This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Chelsea Manning to get sex change treatments at military lockup, not civilian prison
The Pentagon said Wikileaker Chelsea Manning will undergo some basic gender reassignment treatments while at Leavenworth instead of being moved to a federal civilian prison for her therapies.
-/AFP/Getty ImagesU.S. Army Private First Class Chelsea Manning has been seeking sex change treatments for a year.
Under Pentagon approval, national security WikiLeaker Chelsea Manning is set to start undergoing sex change treatments in military prison and won't be transferred to a civilian prison, officials said.
The transgender ex-intelligence analyst will begin receiving early-stage gender reassignment treatments at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where she's serving 35 years for leaking a trove of sensitive state secrets to the whistleblower site in 2010 and 2011.
The decision comes as federal prison officials said they were rejecting the U.S. Army's bid to move Manning to a civilian jail, where she would reportedly get better treatment for gender dysphoria.
The condition makes her feel as though she's a woman trapped in a man's body, she's said.
The treatments were likely to include psychological counseling and a loosening of jail regulations that would allow her to wear women's underwear.
Hormone treatments were also on the table — something Manning has asked for since announcing after her 2013 conviction that she wanted to live as a woman and be called Chelsea, not Bradley.
Leavenworth is an all-male prison.
The decision to treat the 26-year-old disgraced soldier, approved by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, raised questions about whether she would eventually be moved to a women's jail.
Earlier this year, the Army began working on a proposal to transfer Manning to a facility run by the Bureau of Prisons, which provides gender reassignment treatments. Army prisons don't offer such therapies.
Manning's request for the treatments was the first ever by a military inmate.
But Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, fought to keep her in the military prison, saying she wouldn't be safe in a civilian lockup.
Coombs praised the Army's decision to treat his client.
"It has been almost a year since we first filed our request for adequate medical care," Coombs told The Associated Press. "I am hopeful that when the Army says it will start a 'rudimentary level' of treatment that this means hormone replacement therapy." With News Wire Services
NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, a personal hero of mine, has recently filed to renew his asylum in Russia. Exiled thousands of miles from friends and family, he awaits his fate. He learned from the example of another top hero of mine, Chelsea Manning. Manning helped inspire his revelations that if he released his vital information while in this country he would have been held incommunicado in isolation as Chelsea was for over ten months—in Snowden’s case probably for the rest of his life. And facing comparable charges to Chelsea’s, he would have no more chance than Chelsea to have a truly fair trial—being prevented by the prosecution and judge (as I was, forty years ago) from even raising arguments of public interest or lack of harm in connection with his disclosures. Contrary to the hollow advice of Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, if he were to return to America he would not be able to “make his case” neither “in court,” nor “to the public” from a prison cell. I am immensely thankful to both these young whistle-blowers who have so bravely stood up against the powerful forces of the US government in order to reveal corruption, illegal spying and war crimes. They were both motivated by their commitments to democracy and justice. They both chose to reveal information directly to the public, at great cost to themselves, so that citizens and taxpayers could be fully informed of the facts. They also revealed the amazing potential of new technologies to increase public access to information and strengthen democracy. It saddens me that our current political leaders, rather than embracing this potential, have chosen to tighten their strangleholds on power and information, turning away from both progress and justice.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act than every previous president combined. These heroes do not deserve to be thrown in prison or called a traitor for doing the right thing. Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of the Espionage Act—as if it were a British-type Official Secrets Act, never intended by Congress and a violation of our First Amendment—and Manning’s 35-year prison sentence will have a chilling effect on future citizens’ willingness to uncover hidden injustices. The government has already brought comparable charges against Snowden. The only remedy to this chilling precedent, designed to effect government whistle-blowers as a whole, is to overturn the Manning verdict. Given that Manning’s court martial produced the longest trial record in US military history, it will take a top legal team countless hours to prepare their defense. But as an Advisory Board member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, I was inspired by the way citizens around the world stepped forward to help fund a strong defense during Manning’s trial. I remain hopeful that enough people will recognize the immense importance of these appeals and will contribute to help us finish the struggle we started. That struggle, of course, is for a just political system and freedom for our whistle-blowers. Chelsea Manning has continued to demonstrate uncommon bravery and character, even from behind bars. With the New York Times Op-Ed she published last month, she has cemented her position as a compelling voice for government reform. Working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was privy to a special view of the inner-workings of our military’s propaganda systems. Despite her personal struggles, she felt compelled to share her knowledge of what was happening in Iraq with the Americans people. If the military hadn’t hidden the number of civilian casualties and incidences of torture detailed in the Iraq Logs she released, we would have known far sooner to expect the civil war that has gripped Iraq fully today. Her exposure of US knowledge of the corruption in Tunisia, by the dictator our government supported, was a critical catalyst of the non-violent uprising which toppled that dictator, in turn directly inspiring the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt and then the Occupy movement in the US I personally am inspired by Chelsea Manning as I am by Edward Snowden, which is why I have spent countless hours advocating for both of them. I’m asking you to join me today in supporting what I believe to be one of the most important legal proceedings in our country’s history. We are fortunate to have a truly impressive legal team that has agreed to partner with us. Already, our new appeals attorney Nancy Hollander and her team have begun to research legal strategies, and are collaborating with Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the international news media to highlight the significance of this case.
Chelsea is only 26 now, younger than I was when I learned to recognize the injustices of the Vietnam War. She wishes to complete her education, as I did, and go into public service. Imagine what great things she could both learn and teach the world if she were free. Now imagine if our corrupt government officials are allowed to get their way, holding her behind bars until life has almost passed her by, and extraditing Snowden to suffer the same outcome. What a sad result that would be for our country and our humanity.
I have been waiting forty years for a legal process to at long last prove the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act as applied to whistle-blowers (the Supreme Court has never yet addressed this issue). This appeals process can accomplish that, and it can reduce Chelsea’s sentence by decades. But unfortunately, without your help today it will not happen. We must raise $100,000 by September 1st, to ensure that Chelsea’s team have the resources to fully fight this stage of the appeals process. Unless Manning’s conviction is overturned in appeals, Snowden and many other whistle-blowers, today and in the future, will face a similar fate. And with them will perish one of the most critical lifelines for our democracy. But you can join me in fighting back. I’m asking you to do it for Chelsea, to do it for Snowden, and to do it because it’s the right thing to do to preserve our democracy. We can only win this great struggle with your help. Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today.
It’s time we band together on the right side of history once again.
July 18, 2014 by the Chelsea Manning Support Network
How Chelsea Manning sees herself -portrait by Alicia Neal
In a win for heroic WikiLeaks whistle-blower Chelsea (former Bradley) Manning, the Bureau of Prisons denied the Army’s request to transfer Manning into the civilian prison system. This would have allowed the Army to shunt their responsibility to provide proper health care to a transgender service member—a precedent setting situation that they have fought hard to avoid. The Army has now reluctantly agreed to provide a “rudimentary level” of gender-related health care at the Fort Leavenworth military prison, Kansas. The Chelsea Manning Support Network is pleased to announce that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been retained by Chelsea Manning to represent her interests going forward with this issue.
“We are monitoring the situation to ensure that the Army provides Ms. Manning with medically-necessary treatment consistent with their clear constitutional obligations and are prepared to take any legal action necessary to ensure that Ms. Manning receive the treatment that she needs without any further delay,” noted Chase Strangio, Staff Attorney with the ACLU’s LGBT & AIDS Project. Mr. Strangio added: “Yesterday, an unnamed defense department official leaked that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has authorized the Army to treat Chelsea Manning with “rudimentary” treatment for her diagnosed Gender Dysphoria. Chelsea Manning, who was sentenced last August to 35 years in prison, has been diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria by at least three military doctors and has now been waiting for treatment for nearly a year. Gender Dysphoria is a serious medical condition for which treatment, including hormone therapy, is often medically necessary. Withholding this treatment can lead to serious physical and psychological harms including depression, anxiety and suicidality.” Receiving care from Fort Leavenworth is a triumph for Chelsea Manning, whose request for treatment, “did not involve any request to be transferred,” stated Chelsea in May. “At the beginning of 2014, the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, KS and the Army Corrections Command were ready to approve and implement a treatment plan that at least conservatively met the standards set forth by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.”
In May, Manning’s trial attorney David Coombs addressed the Army’s attempt to avoid providing Chelsea with adequate medical care: “The military absolutely needs to revisit its “policy” on transgender medical care and adapt it to 21st century medical standards. It cannot continue to bury its head in the sand any longer. Although a very small number of military inmates are transferred to federal prison each year, this is only after all appeals have been exhausted and the military inmate has been discharged from the service. Chelsea’s appeals have not yet begun and her transfer to federal prison in these circumstances would be unprecedented.”
Mr. Coombs told the Associated Press yesterday that he was encouraged that the Army will begin medical treatment, noting that he is “hopeful that when the Army says it will start a ‘rudimentary level’ of treatment that this means hormone replacement therapy.”
Meanwhile, Manning’s new appellate legal team, led by Nancy Hollander and Vince Ward, of Albuquerque, NM, have begun preparing for the first stage of legal appeals, beginning with arguments before the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals next year. Supporters of Manning are hopeful that the appeals process will eventually overturn Espionage Act-based aspects of the sentence, possibly reducing jail time by decades. Manning’s significant and ongoing legal fees continue to be paid for by thousands of individual Americans, as well as concerned individuals worldwide.
Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel
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The Blues Ain’t Nothing But A Good
Woman On Your Mind- Mannish Child
From The Pen OfFrank Jackman
Johnny Prescott daydreamed his way
through the music that he was listening to just then on the little transistor
that Ma Prescott, Martha to adults, had given him for Christmas after he has
taken a fit when she quite reasonable suggested that a new set of ties to go
with his white long-sleeved shirts might be a better gift, a better Christmas
gift and more practical too, for a sixteen-year old boy. No, he had screamed he
wanted a radio, a transistor radio, batteries included, of his own so that he
could listen to whatever he liked up in his room, or wherever he was, and didn’t
have, understand, didn’t have to listen to some Vaughn Monroe singing about some
place over there, or Harry James’ Sentimental
Journey or Tommy Dorsey or his brother Jimmy doing the inevitable Tangerine 1940s war drum thing. Or
worse, the Inkspots, Jesus, he was tired of that spoken verse they include in
every freaking song doing I’ll Get By
or If I Didn’t Care which had to
listen to on the huge immobile radio complements of RCA Victor downstairs in
the Prescott living room.
Hearing shades of that stuff all day
every day when Ma Prescott got dreamy while dusting the furniture or washing
the floors had finally gotten to him. Even more disturbing than that was
passing through the downstairs on Saturday night after dinner, maybe out for
some elusive date or just hanging with the guys in front of Doc’s Drugstore
looking at the girls passing by or stepping inside every now and again to hear
what one of those girls was playing on Doc’s super-jack jukebox, and seeing his
mother and father gearing up for a full night, seven until eleven of that stuff
presented by Bill Marlowe on his Stagedoor
Johnny show on WJDA. Strictly squaresville, cubed.
[Hey, for a minute I forgot who my
audience might be. Sure those of you from the generation of ’68, those who for
a minute in the 1960s thought along with me that we might turn the world upside
down, might change things for little guys and gals for the better, turn things
around so that they might look like something we might just want to pass on to
the next generation know what a transistor radio was. Lived and died by that
neat invention invented by some guy who knew what the hell he was doing, knew
we who came of age in the cold war red scare 1950s needed our own way of
getting privacy and created a radio that was small enough to conceal, put in
our pockets if need be, and let us at the flick of a wrist listen to whatever
radio station was providing that be-bop music that we craved. Those of you not
from that generation of ’68 should know that this gizmo was like a primitive
iPOD or MP3 player except, well, except you could not download whatever songs
you were interested in. Yeah, I know primitive now but a breath of fresh age
back then when we needed to break-out from our parents’ music just like you and
every generation needs to do.]
So Johnny glad that he had won one
battle although he knew he was behind, seriously behind in the war, that
inevitable generational war (although he did not, and probably his parents did
not either if they had forgotten their own battles against intransigent
parents, know enough then to call the tussle of wills a battle) was primed to
go nightly to his room to hear all those songs that he first heard on that
Doc’s jukebox. But here was his dilemma, here is what he could not make heads
or tails out of at first. One night as he listened to this new record Shangra-la
by The Four Coins that just finished up a few seconds before and as this Banana
Boat song by The Tarriers was starting its dreary trip he was not sure that
those ties wouldn’t have been a better deal, and more practical too. Yeah, this
so-called rock station, WAPX out of North Adamsville, the closest station that
he could receive at night without some static in the air had sold out to, well,
sold out to somebody, because except for late at night, midnight late at night,
one could not hear the likes of Jerry Lee, Carl, Little Richard, Fats, and the
new, now that Elvis was gone, killer rocker, Chuck Berry who proclaimed loud
and clear that Mr. Beethoven had better move along, and said Mr. Beethoven best
tell one and all of his confederates, including Mr. Tchaikovsky that rock ‘n’
roll was the new sheriff in town. As he turned the volume down a little lower
(that tells the tale right there, friends) as Rainbow (where the hell do
they get these creepy songs from) by Russ Hamilton he was ready to throw in the
towel though.
Johnny could not quite figure how that
magic that first got him moving, first got him swaying his hips, first got him
feeling funny thoughts about girls and how they had changed from being kind of just
plain nuisances (and they were, no question in Johnny’s mind about that) to kind of nice to
have around changed and why. Changed from every guy around town (young guys anyway,
the guys who counted) wearing sideburns, wearing a swagger, and wearing a sneer
that they hoped some foxy girl would wipe off their faces (and the girls, those
not totally and fantastically addicted to the “king” himself, were hoping that
they could wipe off). Changed from running, yes, running home after school each
and every week day afternoon to watch on television for the latest dances and
tunes on American Bandstand (and the latest foxy chicks too don’t forget
that Johnny) ever since Bill Haley and the Comets rocked the joint, or beloved
Eddie Cochran went summertime blues crazy. Changed from sexually-charged lyrics
by Chuck Berry and what he would do, or not do, to his sweet little sixteen.
Changed from the high energy explosion of Jerry Lee working off the back of
some hokey flatbed truck, piano keys flailing away, hair bouncing with the
beat, on High School Confidentialin the movie by the same name when he put his
name forward as the new king of the rock hill (although the movie itself was
kind of dippy). Yeah, changed to guys like Fabian, Bobby Vee, and Neil Sedeka who you would not dream of hanging around
with, would not allow on your corner boy corner but who all the girls, well,
most all of the girls flipped out over. Worse, worse than anything else these
guys and their music was stuff that parents actually went for, saw as innocent and
nice. Jesus.
Desperate he fingered the dial looking
for some other station when he heard this crazy piano riff starting to breeze
through the night air, the heated night air, and all of a sudden Ike Turner’s Rocket
88 blasted the airwaves. But funny it didn’t sound like the whinny Ike’s
voice so he listened for a little longer, and as he later found out from the DJ
it was actually a James Cotton Blues Band cover. After that performance was
finished fish-tailing right after that one was a huge harmonica intro and what
could only be mad-hatter Junior Wells doing When My Baby Left Me
splashed through. No need to turn the dial further now because what Johnny
Prescott had found in the crazy night air, radio beams bouncing every which
way, was direct from Chicago, and maybe right off those hard-hearted Maxwell
streets was Be-Bop Benny’s Chicago Blues
Radio Hour. Be-Bop Benny who started Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Fats
Domino on their careers, or helped.
Now Johnny, like every young
high-schooler, every "with it" high school-er in the USA, had heard
of this show, because even though everybody was crazy for rock and roll, just
now the airwaves sounded like, well, sounded like music your parents would
dance to, no, sit to at a dance, some kids still craved high rock. So this show
was known mainly through the teenage grapevine but Johnny had never heard it before
because, no way, no way in hell was his punk little Radio Shack transistor
radio with two dinky batteries going to ever have the strength to pick Be-Bop Benny’s live show out
in Chicago. So Johnny, and maybe rightly so, took this turn of events for a
sign. And so when he heard that distinctive tinkle of the Otis Spann piano
warming up to Spann’s Stomp and up with his Someday added in he
was hooked. And you know he started to see what Billie, Billie Bradley from
over in Adamsville, meant when at a school dance where he had been performing
with his band, Billie and the Jets, he mentioned that if you want to get rock
and roll back you had better listen to blues, and if you want to listen to
blues, blues that rock then you had very definitely had better get in touch
with the Chicago blues as they came north from Mississippi and places like
that.
And Johnny thought, Johnny who have
never been too much south of Gloversville, or west of Albany, and didn’t know
too many people who had been further either, couldn’t understand why that beat,
that da, da, da, Chicago beat sounded like something out of the womb in his
head, sometime out of Mother Africa (although again what did he know of old
African instruments and that sound, that beat that seemed like eternity beating
on his brain). That beat turning his own very personal teen-age blues to something
else for the duration of the song anyway. But when he heard Big Walter Horton
wailing on that harmonica on Rockin’ My Boogie he knew it had to be in
his genes.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel
Tuesday, July 22 5:30pm Copley Sq, Boston Details at Facebook
Stand up and be counted
Ireland:
On The 75th Anniversary Year
Of The Defeat Of The Spanish Revolution- The Lessons Learned
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
In July 1936 General Franco led a military
uprising against the legally elected Popular Front government in Spain which
set off three years of war, set off the Spanish Civil War, which proved to be a
prelude, a “dress rehearsal” for World War II. That uprising, the initial massively
popular fight against it by the leftist workers and peasants, and the ultimate victory
by Franco’s forces and a forty year “night of the long knives” reign of terror
in 1939 is filled with lessons for leftists today. Therefore it seems fitting to
me that while we are sadly commemorating the 75th anniversary of the
defeat I can pass on some lessons that others have drawn from that experience both
while the events were unfolding and later.
********
Markin comment:
This blog had gotten my attention for two reasons: those rank and filers who fought to defend democracy, fight the fascists and fight for socialism in Spain for the most part, political opponents or not, were kindred spirits; and, those with first-hand knowledge of those times over seventy years ago are dwindling down to a precious few and so we had better listen to their stories while they are around to tell it. More, later. ********** Thoughts of the Evening: Olavi Kantola
September 18, 2011 By Alina Flinkman-->
Olavi Kantola Editor’s note: Olavi Kantola was a Finnish-American volunteer in the International Brigades. This text by Alina Flinkman appeared in the Finnish magazine Vaku in 1941. With thanks to Olavi’s nephew Bob Kantola. Translation by Sirpa Rautio.
It has been snowing heavily the whole day with the harsh Northerly wind blowing. At the break of the evening snowing has paused for a moment, and the wind is blowing with a wheezing sound, circling huge piles of snow, around the buildings and where ever there is a sheltered spot. The harsh and stormy weather has impact also on the human mind.
The newspaper is already read, and sowing and fixing clothes is not of interest for the moment, even for a farm (or peasant) women. So I am wondering what to do, as there is still evening left. I decided to pick up a book from the bookshelf to read, and my hand happened to touch a pile of pictures on the upper shelf. I started to look at the pictures one by one and found many with various groups of ex action-comrades (note – I am not sure what this is, but the translation is literal – probably refers to organized trade union or communist groups.) Many of the lives had already burnt down for ever (they had died). While thinking this and that, I happened to turn a picture of the first child gymnastic group in Superior, Wisconsin, at year 1923. Many of the children in the picture have grown up. Was thinking how have the winds of destiny been swinging your lives, others have had it worse, while some others have possibly been less dented in their lives. I had gone through the back row and moved on to the front row with three boys.
Olavi – you are a hero in that group. You have seen the grand new Soviet Union, where a new system is being built. You were helping to build it and you were satisfied with that system.
You came to your country of birth (translator’s note – not clear but I think it refers to USA rather than Finland) at the moment when assistance was given to the people of Spain in its fight for freedom and democratic rights against the Fascist beasts. You, Olavi, joined the troops, which went to defend workers’ rights. It was the most precious thing for you. You came to see the destruction of the war with all the brutality that went with it.
You managed to see and do a lot considering your young age. You sleep now for eternity there under the grass in Spain. But the memory of your heroism lives on!
Translator’s Note: Reading some excerpts of the letter, which he wrote to his mother before he went to fight, it becomes crystal clear he knew why he was going there:
“This as well is in accordance with those principles I have been thought ever since I was a child. Additionally, I am convinced that it is always in front of me in life to be at the line of fire, which ever country I am in. As I said in my previous letter, it is the task of my generation in this world to resolve the question for which Spartacus already hundreds years ago led the gladiators to fight. Will the workers class, the poor, always be persecuted or will we rise one day to finish off this system of exploitation? In these battles in the past hundreds of years thousands have died, but what is a more honorable death than to die for the future in which millions have a good life and to can build a world where they also benefit.
This experience, combined with my times in the Soviet Union, should make me a proper man for the working class. And then could the coming generations talk about me honestly and perfectly: He lived and died for the principles of Marx-Lenin-Stalin, which have won the freedom for the multimillions of Russians and which will produce the final victory for the entire working class, blacks, yellows and whites in the most distant and smallest corners of the globe. And when we bury the fascist and imperialist systems, my ghost will be there in the vicinity and smiling: It was not for nothing.”
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Friday, July 18, 2014
On The 75th Anniversary Year
Of The Defeat Of The Spanish Revolution- The Lessons Learned-THE SPANISH REVOLUTION, 1931-39, LEON TROTSKY
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
In July 1936 General Franco led a military
uprising against the legally elected Popular Front government in Spain which
set off three years of war, set off the Spanish Civil War, which proved to be a
prelude, a “dress rehearsal” for World War II. That uprising, the initial massively
popular fight against it by the leftist workers and peasants, and the ultimate victory
by Franco’s forces and a forty year “night of the long knives” reign of terror
in 1939 is filled with lessons for leftists today. Therefore it seems fitting to
me that while we are sadly commemorating the 75th anniversary of the
defeat I can pass on some lessons that others have drawn from that experience both
while the events were unfolding and later.
********
Reposted from the American Left History blog- June 6, 2006 BOOK REVIEW
THE SPANISH REVOLUTION, 1931-39, LEON TROTSKY, PATHFINDER PRESS, NEW YORK, 1973
THE CRISIS OF REVOLUTIONARY LEADERSHIP AS WE APPROACH THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BEGINNING OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR MILITANTS NEED TO LEARN THE LESSONS FOR THE DEFEAT OF THAT REVOLUTION. I have been interested, as a pro-Republican partisan, in the Spanish Civil War since I was a teenager. What initially perked my interest, and remains of interest, is the passionate struggle of the Spanish working class to create its own political organization of society, its leadership of the struggle against Spanish fascism and the romance surrounding the entry of the International Brigades, particularly the American Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the 15th Brigade, into the struggle.
Underlying my interests has always been a nagging question of how that struggle could have been won by the working class. The Spanish proletariat certainly was capable of both heroic action and the ability to create organizations that reflected its own class interests i.e. the worker militias and factory committees. Of all modern working class revolutions after the Russian revolution Spain showed the most promise of success. Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky noted that the political class consciousness of the Spanish proletariat at that time was higher than that of the Russian proletariat in 1917. Yet it failed in Spain. Trotsky's writings on this period represent a provocative and thoughtful approach to an understanding of the causes of that failure. Moreover, with all proper historical proportions considered, his analysis has continuing value as the international working class struggles against the seemingly one-sided class war being waged by the international bourgeoisie today.
The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 has been the subject of innumerable works from every possible political and military perspective possible. A fair number of such treatises, especially from those responsible for the military and political policies on the Republican side, are merely alibis for the disastrous policies that led to defeat. Trotsky's complication of articles, letters, pamphlets, etc. which make up the volume reviewed here is an exception. Trotsky was actively trying to intervene in the unfolding events in order to present a program of socialist revolution that most of the active forces on the Republican side were fighting, or believed they were fighting for. Thus, Trotsky's analysis brings a breath of fresh air to the historical debate. That in the end Trotsky could not organize the necessary cadres to carry out his program or meaningfully impact the unfolding events in Spain is one of the ultimate tragedies of that revolution. Nevertheless, Trotsky had a damn good idea of what forces were acting as a roadblock to revolution. He also had a strategic conception of the road to victory. And that most definitely was not through the Popular Front.
The central question Trotsky addresses throughout the whole period under review here was the crisis of revolutionary leadership of the proletarian forces. That premise entailed, in short, a view that the objective conditions for the success of a socialist program for society had ripened. Nevertheless, until that time, despite several revolutionary upheavals elsewhere, the international working class had not been successful anywhere except in backward Russia. Trotsky thus argued that it was necessary to focus on the question of forging the missing element of revolutionary leadership that would assure victory or at least put up a fight to the finish.
This underlying premise was the continuation of an analysis that Trotsky developed in earnest in his struggle to fight the Stalinist degeneration of the Russian Revolution in the mid-1920's. The need to learn the lessons of the Russian Revolution and to extend that revolution internationally was thus not a merely a theoretical question for Trotsky. Spain, moreover, represented a struggle where the best of the various leftist forces were in confusion about how to move forward. Those forces could have profitably heeded Trotsky's advice. I further note that the question of the crisis of revolutionary leadership still remains to be resolved by the international working class.
Trotsky's polemics in this volume are highlighted by the article ‘The Lessons of Spain-Last Warning’, his definitive assessment of the Spanish situation in the wake of the defeat of the Barcelona uprising in May 1937. Those polemics center on the failure of the Party of Marxist Unification (hereafter, POUM) to provide revolutionary leadership. That party, partially created by cadre formerly associated with Trotsky in the Spanish Left Opposition, failed on virtually every count. Those conscious mistakes included, but were not limited to, the creation of an unprincipled bloc between the former Left Oppositionists and the former Right Oppositionists (Bukharinites) of Maurin to form the POUM in 1935; political support to the Popular Front including entry into the government coalition by its leader; creation of its own small trade union federation instead of entry in the anarchist led-CNT; creation of its own militia units reflecting a hands-off attitude toward political struggle with other parties; and, fatally, an at best equivocal role in the Barcelona uprising of 1937.
Trotsky had no illusions about the roadblock to revolution of the policies carried out by the old-time Anarchist, Socialist and Communist Parties. Unfortunately the POUM did. Moreover, despite being the most honest revolutionary party in Spain it failed to keep up an intransigent struggle to push the revolution forward. The Trotsky - Andreas Nin (key leader of the POUM and former Left Oppositionist) correspondence in the Appendix makes that problem painfully clear.
The most compelling example of this failure - As a result of the failure of the Communist Party of Germany to oppose the rise of Hitler in 1933 and the subsequent decapitation and the defeat of the Austrian working class in 1934 the European workers, especially the younger workers, of the traditional Socialist Parties started to move left. Trotsky observed this situation and told his supporters to intersect that development by an entry, called the ‘French turn’, into those parties. Nin and the Spanish Left Opposition, and later the POUM failed to do that. As a result the Socialist Party youth were recruited to the Communist Party en masse. This accretion formed the basic for its expansion as a party and the key cadre of its notorious security apparatus that would, after the Barcelona uprising, suppress the more left ward organizations. For more such examples of the results of the crisis of leadership in the Spanish Revolution read this book.
Revised-June 19, 2006
Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel
Stop the Israeli assault on Gaza launched on July 8. End the Israeli blockade on Gaza ongoing since 2007. End American support and assistance for Israeli crimes.
Join together in Copley Square to speak out about the injustice in Palestine!
Bring your own signs for the rally and we will have candles for the vigil.
As Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza enters its second week, join with thousands across the world in demanding an end to Israel's collective punishment of Palestinians.
Take to the streets to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel, an end to the siege of Gaza, and an end to the occupation.
-/AFP/Getty ImagesU.S. Army Private First Class Chelsea Manning has been seeking sex change treatments for a year.
NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, a personal hero of mine, has recently filed to renew his asylum in Russia. Exiled thousands of miles from friends and family, he awaits his fate. He learned from the example of another top hero of mine, Chelsea Manning. Manning helped inspire his revelations that if he released his vital information while in this country he would have been held incommunicado in isolation as Chelsea was for over ten months—in Snowden’s case probably for the rest of his life. And facing comparable charges to Chelsea’s, he would have no more chance than Chelsea to have a truly fair trial—being prevented by the prosecution and judge (as I was, forty years ago) from even raising arguments of public interest or lack of harm in connection with his disclosures. Contrary to the hollow advice of Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, if he were to return to America he would not be able to “make his case” neither “in court,” nor “to the public” from a prison cell.
