From The Pen Of Vladimir Lenin -Leader Of The Russian October 1917 Revolution-Desperately Seeking Revolutionary Intellectuals-Now, And Then
   

A link below to the Lenin Internet Archives.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/

Markin comment from the American Left History blog:

DVD REVIEW

LENIN-VOICE OF THE REVOLUTION, A&E PRODUCTION, 2005

Every militant who wants to fight for socialism, or put the fight for socialism back on the front burner, needs tocome to terms with the legacy of Vladimir Lenin and his impact on 20th century revolutionary thought. Every radical who believes that society can be changed by just a few adjustments needs to address this question as well in order to understand the limits of such a position. Thus, it is necessary for any politically literate person of this new generation to go through the arguments both politically and organizationally associated with Lenin’s name. Before delving into his works a review of his life and times would help to orient those unfamiliar with the period. Obviously the best way to do this is read one of the many biographies about him. There is not dearth of such biographies although they overwhelmingly tend to be hostile. But so be it. For those who prefer a quick snapshot view of his life this documentary, although much, much too simply is an adequate sketch of the highlights of his life. It is worth an hour of your time, in any case.

The film goes through Lenin's early childhood, the key role that the execution of older brother Alexander for an assassination attempt on the Czar played in driving him to revolution, his early involvement in the revolutionary socialist movement, his imprisonment and various internal and external exiles, his role in the 1905 Revolution, his role in the 1917 Revolution, his consolidation of power through the Bolshevik Party and his untimely death in 1924. An added feature, as is usual in these kinds of films, is the use of ‘talking heads’ who periodically explain what it all meant. I would caution those who are unfamiliar with the history of the anti-Bolshevik movement that three of the commentators, Adam Ulam, Richard Daniels and Robert Conquest were ‘stars’ of that movement at the height of the anti-Soviet Cold War. I would also add that nothing presented in this biography, despite the alleged additional materials available with the‘opening’ of the Soviet files, that has not been familiar for a long time.

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

Desperately Seeking Revolutionary Intellectuals-Now, And Then

Commentary

No, this is not a Personals section ad, although it qualifies as a Help Wanted ad in a sense. On a number of occasions over past several years, in reviewing books especially those by James P. Cannon the founder of The Socialist Workers Party in America, I have mentioned that building off of the work of the classical Marxists, including that of Marx and Engels themselves, and later that of Lenin and Trotsky the critical problem before the international working class in the early part of the 20th century was the question of creating a revolutionary leadership to lead imminent uprisings. Armed with Lenin’s work on the theory of the imperialist nature of the epoch and the party question and Trotsky’s on the questions of permanent revolution and revolutionary timing the tasks for revolutionaries were more than adequately defined.

The conclusion that I drew from that observation was that the revolutionary socialist movement was not as desperately in need of theoreticians and intellectuals as previously (although having them is always a good thing). It needed leaders steeped in those theories and with a capacity to lead revolutions. We needed a few good day-to-day practical leaders to lead the fight for state power.

In that regard I have always held up, for the early part of the 20th century, the name Karl Liebknecht the martyred German Communist co-leader (along with Rosa Luxemburg) of the aborted Spartacist uprising of 1919 as such an example. In contrast the subsequent leadership of the German Communists in the 1920’s Paul Levi, Henrich Brandler and Ernest Thaelmann did not meet those qualifications. For later periods I have held up the name James P. Cannon, founder of the American Socialist Workers Party (to name only the organization that he was most closely associated with), as a model. That basically carries us to somewhere around the middle of the 20th century. Since I have spend a fair amount of time lately going back to try to draw the lessons of our movement I have also had occasion to think, or rather to rethink my original argument on the need for revolutionary intellectuals. That position stands in need of some amendment now.

Let’s be clear here about our needs. The traditional Marxist idea that in order to break the logjam impeding humankind’s development the international working class must rule is still on the historic agenda. The Leninist notions that, since the early part of the 20th century, we have been in the imperialist era and that a ‘hard’ cadre revolutionary party is necessary to take state power are also in play. Moreover, the Trotskyist understanding that in countries of belated development the working class is the only agency objectively capable of leading those societies to the tasks traditionally associated with the bourgeois revolution continues to hold true. That said, we are seriously in need of revolutionary intellectuals who can bring these understandings into the 21st century.


It is almost a political truism that each generation will find its own ways to cope with the political tasks that confront it. The international working class movement is no exception in that regard. Moreover, although the general outlines of Marxist theory mentioned above hold true such tasks as the updating of the theory of imperialism to take into account the qualitative leap in its globalization is necessary (as is, as an adjunct to that, the significance of the gigantic increases in the size of the ‘third world’ proletariat). Also in need of freshening up is work on the contours of revolutionary political organization in the age of high speed communications, the increased weight that non-working class specific questions play in world politics (the national question, religion, special racial and gender oppressions) and various other tasks that earlier generations had taken for granted or had not needed to consider. All this moreover has to be done in a political environment that sees Marxism, communism, even garden variety reform socialism as failed experiments. To address all the foregoing issues is where my call for a new crop of revolutionary intellectuals comes from.

Since the mid- 20th century we have had no lack of practical revolutionary leaders of one sort or another - one thinks of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and even Mao in his less rabid moments. We have witnessed any number of national liberation struggles, a few attempts at political revolution against Stalinism, a few military victories against imperialism, notably the Vietnamese struggle. But mainly this has been an epoch of defeats for the international working class. Moreover, we have not even come close to developing theoretical leaders of the statue of Lenin or Trotsky.

As a case in point, recently I made some commentary about the theory of student power in the 1960’s and its eventual refutation by the May 1968 General Strike lead by the working class in France. One of the leading lights for the idea that students were the ‘new’ working class or a ‘new’ vanguard was one Ernest Mandel. Mandel held himself out to be an orthodox Marxist (and Trotskyist, to boot) but that did not stop him from, periodically, perhaps daily, changing the focus of his work away from the idea of the centrality of the working class in social struggle an ideas that goes back to the days of Marx himself.

And Mandel, a brilliant well-spoken erudite scholar probably was not the worst of the lot. The problem is that he was the problem with his impressionistic theories based on , frankly, opportunistic impulses. Another example, from that same period, was the idea of Professor Regis Debray ( in the service of Fidel at the time ) that guerrilla foci out in the hills were the way forward ( a codification of the experience of the Cuban Revolution for which many subjective revolutionary paid dearly with their lives). Or the anti-Marxist Maoist notion that the countryside would defeat the cities that flamed the imagination of many Western radicals in the late 1960’s. I could go on with more examples but they only lead to one conclusion- we are, among other things, in a theoretical trough. This, my friends, is why today I have my Help Wanted sign out. Any takers?
 

ELECTION DAY, November 4:

One Million Massachusetts Workers Need the Right to Earned Sick Time!

 

Raise Up Massachusetts, which is leading the campaign, writes:

This weekend will mark 30 days from Election Day and we have a lot of work to do. We’re planning canvasses across the state and we need you to join us. So far, our canvasses have been great successes: volunteers have been able to talk to dozens of voters a shift and have meaningful conversations that have spread the message of our campaign.  But as we get closer to Election Day (again, we’re only 30 days out!), we need to start talking to even more voters every weekend. You can either sign up for an event near you, or if you there’s nothing close, sign up here to set up canvassing in your neighborhood.

 

Our friends at Massachusetts Peace Action are pitching in:

You can join Massachusetts Peace Action's work on this effort in several ways. 1) Volunteer for shifts at regional call centers in many towns around the state using the state of the art HubDialer system, which guarantees many contacts with voters.  2) Use your own phone and a computer at home to do a shift using HubDialer (after simple web based training in using the system).  3) Call from an old fashioned paper list. 4) Join door to door canvasses to reach likely supporters.  5) Reach out to family, friends, co-workers and in your community to those and ask them to sign a pledge a vote for Yes on 4.

Please click here to join in the Raise Up Campaign by volunteering for a shift making calls or reaching out to your friends, neighbors, and family in support of YES on 4

And DORCHESTER PEOPLE FOR PEACE is committed to turning out at the polls for Question 4 on Election Day – and also for our local ballot QUESTION 5 to say “we want to get big money out of our politics!”

 

Sharon Bilodeau (sgbilodeau@gmail.com / 617-504-1645) writes:

We need your help on Election Day, November 4. Can you cover a morning or evening shift (or both)? Can you work the same shift you worked in September? Would you like a new time and place? Were you busy on Primary Day but can work Election Day?  Please email at sgbilodeau@gmail.com or call me at 617-504-1645
Here are the ballot questions:
1. Earned Sick Time. Our ally, New England United for Justice, has been working for the right to earned sick time for all Massachusetts workers for seven years. In November it will be a binding question on the ballot. Many people haven't heard about it but will support it if we let them know.

2. Getting Big Money Out of Politics. Recent Supreme Court decisions have allowed billionaires and corporations to spend unlimited amounts in elections, treating corporations as ‘Persons’ with free speech rights. To show that our elected officials that voters do not agree, Sydney and Hayat led a drive that put a non-binding question on the ballot in Dan Cullinane’s district. The ballot question calls for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to saying that corporations are not people and money is not a form of speech – it must be regulated in political campaigns.

The polling places are, in priority order with double precincts and heavier-voting precincts first: 
Dorchester Academy (the former Woodrow Wilson School), 18 Croftland St, Codman Hill (Ward 17, Precincts 4 and 11)
Mildred Avenue School, Mildred Ave, Mattapan (Ward 17, Precinct 10 and Ward 18, Precinct 2)
Lower Mills Library, Richmond St (Ward 17, Precincts 13 and 14)
Groveland Community Room, Franklin Field (Ward 18, Precincts 1 and 4)
Chittick School, 154 Ruskindale Road between Cummins Highway and River St (Ward 18, Precincts 6 and 21)
Adams Street Library, near Ashmont St (Ward 16, Precinct 8)
Florian Hall, 55 Hallet St (Ward 16, Precinct 11)
Charles H. Taylor School, 1060 Morton St (Ward 17, Precinct 12)
Mattahunt School, 100 Hebron St (Ward 18, Precinct 3)
Hassan Apartments, 705 River St (Ward 18, Precinct 5)

The shifts are:  7-9 am, 5-8 pm (or 5-7 if you can't stay the whole time)

Please sign up now so we can cover all these polling places. And thanks!  

BOMBING AND BIGOTRY:

The Wars Abroad, the Wars at Home

 

Martin Luther King: “The bombs that are falling [overseas] are exploding in our cities”

 

Saturday, October 18

NU4J COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS STREET FAIR

12-4pm - Our friends at New England United for Justice have invited DPP to participate in their event on Tilman St. in Dorchester and DPPers will have a table and a version of the leaflet at the right.  Please come!

 

Tuesday, October 21

DPP Standout at  Ashmont T Station

4-6pm – Please join us! We’ll have the same flyer, making the connection between the new US war in Syria/Iraq and the violence and repression in our own neighborhoods.

 

Thu, Oct 02, 2014 11:36 AM

Help Massachusetts Peace Action support the Yes on 4 -- Raise Up Massachusetts campaign, because... One Million Massachusetts Workers Need the Right to Earned Sick Time! On November 4, Massachusetts voters can vote Yes on 4 to allow workers to take sick time without losing their jobs. With our help, RaiseUp Massachusetts won an $11/hr minimum wage in the legislature. Now is the time to win the right to earned sick days on the November ballot. This is a basic part of a social justice agenda. Join the Massachusetts Peace Action team supporting Raise Up Massachusetts in the last month before the November 4 election! The business interests who prevented the earned paid sick days bills from passing the legislature are poised to spend millions in ad campaigns designed to confuse the issue. Raise Up Massachusetts plans to contact tens of thousands of less frequent voters who are likely to directly benefit, to expand the electorate and clarify any confusion. You can join Massachusetts Peace Action's work on this effort in several ways. 1) Volunteer for shifts at regional call centers in many towns around the state using the state of the art HubDialer system, which guarantees many contacts with voters.  2) Use your own phone and a computer at home to do a shift using HubDialer (after simple web based training in using the system).  3) Call from an old fashioned paper list. 4) Join door to door canvasses to reach likely supporters.  5) Reach out to family, friends, co-workers and in your community to those and ask them to sign a pledge a vote for Yes on 4. Please click here to join in the Raise Up Campaign by volunteering for a shift making calls or reaching out to your friends, neighbors, and family in support of YES on 4-- the ballot question establishing earned paid sick days. Raise Up Massachusetts is fighting to ensure earned sick time for workers across the state.  For nearly 1 million workers in Massachusetts, staying home to care for themselves or a sick child could mean losing their job. The ability for workers to care and provide for themselves and family members should be a right, not a privilege, and now is the time to make it a reality for working families. Click here to volunteer for one or more shifts contacting voters or to get YES on 4 committments in your community.as part of our Peace Action team. Read more about our Yes on 4 campaign here! In solidarity, John Ratliff Massachusetts Peace Action Economic Justice Coordinator Join Massachusetts Peace Action - or renew your membership in advance for 2015!   Dues are $40/year for an individual, $65 for a family, or $10 for student/unemployed/low income.  Members vote for leadership and endorsements, receive newsletters and discounts on event admissions.  Donate now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2015!  Your financial support makes this work possible! Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-2169  • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Click here to unsubscribe

As The 100th Anniversary Of The First Year Of World War I (Remember The War To End All Wars) Continues ... Some Remembrances-Poet’s Corner  

LINES WRITTEN IN SURREY, 1917


A sudden swirl of song in the bright sky--
  The little lark adoring his lord the sun;
  Across the corn the lazy ripples run;
Under the eaves, conferring drowsily,

Doves droop or amble; the agile waterfly
  Wrinkles the pool; and flowers, gay and dun,
  Rose, bluebell, rhododendron, one by one,
The buccaneering bees prove busily.

Ah, who may trace this tranquil loveliness
  In verse felicitous?--no measure tells;
But gazing on her bosom we can guess
  Why men strike hard for England in red hells,
Falling on dreams, 'mid Death's extreme caress,
  Of English daisies dancing in English dells.

_George Herbert Clarke_

Mid East In Flames: Israel, Palestine, Iran—and The Bomb

Democratic Socialists of America October Forum

October 9, 7:00 pm
Encuentro 5, 9 Hamilton Place, Boston (near Park St T)

SPEAKERS: Shelagh Foreman, Peace Action; Mitchell Silver, Workmen’s Circle

Civil wars are currently  raging in Libya, Syria and Iraq, and the US and Iran now find themselves on the same side against ISIS—perhaps to their mutual dismay.  Gaza is struggling to recover from its recent decimation, and  there seems to be no realistic prospects for   Israeli-Palestinian peace in the foreseeable future.  So how should our movements for peace, justice and democracy respond to  these developments?  And what might a constructive US Mid East policy look like?

Shelagh Foreman from  Massachusetts Peace Action will review  the ISIS crisis, Obama’s response, and the  impact of both on the   US-Iran nuclear negotiations. These talks  aim to prevent Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons in exchange for ending US economic  sanctions, and  have been opposed from the beginning by hardliners in Washington, Jerusalem and Tehran.  But since the deadline for any agreement is November 24,  all our Congressional representatives will  soon have to weigh in as well.

Mitchell Silver from the Workmen’s Circle will speak on  the continuing  illegal Israeli settlements in  the Occupied Territories,  and  the uphill struggle for  a democratic  2 state   resolution  of the conflict through mutual self-determination —and those in the US and elsewhere who oppose it.  He has taught philosophy at UMass Boston since 1982, is the author of A Plausible God and other works on secular Jewish identity,  and  a frequent contributor to Jewish Currents.

Sponsored by Democratic Socialists of America

Co-sponsors: Massachusetts Peace Action; Workmen’s Circle 

United for Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic justice. Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP today.
info@justicewithpeace.org	617-383-4857	www.justicewithpeace.org

Hong Kong Protests: China Discussion Group

When: Thursday, October 9, 2014, 7:00 pm

Where: Center for Marxist Education • 550 Mass. Ave. • Central T • Cambridge

Special edition of the China Discussion Group on the 65th anniversary of the Chinese Revolution

Brief presentation by Duncan McFarland followed by discussion.

 

o What were the political arrangements for Hong Kong at the time of the return from Britain to China?
 

o What is the process of the 2017 elections for Hong Kong chief executive and the protesters demands?
 

o What is the evidence of US manipulation of the situation to advance the anti-China "pivot"?
 

o What is the possible political resolution?

 

We will also discuss the project of marking the 65th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Revolution (October 1, 1949) by launching a year long series of programs on the  major issues concerning China today. We will publish a pamphlet next year aimed at a facts based, open discussion of the socialist transition in China. On Oct. 9 we will define basic issues in the Left's understanding of China

www.facebook.com/events/724886757559236

 

United for Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic justice. Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP today.
info@justicewithpeace.org	617-383-4857	www.justicewithpeace.org

A call to a different kind of action! “Food Chains” director calls on Fair Food Nation to mobilize for film release… Film’s national release coming up fast! As the November 21st nationwide release of “Food Chains” rapidly approaches, we are thrilled to be able to share the list of cities in which a full theatrical launch is planned (a “full theatrical launch” is when a film is screened at a proper theater for a week or more).  Thus far those cities include: English language: New York City, Los Angeles (Pasadena), San Francisco, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, Chicago and Bonita Springs (FL), with the possibility of Miami Spanish language: Salinas (CA), Pittsburgh (CS), Bakersfield (CA) Food Chains will be released in more major cities on November 28th, including Denver and Minneapolis. Just a little more than a month ahead of its release, “Food Chains” director Sanjay Rawal has this message for the Fair Food Nation: The key to the longterm success of this film will be having a robust opening weekend. We need the nation’s thousands of Fair Food Supporters — and their friends — to get out to theaters, see the film and enjoy the panel discussions with CIW members and allies... Head over to the CIW website for this important update on "Food Chains"!

You are subscribed to the CIW Mailing List as: alfredjohnson34@comcast.net Click here to unsubscribe. Coalition of Immokalee Workers • PO Box 603, Immokalee, FL 34143 • (239) 657-8311 • workers@ciw-online.org

A Foreign Policy for All Re-Thinking U.S. Foreign Policy for the 21st Century Saturday November 8, 2014, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm MIT Room 34-101 • 50 Vassar St • Cambridge • Kendall T Confirmed Speakers Noam Chomsky, MIT Institute Professor, author, Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order Bill Fletcher, former president, Trans Africa Forum; author, They’re Bankrupting Us! And 20 other Myths about Unions Phyllis Bennis, director, New Internationalism Project, Institute for Policy Studies Stephen Kinzer, Boston Globe columnist;  author,The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War Judith Leblanc, Field Director, Peace Action; former co-chair, UFPJ; member of the Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma   It’s time for a change. After years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with their terrible toll of death and destruction, we are fighting again in the Middle East.  But growing numbers of Americans are debating the values and goals of U.S. foreign policy, with its heavy reliance on military intervention.  Why has it been so unsuccessful? What is the appropriate role for our nation in today’s world?  How does our investment in a gigantic, costly military establishment affect our foreign policy decisions? In this one-day conference, to be held immediately after the midterm election, we will attempt to outline a more positive vision of U.S. global engagement, one that addresses the actual security needs of people around the world and that is consistent with the principles of peace and justice for all.   We will also explore the actions needed to make the changes we seek, to shift the discussion.The discussion will respond to a draft paper prepared by a working group. Read a summary of the Foreign Policy for All project.   Contact us at info@masspeaceaction.org; your ideas for workshop topics or other ways you can help are welcome! Conference fee: $25 before Oct. 29 for members of sponsoring organizations, $30 for others, $35 at the door, $10 for students and low income; free to MIT students. Fee includes morning coffee and lunch. 15% discount for 5 or more people who register at the same time. Register at fp4a-conf.bpt.me/ or mail check to Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St, Cambridge, MA 02138; write "FP4A" on memo line. Info: 617 354 2169 Host: MIT Technology and Culture Forum Co-Sponsors: Massachusetts Peace Action, American Friends Service Committee, MIT Western Hemisphere Association, United for Justice with Peace, Women's International League for Peace & Freedom - Boston Branch For peace and justice, Cole Harrison Executive Director

Join Massachusetts Peace Action - or renew your membership today!   Dues are $40/year for an individual, $65 for a family, or $10 for student/unemployed/low income.  Members vote for leadership and endorsements, receive newsletters and discounts on event admissions.  Donate now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2015! Your financial support makes this work possible! Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-2169  • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Click here to unsubscribe

Poets’ Corner- The Mad Hatter 15^th Century France’s Francois Villon Whether They Claim Him Or Not

 

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Once, a long time ago, an old communist I do not remember which version of the creed he adhered to, although he had had some impressive documented revolutionary credentials in Germany before Hitler pulled the hammer down in 1933 and he just barely got out into American exile by a very long and circuitous route, told me that as far as culture affairs, you know art, novels, music and what I want to talk about here, poetry, is basically subject to whatever personal whims a person may have on these matters. The caveat to all this is that both creators and admirers should be left to their own devises except if they are actively engaged with counter-revolutionary activity. Now that I think about it he probably got the idea from Leon Trotsky himself who wrote about such matters in the 1920s in books like  Literature and Revolution although I am sure that he did not consider himself a follower of that great revolutionary who was exiled in the late 1920s.

The point today is that if a left-wing political activist like myself, say, were very interested in the poetry of Emily Dickerson or Wallace Stevens or Thomas Mann or Edna Saint Vincent Millay then what of it. Except those kinds of poets do not “speak” to me. Poets like Allan Ginsberg burning the pages with his negro streets, his clamoring against the industrial complex, his angel hipsters, his chanting against the fate of the best minds of his generation, the gangster-poet Gregory Corso blazing the hot streets with his words and taking no prisoners, old Rimbaud with his mad ravings, Verlaine too, Genet with his black soul they “speak” to me. The troubadours, the “bad boys and girls,” the waifs, the gangsters, the drifters, grifters and midnight sifters and those who act as muses for the fallen are what makes me sit up and listen.                  

 And that brings us to Francois Villon, the “max daddy” of bad boy poets (and brigands) from the 15^th century. Strangely while I have picked up on most of my favorite poets from some academic setting I learned of Villon from two maybe unusual sources. First from the 1930s film The Petrified Forest where the Bette Davis character, Gabby, was crazy for the Villon book of poems sent from her returned to home mother in France. More importantly the poet and what he stood for was brought up in the film in conversation with Leslie Howard’s character Alan who was a Villon-like misplaced out of sorts wanderer out in the Arizona desert. The other source was a poem by Villon used as a front-piece of an article by Hunter S. Thompson who used the sentiment expressed by Villon where he considered himself a stranger in his own country (as did Thompson back in Nixon times in America).

But back to the muses, back to the gangsta muses (sorry hip-hop nation for stealing your thunder but your sing-song lyrics definitely make me think you have drawn from the same well, the same Villon well, especially guys like Biggie, Tupac, 50 cent, and Brother Cole, a brother from the same damn “sew those worn-out pants” projects neighborhood in spirit as me). Old Villon must have gotten tripped up on his DNA finding the back streets of Paris and later exile spots more attractive than the court life, the scholar’s. Trouble followed the guy wherever he moved (granted he had little room to maneuver in those days since he was a city man and not some outlaw Robin Hood working the old rural pastures and forests). His poetry speaks of drunken sots, of quick upstairs flights with besotten wenches, of tavern dark corners to plan, plan the next caper, or the next poem to explain away his life led.         

Who knows what makes a man or woman a stranger in their own land, an internal exile. Maybe like Villon it was his dismissal of the vanities of court life, the vacuity of the student life, or the lure of the outlaw life when bourgeois society (and France in the 15^th century was reaping the beggar’s banquet of bourgeois society) and it took no Karl Marx to notice that the old ways had to give way to the new city ways with their gold and death to free spirits, to those who lived outside allegiances. Maybe like Ginsberg shattered by the smoke of downtown Paterson, maybe shattered by the hysterical cries of his beloved if discarded mother, maybe shattered by the square-ness of his father-poet. Maybe like Jean bon Genet born of some ancient mix of the crime that dared not speak its name and crimes that had names. Trolling waterfronts looking for rough trade, looking for his lady of the flowers. Strangers, strangers all looking for some new Algiers, some new Casablanca, some new city a-borning.

Villon, lord of the sneak away night, besotted with six wines, drunk with the fragrance of women. Women who reek of the kingdom’s perfumes and if Hilary Mantel is to be believed over in bedeviled England all the women worked lilac and lemon tree leaves into their skin so that guys, guys like Villon ready to seek a lady’s favor could stand to be within ten feet of them. Reeking of words too, Villon reeking of words that is, quick words, words with hidden messages, words heard in taverns, on wormy mattresses, in stinking hayloft barns, unholy holy words that would make men quake if they had the sense that their God gave them as a gift (or was it the son, the damn crazed son, Jesus, called bandit), stealthily grabbing whatever was to be grabbed and the hell with the lord business. Then writing in dark dungeon nights looking for reprieves from a wretched life.

Beautiful, a beat down brother, no wonder Alan the wandering homeless out of fashion intellectual in The Petrified Forest claimed him as kindred, and why he could have walked on steamy late night New York streets and found kindred among the midnight sifters. Beat, beatified before his time probably clamoring on some woe begotten trumpet, blowing out big medieval blow notes to the hard Seine, the hard Norman shores, to all who would listen, Yeah, Saint Villon, sanctified, man of misrule, man of the hidden cloth, beat, beat about six ways to Sunday if you believe his resume, if you believe his 15^th century be-bop wail. What did Kerouac, hell, a kindred, a Breton, said-yes, moan, moan long and hard for man, and Saint Villon grant us some sign, some path that we might come to rescue you in sotted, sweated dungeons, so that you too can walk the fetid streets singing, holy, holy, holy.       

Yes, wanderers, waifs, strangers in a strange land, those are the poets I want to read and listen to. And what of it.         

Le Testament: Epitaph et Rondeau

 

Epitaph

 

Here there lies, and sleeps in the grave,

One whom Love killed with his scorn,

A poor little scholar in every way,

He was named François Villon.

He never reaped a morsel of corn:

Willed all away, as all men know:

Bed, table, and basket all are gone.

Gallants, now sing his song below:

 

Rondeau

 

Oh, grant him now eternal peace,

Lord, and everlasting light,

He wasn’t worth a candle bright,

Nor even a sprig of parsley.

Of eyebrows, hair, and beard he’s free,

A turnip scraped with a spade, all right:

Oh, grant him now eternal peace.

 

Exiled with strict severity,

Rapped behind with a spade, despite

It all he cried: ‘Appeal, for me!’

–      Which wasn’t the height of subtlety.

Oh, grant him now eternal peace.

 

 

Midnight Voices

“the young dead soldiers do not speak,
Nevertheless they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them?
they have a silence that speaks for them at night when the clock counts”
Archibald MacLeish

Calling all poets, slammers, word smiths, lyricists, play writes, rappers, misfits, musicians and anyone who has the gift of gab! We are hosting Midnight Voices, a monthly collaborative coffeehouse, spoken word, and poetry series at Friends Meetinghouse Cambridge (5 Longfellow Park) 7pm October 16, 2014. This event is open to everyone. This month’s featured reader is Alan Asselin. Alan is a featured poet in Warrior Writers forth anthology (available at our event). He is also a facilitator for Warrior Writers and frequently hosts writing workshops. He is a Vietnam era veteran.  

            After the featured reader, there will be 5 min open mic slots available to anyone. We encourage first timers and seasoned performers to come out. We are actively seeking co-sponsors and talent to be featured readers in upcoming months. If you have any ideas about this or want any other information please contact Eric Wasileski Ericwasileski@gmail.com

Warrior Writers Boston and the Smedley D Butler Brigade Chapter 9 VFP, Veteran-Friends in conjunction with the FMC Peace and Social Concerns committee are hosting. These events are open to everyone; next month Nov 20^th Doug Anderson will be our featured reader.

On The 155^th Anniversary Of The Heroic Captain John Brown-Led Fight For Black Liberation At Harper’s Ferry-Josh Breslin’s Dream    

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

 

I remember a few years ago my friend and I from the old working- class neighborhoods of North Adamsville, a town south of Boston, were discussing the historical events that helped form our political understandings back in the early 1960 since we were, and are, both political men driven by historical examples as much as the minutia of organizing principles. And while we diverged on many of the influences since although we are both political men we have a fair degree of differences on the way to change the world we both agreed whole-heartedly that one of our early heroes was old Captain John Brown and his heroic efforts with his small integrated band of men at Harper’s Ferry. As we discussed the matter more fully we found we were hard pressed to explain what first captured our attention and would have not had the political sense then to call Brown’s actions heroic we both understood that what he did was necessary.

 

See, coming up in mainly Irish working class neighborhood we were always aware, made particularly aware by grandfathers who had kindred over there in those days, of that heroic struggle in Easter 1916 that was the precursor to the long sought national liberation of Ireland from the bloody British. So when we first studied, or heard about John Brown we instinctively saw that same kind of struggle. Both of us also agreed that we had had very strong feelings about the wrongness of slavery going back to Pharaoh’s time although Josh was more ambivalent about the fate of black people after Civil War freedom than I was since there was in his household a stronger current of anti-black feeling around the civil rights work down south in those than in mine. (Strangely my father who was nothing but a good old boy from down in Kentucky was more sympathetic to that struggle that Josh’s Irish grandfather whom Josh could never get to call black people anything better than “nigras.” Jesus.)                

 

A couple of week after that conversation Josh called me up from California one night where he was attending a professional conference near San Jose and told me that he forgot to tell me about what he called a “dream” he had had as a kid about his admiration for John Brown. Of course that “dream” stuff was just Josh’s way of saying that he had sketched out a few thoughts that he wanted to share with me (and which will undoubtedly find their into a commentary  or review or something because very little of Josh’s “dream” stuff fails to go to ink or cyberspace.) Some of it is now hazy in my mind since the hour was late here in the East, and some of it probably was really based on stuff we had learned later about the Brown expedition like how Boston Brahmins and high abolitionists like George Stearns secretly funded the operation or Brown’s attempts to get Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman on board (neither name which we would have known very much about then), and some of was probably a little goofy since it involved Josh in some hero worship. Since he will inevitably write something on his own he can make any corrections himself. Know this though whenever I hear the name John Brown mentioned lately I think about Josh’s telephone call and about how the “old man” has held our esteem for so long. Here is what I jotted down, edited of course, after that conversation:   

 

From fairly early in my youth I knew the name John Brown and was swept up by the romance surrounding his exploits at Harper’s Ferry. I would say that was in about the sixth grade when I went to the library and read about Abraham Lincoln before he became president and how he didn’t like what John Brown did because he knew that that action was going to drive the South crazy and upset the delicate balance that was holding the Union together. Frank though thinks it was the seventh grade when we were learning about the slavery issues as part of the 100^th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War and his name came up as a “wild man” out of some Jehovah Calvinist burning bush dream who was single-handedly trying to abolish slavery with that uprising. Was ready to light the spark to put out the terrible scourge of slavery. That slavery business, if you can believe this really bothered both of us, especially when we went to a museum that showed the treatment of slaves and the implements used to enforce that condition down South. And I remember one time going to the Museum of Fine Arts and saw old Pharaoh used his slaves to build those damn pyramids to immortalize himself.

I think I am right thought about when I first heard about the “old man” because I know I loved Lincoln, loved to read about him, loved that back then we celebrated his birthday, February 12^th and we got the day off from school. Loved that Lincoln was basically forced at the state level to implement Brown’s program to root out slavery once the deal went down and was merciless about its extermination once he got “religion” on the matter. Of course neither I nor Frank would have articulated that way then but we knew “Massa Lincoln” was on the right side of the angels in his work as much as he hated to burn down the South in the process. But there was no other way and I think that is what he learned from the Captain whether he gave credit to the man or not. By the way this I do know while we celebrated Lincoln’s birthday in the North as the great emancipator and Union saver Frank once told me a story  about one of his cousins down south and how when he mentioned that he had Lincoln’s birthday off that cousin said “ we don’t celebrate that man’s birthday down here, “ in such a way that Frank began to understand that maybe the Civil War was not over.)   

I knew other stuff back then too added to my feel for the Brown legend. For example, I knew that the great anthem of the Civil War -The Battle Hymn of the Republic- had a prior existence as John Brown’s Body, a tribute to John Brown and that Union soldiers marched to that song as they bravely headed south. Funny but back then I was totally unaware of the role of the Massachusetts 54^th Regiment, the first black regiment raised although with white officers when Father Abraham gave the word, whose survivors and replacements marched into Charleston, South Carolina, the heart and soul of the Confederacy, after the bloody Civil War to the tune of John Brown’s Body. That must have been a righteous day. Not so righteous though and reflecting a very narrow view of history that we were taught then kind of fudging the very serious differences back in Civil War times even in high abolitionist Boston was not knowing thing one about Augustus Saint-Gauden’s commemorative frieze honoring the men of the 54^th right across from the State House which I passed frequently.

I was then, however, other than aware of the general narrative of Brown’s exploits and a couple of songs and poems neither familiar with the import of his exploits for the black liberation struggle nor knew much about the specifics of the politics of the various tendencies in the ante bellum struggle against slavery of which he represented the extreme activist left-wing. I certainly knew nothing then of Brown’s (and his sons) prior military exploits in the Kansas ‘proxy’ wars against the expansion of slavery. Later study filled in some of those gaps and has only strengthened my strong bond with his memory. Know this, as I reach the age at which John Brown was executed I still retain my youthful admiration for him. In the context of the turmoil of the times he was the most courageous and audacious revolutionary in the struggle for the abolition of slavery in America. Some 150 years after his death I am proud to stand in the tradition of John Brown. [And I am too, brother!]

If one understands the ongoing nature, from his early youth, of John Brown’s commitment to the active struggle against slavery, the scourge of the American Republic in the first half of the 19th century, one can only conclude that he was indeed a man on a mission. As various biographies point out Brown took every opportunity to fight against slavery including early service as an agent of the Underground Railroad spiriting escaped slaves northward, participation as an extreme radical in all the key anti-slavery propaganda battles of the time as well as challenging other anti-slavery elements to be more militant and in the 1850’s, arms in hand, fighting in the ‘proxy’ wars in Kansas and, of course, the culmination of his life- the raid on Harper’s Ferry. Those exploits alone render absurd a very convenient myth by those who supported slavery or turned a blind eye to it and their latter-day apologists for it about his so-called ‘madness’. This is a political man and to these eyes a very worthy one.

For those who like their political heroes ‘pure’, frankly, it is better to look elsewhere than the life of John Brown. Like them without warts and with a discernible thrust from early adulthood that leads to some heroic action. His personal and family life as a failed rural capitalist would hardly lead one to think that this man was to become a key historical figure in any struggle, much less the great struggle against slavery. Some of his actions in Kansas (concerning allegations of the murder of some pro-slavery elements under his direction) have also clouded his image. However if one looks at Kansas as the start of the Civil War then all the horrible possibilities under the heat of battle mitigate some of that incident although not excusing it anymore that we would today with American soldiers in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. However, when the deal went down in the late 1850’s and it was apparent for all to see that there was no other way to end slavery than a fight to the death-John Brown rose to the occasion. And did not cry about it. And did not expect others to cry about it. Call him a ‘monomaniac’ if you like but even a slight acquaintance with great historical figures shows that they all have this ‘disease’- that is why they make the history books. No, the ‘madness’ argument will not do.

Whether or not John Brown knew that his military strategy for the Harper’s Ferry raid would, in the short term, be defeated is a matter of dispute. Reams of paper have been spent proving the military foolhardiness of his scheme at Harper’s Ferry. Brown’s plan, however, was essentially a combination of slave revolt modeled after the Maroon experiences in Haiti, Nat Turner’s earlier Virginia slave rebellion and rural guerilla warfare of the ‘third world’ type that we have become more familiar with since that time. 150 years later this strategy does not look so foolhardy in an America of the 1850’s that had no real standing army, fairly weak lines of communications, virtually uninhabited mountains to flee to and the North at their backs. The execution of the plan is another matter. Brown seemingly made about every mistake in the book in that regard. However, this is missing the essential political point that militant action not continuing parliamentary maneuvering advocated by other abolitionists had become necessary. A few more fighting abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, and better propaganda work among freedman with connections to the plantations would not have hurt the chances for success at Harper’s Ferry.

What is not in dispute is that Brown considered himself a true Calvinist “avenging angel” in the struggle against slavery and more importantly acted on that belief. (Strange, or maybe not so strange now, both Frank and I who grew up upright Roman Catholics gravitated toward those photographs of Brown with his long unkempt beard as some latter day Jehovah and I remember Frank had a photo on the wall in his room with just such a photograph from I think a detail of the big mural in the State House in Kansas.) In short Brown   was committed to bring justice to the black masses. This is why his exploits and memory stay alive after over 150 years. It is possible that if Brown did not have this, by 19th century standards as well as our own, old-fashioned Calvinist sense of  pre-determination that he would not been capable of militant action. Certainly other anti-slavery elements never came close to his militancy, including the key Transcendentalist movement led by Emerson and Thoreau and the Concord ‘crowd’ who supported him and kept his memory alive in hard times. In their eyes he had the heroic manner of the Old Testament prophet. This old time prophet animating spirit is not one that animates modern revolutionaries and so it is hard to understand today the depths of his religious convictions on his actions but they were understood, if not fully appreciated, by others in those days. It is better today to look at Brown more politically through his hero (and mine, as well) Oliver Cromwell-a combination of Calvinist avenger and militant warrior. Yes, I can get behind that picture of him.

By all accounts Brown and his small integrated band of brothers fought bravely and coolly against great odds. Ten of Brown's men were killed including two of his sons. Five were captured, tried and executed, including Brown.  He prophetic words upon the scaffold about purging the evil of slavery in blood proved too true. But that demeanor in the face of defeat was very appealing to me back then.  I have learned since that these results, the imprisonments or executions are almost inevitable when one takes up a revolutionary struggle against the old order and one is not victorious. One need only think of, for example, the fate of the defenders of the Paris Commune in 1871 when that experience was crushed in blood after heroic resistance. One can fault Brown on this or that tactical maneuver. Nevertheless he and the others bore themselves bravely in defeat. As we are all too painfully familiar with now there are defeats of the oppressed that lead nowhere. One thinks of the defeat of the German Revolution in the 1920’s. There other defeats that galvanize others into action. This is how Brown’s actions should be measured by history.

Militarily defeated at Harpers Ferry, Brown's political mission to destroy slavery by force of arms nevertheless continued to galvanize important elements in the North at the expense of the pacifistic non-resistant Garrisonian political program for struggle against slavery. Many writers on Brown who reduce his actions to that of a ‘madman’ still cannot believe that his road proved more appropriate to end slavery than either non-resistance or gradualism. That alone makes short shrift of such theories. Historians and others have also misinterpreted later events such as the Bolshevik strategy that led to Russian Revolution in October 1917. More recently, we saw this same incomprehension concerning the victory of the Vietnamese against overwhelming American military superiority. Needless to say, all these events continue to be revised by some historians to take the sting out of there proper political implications.

From a modern prospective Brown’s strategy for black liberation, even if the abolitionist goal he aspired to was immediately successful reached the outer limits within the confines of capitalism. Brown’s actions were meant to make black people free. Beyond that goal he had no program except the Chatham Charter which seems to have replicated the American constitution but with racial and gender equality as a cornerstone. Unfortunately the Civil War did not provide fundamental economic and political freedom. Moreover, the Civil War, the defeat of Radical Reconstruction, the reign of ‘Jim Crow’ and the subsequent waves of black migration to the cities changed the character of black oppression in the U.S. from Brown’s time. Nevertheless, we can stand proudly in the revolutionary tradition of John Brown, and of his friend Frederick Douglass. I used to fervently believe that if Douglass had come on board as Brown had urged the chances for success would have been greater, at least more blacks (mostly free blacks and not plantation blacks for obvious reasons) and more radical white who could have been mobilized as a result of all of the events of the 1850s especially the struggle against the Fugitive Slave Act and the struggle against the imposition of slavery in Kansas. Now I am not so sure that Douglass’ acceptance would have qualitatively changed the outcome. He went on to do yeoman’s work during the Civil War articulating the left black perspective and organizing those black regiments that shifted the outcome of the war at a decisive point. In any case honor the memory of old Captain John Brown and his heroic band at Harper’s Ferry.