or see every last citizen in that condition) to appreciate that burden.
In my jaded youth I developed an ear for roots music, whether I was conscious of that fact or not. The origin of that interest first centered on the blues, country and city with the likes of Son House , Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James. Then early rock and roll, you know the rockabillies and R&B crowd, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Roy, Big Joe and Ike, and later, with the folk revival of the early 1960’s, folk music, especially the protest to high heaven sort, Bob Dylan, Dave Von Ronk, Joan Baez, etc.
I have often wondered about the source of this interest. I am, and have always been a city boy, and an Eastern city boy at that. Meaning rootless or not meaningfully rooted in any of the niches mentioned above, or others. Nevertheless, over time I have come to appreciate many more forms of roots music than in my youth. Cajun, Tex-Mex, old time dust bowl ballads a la Woody Guthrie, cowboy stuff with the likes of Bob Wills and Milton Brown, Carter Family-etched mountain music and so on. The subject of the following review, The Carter Family, and their influence on mountain music is an example.
With the relatively recent spate of mountain music films, George Clooney’s Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Song-catcher and the Johnny Cash movie biography Walk The Line the Carter Family has again come into greater public prominence. And rightly so. The original trio (A.P., Ruth, May belle) performed simple country (or better rural) music mainly composed by A.P. Carter that evoked, if not a simpler time, then in any case, a simpler type of music. While I cannot listen endlessly to such music at one sitting about one-half a CD at a time works. Why not the whole CD? There is a very similar melody and guitar line to their work in most songs. The value of each song sometimes gets lost in the basic repetition.
A note on subject matter- The bulk of the songs concern home, hearth lovesickness, the vagaries of nature (god’s nature) and religion as might be expected from mountain people (and not just mountain people come to think of it). And that is okay. This reviewer, although not a religious man, can appreciate the simple, fundamentalist but very personal religion evoked here. The god evoked against hard times, hard struggle and righteousness against a seemingly intractable land and forward, ever forward. Not to romanticize the simple rural folk of the past but I do not believe that the religious sentiments expressed in old time mountain music are the same as those of religious fundamentalists today who want to ram a theocracy down our throats in the United States today. Those were people awestruck by the tasks before them and did not need to be “born again” (or see every last citizen in that condition) to appreciate that burden.
Houston Janitors Strike for Economic Justice
Houston Janitors Strike for Economic Justice
by Mark Vorpahl
Email: info (nospam) workerscompass.org (verified)
27 Jul 2012
Echoing the story of David vs. Goliath, janitors in Houston are on strike and taking on such corporate giants as JPMorganChase and Exxon Mobile in an effort to pressure the janitorial companies they employ to agree to the workers' modest demands. It is these big business behemoths that are the real powers behind cleaning contractors such as ABM, GCA, ISS etc. By striking against these contractors, and publicly targeting these contractors' employers, the janitors are using their collective power in a showdown that has great significance for not only the Labor Movement but all workers.
The janitors are members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, which has a membership of 3,200 in Houston. Currently, these workers' wages top out at $8.35 per hour. On average, they make under $9,000 a year. The government defines the poverty line as an income of $22,314 for a family of four and $11,139 for an individual.
The janitors are asking for a $10.00 per hour starting wage. In response, the contractors offered a combined 50 cents an hour raise over the course of a five-year contract. With the growing cost of living over this time, these workers would sink even further into poverty if they accepted this. The contractors' proposal was nothing more than an insult.
Not content with merely insulting their employees, the contractors began to back up their position with injury. The janitors were subject to captive audience meetings where their jobs were threatened if they participated in union activity. Management warned that they would call for an immigration audit if the employees didn't quiet down. In addition, they also withheld paychecks of some union supporters. In all, 13 Unfair Labor Practices have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Union contract expired on May 31st. The janitors held a series of rallies and one-day work stoppages in order to convince management that they meant business. However, because these actions did not seriously impact the contractors' profits, they did not feel compelled to move. Consequently, the membership of SEIU Local 1 had no choice but vote to go on strike.
There are two features of this strike that make it exceptional.
One is how it highlights the growing inequality that exists in this nation and the need to fight it. Houston leads the nation in the growth of the number of millionaires. The companies targeted by the strike in its public campaign are some of the main players in the big business elite. On the other hand, not even the most rabid right-wing pro-corporate media can effectively portray the janitors as greedy unionists. This strike has the potential to tap into a growing discontent in the U.S. over inequality that helped launch Occupy as well as the Madison, Wisconsin Capital occupation in 2011.
The other exceptional feature of this struggle is the use of work stoppages and rallies nationally in solidarity with the Houston janitors. Solidarity strikes was one of the tactics employed by the CIO in the 1930s that propelled its rapid growth. Because of this tactic's effectiveness, it was outlawed in 1947 with the bi-partisan passage of the Taft-Hartley Act.
To get around the rigged rules of this slave labor law, many SEIU janitorial contracts have a "conscience clause." This clause enables janitors to refuse to cross a picket line at their work place without fear of penalty. As a result, picket lines have been set up in several cities at work sites that employ SEIU janitors, elevating the economic impact on the contractors, who are in Houston, to a national scale.
These contractors and their corporate employers are organized to pursue profits across the U.S. These profits are the only thing they care about. While they can more easily handle a strike isolated in one city, the nationwide solidarity work stoppage tactic employed by SEIU is much more difficult for them to deal with. If the bosses refuse to budge, it will be necessary to escalate this tactic further.
By highlighting the issue of inequality and countering the contractors with a nationwide response that uses work stoppages, SEIU is challenging the limits of the corporate political machine. It will be necessary to break these boundaries for Houston’s janitors, and all workers, to decisively win.
Currently, some Democratic politicians, such as Vice President Joe Biden, have voiced support for the strike. Given the massive funding both parties receive from Wall Street and the resulting pro-corporate policies they pursue, there should be no surprise that they either neglect or attack the issues of most importance to workers, so that such fine speeches like Biden’s have the appearance of cynical electioneering.
SEIU, and the unions in general, will not find a national voice by getting a seat at the table with these politicians who ignore or attempt to bind the membership's struggles. Instead Labor must devote its resources towards empowering its own members to fight for their own needs, without fear of offending the politicians, and create a social movement that speaks for all workers.
The demands that the Houston SEIU janitors are putting forward are extremely modest. However, their actions and organizing are growing more bold. They are already providing an example of greater struggles for economic justice in the near future.
For more information and to support the strike go to http://www.seiu1.org/
More info about this article at www.workerscompass.org
((((((((((((((((
by Mark Vorpahl
Email: info (nospam) workerscompass.org (verified)
27 Jul 2012
Echoing the story of David vs. Goliath, janitors in Houston are on strike and taking on such corporate giants as JPMorganChase and Exxon Mobile in an effort to pressure the janitorial companies they employ to agree to the workers' modest demands. It is these big business behemoths that are the real powers behind cleaning contractors such as ABM, GCA, ISS etc. By striking against these contractors, and publicly targeting these contractors' employers, the janitors are using their collective power in a showdown that has great significance for not only the Labor Movement but all workers.
The janitors are members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, which has a membership of 3,200 in Houston. Currently, these workers' wages top out at $8.35 per hour. On average, they make under $9,000 a year. The government defines the poverty line as an income of $22,314 for a family of four and $11,139 for an individual.
The janitors are asking for a $10.00 per hour starting wage. In response, the contractors offered a combined 50 cents an hour raise over the course of a five-year contract. With the growing cost of living over this time, these workers would sink even further into poverty if they accepted this. The contractors' proposal was nothing more than an insult.
Not content with merely insulting their employees, the contractors began to back up their position with injury. The janitors were subject to captive audience meetings where their jobs were threatened if they participated in union activity. Management warned that they would call for an immigration audit if the employees didn't quiet down. In addition, they also withheld paychecks of some union supporters. In all, 13 Unfair Labor Practices have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Union contract expired on May 31st. The janitors held a series of rallies and one-day work stoppages in order to convince management that they meant business. However, because these actions did not seriously impact the contractors' profits, they did not feel compelled to move. Consequently, the membership of SEIU Local 1 had no choice but vote to go on strike.
There are two features of this strike that make it exceptional.
One is how it highlights the growing inequality that exists in this nation and the need to fight it. Houston leads the nation in the growth of the number of millionaires. The companies targeted by the strike in its public campaign are some of the main players in the big business elite. On the other hand, not even the most rabid right-wing pro-corporate media can effectively portray the janitors as greedy unionists. This strike has the potential to tap into a growing discontent in the U.S. over inequality that helped launch Occupy as well as the Madison, Wisconsin Capital occupation in 2011.
The other exceptional feature of this struggle is the use of work stoppages and rallies nationally in solidarity with the Houston janitors. Solidarity strikes was one of the tactics employed by the CIO in the 1930s that propelled its rapid growth. Because of this tactic's effectiveness, it was outlawed in 1947 with the bi-partisan passage of the Taft-Hartley Act.
To get around the rigged rules of this slave labor law, many SEIU janitorial contracts have a "conscience clause." This clause enables janitors to refuse to cross a picket line at their work place without fear of penalty. As a result, picket lines have been set up in several cities at work sites that employ SEIU janitors, elevating the economic impact on the contractors, who are in Houston, to a national scale.
These contractors and their corporate employers are organized to pursue profits across the U.S. These profits are the only thing they care about. While they can more easily handle a strike isolated in one city, the nationwide solidarity work stoppage tactic employed by SEIU is much more difficult for them to deal with. If the bosses refuse to budge, it will be necessary to escalate this tactic further.
By highlighting the issue of inequality and countering the contractors with a nationwide response that uses work stoppages, SEIU is challenging the limits of the corporate political machine. It will be necessary to break these boundaries for Houston’s janitors, and all workers, to decisively win.
Currently, some Democratic politicians, such as Vice President Joe Biden, have voiced support for the strike. Given the massive funding both parties receive from Wall Street and the resulting pro-corporate policies they pursue, there should be no surprise that they either neglect or attack the issues of most importance to workers, so that such fine speeches like Biden’s have the appearance of cynical electioneering.
SEIU, and the unions in general, will not find a national voice by getting a seat at the table with these politicians who ignore or attempt to bind the membership's struggles. Instead Labor must devote its resources towards empowering its own members to fight for their own needs, without fear of offending the politicians, and create a social movement that speaks for all workers.
The demands that the Houston SEIU janitors are putting forward are extremely modest. However, their actions and organizing are growing more bold. They are already providing an example of greater struggles for economic justice in the near future.
For more information and to support the strike go to http://www.seiu1.org/
More info about this article at www.workerscompass.org
((((((((((((((((
Taxing the Rich and Its “Left” Critics -A Polemic
Markin comment:
I place some material in this space which may be of interest to the radical public that I do not necessarily agree with or support. Off hand, as I have mentioned before, I think it would be easier, infinitely easier, to fight for the socialist revolution straight up than some of the “remedies” provided by the commentators in these entries. But part of that struggle for the socialist revolution is to sort out the “real” stuff from the fluff as we struggle for that more just world that animates our efforts.
**********
Taxing the Rich and Its “Left” Critics
by Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
28 Jul 2012
In a recent article published on the website of Socialist Viewpoint, Chris Kinder criticized those on the left who call for raising taxes on the rich. Identifying himself as a Trotskyist, Mr. Kinder displayed particular displeasure with Trotskyists who embrace this demand. Yet, as we will argue, his arguments fundamentally deviate from the political-strategic framework established by Marx and Engels and developed by Lenin and Trotsky.
“‘Tax the rich’ is far from a transitional demand,” Mr. Kinder argued and added: “Demanding taxation of the rich presumes the continued existence of the rich! But revolutionists seek to expropriate the rich capitalists as a precursor to creating an egalitarian, socialist society.”
This argument was further developed when he added: “Furthermore, ‘tax the rich,’ by presuming the continued existence of the exploiter class, cuts off any avenue to being a ‘bridge’ to a revolutionary program. As Trotsky explained in The Death Agony of Capitalism..., a transitional demand should help the masses to ‘find the bridge between present demands and the socialist program of the revolution.’”
Mr. Kinder continues his critique by noting that taxing the rich has been promoted by liberals, and, unlike transitional demands, can be won within the framework of capitalism. By improving the lot of the working class it can then defuse their revolutionary impulses.
He also argues that “it’s not a particularly internationalist demand,” since it would only benefit the workers of a particular country.
In place of calling for increasing taxes on the rich, Mr. Kinder offers this substitute: “…the immediate, and transitional, demand must be to expropriate the big banks and financial houses, with no compensation of course, and including no disruption of private individual and small business deposits. Immediately seize all assets, and return them to their proper owners. That means abolition of the mortgage debt owned by the expropriated banks and investors.”
If creating a revolutionary movement simply amounted to broadcasting transitional slogans to workers regardless of the level of consciousness of these workers, then Mr. Kinder’s approach might have some merit. But as Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky all emphasized, revolutionary politics rejects this approach and instead insist that revolutionaries raise demands that resonate with the working class or organize around demands that the workers themselves have raised. In this way workers become engaged, active, and in a position to learn from the dynamics of class struggle.
Let us begin by pointing out that taxing the rich does indeed have a long history, but in reviewing that history Mr. Kinder failed to mention that it was one of Marx’s and Engels’ ten transitional demands in the Manifesto of the Communist Party. They called for “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax,” which means exactly the same as “taxing the rich.”
In 1937, in an introduction to the Communist Manifesto, Trotsky commented on these transitional demands: “Calculated for a revolutionary epoch, the Manifesto contains…ten demands, corresponding to the period of direct transition from capitalism to socialism. In their Preface of 1872, Marx and Engels declared these demands to be in part antiquated, and, in any case, only of secondary importance. The reformists seized upon this evaluation to interpret it in the sense that transitional revolutionary demands had forever ceded their place to the social-democratic ‘minimum program,’ which, as is well known, does not transcend the limits of bourgeois democracy. As a matter of fact, the authors of the Manifesto indicated quite precisely the main correction of their transitional program, namely, ‘the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.’ In other words, the correction was directed against the fetishism of bourgeois democracy. Marx later counterposed to the capitalist state, the state of the type of the (Paris) Commune (1871). This ‘type’ subsequently assumed the much more graphic shape of Soviets. There cannot be a revolutionary program today without Soviets and without workers’ control. As for the rest, the ten demands of the Manifesto, which appeared ‘archaic’ in an epoch of peaceful parliamentary activity, have today regained completely their true significance. The social-democratic ‘minimum program,’ on the other hand, has become hopelessly antiquated.”
In other words, Trotsky endorsed taxing the rich as a transitional demand, and thus Mr. Kinder has unwittingly deviated from those he claims to follow.
Mr. Kinder has committed the kind of error that is frequently committed by beginners in Marxist revolutionary politics. They engage in an abstract, undialectical approach by reducing Marxism to a few doctrinaire slogans that they apply to every situation. Mr. Kinder, for example, takes slogans from Trotsky that were aimed at a class conscious and frequently revolutionary-minded working class in the 1930s. He then applies these same slogans to the current U.S. working class that is fragmented, lacks class consciousness, and is far from revolutionary. This beginners’ approach is both a reflection of their isolation from the working class with its day-to-day struggles as well as a barrier that separates them from the working class.
If one applied Mr. Kinder’s logic to cases where workers were fighting for a wage increase at work, one would be forced to condemn the struggle because wage increases can be won while capitalism remains intact, it is not a transitional demand, and it certainly benefits only a limited section of the working class while leaving the international working class no better off than before. Those who adopt Mr. Kinder’s logic typically are uninvolved with the day-to-day struggles of the working class and hence are not in a position to lead these struggles in a revolutionary direction.
Marxists have always wrestled with the problem of how to imbue the working class with a revolutionary consciousness, given that workers can fall into reformism, apathy, or demoralization. In his strategic essay, “What Next?” (1932), Trotsky confronted this problem by outlining the indispensable role of the united front in developing a revolutionary outlook among workers. In the course of his discussion he made many points that indicate a far more complicated framework than Mr. Kinder’s, a framework forged by Trotsky in the course of constant engagement in working class battles, both large and small. Here are some key passages that Mr. Kinder would have difficulty incorporating into his own two-dimensional framework.
“And so, ten years ago, the Comintern explained that the gist of the united-front policy was in the following: the Communist Party proves to the masses and their organizations its readiness in action to wage battle in common with them for aims, no matter how modest [emphasis added], so long as they lie on the road of the historical development of the proletariat; the Communist Party in this struggle takes into account the actual condition of the class at each given moment [emphasis added]; it turns not only to the masses, but also to those organizations whose leadership is recognized by the masses; it confronts the reformist organizations before the eyes of the masses with the real problems of the class struggle.”
Slightly later he adds, and this is particularly relevant to Mr. Kinder: “The mistakes made in the policy of the united front fall into two categories. In most cases the leading organs of the Communist Party approached the reformists with an offer to join in a common struggle for radical slogans which were alien to the situation and which found no response in the masses.”
Earlier Trotsky quoted from one of his earlier documents: “In these clashes — insofar as they involve the vital interests of the entire working class, or its majority, or this or that section — the working masses sense the need of unity in action…. Any party which mechanically counterposes itself to this need … will unfailingly be condemned in the minds of the workers…. For those who do not understand this task, the party is only a propaganda society and not an organization for mass action.”
And even still earlier Trotsky noted: “To fight, the proletariat must have unity in its ranks. This holds true for partial economic conflicts, within the walls of a single factory, as well as for such ‘national’ political battles as the one to repel fascism. Consequently the tactic of the united front is not something accidental and artificial — a cunning maneuver — not at all; it originates, entirely and wholly, in the objective conditions governing the development of the proletariat. The words in the Communist Manifesto which state that the Communists are not to be opposed to the proletariat, that they have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole, carry with them the meaning that the struggle of the party to win over the majority of the class must in no instance come into opposition with the need of the workers to keep unity within their fighting ranks.”
From the same essay Trotsky cites Lenin’s approach: “Shortly after that Lenin arrived from abroad, and he raked the ultimatists over the coals mercilessly. ‘You can’t,’ he lectured them, ‘nor can anyone else by means of ultimatums force the masses to skip the necessary phases of their own political development.’”
“Instead of monotonously repeating the same ready-made formulas before one and the same audience, it [a revolutionary party] would be enabled to set new strata into motion, to teach them through actual experience, to steel them, and to strengthen its hegemony among the working class.”
The comments above are crucial on several grounds. First, they indicate that Trotsky’s highest priority was to engage massive numbers of workers in class struggle where they learn from the own experiences the nature of capitalist society, its antagonistic class relations, and the role of the state in supporting the ruling class. “Mass actions,” he insisted “[were] the highest form of class struggle….” Even though workers initially might only be willing to fight for “modest” reforms, the education they derive from their battle experience often far exceeds theoretical study. Under conditions of battle, workers begin to develop a strong sense of camaraderie with one another, which is an incipient form of class consciousness. They see more clearly that the boss is their direct enemy, they watch the local or federal government and the media rush to provide support to the bosses and are consequently far from neutral or objective. Most importantly, if the workers win, they begin to sense the tremendous power they can wield when they act in solidarity and unity with one another. This sense of power can then quickly lead to workers eager to return to the battlefield to rack up even bigger victories. Eventually this logic can lead the working class to the realization that reforms are insufficient and only the replacement of capitalism by socialism will satisfactorily address their grievances. Consequently, the struggle for reforms can harbor all sorts of dialectical implications that lead the working class to a more revolutionary outlook.
In “The Belgian Dispute and the De Man Plan” (1935) Trotsky returned to the importance of engaging workers in struggle, this time leaning on Engels for support. “Engels never tired of repeating that Marxism is not an academic doctrine or a sectarian profession of faith but an instrument for systematic work among the masses.” And in the same essay Trotsky quoted Engels as saying: “It demonstrates how very useless a platform that is largely theoretically correct can be, if it does not know how to link itself with the real needs of the masses.”
But this emphasis on engaging the masses in struggle means, secondly, the set of demands appropriate for one set of workers might not coincide with the demands that could activate another set of workers.
For example, when “The Death Agony of Capitalism” in the Transitional Program is read carefully, it becomes apparent that it was aimed at a particular historical juncture, what Trotsky called “a prerevolutionary period.” As Trotsky observed about this particular historical period: “In all countries the proletariat is wracked by a deep disquiet. The multimillioned masses again and again enter the road of revolution. But each time they are blocked by their own conservative bureaucratic machines.” It was a “catastrophic period,” “a transitional epoch,” where the Spanish proletariat had tried to take power, where France and the U.S. experienced a wave of sit-down strikes and massive general strikes. Accordingly, the “time [was] ripe” to advance transitional demands.
But in other less revolutionary periods, transitional demands might not engage workers, which raises the need of less ambitious demands, or as Trotsky is quoted above as saying, demands “no matter how modest,” meaning that Trotsky would have fully endorsed struggles over wages and benefits.
Mr. Kinder takes no notice of the specific historical context that the transitional demands targeted. Instead he rips the transitional demands out of this prerevolutionary historic context and mindlessly applies them to every situation. Therefore, when Trotsky writes in “What Next?” about waging battle around demands “no matter how modest” and criticizes radical slogans that do not resonate with the masses, Mr. Kinder is forced to ignore such observations because they are incompatible with his simple, formulaic approach.
There are several distinctions that would benefit Mr. Kinder’s analysis. As Lenin once explained, propaganda must be distinguished from agitation. Propaganda can involve complex theoretical ideas in which, for example, the full program of revolutionaries is developed and explained. It could include, for example, lengthy expositions explaining why capitalism cannot meet the needs of the working class, why banks should be expropriated, why the workweek should be reduced with no reduction in pay, etc. Propaganda can be properly tackled, for example, in a study group or a lecture situation or perhaps a magazine article.
But agitation is altogether different. Here the revolutionary focuses on a few key slogans that has the potential to inspire workers to act. These slogans might involve a demand for a higher wage, or higher taxes on the rich in order to generate revenue for a massive government jobs program, public education and social services, or immediately terminating the current war, etc. Or, under heightened periods of struggle, they might include the demand that workers’ organizations take power, that all major capitalist businesses be expropriated, etc. Here, in order to get workers to act, the slogans must resonate; they must find a “response in the masses,” as Trotsky put it.
For Trotsky, the creation of united fronts, where workers fight for a few specific demands as opposed to an elaborate political program, is the indispensable road to achieving class consciousness. The united front is the primary vehicle in which workers unite as a class and begin to develop an understanding of society and their role in it. Class struggle is consequently waged by means of the united front. In the final analysis the united front aims at winning the majority of the working class to a revolutionary program.
Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky all emphasized that workers learn above all through their own experiences; going to battle is consequently an indispensable part of their education.
While most workers in the U.S. today might not be prepared to act on the demand to expropriate the banks without compensation, the call to raise taxes on the rich, which many unions have adopted, including the AFL-CIO, has resonated with most working people, as poll after poll has indicated. Moreover, this demand has the potential to unite what is now a fragmented working class. By generating additional revenue from these taxes that would be ear-marked for public education, vital social services, and job creation programs, all highly important to the working class according to polls, these demands have the potential to draw large segments of the working class into common action. And when this demand is won and taxes on the rich are raised, the unemployed, teachers, and other public workers are no longer reduced to fighting among themselves for the crumbs.
The current situation in the U.S. confronting revolutionaries diverges dramatically from the world that Trotsky was addressing when he wrote the “The Death Agony of Capitalism” in the Transitional Program in the late 1930s. Rather than the thousands of strikes taking place yearly, as in the 1930s in the U.S., the number has recently fallen to as low as a half-dozen. Thanks to the failure of the union officials to rally their members to put up a real fight while passively accepting concession after concession, workers often lack any confidence that there is anything they could effectively do that would improve their working conditions. Apathy and demoralization are rampant. Workers have not tried to take power. We are far from a pre-revolutionary situation that Trotsky described as “ripe” for transitional demands. And when those on the far left call for a general strike, few respond.
Given this context, if workers at a particular site without a lot of economic leverage decided to resist further demands for concessions but try instead to hold on to what they have, if the “revolutionary” were to insist that they fight for “30 for 40,” meaning doing 30 hours work for 40 hours of pay, which is one of Trotsky’s transitional demands, then instead of illuminating the correct path forward for the workers, the “revolutionary” would discredit him or herself in their eyes. Workers would believe such radicals are out of touch with reality. (This is not to say that union members might not pass a resolution in favor of “30 for 40;” but in this period such a resolution would only signify what workers would ideally want, not what they are prepared to fight for at this time. In other words, the resolution would take on the character of propaganda, not agitation.)
But revolutionaries who are not engaged in leading struggles, who are content to sit on the sidelines with their moralizing opposition to anything that falls short of a revolutionary leap, are hardly bothered by these critical responses to their proposals. They comfort themselves with the assurance that no reforms within the capitalist system will solve the problems of the working class. And, of course, they are entirely correct. But they simply lack the understanding of how to work with today’s working class — with its significant lack of class consciousness, let alone revolutionary consciousness — in order to make progress towards a socialist future. This is the dilemma that Trotsky’s discussion of the united front in his article “What Next?” was intended to resolve: the united front approach — where workers join together to put up a fight over whatever demands they find compelling — was the crucial link (the “middle term”) that starts with workers’ current level of consciousness in order to raise it through a dialectical, organic process to a higher revolutionary outlook.
About the Authors
Ann Robertson is a Lecturer at San Francisco State University and a member of the California Faculty Association. Bill Leumer is a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 853 (ret.). Both are writers for Workers Action and may be reached at sanfrancisco (at) workerscompass.org.
I place some material in this space which may be of interest to the radical public that I do not necessarily agree with or support. Off hand, as I have mentioned before, I think it would be easier, infinitely easier, to fight for the socialist revolution straight up than some of the “remedies” provided by the commentators in these entries. But part of that struggle for the socialist revolution is to sort out the “real” stuff from the fluff as we struggle for that more just world that animates our efforts.
**********
Taxing the Rich and Its “Left” Critics
by Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
28 Jul 2012
In a recent article published on the website of Socialist Viewpoint, Chris Kinder criticized those on the left who call for raising taxes on the rich. Identifying himself as a Trotskyist, Mr. Kinder displayed particular displeasure with Trotskyists who embrace this demand. Yet, as we will argue, his arguments fundamentally deviate from the political-strategic framework established by Marx and Engels and developed by Lenin and Trotsky.
“‘Tax the rich’ is far from a transitional demand,” Mr. Kinder argued and added: “Demanding taxation of the rich presumes the continued existence of the rich! But revolutionists seek to expropriate the rich capitalists as a precursor to creating an egalitarian, socialist society.”
This argument was further developed when he added: “Furthermore, ‘tax the rich,’ by presuming the continued existence of the exploiter class, cuts off any avenue to being a ‘bridge’ to a revolutionary program. As Trotsky explained in The Death Agony of Capitalism..., a transitional demand should help the masses to ‘find the bridge between present demands and the socialist program of the revolution.’”
Mr. Kinder continues his critique by noting that taxing the rich has been promoted by liberals, and, unlike transitional demands, can be won within the framework of capitalism. By improving the lot of the working class it can then defuse their revolutionary impulses.
He also argues that “it’s not a particularly internationalist demand,” since it would only benefit the workers of a particular country.
In place of calling for increasing taxes on the rich, Mr. Kinder offers this substitute: “…the immediate, and transitional, demand must be to expropriate the big banks and financial houses, with no compensation of course, and including no disruption of private individual and small business deposits. Immediately seize all assets, and return them to their proper owners. That means abolition of the mortgage debt owned by the expropriated banks and investors.”
If creating a revolutionary movement simply amounted to broadcasting transitional slogans to workers regardless of the level of consciousness of these workers, then Mr. Kinder’s approach might have some merit. But as Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky all emphasized, revolutionary politics rejects this approach and instead insist that revolutionaries raise demands that resonate with the working class or organize around demands that the workers themselves have raised. In this way workers become engaged, active, and in a position to learn from the dynamics of class struggle.
Let us begin by pointing out that taxing the rich does indeed have a long history, but in reviewing that history Mr. Kinder failed to mention that it was one of Marx’s and Engels’ ten transitional demands in the Manifesto of the Communist Party. They called for “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax,” which means exactly the same as “taxing the rich.”
In 1937, in an introduction to the Communist Manifesto, Trotsky commented on these transitional demands: “Calculated for a revolutionary epoch, the Manifesto contains…ten demands, corresponding to the period of direct transition from capitalism to socialism. In their Preface of 1872, Marx and Engels declared these demands to be in part antiquated, and, in any case, only of secondary importance. The reformists seized upon this evaluation to interpret it in the sense that transitional revolutionary demands had forever ceded their place to the social-democratic ‘minimum program,’ which, as is well known, does not transcend the limits of bourgeois democracy. As a matter of fact, the authors of the Manifesto indicated quite precisely the main correction of their transitional program, namely, ‘the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.’ In other words, the correction was directed against the fetishism of bourgeois democracy. Marx later counterposed to the capitalist state, the state of the type of the (Paris) Commune (1871). This ‘type’ subsequently assumed the much more graphic shape of Soviets. There cannot be a revolutionary program today without Soviets and without workers’ control. As for the rest, the ten demands of the Manifesto, which appeared ‘archaic’ in an epoch of peaceful parliamentary activity, have today regained completely their true significance. The social-democratic ‘minimum program,’ on the other hand, has become hopelessly antiquated.”
In other words, Trotsky endorsed taxing the rich as a transitional demand, and thus Mr. Kinder has unwittingly deviated from those he claims to follow.
Mr. Kinder has committed the kind of error that is frequently committed by beginners in Marxist revolutionary politics. They engage in an abstract, undialectical approach by reducing Marxism to a few doctrinaire slogans that they apply to every situation. Mr. Kinder, for example, takes slogans from Trotsky that were aimed at a class conscious and frequently revolutionary-minded working class in the 1930s. He then applies these same slogans to the current U.S. working class that is fragmented, lacks class consciousness, and is far from revolutionary. This beginners’ approach is both a reflection of their isolation from the working class with its day-to-day struggles as well as a barrier that separates them from the working class.
If one applied Mr. Kinder’s logic to cases where workers were fighting for a wage increase at work, one would be forced to condemn the struggle because wage increases can be won while capitalism remains intact, it is not a transitional demand, and it certainly benefits only a limited section of the working class while leaving the international working class no better off than before. Those who adopt Mr. Kinder’s logic typically are uninvolved with the day-to-day struggles of the working class and hence are not in a position to lead these struggles in a revolutionary direction.
Marxists have always wrestled with the problem of how to imbue the working class with a revolutionary consciousness, given that workers can fall into reformism, apathy, or demoralization. In his strategic essay, “What Next?” (1932), Trotsky confronted this problem by outlining the indispensable role of the united front in developing a revolutionary outlook among workers. In the course of his discussion he made many points that indicate a far more complicated framework than Mr. Kinder’s, a framework forged by Trotsky in the course of constant engagement in working class battles, both large and small. Here are some key passages that Mr. Kinder would have difficulty incorporating into his own two-dimensional framework.
“And so, ten years ago, the Comintern explained that the gist of the united-front policy was in the following: the Communist Party proves to the masses and their organizations its readiness in action to wage battle in common with them for aims, no matter how modest [emphasis added], so long as they lie on the road of the historical development of the proletariat; the Communist Party in this struggle takes into account the actual condition of the class at each given moment [emphasis added]; it turns not only to the masses, but also to those organizations whose leadership is recognized by the masses; it confronts the reformist organizations before the eyes of the masses with the real problems of the class struggle.”
Slightly later he adds, and this is particularly relevant to Mr. Kinder: “The mistakes made in the policy of the united front fall into two categories. In most cases the leading organs of the Communist Party approached the reformists with an offer to join in a common struggle for radical slogans which were alien to the situation and which found no response in the masses.”
Earlier Trotsky quoted from one of his earlier documents: “In these clashes — insofar as they involve the vital interests of the entire working class, or its majority, or this or that section — the working masses sense the need of unity in action…. Any party which mechanically counterposes itself to this need … will unfailingly be condemned in the minds of the workers…. For those who do not understand this task, the party is only a propaganda society and not an organization for mass action.”
And even still earlier Trotsky noted: “To fight, the proletariat must have unity in its ranks. This holds true for partial economic conflicts, within the walls of a single factory, as well as for such ‘national’ political battles as the one to repel fascism. Consequently the tactic of the united front is not something accidental and artificial — a cunning maneuver — not at all; it originates, entirely and wholly, in the objective conditions governing the development of the proletariat. The words in the Communist Manifesto which state that the Communists are not to be opposed to the proletariat, that they have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole, carry with them the meaning that the struggle of the party to win over the majority of the class must in no instance come into opposition with the need of the workers to keep unity within their fighting ranks.”
From the same essay Trotsky cites Lenin’s approach: “Shortly after that Lenin arrived from abroad, and he raked the ultimatists over the coals mercilessly. ‘You can’t,’ he lectured them, ‘nor can anyone else by means of ultimatums force the masses to skip the necessary phases of their own political development.’”
“Instead of monotonously repeating the same ready-made formulas before one and the same audience, it [a revolutionary party] would be enabled to set new strata into motion, to teach them through actual experience, to steel them, and to strengthen its hegemony among the working class.”
The comments above are crucial on several grounds. First, they indicate that Trotsky’s highest priority was to engage massive numbers of workers in class struggle where they learn from the own experiences the nature of capitalist society, its antagonistic class relations, and the role of the state in supporting the ruling class. “Mass actions,” he insisted “[were] the highest form of class struggle….” Even though workers initially might only be willing to fight for “modest” reforms, the education they derive from their battle experience often far exceeds theoretical study. Under conditions of battle, workers begin to develop a strong sense of camaraderie with one another, which is an incipient form of class consciousness. They see more clearly that the boss is their direct enemy, they watch the local or federal government and the media rush to provide support to the bosses and are consequently far from neutral or objective. Most importantly, if the workers win, they begin to sense the tremendous power they can wield when they act in solidarity and unity with one another. This sense of power can then quickly lead to workers eager to return to the battlefield to rack up even bigger victories. Eventually this logic can lead the working class to the realization that reforms are insufficient and only the replacement of capitalism by socialism will satisfactorily address their grievances. Consequently, the struggle for reforms can harbor all sorts of dialectical implications that lead the working class to a more revolutionary outlook.
In “The Belgian Dispute and the De Man Plan” (1935) Trotsky returned to the importance of engaging workers in struggle, this time leaning on Engels for support. “Engels never tired of repeating that Marxism is not an academic doctrine or a sectarian profession of faith but an instrument for systematic work among the masses.” And in the same essay Trotsky quoted Engels as saying: “It demonstrates how very useless a platform that is largely theoretically correct can be, if it does not know how to link itself with the real needs of the masses.”
But this emphasis on engaging the masses in struggle means, secondly, the set of demands appropriate for one set of workers might not coincide with the demands that could activate another set of workers.
For example, when “The Death Agony of Capitalism” in the Transitional Program is read carefully, it becomes apparent that it was aimed at a particular historical juncture, what Trotsky called “a prerevolutionary period.” As Trotsky observed about this particular historical period: “In all countries the proletariat is wracked by a deep disquiet. The multimillioned masses again and again enter the road of revolution. But each time they are blocked by their own conservative bureaucratic machines.” It was a “catastrophic period,” “a transitional epoch,” where the Spanish proletariat had tried to take power, where France and the U.S. experienced a wave of sit-down strikes and massive general strikes. Accordingly, the “time [was] ripe” to advance transitional demands.
But in other less revolutionary periods, transitional demands might not engage workers, which raises the need of less ambitious demands, or as Trotsky is quoted above as saying, demands “no matter how modest,” meaning that Trotsky would have fully endorsed struggles over wages and benefits.
Mr. Kinder takes no notice of the specific historical context that the transitional demands targeted. Instead he rips the transitional demands out of this prerevolutionary historic context and mindlessly applies them to every situation. Therefore, when Trotsky writes in “What Next?” about waging battle around demands “no matter how modest” and criticizes radical slogans that do not resonate with the masses, Mr. Kinder is forced to ignore such observations because they are incompatible with his simple, formulaic approach.
There are several distinctions that would benefit Mr. Kinder’s analysis. As Lenin once explained, propaganda must be distinguished from agitation. Propaganda can involve complex theoretical ideas in which, for example, the full program of revolutionaries is developed and explained. It could include, for example, lengthy expositions explaining why capitalism cannot meet the needs of the working class, why banks should be expropriated, why the workweek should be reduced with no reduction in pay, etc. Propaganda can be properly tackled, for example, in a study group or a lecture situation or perhaps a magazine article.
But agitation is altogether different. Here the revolutionary focuses on a few key slogans that has the potential to inspire workers to act. These slogans might involve a demand for a higher wage, or higher taxes on the rich in order to generate revenue for a massive government jobs program, public education and social services, or immediately terminating the current war, etc. Or, under heightened periods of struggle, they might include the demand that workers’ organizations take power, that all major capitalist businesses be expropriated, etc. Here, in order to get workers to act, the slogans must resonate; they must find a “response in the masses,” as Trotsky put it.
For Trotsky, the creation of united fronts, where workers fight for a few specific demands as opposed to an elaborate political program, is the indispensable road to achieving class consciousness. The united front is the primary vehicle in which workers unite as a class and begin to develop an understanding of society and their role in it. Class struggle is consequently waged by means of the united front. In the final analysis the united front aims at winning the majority of the working class to a revolutionary program.
Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky all emphasized that workers learn above all through their own experiences; going to battle is consequently an indispensable part of their education.
While most workers in the U.S. today might not be prepared to act on the demand to expropriate the banks without compensation, the call to raise taxes on the rich, which many unions have adopted, including the AFL-CIO, has resonated with most working people, as poll after poll has indicated. Moreover, this demand has the potential to unite what is now a fragmented working class. By generating additional revenue from these taxes that would be ear-marked for public education, vital social services, and job creation programs, all highly important to the working class according to polls, these demands have the potential to draw large segments of the working class into common action. And when this demand is won and taxes on the rich are raised, the unemployed, teachers, and other public workers are no longer reduced to fighting among themselves for the crumbs.
The current situation in the U.S. confronting revolutionaries diverges dramatically from the world that Trotsky was addressing when he wrote the “The Death Agony of Capitalism” in the Transitional Program in the late 1930s. Rather than the thousands of strikes taking place yearly, as in the 1930s in the U.S., the number has recently fallen to as low as a half-dozen. Thanks to the failure of the union officials to rally their members to put up a real fight while passively accepting concession after concession, workers often lack any confidence that there is anything they could effectively do that would improve their working conditions. Apathy and demoralization are rampant. Workers have not tried to take power. We are far from a pre-revolutionary situation that Trotsky described as “ripe” for transitional demands. And when those on the far left call for a general strike, few respond.
Given this context, if workers at a particular site without a lot of economic leverage decided to resist further demands for concessions but try instead to hold on to what they have, if the “revolutionary” were to insist that they fight for “30 for 40,” meaning doing 30 hours work for 40 hours of pay, which is one of Trotsky’s transitional demands, then instead of illuminating the correct path forward for the workers, the “revolutionary” would discredit him or herself in their eyes. Workers would believe such radicals are out of touch with reality. (This is not to say that union members might not pass a resolution in favor of “30 for 40;” but in this period such a resolution would only signify what workers would ideally want, not what they are prepared to fight for at this time. In other words, the resolution would take on the character of propaganda, not agitation.)
But revolutionaries who are not engaged in leading struggles, who are content to sit on the sidelines with their moralizing opposition to anything that falls short of a revolutionary leap, are hardly bothered by these critical responses to their proposals. They comfort themselves with the assurance that no reforms within the capitalist system will solve the problems of the working class. And, of course, they are entirely correct. But they simply lack the understanding of how to work with today’s working class — with its significant lack of class consciousness, let alone revolutionary consciousness — in order to make progress towards a socialist future. This is the dilemma that Trotsky’s discussion of the united front in his article “What Next?” was intended to resolve: the united front approach — where workers join together to put up a fight over whatever demands they find compelling — was the crucial link (the “middle term”) that starts with workers’ current level of consciousness in order to raise it through a dialectical, organic process to a higher revolutionary outlook.
About the Authors
Ann Robertson is a Lecturer at San Francisco State University and a member of the California Faculty Association. Bill Leumer is a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 853 (ret.). Both are writers for Workers Action and may be reached at sanfrancisco (at) workerscompass.org.
Remembering Gore Vidal by Stephen Lendman
Remembering Gore Vidal by Stephen Lendman
02 Aug 2012
Many labels characterize him: distinguished author, essayist, playwright, historian, acerbic sociopolitical/cultural critic, freethinker, intellectual, and humanist.
In 2009, the American Humanist Association (AHA) named him honorary president.
On July 31, Gore Vidal died from complications of pneumonia at his Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles home.
He was 86. He'll be missed. Los Angeles Times writer Elaine Woo called him a "gadfly on the national conscience" and "literary juggernaut." He was that and much more.
New York Times writer Charles McGrath said he was "an Augustan figure who believed himself to be the last of a breed, and he was probably right. Few American writers have been more versatile or gotten more mileage from their talent."
Random House editor Jason Epstein called him "an American version of Montaigne."
As an essayist, New York Time Book Review writer RWB Lewis said he was "so good that we cannot do without him. He (was) a treasure of state."
London Guardian writer Richard Lea called him "one of the towering figures of American cultural and political life for more than six decades."
AHA said he was "a masterful humanist voice." He "added an enthusiastic, progressive and dynamic voice" to AHA's humanist movement.
AHA president David Niose said:
"The progressive and humanist values Gore Vidal repeatedly espoused moved the culture in a positive direction."
"He spent his life pointing out the places in society that needed the most attention without worrying who might be embarrassed or upset by his opinions."
Humanist magazine editor Jennifer Bardi added:
"He’s been called an iconoclast, a provocateur, and a misanthrope. And of course Gore occasionally said things that gave humanists pause. But he was forever dedicated to the cause of enlightenment and exposed injustice and hypocrisy at every turn."
On August 1, Bardi headlined "Goodbye, Mr. Honorary President," saying:
"It’s too hard to list all the appropriate adjectives and accolades that could proceed Gore Vidal’s name. Gore Vidal died tonight and the enlightened world mourns. But what a life he lived!"
He spent decades criticizing the religious right, US imperialism, perpetual wars, political extremism in the name of national security, America's military/industrial complex, and other political, social and economic injustices.
He succeeded Kurt Vonnegut as honorary AHA president. He accepted at the time, saying he would be "most honored to succeed my old friend as honorary president of the Association."
"Although he himself is hardly easy to replace, I will do my best to fill the great gap."
His official web site listed his accomplishments. They include 24 novels, five plays, many screenplays, over 200 essays, his memoir Palimpsest, his National Book Award winning "United States (Essays 1952 - 92)," and numerous other political books. They include:
• "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated"
• "Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta"
• "Imperial America"
• "The Decline and Fall of the American Empire"
• "Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship"
• "Rocking the Boat"
• "The Last Empire: Essays 1992 - 2000"
In 2003, PBS featured Vidal in its American Masters series. His career spanned six decades, it said. He reflected "uncanny unity, a tone of easy familiarity with the world of politics and letters, an urbane wit, and supreme self-confidence as a writer" and sociopolitical critic.
Born in 1925, his web site called his maternal roots "thoroughly political." As a boy, he lived with his grandfather, Senator TP Gore. His father, Eugene Vidal, served as FDR's Bureau of Air Commerce director.
His mother, Nina Gore Vidal, divorced when Vidal was 10. She married Hugh Auchincloss. He divorced her and married Jackie Kennedy's mother. It established a connection between Vidal and the Kennedy clan. It lasted through JFK's presidency.
In 1943, he enlisted in the Army at age 17. At age 19, he became a warrant officer JG and first mate of the army ship FS 35. On night watch in port, he wrote his first novel, Williwaw.
Colombian novelist/journalist/Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez praised Vidal's "magnificent series of historical novels or novelized histories." They cover American life from the 18th to the 21st century.
New York Times literary critic Harold Bloom called him "a masterly American historical novelist, now wholly matured, who has found his truest subject, which is our national political history during precisely those years when our political and military histories were as one, one thing and one thing only: the unwavering will of Abraham Lincoln to keep the states united."
He added he "demonstrates that his narrative achievement is vastly underestimated by American academic criticism, an injustice has has repaid amply in his essayist attacks upon the academy...."
Vidal's interest in politics wasn't limited to novels, essays, other writing, and commentaries. In 1960, he ran for Congress as a liberal Democrat in New York's Republican 29th district.
Publicly he supported recognizing Red China, cutting the Pentagon's budget, and spending more on education. He lost but won more votes in his district than JFK. He headed the 1960 Democrat ticket.
In 1982, he placed second in California's Democrat senatorial primary. He lost to current governor Jerry Brown.
Reflecting on Watergate, he called America "a nation of ongoing hustlers from the prisons and disaster areas of old Europe."
"I do not think that the America System in its present state of decadence is worth preserving."
"The initial success of the United States was largely accidental. A rich empty continent was....exploited by rapacious Europeans who made slaves of Africans and corpses of Indians in the process."
In his 1973 New Statesman essay titled "Political Melodramas," he said:
"In 1959 when I wrote ("The Best Man")....the character of the wicked candidate in the play on Richard Nixon, I thought it would be amusing if liberal politicians were to smear unjustly that uxorious man as a homosexual."
He was condemned for suggesting a "man could rise to any height in American politics if" so labeled. Ronald Reagan was one of the actors he auditioned for the lead role.
At the time, his film career was over. Vidal rejected him. He thought he couldn't play a credible president. He was right. In office, he faked it for eight years.
Obama's worse but hides it better.
At age 81, he visited Cuba. He headed a delegation of US intellectuals, historians and politicians. He suggested Bush could end up like Nixon. "We hope he will end up like Nixon, resigning the presidency," he said.
Comparing the two men, he added:
"When a building begins to fall to pieces, it is very difficult to stop its collapse."
"Everyone who listens to (Bush) knows he is a liar. It is frightening to have to constantly listen to a man repeating and repeating I am a" wartime president.
"Of all the human vices, the worst is to lie."
"When the people do not understand what the emperor is saying, what the government is saying, there is no communication" or trust.
He accused Bush of stealing the 2000 election and "high crimes against the Constitution of the United States."
"It gives me pleasure to be in a place full of hope," he told a University of Havana audience. In America, "people do not have the basic understanding of what they have lost. There has been a coup and the republic has died."
In September 2009, he was asked how Obama was doing. He was unsparing, saying:
"Dreadfully. I was hopeful. He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters."
"He’s acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: Solve that and you solve terrorism....we’ve failed in every other aspect of our effort of conquering the Middle East or whatever you want to call it."
On healthcare reform, he added:
"He f..ked it up. I don’t know how because the country wanted it. We’ll never see it happen."
On US politics, he said:
"There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party....and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat."
"Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt - until recently....and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand."
"But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties."
He called democracy a system "where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates" no different from each other.
"By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over."
On America's Middle East wars, he said "I don't see us winning. We have made enemies of one billion Muslims."
He called himself "a born-again atheist. "Once people get hung up on theology, they've lost sanity forever," he said. "More people have been killed in the name of Jesus Christ than any other name in the history of the world."
He called monotheism "the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race."
He said most people misunderstand the First Amendment's "free exercise of religion" clause. "Yes, everyone has a right to worship any god he chooses," but he does not have the right to impose his beliefs on others who do not happen to share" his views.
"This separation was absolute in our original republic." It's been misinterpreted and distorted. Extremists "got the phrase In God We Trust onto the currency, in direct violation of the First Amendment."
In his essay titled "Shredding the Bill of Rights," he wrote:
"It has always been a mark of American freedom that unlike countries under constant Napoleonic surveillance, we are not obliged to carry identification to show to curious officials and pushy police."
"But now, due to Terrorism, every one of us is stopped at airports and obliged to show an ID which must include a mug shot (something, as Allah knows, no terrorist would ever dare fake)."
He said what too few others dared. He followed in the tradition of Henry James, Oscar Wilde, and Mark Twain, among others. He was one of America's most astute chroniclers.
Friends said he combined an old-fashioned sense of honor and stubborn will to live as he pleased.
He said George Bush had advance knowledge of 9/11. Roosevelt knew about Japan's planned Pearl Harbor attack.
Both men took full advantage. Timothy McVeigh was no more killer than Dwight Eisenhower, and America one day will be subservient to China. Characteristically he framed it as "The Yellow Man's Burden."
He was mainly self-educated. Classrooms bored him. He skipped college. He acquired wisdom on his own. He admired Montaigne, Italo Calvino, Henry James and Edith Wharton.
He called his conservative rival, William Buckley, a "cryptofascist." He described The New York Times as the "Typhoid Mary of American journalism."
He labeled Ronald Reagan "The Acting President." He called his wife Nancy a social climber "born with a silver ladder in her hand."
He openly criticized Israel's treatment of Palestinians. He once called pro-Israeli ideologue/Commentary editor Norman Podhoretz and his journalist wife Midge Dector "Israeli Fifth Columnists."
At the end, he was wheelchair bound. His mind and wit stayed sharp. He called style "knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."
In 2009, he said America is "rotting away at a funereal pace. We'll have a military dictatorship pretty soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together."
Reflecting on his accomplishments, he said "I just played the game harder." He hoped to be remembered as "the person who wrote the best sentences of his time." He thought of himself as a modern-day Voltaire.
He's survived by his half-sister Nina Straight and half-brother Tommy Auchincloss. He'll be sorely missed.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen (at) sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"
http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
02 Aug 2012
Many labels characterize him: distinguished author, essayist, playwright, historian, acerbic sociopolitical/cultural critic, freethinker, intellectual, and humanist.
In 2009, the American Humanist Association (AHA) named him honorary president.
On July 31, Gore Vidal died from complications of pneumonia at his Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles home.
He was 86. He'll be missed. Los Angeles Times writer Elaine Woo called him a "gadfly on the national conscience" and "literary juggernaut." He was that and much more.
New York Times writer Charles McGrath said he was "an Augustan figure who believed himself to be the last of a breed, and he was probably right. Few American writers have been more versatile or gotten more mileage from their talent."
Random House editor Jason Epstein called him "an American version of Montaigne."
As an essayist, New York Time Book Review writer RWB Lewis said he was "so good that we cannot do without him. He (was) a treasure of state."
London Guardian writer Richard Lea called him "one of the towering figures of American cultural and political life for more than six decades."
AHA said he was "a masterful humanist voice." He "added an enthusiastic, progressive and dynamic voice" to AHA's humanist movement.
AHA president David Niose said:
"The progressive and humanist values Gore Vidal repeatedly espoused moved the culture in a positive direction."
"He spent his life pointing out the places in society that needed the most attention without worrying who might be embarrassed or upset by his opinions."
Humanist magazine editor Jennifer Bardi added:
"He’s been called an iconoclast, a provocateur, and a misanthrope. And of course Gore occasionally said things that gave humanists pause. But he was forever dedicated to the cause of enlightenment and exposed injustice and hypocrisy at every turn."
On August 1, Bardi headlined "Goodbye, Mr. Honorary President," saying:
"It’s too hard to list all the appropriate adjectives and accolades that could proceed Gore Vidal’s name. Gore Vidal died tonight and the enlightened world mourns. But what a life he lived!"
He spent decades criticizing the religious right, US imperialism, perpetual wars, political extremism in the name of national security, America's military/industrial complex, and other political, social and economic injustices.
He succeeded Kurt Vonnegut as honorary AHA president. He accepted at the time, saying he would be "most honored to succeed my old friend as honorary president of the Association."
"Although he himself is hardly easy to replace, I will do my best to fill the great gap."
His official web site listed his accomplishments. They include 24 novels, five plays, many screenplays, over 200 essays, his memoir Palimpsest, his National Book Award winning "United States (Essays 1952 - 92)," and numerous other political books. They include:
• "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated"
• "Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta"
• "Imperial America"
• "The Decline and Fall of the American Empire"
• "Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship"
• "Rocking the Boat"
• "The Last Empire: Essays 1992 - 2000"
In 2003, PBS featured Vidal in its American Masters series. His career spanned six decades, it said. He reflected "uncanny unity, a tone of easy familiarity with the world of politics and letters, an urbane wit, and supreme self-confidence as a writer" and sociopolitical critic.
Born in 1925, his web site called his maternal roots "thoroughly political." As a boy, he lived with his grandfather, Senator TP Gore. His father, Eugene Vidal, served as FDR's Bureau of Air Commerce director.
His mother, Nina Gore Vidal, divorced when Vidal was 10. She married Hugh Auchincloss. He divorced her and married Jackie Kennedy's mother. It established a connection between Vidal and the Kennedy clan. It lasted through JFK's presidency.
In 1943, he enlisted in the Army at age 17. At age 19, he became a warrant officer JG and first mate of the army ship FS 35. On night watch in port, he wrote his first novel, Williwaw.
Colombian novelist/journalist/Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez praised Vidal's "magnificent series of historical novels or novelized histories." They cover American life from the 18th to the 21st century.
New York Times literary critic Harold Bloom called him "a masterly American historical novelist, now wholly matured, who has found his truest subject, which is our national political history during precisely those years when our political and military histories were as one, one thing and one thing only: the unwavering will of Abraham Lincoln to keep the states united."
He added he "demonstrates that his narrative achievement is vastly underestimated by American academic criticism, an injustice has has repaid amply in his essayist attacks upon the academy...."
Vidal's interest in politics wasn't limited to novels, essays, other writing, and commentaries. In 1960, he ran for Congress as a liberal Democrat in New York's Republican 29th district.
Publicly he supported recognizing Red China, cutting the Pentagon's budget, and spending more on education. He lost but won more votes in his district than JFK. He headed the 1960 Democrat ticket.
In 1982, he placed second in California's Democrat senatorial primary. He lost to current governor Jerry Brown.
Reflecting on Watergate, he called America "a nation of ongoing hustlers from the prisons and disaster areas of old Europe."
"I do not think that the America System in its present state of decadence is worth preserving."
"The initial success of the United States was largely accidental. A rich empty continent was....exploited by rapacious Europeans who made slaves of Africans and corpses of Indians in the process."
In his 1973 New Statesman essay titled "Political Melodramas," he said:
"In 1959 when I wrote ("The Best Man")....the character of the wicked candidate in the play on Richard Nixon, I thought it would be amusing if liberal politicians were to smear unjustly that uxorious man as a homosexual."
He was condemned for suggesting a "man could rise to any height in American politics if" so labeled. Ronald Reagan was one of the actors he auditioned for the lead role.
At the time, his film career was over. Vidal rejected him. He thought he couldn't play a credible president. He was right. In office, he faked it for eight years.
Obama's worse but hides it better.
At age 81, he visited Cuba. He headed a delegation of US intellectuals, historians and politicians. He suggested Bush could end up like Nixon. "We hope he will end up like Nixon, resigning the presidency," he said.
Comparing the two men, he added:
"When a building begins to fall to pieces, it is very difficult to stop its collapse."
"Everyone who listens to (Bush) knows he is a liar. It is frightening to have to constantly listen to a man repeating and repeating I am a" wartime president.
"Of all the human vices, the worst is to lie."
"When the people do not understand what the emperor is saying, what the government is saying, there is no communication" or trust.
He accused Bush of stealing the 2000 election and "high crimes against the Constitution of the United States."
"It gives me pleasure to be in a place full of hope," he told a University of Havana audience. In America, "people do not have the basic understanding of what they have lost. There has been a coup and the republic has died."
In September 2009, he was asked how Obama was doing. He was unsparing, saying:
"Dreadfully. I was hopeful. He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters."
"He’s acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: Solve that and you solve terrorism....we’ve failed in every other aspect of our effort of conquering the Middle East or whatever you want to call it."
On healthcare reform, he added:
"He f..ked it up. I don’t know how because the country wanted it. We’ll never see it happen."
On US politics, he said:
"There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party....and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat."
"Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt - until recently....and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand."
"But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties."
He called democracy a system "where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates" no different from each other.
"By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over."
On America's Middle East wars, he said "I don't see us winning. We have made enemies of one billion Muslims."
He called himself "a born-again atheist. "Once people get hung up on theology, they've lost sanity forever," he said. "More people have been killed in the name of Jesus Christ than any other name in the history of the world."
He called monotheism "the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race."
He said most people misunderstand the First Amendment's "free exercise of religion" clause. "Yes, everyone has a right to worship any god he chooses," but he does not have the right to impose his beliefs on others who do not happen to share" his views.
"This separation was absolute in our original republic." It's been misinterpreted and distorted. Extremists "got the phrase In God We Trust onto the currency, in direct violation of the First Amendment."
In his essay titled "Shredding the Bill of Rights," he wrote:
"It has always been a mark of American freedom that unlike countries under constant Napoleonic surveillance, we are not obliged to carry identification to show to curious officials and pushy police."
"But now, due to Terrorism, every one of us is stopped at airports and obliged to show an ID which must include a mug shot (something, as Allah knows, no terrorist would ever dare fake)."
He said what too few others dared. He followed in the tradition of Henry James, Oscar Wilde, and Mark Twain, among others. He was one of America's most astute chroniclers.
Friends said he combined an old-fashioned sense of honor and stubborn will to live as he pleased.
He said George Bush had advance knowledge of 9/11. Roosevelt knew about Japan's planned Pearl Harbor attack.
Both men took full advantage. Timothy McVeigh was no more killer than Dwight Eisenhower, and America one day will be subservient to China. Characteristically he framed it as "The Yellow Man's Burden."
He was mainly self-educated. Classrooms bored him. He skipped college. He acquired wisdom on his own. He admired Montaigne, Italo Calvino, Henry James and Edith Wharton.
He called his conservative rival, William Buckley, a "cryptofascist." He described The New York Times as the "Typhoid Mary of American journalism."
He labeled Ronald Reagan "The Acting President." He called his wife Nancy a social climber "born with a silver ladder in her hand."
He openly criticized Israel's treatment of Palestinians. He once called pro-Israeli ideologue/Commentary editor Norman Podhoretz and his journalist wife Midge Dector "Israeli Fifth Columnists."
At the end, he was wheelchair bound. His mind and wit stayed sharp. He called style "knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."
In 2009, he said America is "rotting away at a funereal pace. We'll have a military dictatorship pretty soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together."
Reflecting on his accomplishments, he said "I just played the game harder." He hoped to be remembered as "the person who wrote the best sentences of his time." He thought of himself as a modern-day Voltaire.
He's survived by his half-sister Nina Straight and half-brother Tommy Auchincloss. He'll be sorely missed.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen (at) sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"
http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)