National Speaking Tour: Socialist Won Historic Vote — Building an Alternative to the Two Parties of Wall Street		Printer-Friendly E-Mail This
Mar 30, 2013 By SocialistAlternative.org
The Republicans are trying to make working people and the poor pay for the government’s deficit by making deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare instead of taxing millionaires. Obama and the Democrats are proposing to make unprecedented cuts to these social safety net programs, too. Events like these are leading more and more people to conclude that the richest 1% has two political parties and it’s time the 99% had a party of our own. In 2012, Occupy activist Kshama Sawant ran an insurgent campaign as a Socialist Alternative candidate against Washington state’s Democratic Speaker of the House. Her campaign refused corporate donations and was largely ignored by the corporate media, yet she won a historic 29% of the vote with over 20,000 votes - the highest vote for a Socialist in Seattle in decades! This shows it’s completely possible to build an alternative to the two corporate parties. To build on this success, Sawant is running again this year on a platform ranging from putting the brakes on environmentally disastrous coal trains running through Seattle to a Millionaires Tax to fund education and public transportation to taking on police brutality. Kshama Sawant will be speaking around the U.S. this spring, raising the need for candidates from Occupy, the labor movement, and other activist forces to join forces and run their own independent candidates. She will be speaking up and down Washington State, as well as in New York, Chicago, Boston, Madison, New Orleans, St. Petersburg, and other cities across the country. Come discuss building an alternative to corporate politics and find out how you can help. Kshama Sawant National Speaking Tour Stops Springfield, IL Monday, March 25 6:30 pm CST University of Illinois Springfield- Great Room of Lincoln Residence Hall- 2160 Vachel Lindsay Drive Springfield, IL 62703 https://www.facebook.com/events/440000682744005/ Chicago, IL Tuesday, March 26 7:00pm CST United Electrical Workers (U.E) Hall 37 S Ashland Avenue https://www.facebook.com/events/430327160387599/ Panel discussion with Kshama Sawant and Northside activist Fran Tobin: using electoral strategies to fight back against austerity New York City, NY Two Meetings! 1. CUNY Wednesday, March 27 7:00pm EST CUNY Graduate Center, Room 5414 https://www.facebook.com/events/576173045728721/ Speakers (besides Kshama Sawant): LUCAS SANCHEZ, New York Communities for Change (NYCC) organizer of grocery store workers, member of the Comité de Trabajadores de Nueva York. ELJEER HAWKINS Social activist born and raised in Harlem, political writer on prisons, police brutality and racism, member of Socialist Alternative. 2. Astoria, Queens Friday, March 29 6:00pm EST Greater Astoria Historical Society, 4th Floor Lounge Quinn Building, 35-20 Broadaway, Astoria, Queens https://www.facebook.com/events/595797700450066/ Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ Thursday, March 28 9:00pm EST Rutgers University Scott Hall room 220 43 College Ave https://www.facebook.com/events/171122869707370/ Philadelphia, PA Saturday, April 6 1:00pm EST Arch Street United Methodist Church 55 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia 19107 https://www.facebook.com/events/588982294447552/ While Wall St is handing out bonuses, most working class citizens of this city are facing the hardest time they have seen in their lives. The Wall St Banks have taken more than $13 trillion from us in bailouts since the crash in 2008. Out of that they have paid themselves bonuses, satisfied their legal obligations and contracts and accumulated massive cash reserves that they have used to speculate on the market instead of creating jobs. U.S. Corporations are now sitting on a cash hoard greater than $1trillion, and now despite the 'end of the recession' even more Cuts in Federal, State and Local programs are coming. Here in Pennsylvania all the powers that be from Governor Corbett to Mayor Nutter to the SRC have made it clear whose side they are on and it is not ours. We do not need school closings, we need real investment in the education system. We do not need privatized liquor stores or mail service, we need decent secure jobs with pensions and health care. We do not need transit cuts, shuttered fire houses, and privatized city services, we need a massive investment in our cities infrastructure to enhance the quality of life for all residents of this city. We invite you to an afternoon of discussion and analysis Saturday April 6th 1-4pm Arch St UMC 55 N Broad A Speaker from the fight against school closings A Speaker from Philly ROC fresh from their campaign for paid sick leave Special guest: Kshama Sawant - Socialist Alternative, Seattle PCAPS and the fight back against the school closings in Philadelphia is front and center of the struggle to preserve public education nationally. Philly ROC fresh from their campaign for paid sick leave does grassroots organizing of restaurant workers to empower them to fight for justice in the workplace, equitable wages, and working conditions. Boston, MA 6th Annual New England Socialism Conference Saturday, April 13 10:00am – 4:00pm EST Community Church of Boston 565 Boylston St. https://www.facebook.com/events/423592137733542/ Featured speakers: Kshama Sawant- An Economics professor at Seattle Central Community College, Kshama recently ran against Washington Speaker of the House and Democrat Frank Chopp and got 30%/20,000 votes in her district as a candidate of Socialist Alternative. She is currently running for Seattle City Council. Seamus Whelan- A Registered Nurse at Cambridge Hospital and activist within the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Seamus is currently running an insurgent campaign as the Socialist Alternative candidate for Boston City Council At-Large. Workshops include: “Organizing against the Attack on Labor” “Immigration and the Class Struggle” “Defeating the Pipeline: a Green Socialist Solution for the Environment” “Building a Fight Back Against the 1%” Madison, WI Saturday, April 27 Time and location TBA

Report: Socialist Alternative Rallies Against the KKK in Tennessee!		Printer-Friendly E-Mail This
Apr 11, 2013 By Jason Carey
The Ku Klux Klan staged a rally in Memphis, in response to the renaming of Nathan B. Forrest Park by city officials. The KKK promised to make it “the largest Klan rally [Memphis] has ever seen.” They secured a permit and scheduled the event for 1:30pm on March 30, 2013. Nine Socialist Alternative members and supporters left Mobile, Alabama in three vehicles the morning of March 29, 2013 to drive to Memphis. The drive took approximately eight hours and we were able to camp on the edge of the city, located about 10 blocks from the rally area. It was raining the morning of the 30th. We arrived downtown at 10:30am to find a heavy police presence, with squad cars sitting idle at many intersections, beacons flashing. The designated rendezvous area for the counter-rally attendants was a small park with a large gazebo. Around this area, we found entire streets cordoned off with barricades and squad cars. At 11:00am, there were around 50 protesters under the gazebo. We talked to individuals in the crowd and sold issues of Justice and buttons. We also blanketed the crowd with the Socialist Alternative leaflets made for the event. (http://socialistalternative.org/news/article15.php?id=2091) By 11:20am, there were about 100 hundred people under the gazebo. At 11:30am, police in riot gear, armed with assault rifles, converged on our location. They surrounded the gazebo, and a policewoman gave the ultimatum, “Disperse or else.” At 11:35am, the crowd left the park, marching in the direction of the KKK rally, which was several blocks away and out of view. More riot police began appearing everywhere around us, lining the streets. They were not only wielding full riot armor, but riot shields as well. Eighty percent of them had either assault rifles or submachine guns. The other twenty percent had grenade launchers or “less lethal” shotguns. Snipers were watching the crowd with rifles and binoculars from all the building rooftops above us. The crowd was chanting slogans such as “The cops and the Klan work hand-in-hand!” and “KKK go away!” The route of the march was once again diverted, this time to the south (away from the direction of the Klan rally), through an alley. At about 12:30pm, we made it past the checkpoint and were directed through the alley, to a parking lot with a fresh chain-link fence lining the perimeter. The parking lot probably measured 250 feet in both dimensions. Outside the chain link fence was literally a wall of riot police, with their shields facing us. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder around most of the perimeter. There were other large groups of riot police within the parking lot, away from the protesters. There were 300 to 400 people in the parking lot. Several of these people were undercover cops posing as protesters. One of our members was also forcefully removed for nothing more than wearing a shirt with Huey Newton (a Black Panther Party leader) on it. Meanwhile, we were barely able to make out the tips of the KKK’s pointed white hats, as well as KKK and neo-Nazi “NSM” flags, about three blocks to the west, beyond a sea of police and police vehicles and equipment. The police presence was of no concern to Klan sympathizers as they began to trickle in among the protest crowd. During the rally, we met several contacts who showed great interest in our organization and our politics. They suggested we all meet for drinks and political discussion afterward, which turned out to be a much better an event for us than the rally. We met with about seven local socialist activists. We distributed flyers, buttons, and copies of Justice to each person. To put the rally itself into context—1,200 people passed through the security checkpoint. The vast majority was openly hostile to the Klan’s presence, although there were only 300 to 400 demonstrators inside the fence at any given time. Less than 5% of these were Klan sympathizers who came to heckle. In contrast, there were only 61 Klan and NSM demonstrators at their rally down the street. Many of our members had never been to a rally, or one of this size and character. We were successful in illustrating for many members exactly what an “intervention” entails, as well as instilling a much more solid form of professionalism in the Alabama organization, as a result of the meeting with the other group. The trip to Memphis was extremely productive.

KKK Rally in Memphis out Numbered by Anti-Racist Demo		Printer-Friendly E-Mail This
Apr 9, 2013 By SocialistAlternative.org
Socialist Alternative leaflet distributed at the protests against the KKK and neo-nazi's in Memphis, Tennessee on March 30 "You Can't Have Capitalism Without Racism" -Malcom X Racism is alive and well in the United States. From housing bias to discriminatory hiring practices, inadequate public education and mass imprisonment, it is clear that we don't live in a "post-racial" society. While the official overall unemployment rate hovers around 8%, the jobless rate in mid-2012 for African Americans was 14.1% and 10.2% for Latinos. People of color make up 30% of the country's population, but account for 60% of those imprisoned. Racism is built into the fabric of US capitalism. The Right-Wing Connection As the economic crisis continues and seems to deepen worldwide, people are looking for solutions to the uncertainty of unemployment, crumbling social services and home foreclosures. While some people will draw correct conclusions about the richest 1 o/o and corporations being to blame, others will look for scapegoats. The racist right wing will capitalize on this uncertainty by combining anti-establishment rhetoric and putting blame on African-Americans, union members, immigrants and other working people. Right-wing populists in the Tea Party throw words like "liberty" and "freedom" out like candy, but what kind of freedom can one find in the throes of poverty? When these right-wing populist groups speak of freedom, what they mean to say is "freedom for those who can afford it" and nothing more. While there are differences between the Democrats and Republicans, they both loyally serve the interests of the corporations and the capitalist system. When Democrats carry out budget cuts and bank bailouts, they provide a potential base for right-wing populist rhetoric. Racism (like sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia) is actually encouraged by the capitalist system in an attempt to divide workers, pitting them against one another. Many white workers who end up buying into the racist blame-game went to similar low-quality public schools, drive beat-up old cars, and now work the same dead-end jobs as black and Latino workers. We need to unite working people around our common interests for good jobs and services and put the blame where it really belongs on the 1% - who constantly seek to maximize profit through layoffs and decreased wages. It's well past the time for us workers to realize this, but again, the problem is systemic. Join the Socialists! We can't rely on the two parties of big business to end racism, poverty and war; we must build a movement of mass protests and political independence for working people. We need not just a movement against "hate" but clear demands to better our lives that strike at the root cause of all of our problems. We need a movement with candidates that stand up for working and poor people as a step towards a new mass party. Socialist Alternative is a national organization fighting in our workplaces, communities, and campuses against the exploitation and injustices people face every day. We are community activists fighting against budget cuts in public services; we are union activists fighting for living wage jobs and democratic unions; we are people of all colors speaking out against racism and attacks on immigrants, women and men fighting sexism and homophobia. Socialist Alternative is a growing organization that is in political solidarity with the worldwide movement, the Committee for a Workers' International, organizing in over 40 countries for fundamental change. Join us in the struggle to bring about an end to the tyranny and discrimination of capitalism and build a truly free and democratic, equitable, and sustainable future for all people on this planet. WWW.SOCIALISTWORLD.NET

Obituary: Victor Paananen		Printer-Friendly E-Mail This
Apr 3, 2013 By Lynn Walsh, Editor, Socialism Today, monthly magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)
Vic Paananen, who died on 24 March, aged 75, was a veteran socialist activist. A longstanding supporter of the Committee for a Workers’ International, Vic was a member of Socialist Alternative in the US. All those who knew Vic will remember his dedicated, inspiring commitment to Marxist ideas and the struggle to bring about a socialist society. After his retirement from Michigan State University, East Lansing, where he was the mainstay of the Socialist Alternative branch, Vic moved to Revere, Massachusetts, and played an active part in the Boston branch of SA until illness limited his activities. Vic published two books, ‘William Blake’ and ‘British Marxist Criticism’, as well as numerous articles and reviews. His main literary interest was always in working-class authors whose work appealed to working-class readers. Vic’s first article for Socialism Today (to which he was an enthusiastic subscriber from our first issue) was on Robert Tressell, author of ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ (Issue 4, December 1995). Vic explains how this socialist classic came to be written and published: “a book [that] is both ‘extremely real’ as an account of working class life and ‘subversive,’ both of capitalism and the lies that sustain it.” There is no doubt that it will “continue to win hearts and minds for the tasks still ahead”. For many years, Victor and his first wife, Donna, spent a few weeks every summer in Hastings, Sussex. This was the town where Tressell lived and worked as a house painter and sign-writer, and Vic delighted in showing visitors around the local sites associated with Tressell. Vic also participated in some of the Dylan Thomas festivals in Swansea, South Wales. On the fiftieth anniversary of Thomas’s death, Socialism Today (Issue 77, September 2003) carried Vic’s illuminating article on ‘Red Dylan: the social vision of Dylan Thomas’. Referring to Thomas’s letters, stories and film scripts, Vic shows (contrary to most academic accounts) that, although he avoided explicit social commentary or propaganda, Thomas was driven by a profound social vision based on revolutionary socialism: “All the evidence points to Thomas’s holding revolutionary convictions both before he moved from Wales to London in 1934 and throughout his life.” While staying in London or Sussex, Vic attended many Socialist Party events over the years, as well as CWI summer schools in Belgium. Despite his accomplishments, Vic was a modest person, quite shy, but loved and respected by everyone who knew him. We will miss his conversation and mischievous sense of humor. Vic’s first wife, Donna, was tragically killed in a motor accident in 2002. He leaves his second wife, Diane De Santis, whom he married in 2011, and his sons, Karl and Neil. Vic was defiant in the face of illness in recent years; his Marxist vision was undiminished. Dylan Thomas’s words inevitably come to mind: Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

***With James Cagney’s Public Enemy In Mind

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

The old man was, frankly, eaves-dropping on the conversation of the two young men standing, standing like ancient times standing, standing like he and his own set of corner boys now scattered to the winds or scattered to ashes, in front of Mom’s Pizza Parlor (Mom of the sign long since gone but the establishment still thriving through her son ,and now it looked like his son as well) and discussing, as corner boys have done since they invented corner boys, or maybe corners, this and that. They were wearing the obligatory baggie pants (two pairs overlapping as is the fashion these days), doubled-down and low-rider, identical baseball caps with the Oakland A’s insignia (signifying, well, signifying their allegiance, not to the ball club, hell, no, they might not even know where Oakland is, or whether they had a baseball club there, allegiance to the corner was the old man’s guess, if he remembered his own corner boy etiquette), tee-shirts with Bob Marley’s righteous face on them (these were white boys but no matter Bob Marley does stand the test of time, place and color), and sneakers, some Nikes brand, black, with black and white shoe laces (that last detail important and symbolic although the old man would not venture to guess why, he had been told that today’s corner boys identify friend and foes, who is in and who is out, in such ways). He remembered his own uniform, or better, uniforms since he had had two corner boy corners. The first, the hard, real, jack-roller corner boy scene, over at Harry’s Pool Hall was strictly white tee-shirts, hatless, jeans, tight, engineer boots (his with buckles), and a snarl. The second at Doc's Drugstore after he decided that the criminal life was too much work and that he was not particularly good at it, plaid shirt, chinos, black, un-cuffed (that was the shoe lace equivalent of that day), sneakers and midnight 24/7 sunglasses in that cool breeze early 1960s night.

The this and that between the two young men that day entailed a discussion about the vagaries of the drug trade, about how Lenny from down on Atlantic Avenue had just been nabbed with a kilo of coke and was a sure bet to do a nickel or a dime up in Shawshank for his efforts, about how the cops had seemed to be pushing extra hard lately on the drug, front in their never-ending “war on drugs” and how it was hard, hard indeed, for a man, a young man, to make a living these days trying to do a little of this and a little of that.

The old man laughed to himself , laughed a knowing laugh, about how each generation, each corner boy generation thought the cops of their times were tough, that it was tougher than ever to make a living outside the law and that these kids didn’t know what it was like when cops really pushed down on you, really wanted you off the streets. Strangely the old man had the feeling that the two talkers, Larry and Louie, would crumble if a cop even looked sideways at them to show how the corner boy talent had diminished with time. In his own time he had seen things, done things, heard about things that would have had these kids shaking in their boots, have them going back to some sweet mother house promising, pretty promising to live a saintly life if dear mother would let them back in, or some to some cribbed girlfriend's place all warm and cozy. The latter more probable since they were good-looking young men who would draw a certain kind of careless woman, or a restless one, who was just then looking for kicks, maybe a headful of drugs to break the monotony of her days, before heading down some aisle all in white, with some future salesman of the year, a white picket fence complete with house, dog, and a couple of fretful kids.

The stuff that the old man had heard about (he was divulging nothing about his own capers , not for print anyway, since the statute of limitations might not have run out yet) about how Whitey did his this and that without blinking an eye, how Howie had a guy wasted just because he looked at a cop like maybe he knew him, knew him too well, like maybe he had called his “uncle,” about how Bernie snagged a guy, having him dragged by rope on the back end of a car just because he said something off-color to his girlfriend, Gladys. But those guys tough as they were couldn’t stand up to, couldn’t take the heat, couldn’t kiss the hem of Jimmy, James Cagney (yah, just like the movie star except this guy was rough tough tough not film pansy tough), from the old neighborhood, the old Olde Saco neighborhood, back before the Great Depression in the days when they had Prohibition and the only way for corner boys to make money then was to transport liquor, and plenty of it. And to insure that plenty of it, to insure that plenty of dough was made, the guns came out, came out blazing, against rival corner boys, and against the cops. Especially the cops because they were a drag on commerce and some had it coming to them anyhow.

In fact Jimmy Cagney, his gun, and his reputation blossomed in the beginning by being nothing but a hired gun, and to prove his hired gun worthiness he put three straight up in a pursuing copper and laughed about it. Laughed even better when they could never put two and two together on the case, and you know cops, whether they loved their brother officer or hated him they felt honor bound to avenge that type murder anyway they could. So, and here the old man spoke of rumor more than actual knowledge, the scuttlebud was that they knew Jimmy wasted the brother but they were scared, afraid okay, to nab him since they did not want to share that fellow officer’s fate. Yah, Jimmy was tough, tough on his women too (except his Ma of course), had belted more than one around for looking in another guy's direction or had asked him for pocket change to make herself look beautiful for him. (According to legend, one of his dolls, the old man’s childhood best friend’s mother had asked for beautiful dough, got slammed in the face a couple of times for it with the remark that all he care about beauty was their rustling the bed sheets in the dark of night and so she didn’t need any such day light works. She thereafter shot him with his own gun in the foot and she lived to tell about it. Something about her being crazier than him got her a reprieve. But that stuff was a rumor so who knows)

Jimmy got tired of that aimless hired gun rooty-toot-toot work quickly and as the Prohibition cop heat was turned up he became an armed outrider for illegal liquor coming in from Canada down through New Hampshire. And here is where Jimmy built his legend, built it solid. One night, maybe when the moon was down, Jimmy single-handedly ambushed a huge whiskey load that his bosses, the Mariano brothers, were shipping down to the thirsty Boston market, ambushed it easily and then drove down though the back roads of New Hampshire with. Simple work. But that was not the end of the story. No, see the coppers were looking for that load and had a stake-out ready around Nashua, maybe a little north of there, Jimmy spotted it and just rammed through sending a police car with at least one copper (although he always claimed two) home to his maker. Beautiful. The old man mused once again as he moved along that those two kids at the pizza parlor would have wet their pants, or worse, even thinking about the hell rain hell that would come down on them , if they wasted a cop, even a silly rent-a-cop private cop.

Yes Jimmy Cagney was a piece of work. He came out of the old Pond Street slums when they were the dead-end, dead-ass, dead- hope and maybe even just dead- dead places that have not changed with the turn of the centuries. Mother and father, as to be expected when a wild child is born, a child of the moon, hard-working, god-fearing, god-praising, god-damning people from the old country, the old sod, Ireland and thankful for the Pond Street cold-water flats, and a roof over their heads (not always true in the old sod, many a night they slept under the stars, or better under the mists and fogs). But Jimmy caught on early, got street smart early, and because he was just a little bit smarter than the Pond Street corner boys that he ganged up with he became their leader, not with brawn, not with big book brains, but with street smarts, street smarts that made the others ride the wave with him. And for a while that gang thing, the nickel and dime heists, the midnight grifts, the small penny ante jack-rolls, got them by. But such small beer is not for everybody and so Jimmy drifted away, drifted into the "hit man" racket mentioned above for a minute, found that he liked being a stone-cold killer, killing without remorse, killing without motive if it came right down to it, killing for pay and so killing coolly and once a man got that feeling, that invincible feeling in his blood then he had to, hear this one and all, had to play his hand to the end. And that high-jacked whiskey heist was the beginning of playing that hand out.

Needless to say, at least for the old man’s generation, if not for those hombres hanging in front of Mom’s that day the trajectory of Jimmy Cagney’s life was a source of wonder, of emulation, and, for a few maybe a cautionary tale. Let’s let the old man finish up with what he knew, and he knew a lot because in his generation, his corner boy generation, such facts were important, important for some career path out of the slums (or as put in his day “the projects”). Jimmy parlayed that first whiskey heist into another big haul, a haul that everybody watched to see which way the winds would blow. Who, if anybody, was going to play king of the hill with Jimmy. So, naturally, as even criminal enterprises abhor a vacuum, need a leader, those guys, the Mariano brothers and so Italian which fit part of the ethnic configuration in that grey underworld, that Jimmy shafted once they heard that he was going to take a run from the border on his own hired some muscle, hired some tough boys, and were ready to ambush Jimmy’s cargo just short of the Massachusetts border, up around Salem, New Hampshire. But Jimmy prevailed for one simple reason, or really two, one he had sent well-disguised outriders well in advance of the shipment and knew, knew exactly where he was going to be hit, and two, he had more fire-power, more hard guys, and, frankly, more ruthless guys that the brothers. Nobody ever really got a count on the dead that night (some dead were carried away to throw off the cops, others maybe died later) but a police report of the scene later released spoke of a bloodbath and of the broken bodies of known underworld figures, the Mariano brother, RIP…

And so Jimmy reigned, reigned for a long time, brought some of the smaller brotherhoods under his wing, expanded his operations to prostitution, gambling, midnight art and jewelry heists and finally drugs when they became the object of desire for a world weary of the red scare cold war reality in the 1950s. But see, like in Jimmy’s time, there are always hungry guys ready to take serious risks, take serious murder and mayhem risks, to take the huge profits from easy street. And so Jimmy, thinking that drugs were not different from the old illegal liquor market, played his hand the old way. Dared anybody to mess with him, to mix it up with him with some gun play if they wanted to take his action. The problem was that he had maybe grown soft, maybe didn’t see how far hungry fellahin guys who lived on faraway garbage heaps were willing to go for the easy street dream, and maybe too had just lost a step or two in that hard world. So one night, one moonless night, Jimmy Cagney’s body was found riddled along the river near Boston, the Mystic River for anybody asking, with about fourteen bullets from an automatic, with a note written in Spanish proclaiming a new jefe, a new patron. Yes, the old man thought those Mom’s Pizza Parlor corner boys would not understand that world, did not want to understand that world, and had better just find whatever place assigned to them that they could find in that world because if Jimmy Cagney, a king hell king born and bred, could tumble, what chance did they have…

***From The May Day 2012 Organizing Archives –May Day 2013 Needs The Same Efforts

Boston's International Workers Day 2013


BMDC International Workers Day Rally
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at Boston City Hall
Gather at 2PM - Rally at 2:30PM
(Court St. & Cambridge St.)
T stops Government Center (Blue line, Green line)
To download flyer click here. (Please print double-sided)

Other May Day events:

Revere - @ City Hall - gather at 3:pmbegin marching at 3:30 (to Chelsea)
Everett - @ City Hall - gather at 3:pm begin marching at 3:30 (to Chelsea)
Chelsea - @ City Hall - rally a 3:pm (wait for above feeder marches to arrive) will begin marching at 4:30 (to East Boston)
East Boston - @ Central Square - (welcome marchers) Rally at 5:pm

BMDC will join the rally in East Boston immediately following Boston City Hall rally

Supporters: ANSWER Coalition, Boston Anti Authoritarian Movement, Boston Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee, Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition, Harvard No-Layoffs Campaign, Industrial Workers of the World, Latinos for Social Change, Mass Global Action, Sacco & Vanzetti Commemoration Society, Socialist Alternative, Socialist Party of Boston, Socialist Workers Party, Student Labor Action Movement, USW Local 8751 - Boston School Bus Drivers Union, Worcester Immigrant Coalition, National Immigrant Solidarity Network, Democracy Center - Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridge/Somerville/Arlington United for Justice with Peace, International Socialist Organization, Community Church of Boston

*********

MAY DAY 2012 Actions: A Day Without the 99% [draft working title only]

In late December 2011 the General Assembly (GA) of Occupy Los Angeles, in the aftermath of the stirring and successful November 2nd Oakland General Strike and December 12th West Coast Port Shutdown, issued a call for a national and international general strike centered on immigrant rights, environmental sustainability, a moratorium on foreclosures, an end to the wars, and jobs for all. [needs more work] These and other political issues associated with the Occupy movement were to be featured in actions set for May Day 2012. May Day is the historic international working class holiday celebrated in many parts of the world since the time of the Haymarket Martyrs in Chicago in 1886 and more recently a time for the hard pressed immigrant communities here in America to join together in the fight against deportations and a saner governmental immigration policy.

Some political activists here in Boston, mainly connected with Occupy Boston (OB), decided just after the new year to support that general strike call and formed the General Strike Occupy Boston working group (GSOB) which has met, more or less weekly from 5:15-6:45 PM at Encuentro 5 since then to plan our own May Day actions as part of the international observance. The first step in that process was to bring a resolution incorporating the Occupy Los Angeles issues before the G A of Occupy Boston for approval. That resolution was approved by GA on January 8, 2012.

Early discussions within the working group centered on drawing the lessons of the West Coast actions last fall. Above all what is and isn’t a general strike. Traditionally a general strike, as witness the recent actions in Greece and other countries, is called by workers’ organizations and/or parties for a specified period of time in order to shut down substantial parts of the capitalist economy over some set of immediate demands. A close analysis of the West Coast actions showed a slightly different model one based on community pickets of specified industrial targets, downtown street mass actions, and scattered individual and collective acts of solidarity like student support strikes and sick outs. Additionally small business and other allies were asked to close and closed in solidarity.

That latter model seemed more appropriate to the tasks at hand in Boston given its sparse recent militant labor history and that it is a hub as a financial, technological and education center. We also came to a realization that successful actions in Boston on May Day 2012 would not necessarily exactly follow the long established radical and labor traditions of the West Coast as well. Our actions and activities have since reflected that understanding. Our focus will be actions and activities that respond and reflect the Boston political situation as we attempt to create, re-create really, an on-going May Day tradition beyond the observance of the day by labor radicals and the immigrant communities in and around Boston.

Over the past several years, starting in 2006, the Hispanic and other immigrant communities have been celebrating May Day as a day of action on the very pressing problem of immigration status as well as the traditional working class solidarity holiday in their own respective countries of origin. Thus it was no accident that Occupy Los Angeles, scene of massive immigration actions in the past and currently one of the areas facing the brunt of the deportation drives by the Obama administration, would be in the lead to call for national actions this year. One of the first steps our working group took was to try to reach out to the already existing Boston May Day Coalition (BMDC), which has spearheaded the annual marches and rallies in the immigrant communities, in order to learn of their experiences and to coordinate actions. After making such efforts our working group has joined forces with BMDC in order to coordinate the over-all May Day actions.

Taking our cue from the broader Occupy May Day movement, especially the broader and more inclusive messages coming out of Occupy Wall Street we have centered our slogans around the theme of “Occupy May First - A Day Without the 99%” in order to, in short, highlight the fact that labor creates all the wealth, and in keeping with the efforts initiated last fall in Boston when the Occupy movement began here. [needs work]

On May Day we are calling on the 99% to strike, skip work, walk out of school, and refrain from shopping, banking and business in order to implement that slogan. We encourage working people to request the day off, or to call in sick. Small businesses are encouraged to close for the day and join the rest of the 99% in the streets. For students at all levels we are calling for a walk-out of classes. Further to occupy the universities and create alternative education formats (?). With a huge student population of over 250,000 in the Boston area no-one-size-fits-all strategy seems appropriate. Each kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, graduate school and wayward think tank should plan its own strike actions although convergence at a central place for all is recommended. [needs work]

In the early hours on May 1st members of the 99% will converge on the Boston Financial District for a day of direct action to demand an end to corporate rule and a shift of power to the people. The Financial District Block Party will start at 7:00 AM on the corner of Federal Street & Franklin Street in downtown Boston. Banks and corporations are strongly encouraged to close down for the day.

At noon there will be a May Day rally at Boston City Hall Plaza sponsored by BMDC and GSOB [is that right?] followed by solidarity marches, especially the traditional immigrant community- centered one that starts in East Boston and this year will culminate in Everett. Other activities that afternoon for those who chose not to go to East Boston will be scheduled in and around the downtown area.

Other actions are planned for the evening for those who cannot for whatever reasons participant in the daytime actions. The main point is that whatever your own personal circumstances may be we call upon all to do one, or more, of the following- No work. No school. No chores. No shopping. No banking. Let’s show the 1% that we have the power. Let’s show the world what a day without the 99% really means. [needs work] And let’s return to the old traditions of May Day as a day of international solidarity with our working and oppressed sisters and brothers around the world. All Out For May Day 2012!

Out In The Be-Bop 18^th Century Night- The Time Of The Georges-W.A. Speck’s Stability And Strife-England, 1714-1760

Book Review

Stability And Strife-England, 1914-1760, W.A. Speck, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1977

One thing is for sure, as W.A. Speck makes clear in his above- titled book which was part of a general history of England published by Harvard University Press many years ago, in 18^thcentury England it did not pay to be a Catholic, royal or otherwise, if you wanted to be the king or queen of England. That fact goes a long way in describing the strife part of the book. The stability part comes mainly from a resolution of that conflict in favor an eternal Protestant succession mandated by Parliament as it nibbled away at the royal prerogative and as it vanquished the expectations of the House of Stuart that had animated the political life of England for most of the previous century (and subsequently after the union, Great Britain).

Of course within the changes of political and social infrastructure in the early 18^th century began the period of the slow accumulation of attributes that would later in the century make Great Britain the first serious capitalist society. And so Professor Speck links all of the major trends that went into producing that change, some by happenstance others as a matter of governmental or economic policy. But the first consideration needed to be a final resolution of the monarchial succession in the Protestant line (there was no serious republic effort in that century unlike the previous one under Cromwell or the next one with the Chartist movement). And that causes serious divisions at one point between the two main political divisions, Tories and Whigs, over the nature, extent, and legitimacy of royal power.

Professor Speck spends no little time on this controversy from the original divisions in Parliament (and society) between what became the Tory and Whig parties over the various claims of the Stuarts which do not finally get fully resolved until mid-century with the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charles and his ill-fated attempted military invasion of England. The stabilization of the succession in the House of Hanover early in this period through the reigns of staid George I and George II though made such movements much more unlikely of success. Moreover, as part of the grand social bargain the Parliament during this period began to whittle away at various prerogatives with the expansion of a more royally independent cabinet government, changes in election laws and the overwhelming dominance of one party, the Whigs, in Parliament during much of this period.

Professor Speck also argues that the state Anglican Church during this period finally chases off other contenders for that role (and the fight, left over from the previous century, of having any established state church) and takes a less prominent role in the social and moral conditioning of the population. It becomes a more benign institution. He also addresses the important changes in the English economy during this period with the rise and solidification of the hold of the squirarchy and the city merchants (and the various mixing s of the two segments of society) as the dominant force driving the new expanding economy. The role of financial institutional, especially those that dealt with international transactions was greatly expanded during this period. Most importantly Professor Speck makes a very compelling case (as E.P. Thompson did for the rise of the working class in the next century) for the way that a ruling class (beyond the royal family, its hangers-on, and the nobility), a conscious ruling class, emerged during this period that would dominant English life for the next couple of centuries. That factor is his prima facie case for the stability aspect of his title.

The professor also delves into the various Parliamentary and cabinet ministry crises of the period beginning with the aforementioned succession crisis, the various ministerial combinations and splits that evolved over both domestic and foreign policy (and as an added factor the role the Hanover question played since both Georges held power there as well). He goes through the various maneuvers of such historic parliamentary figures as Stanhope, Walpole, the Pelhams, and the rise of Pitt. This section is frankly less well done, or rather less interesting, since the great outlines of what is to come have already been laid done in the first section of the book and so the squabbles of a small minority of powerful men (almost totally men)is less evocative and made me long for the in-fighting in old Oliver’s time. But read this book to get an idea of what England was like just before the big capitalist explosion decisively shook things up in the world.

LEON TROTSKY AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, PART 2

LEON TROTSKY AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, Part 2

BOOK REVIEW

THE CHALLENGE OF THE LEFT OPPOSITION (1926-27), LEON TROTSKY, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1980

If you are interested in the history of the International Left or are a militant trying to understand some of the past lessons of our history concerning the communist response to various social and labor questions this book is for you. This book is part of a continuing series of volumes in English of the writings of Leon Trotsky, Russian Bolshevik leader, from the start in 1923 of the Left Opposition in the Russian Communist Party that he led through his various exiles up until his assassination by a Stalinist agent in 1940. These volumes were published by the organization that James P. Cannon, early American Trotskyist leader founded, the Socialist Workers Party, in the 1970’s and 1980’s. (Cannon’s writings in support of Trotsky’s work are reviewed elsewhere in this space) Look in this space under this byline for other related reviews of this series of documents on and by this important world communist leader.

Since the volumes in the series cover a long period of time and contain some material that , while of interest, is either historically dated or more fully developed in Trotsky’s other separately published major writings I am going to organize this series of reviews in this way. By way of introduction I will give a brief summary of the events of the time period of each volume. Then I will review what I believe is the central document of each volume. The reader can then decide for him or herself whether my choice was informative or not.

The period under discussion is one when Stalin further consolidates his hold on the party and state bureaucracy and begins (along with Bukharin) a much more conciliatory policy toward the peasant, especially the rich peasant, the so-called kulak. Such a policy, essentially at the expense of the working class, makes no sense until it is understood that this is the long slippery slope to a theoretical and practical result of what the theory of ‘socialism in one country’ means in the reality of mid-1920’s Russia. As a result of the 1923-24 defeat of the Left Opposition, the way the Soviet Union was ruled, who ruled and for what purposes all changed. The defeat of the Joint Left Bloc here on underlined that change.

On the international level the ill-fated British-Russian  trade union alliance and the utterly disastrous policy toward the Chinese Revolution meant a dramatic shift from episode mistakes of policy toward revolution in other countries to a conscious set of decisions to make the Communist International, in effect, solely an arm of Soviet foreign policy. Make no mistake this is the ebb tide of the revolution.

In a sense if the fight in 1923-24 is the decisive fight to save the Russian revolution (and ultimately a perspective of international revolution) then the 1926-27 fight which was a bloc between Trotsky’s forces and the just defeated forces of Zinoviev and Kamenev, Stalin’s previous allies was the last rearguard action to save that perspective.    That it failed nevertheless does not deny the importance of the fight. Yes, it was a political bloc with some serious differences especially over China and the Anglo-Russian Committee. But two things are important here One- did a perspective of a new party make sense at the time of the clear waning of the revolutionary ebbing the country. No. Besides the place to look was at the most politically conscious elements, granted against heavy odds, in the party where whatever was left of the class-conscious elements of the working class were. As I have noted elsewhere in discussing the 1923 fight- that “Lenin levy” of raw recruits, careerists and just plain thugs was the key element in any defeat. Still the fight was necessary. Hey, that is why we talk about it now. That was a fight to the finish. After that the left opposition or elements of it were forever more outside the party- either in exile, prison or dead. As we know Trotsky went from expulsion from the party in 1927 to internal exile in Alma Ata in 1928 to external exile to Turkey in 1929. From there he underwent further exiles in France, Norway, and Mexico when he was finally felled by a Stalinist assassin. But no matter when he went he continued to struggle for his perspective.

Communists have always prided themselves on the creation production and distribution of their programs. Many a hard fought hour has been spent perfectly such documents. In this the Left Opposition held to tradition. For communist program is not only important, it is decisive. Tell me your program and I will tell you where you fit politically (in the communist movement). Unlike bourgeois parties and politicians who have paper programs, easier for disposal, the idea of program is to focus the way to fight for power. Thus, the key document in this selection is the Platform of the Left Opposition which was geared to the 15^th Russian party Congress. While not perfect or complete due to the bloc-nature of the opposition at that time it gives a pretty good idea of how to get the Soviet Union out of some of the extensive internal economic difficulties created by the Stalinist/Bukharinite ‘soft’ agricultural policy, increase internal party democracy and break the Soviet Union out of its international isolation. Hell, some of the points in the program read as if they were written today. Serious militant leftists will want to look at this document in order figure out the program necessary to tackle today’s struggles.

 

 

 

 

LEON TROTSKY AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, PART I

LEON TROTSKY AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, PART I

BOOK REVIEW

THE CHALLENGE OF THE LEFT OPPOSITION (1923-25), LEON TROTSKY, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1975

If you are interested in the history of the International Left or are a militant trying to understand some of the past lessons of our history concerning the communist response to various social and labor questions this book is for you. This book is part of a continuing series of volumes in English of the writings of Leon Trotsky, Russian Bolshevik leader, from the start in 1923 of the Left Opposition in the Russian Communist Party that he led through his various exiles up until his assassination by a Stalinist agent in 1940. These volumes were published by the organization that James P. Cannon, early American Trotskyist leader founded, the Socialist Workers Party, in the 1970’s and 1980’s. (Cannon’s writings in support of Trotsky’s work are reviewed elsewhere in this space) Look in this space for other related reviews of this series of documents on and by this important world communist leader.

Since the volumes in the series cover a long period of time and contain some material that , while of interest, is either historically dated or more fully developed in Trotsky’s other separately published major writings I am going to organize this series of reviews in this way. By way of introduction I will give a brief summary of the events of the time period of each volume. Then I will review what I believe is the central document of each volume. The reader can then decide for him or herself whether my choice was informative or not.

Although there were earlier signs that the Russia revolution was going off course the long illness and death of Lenin in 1924, at the time the only truly authoritative leader the Bolshevik party, set off a power struggle in the leadership of the party. This fight had Trotsky and the ‘pretty boy’ intellectuals of the party on one side and Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev (the so-called triumvirate).backed by the ‘gray boys’ of the emerging bureaucracy on the other. This struggle occurred against the backdrop of the failed revolution in Germany in 1923 and which thereafter heralded the continued isolation, imperialist blockade and economic backwardness of the Soviet Union for the foreseeable future.

While the disputes in the Russian party eventually had international ramifications in the Communist International, they were at this time fought out almost solely with the Russian Party.  Trotsky was slow, very slow to take up the battle for power that had become obvious to many elements in the party. He made many mistakes and granted too many concessions to the trio. But he did fight.  Although later (in 1935) Trotsky recognized that the 1923 fight represented a fight against the Russian Thermidor (from an analogy with the period of the French Revolution where the radical regime of Robespierre and Saint Just was overthrown by more moderate Jacobins) and thus a decisive turning point for the revolution that was not clear to him (or anyone else on either side) then. Whatever the appropriate analogy might have been Leon Trotsky was in fact fighting a last ditch effort to retard the further degeneration of the revolution. After that defeat, the way the Soviet Union was ruled, who ruled and for what purposes all changed. And not for the better.

The most important document in this volume is clearly and definitely Trotsky’s Lessons of October. Although there are a couple of other documents of interest- The New Course, his program to try to bring the agrarian and the industrial crisis  into focus- and The Problems of Civil War- Trotsky’s contribution to the so-called “literary discussion” in the party far outdistances those documents in importance. When this document hit the press there was definitely gnashing of teeth by the ruling trio in the Kremlin- Why? Lessons of October is essentially  a polemic against fainted-hearted, opportunist failure to appreciate both the rarity of a revolutionary moment and the necessity to have a sharp combat- tested organization to take advantage of that situation. Moreover, this polemic was a direct attack on Zinoviev and Kamenev for their position against insurrection at the time of revolution and on Stalin’s March, 1917 call for political support to the bourgeois Provisional Government.

George Bernard Shaw once called Trotsky the “Prince of Pamphleteers” and he certainly earns that title in Lessons of October. Alas, those who write the best polemics do not necessarily win the power. Those 200,000 plus politically immature or careerist new party members beholding to the increasingly Stalinist bureaucracy drafted under the “Lenin Levy” saw the writing on the wall differently. That was decisive. Nevertheless, Lessons of October is not just any political document- it is an essential document for the education of today’s militants. It bears reading, re-reading, and reading again. I know I always get something new out of it each time I read it.  

DEFEATED, BUT UNBOWED-THE WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY, 1929-1940

BOOK REVIEWS

If you are interested in the history of the International Left in the first half of the 20^th century or are a militant trying to understand some of the past lessons of our history concerning the communist response to various social and labor questions this book is for you. I have reviewed elsewhere Trotsky’s writings published under the title The Left Opposition, 1923-1929 (in three volumes) dealing with Trotsky’s internal political struggles for power inside the Russian Communist Party (and by extension, the political struggles inside  the Communist International) in order to save the Russian Revolution.  This book is part of a continuing series of volumes in English of his writings from his various points of external exile from 1929 up until his death in 1940. These volumes were published by the organization that James P. Cannon, early American Communist Party and later Trotskyist leader founded, the Socialist Workers Party, during the 1970’s and 1980’s. (Cannon’s writings in support of Trotsky’s work are reviewed elsewhere in this space). Look in the archives in this space for other related reviews on and by this important world communist leader.

To set the framework for these reviews I will give a little personal, political and organizational sketch of the period under discussion. After that I will highlight some of the writings from each volume that are of continuing interest. Reviewing such compilations is a little hard to get a handle on as compared to single subject volumes of Trotsky’s writing but, hopefully, they will give the reader a sense of the range of this important revolutionary’s writings.

After the political defeat of the various Trotsky-led Left Oppositions 1923 to 1929 by Stalin and his state and party bureaucracy he nevertheless found it far too dangerous to keep Trotsky in Moscow. He therefore had Trotsky placed in internal exile at Ata Alma in the Soviet Far East in 1928. Even that turned out to be too much for Stalin’s tastes and in 1929 he arranged for the external exile of Trotsky to Turkey. Although Stalin probably rued the day that he did it this exile was the first of a number of places which Trotsky found himself in external exile. Other places included, France, Norway and, finally, Mexico where he was assassinated by a Stalinist agent in 1940. As these volumes, and many others from this period attest to, Trotsky continued to write on behalf of a revolutionary perspective. Damn, did he write. Some, including a few of his biographers, have argued that he should have given up the struggle, retired to who knows where, and acted the role of proper bourgeois writer or professor. Please! These volumes scream out against such a fate, despite the long odds against him and his efforts on behalf of international socialist revolution. Remember this is a revolutionary who had been through more exiles and prisons than one can count easily, held various positions of power and authority in the Soviet state and given the vicissitudes of his life could reasonably expect to return to power with a new revolutionary upsurge. Personally, I think Trotsky liked and was driven harder by the long odds.

The political prospects for socialist revolution in the period under discussion are, to say the least, rather bleak, or ultimately turned out that way. The post-World War I revolutionary upsurge has dissipated leaving Soviet Russia isolated. Various other promising revolutionary situations, most notably the aborted German revolution of 1923 that would have gone a long way to saving the Russian Revolution, had come to nought. In the period under discussion there is a real sense of defensiveness about the prospects for revolutionary change. The specter of fascism loomed heavily and we know at what cost to the international working class. The capitulation to fascism by the German Communist and Social Democratic Parties in 1933, the defeat of the  heroic Austrian working class in 1934, the defeat in Spain in 1939, and the outlines of the impending Second World War colored all political prospects, not the least Trotsky’s.

Organizationally, Trotsky developed two tactical orientations. The first was a continuation of the policy of the Left Opposition during the 1920’s. The International Left Opposition as it cohered in 1930 still acted as an external and unjustly expelled faction of the official Communist parties and of the Communist International and oriented itself to winning militants from those organizations. After the debacle in Germany in 1933 a call for new national parties and a new, fourth, international became the organizational focus. Many of the volumes here contain letters, circulars, and manifestos around these orientations. The daunting struggle to create an international cadre and to gain some sort of mass base animate many of the writings collected in this series. Many of these pieces show Trotsky’s unbending determination to make a breakthrough. That these effort were, ultimately, militarily defeated during the course of World War Two does not take away from the grandeur of the efforts. Hats off to Leon Trotsky.

THE WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY, SUPPLEMENT (1929-33), PATHFINDER PRESS, NEW YORK, 1979

As to the 1929-33 Supplement the reviewer recommends a careful reading of the following articles: Tactics in the USSR (on how the opposition should conduct its propaganda campaign toward the rank and file of the Russian Communist Party); Prospects of the Communist League of America (on the internal difficulties facing the leadership and how to keep it from wreaking the fragile organization in the ‘dog days’ of its existence), Andreas Nin and Victor Serge (notes on two key Left Oppositionists who would later break ranks with Trotsky): On an Entry into the SAP (an important organizational article on the tactics of revolutionary regroupment with forces moving to the left of the Socialist and Communist Parties in Germany); and Trouble in the French Section (how the personal squabbles of a propaganda group paralyze a small organization.

DEFEATED, BUT UNBOWED-THE WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY, 1929-1940

DEFEATED, BUT UNBOWED-THE WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY, 1929-1940

BOOK REVIEWS

If you are interested in the history of the International Left in the first half of the 20^th century or are a militant trying to understand some of the past lessons of our history concerning the communist response to various social and labor questions this book is for you. I have reviewed elsewhere Trotsky’s writings published under the title The Left Opposition, 1923-1929 (in three volumes) dealing with Trotsky’s internal political struggles for power inside the Russian Communist Party (and by extension, the political struggles inside the Communist International) in order to save the Russian Revolution. This book is part of a continuing series of volumes in English of his writings from his various points of external exile from 1929 up until his death in 1940. These volumes were published by the organization that James P. Cannon, early American Communist Party and later Trotskyist leader founded, the Socialist Workers Party, during the 1970’s and 1980’s. (Cannon’s writings in support of Trotsky’s work are reviewed elsewhere in this space). Look in the archives in this space for other related reviews on and by this important world communist leader.

To set the framework for these reviews I will give a little personal, political and organizational sketch of the period under discussion. After that I will highlight some of the writings from each volume that are of continuing interest. Reviewing such compilations is a little hard to get a handle on as compared to single subject volumes of Trotsky’s writing but, hopefully, they will give the reader a sense of the range of this important revolutionary’s writings.

After the political defeat of the various Trotsky-led Left Oppositions 1923 to 1929 by Stalin and his state and party bureaucracy he nevertheless found it far too dangerous to keep Trotsky in Moscow. He therefore had Trotsky placed in internal exile at Ata Alma in the Soviet Far East in 1928. Even that turned out to be too much for Stalin’s tastes and in 1929 he arranged for the external exile of Trotsky to Turkey. Although Stalin probably rued the day that he did it this exile was the first of a number of places which Trotsky found himself in external exile. Other places included, France, Norway and, finally, Mexico where he was assassinated by a Stalinist agent in 1940. As these volumes, and many others from this period attest to, Trotsky continued to write on behalf of a revolutionary perspective. Damn, did he write. Some, including a few of his biographers, have argued that he should have given up the struggle, retired to who knows where, and acted the role of proper bourgeois writer or professor. Please! These volumes scream out against such a fate, despite the long odds against him and his efforts on behalf of international socialist revolution. Remember this is a revolutionary who had been through more exiles and prisons than one can count easily, held various positions of power and authority in the Soviet state and given the vicissitudes of his life could reasonably expect to return to power with a new revolutionary upsurge. Personally, I think Trotsky liked and was driven harder by the long odds.

The political prospects for socialist revolution in the period under discussion are, to say the least, rather bleak, or ultimately turned out that way. The post-World War I revolutionary upsurge has dissipated leaving Soviet Russiaisolated. Various other promising revolutionary situations, most notably the aborted German revolution of 1923 that would have gone a long way to saving the Russian Revolution, had come to nought. In the period under discussion there is a real sense of defensiveness about the prospects for revolutionary change. The specter of fascism loomed heavily and we know at what cost to the international working class. The capitulation to fascism by the German Communist and Social Democratic Parties in 1933, the defeat of the heroic Austrian working class in 1934, the defeat in Spain in 1939, and the outlines of the impending Second World War colored all political prospects, not the least Trotsky’s.

Organizationally, Trotsky developed two tactical orientations. The first was a continuation of the policy of the Left Opposition during the 1920’s. The International Left Opposition as it cohered in 1930 still acted as an external and unjustly expelled faction of the official Communist parties and of the Communist International and oriented itself to winning militants from those organizations. After the debacle in Germany in 1933 a call for new national parties and a new, fourth, international became the organizational focus. Many of the volumes here contain letters, circulars, and manifestos around these orientations. The daunting struggle to create an international cadre and to gain some sort of mass base animate many of the writings collected in this series. Many of these pieces show Trotsky’s unbending determination to make a breakthrough. That these effort were, ultimately, militarily defeated during the course of World War Two does not take away from the grandeur of the efforts. Hats off to Leon Trotsky.

THE WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY, 1939-40, PATHFINDER PRESS, NEW YORK, 1973      

As to the 1939-40 volume this reviewer recommends a careful reading of the following articles: On the Eve of World War II (an analysis of the impending war and what revolutionaries had to do when it came ): The German-Soviet Alliance (an interesting take on an policy that sent faint-hearted defenders of the Soviet Union overboard); The World Situation and Prospects (  an optimistic, and as it turned out too optimist assessment of the revolutionary prospects); Manifesto of the Fourth International on the Imperialist War and the Proletarian World Revolution (the program of the Fourth International for the war period and its aftermath);  and, Another Thought on Conscription (on the American conscription question and a first look at the ill-advised Proletarian Military Policy).

DEFEATED, BUT UNBOWED-THE WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY, 1929-1940

DEFEATED, BUT UNBOWED-THE WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY, 1929-1940

BOOK REVIEWS

If you are interested in the history of the International Left in the first half of the 20^th century or are a militant trying to understand some of the past lessons of our history concerning the communist response to various social and labor questions this book is for you. I have reviewed elsewhere Trotsky’s writings published under the title The Left Opposition, 1923-1929 (in three volumes) dealing with Trotsky’s internal political struggles for power inside the Russian Communist Party (and by extension, the political struggles inside the Communist International) in order to save the Russian Revolution. This book is part of a continuing series of volumes in English of his writings from his various points of external exile from 1929 up until his death in 1940. These volumes were published by the organization that James P. Cannon, early American Communist Party and later Trotskyist leader founded, the Socialist Workers Party, during the 1970’s and 1980’s. (Cannon’s writings in support of Trotsky’s work are reviewed elsewhere in this space). Look in the archives in this space for other related reviews on and by this important world communist leader.

To set the framework for these reviews I will give a little personal, political and organizational sketch of the period under discussion. After that I will highlight some of the writings from each volume that are of continuing interest. Reviewing such compilations is a little hard to get a handle on as compared to single subject volumes of Trotsky’s writing but, hopefully, they will give the reader a sense of the range of this important revolutionary’s writings.

After the political defeat of the various Trotsky-led Left Oppositions 1923 to 1929 by Stalin and his state and party bureaucracy he nevertheless found it far too dangerous to keep Trotsky in Moscow. He therefore had Trotsky placed in internal exile at Ata Alma in the Soviet Far East in 1928. Even that turned out to be too much for Stalin’s tastes and in 1929 he arranged for the external exile of Trotsky to Turkey. Although Stalin probably rued the day that he did it this exile was the first of a number of places which Trotsky found himself in external exile. Other places included, France, Norway and, finally, Mexico where he was assassinated by a Stalinist agent in 1940. As these volumes, and many others from this period attest to, Trotsky continued to write on behalf of a revolutionary perspective. Damn, did he write. Some, including a few of his biographers, have argued that he should have given up the struggle, retired to who knows where, and acted the role of proper bourgeois writer or professor. Please! These volumes scream out against such a fate, despite the long odds against him and his efforts on behalf of international socialist revolution. Remember this is a revolutionary who had been through more exiles and prisons than one can count easily, held various positions of power and authority in the Soviet state and given the vicissitudes of his life could reasonably expect to return to power with a new revolutionary upsurge. Personally, I think Trotsky liked and was driven harder by the long odds.

The political prospects for socialist revolution in the period under discussion are, to say the least, rather bleak, or ultimately turned out that way. The post-World War I revolutionary upsurge has dissipated leaving Soviet Russiaisolated. Various other promising revolutionary situations, most notably the aborted German revolution of 1923 that would have gone a long way to saving theRussian Revolution, had come to nought. In the period under discussion there is a real sense of defensiveness about the prospects for revolutionary change. The specter of fascism loomed heavily and we know at what cost to the international working class. The capitulation to fascism by the German Communist and Social Democratic Parties in 1933, the defeat of the heroic Austrian working class in 1934, the defeat in Spain in 1939, and the outlines of the impending Second World War colored all political prospects, not the least Trotsky’s.

Organizationally, Trotsky developed two tactical orientations. The first was a continuation of the policy of the Left Opposition during the 1920’s. The International Left Opposition as it cohered in 1930 still acted as an external and unjustly expelled faction of the official Communist parties and of the Communist International and oriented itself to winning militants from those organizations. After the debacle in Germany in 1933 a call for new national parties and a new, fourth, international became the organizational focus. Many of the volumes here contain letters, circulars, and manifestos around these orientations. The daunting struggle to create an international cadre and to gain some sort of mass base animate many of the writings collected in this series. Many of these pieces show Trotsky’s unbending determination to make a breakthrough. That these effort were, ultimately, militarily defeated during the course of World War Two does not take away from the grandeur of the efforts. Hats off to Leon Trotsky.

THE WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY, 1934-35, PATHFINDER PRESS, NEW YORK, 1971

As  to the 1934-35 writings this reviewer recommends a careful reading of the following articles: Bonapartism and Fascism (an extremely subtle and well-thought article on the similarities and differences between these two political forms of government, The Case of Zinoviev, Kamenev and Others (the first inkling of the later Moscow show trials of the old Bolsheviks and others); The Workers’ State, Thermidor and Bonapartism (an important theoretical and political correction about when the degeneration of the Russian Revolution began in earnest); and, the Seventh Congress of the Communist International (an analysis of the new ‘popular front’ strategy at what turned out to be the last Congress of the Communist International).