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Monday, November 24, 2014
Turn Up for Mike Brown - #IndictAmerica - The Day After the Verdict
Submitted by ujpadmin on Mon, 11/24/2014 - 12:01pm.
**IMPORTANT: The event will be the DAY AFTER the verdict is announced.**
To America, Darren Wilson is Innocent. INDICT AMERICA.
Whether Darren Wilson is delivered an indictment or a non-indictment, we know that killer cops are viewed as law abiding citizens. Darren Wilson says he was just doing his job. He’s right. Richard Haste, Ramarley Graham’s murderer, claims he did nothing wrong. He’s right. Cops who murder Black and brown people in the name of America's capitalist white supremacy aren’t just innocent; they’re commended for a job well done. INDICT AMERICA.
People in dozens of cities in the US are currently planning to turn up in their own cities when the verdict is announced. JOIN US!
Black Lives Matter Boston
https://www.facebook.com/events/792638324117882/
Filed under:
When: The Day After the Verdict, 7:00 pm
Where: Boston Police B2 HQ • 2400 Washington St • Roxbury
**IMPORTANT: The event will be the DAY AFTER the verdict is announced.**
To America, Darren Wilson is Innocent. INDICT AMERICA.
Whether Darren Wilson is delivered an indictment or a non-indictment, we know that killer cops are viewed as law abiding citizens. Darren Wilson says he was just doing his job. He’s right. Richard Haste, Ramarley Graham’s murderer, claims he did nothing wrong. He’s right. Cops who murder Black and brown people in the name of America's capitalist white supremacy aren’t just innocent; they’re commended for a job well done. INDICT AMERICA.
People in dozens of cities in the US are currently planning to turn up in their own cities when the verdict is announced. JOIN US!
Black Lives Matter Boston
»
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Syria, Iraq and ISIS: Understanding the New War; How Should the Peace Movement Respond?
When: Wednesday, December
10, 2014, 7:00 pm
Where: Cambridge Friends
Center • 5 Longfellow Pk (off Brattle St.) • Harvard T •
Cambridge
o Prof. Elaine Hagopian on understanding the waro Activist views on the peace movement's response
o Discussion on what to do next
The US announced early in November that troop deployment in the war against ISIS will be doubled from 1500 to 3000 -- although they are supposedly not "boots on the ground." Meanwhile, thousands of air sorties have been flown and the Obama administration is again asking Congress for billions to fund a new war. But US allies are reluctant to commit resources, Turkey regards the Kurds as the greater threat and Saudi Arabia is privately providing ISIS aid. The US is battling to overthrow Assad in Syria while also fighting his enemy. Contacts are made with Iran -- but we don't really want to coordinate efforts. Beheadings rouse demands for action.
The US claims its only goal is to defeat ISIS but the long term goal has not changed: regime change in Syria and continued domination over the region made unstable by years of US intervention. The prospect of a long and escalating war confronts us. What is our message in this complex and contradictory situation?
Elaine Hagopian, professor emeritus of sociology at Simmons College, will provide background and context on Syria, referencing Palestine and Iraq. Cole Harrison, executive director of Mass Peace Action, and Marilyn Levin, co-coordinator of United National Antiwar Coalition, will offer different views on the peace movement's response.
Elaine Hagopian is a retired professor of sociology from Simmons College, Boston. She served as visiting professor of sociology at the American University in Beirut, and as a distinguished Lecturer at the American University of Cairo. She was awarded two Fulbright Hays Faculty research grants to do research in France and the Arab region. She served with UNCIEF in the United Arab Emirates; and as part of a UNESCO team to do a feasibility study for a Palestine Open University. Her publications focus on Arab regional issues and on Arab-Americans; her article "Bashar Assad's Missed Opportunity: Syria's Pandoran Box" appeared in Counterpunch in June 2011.
$5 donation requested
Sponsored by United for Justice with Peace
info@justicewithpeace.org
617 383 4857
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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.
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Upcoming
Events:
 |
Lights, camera…
Action! Protesters pour into the streets following “Food Chains” screenings in
Miami, New York, Washington DC, and more cities…
The new documentary “Food Chains” has hit the ground running, and has been tallying an opening weekend to remember in the process! Michael Pollan, Barry Estabrook, Eric Schlosser, Marion Nestle, Amy Goodman, Ted Genoways, Greg Kaufmann, and Arthur Allen have all hosted standing-room-only panel discussions following showings in New York. The film has garnered great reviews and feature stories from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle (not to mention Inc , Film Journal, Mother Jones and others!). And as if that weren’t enough, there have been 12 major protests for farmworker rights around the nation, like this one in Miami pictured below, with more planned for Sunday:
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Editorials
2012-10-03
Press Statement: In this election, vote with your wallet, Vote WikiLeaks
2012-09-27
Transcript of Julian Assange Address to the UN
2012-09-26
US Military Refers to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as the "enemy" with the "victims" being "society"
2012-09-26
Background for UN Talk - Ongoing Investigation into WikiLeaks
2012-09-11
Inside the secrets and lies behind ’Secrets and Lies’
2012-09-10
The public relations state: full details of WikiLeaks & Assange Ofcom complaint over "WikiLeaks: Secrets & Lies"
2012-08-23
Statement on U.K. intentions and pressures prior to Ecuadorian embassy siege
2012-08-19
Official Statement by Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy
2012-08-16
Statement on UK threat to storm Ecuadorian embassy and arrest Julian Assange
2012-07-18
Press Release: WikiLeaks opens path through banking siege. Donations open.
2012-06-29
Press Statement: By Julian Assange Defense Fund Outside the Ecuadorian Embassy
2012-06-28
Press Release – WikiLeaks: Beat the Blockade CD
2012-06-21
Wikileaks has launched a case against Valitor hf. (formerly VISA Iceland)
2012-06-19
Effective Declaration of Abandonment from Australian Government
2012-04-18
Smear and Enjoy
2012-04-17
Press Release - 500 Days of the WikiLeaks Banking Blockade
2012-04-05
Assange Submissions to the Leveson Inquiry
2012-03-06
Kristinn Hrafnsson: The Great WikiLeaks War on Sweden?
2012-03-06
Press release: WikiLeaks on Recent Fabricated Stories in the Swedish Press
2012-02-15
WikiLeaks denounces UNESCO after WikiLeaks banned from UNESCO conference on WikiLeaks
2012-01-23
New Assange TV Series
2011-12-16
Statement on Bradley Manning Case
2011-11-30
Guardian’s "WikiLeaks: Secrets and Lies" Documentary:
2011-10-23
WikiLeaks Press Statement: WikiLeaks vs the Banks
2011-09-22
Julian Assange: Statement on the Unauthorised, Secret Publishing of the Julian Assange “autobiography” by Canongate
2011-09-19
WikiLeaks Launches the First of Four Fundraising Auctions
2011-08-24
US espionage investigation against WikiLeaks: PATRIOT Act order unsealed
2011-06-15
In Conversation with Julian Assange Part II
2011-05-24
"WikiSecrets" Julian Assange Full Interview Footage
2011-05-23
In Conversation with Julian Assange Part I
Press Statement: In this election, vote with your wallet, Vote WikiLeaks
2012-09-27
Transcript of Julian Assange Address to the UN
2012-09-26
US Military Refers to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as the "enemy" with the "victims" being "society"
2012-09-26
Background for UN Talk - Ongoing Investigation into WikiLeaks
2012-09-11
Inside the secrets and lies behind ’Secrets and Lies’
2012-09-10
The public relations state: full details of WikiLeaks & Assange Ofcom complaint over "WikiLeaks: Secrets & Lies"
2012-08-23
Statement on U.K. intentions and pressures prior to Ecuadorian embassy siege
2012-08-19
Official Statement by Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy
2012-08-16
Statement on UK threat to storm Ecuadorian embassy and arrest Julian Assange
2012-07-18
Press Release: WikiLeaks opens path through banking siege. Donations open.
2012-06-29
Press Statement: By Julian Assange Defense Fund Outside the Ecuadorian Embassy
2012-06-28
Press Release – WikiLeaks: Beat the Blockade CD
2012-06-21
Wikileaks has launched a case against Valitor hf. (formerly VISA Iceland)
2012-06-19
Effective Declaration of Abandonment from Australian Government
2012-04-18
Smear and Enjoy
2012-04-17
Press Release - 500 Days of the WikiLeaks Banking Blockade
2012-04-05
Assange Submissions to the Leveson Inquiry
2012-03-06
Kristinn Hrafnsson: The Great WikiLeaks War on Sweden?
2012-03-06
Press release: WikiLeaks on Recent Fabricated Stories in the Swedish Press
2012-02-15
WikiLeaks denounces UNESCO after WikiLeaks banned from UNESCO conference on WikiLeaks
2012-01-23
New Assange TV Series
2011-12-16
Statement on Bradley Manning Case
2011-11-30
Guardian’s "WikiLeaks: Secrets and Lies" Documentary:
2011-10-23
WikiLeaks Press Statement: WikiLeaks vs the Banks
2011-09-22
Julian Assange: Statement on the Unauthorised, Secret Publishing of the Julian Assange “autobiography” by Canongate
2011-09-19
WikiLeaks Launches the First of Four Fundraising Auctions
2011-08-24
US espionage investigation against WikiLeaks: PATRIOT Act order unsealed
2011-06-15
In Conversation with Julian Assange Part II
2011-05-24
"WikiSecrets" Julian Assange Full Interview Footage
2011-05-23
In Conversation with Julian Assange Part I
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When
Johnny B. Cashed His Check- Edward G. Robinson’s Bullets or Ballots
DVD Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
Bullets or Ballots, starring Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, 1936
Not one of the Bronx corner boys, not one of Harry’s Variety’s bookie joint backroom horseplayers, not one of the crap-shooters from the 242nd Street back alleys, not one of the flim-flam armed robbery, grand larceny guys, not one of the grifters, drifters, or midnight sifters, not one of fixer boys, not one of the percentage guys, cried a tear when they heard that Johnny B., Johnny Blake, Detective Johnny Blake (played by Edward G. Robinson) cashed his check in a pool of blood on the street in front of the Oceanic Bank. Oh, well, maybe Moll, Moll the queen of the numbers on that side of town, Bronx , Harlem, places like that, did cry one tear but what would you expect from an old Johnny flame whose operation he winked at. Winked at since Moll was seen on more than one occasion coming out of Johnny’s digs and he after her with a smile on his face from her “curling his toes.” But she will get over it, if she hasn’t already, when the next Johnny cop comes by and needs his toes curled for a wink at her operation.
Oh, yeah, in the interest of full disclosure, nobody will be crying a tear over the fate of the late “Bugs” Fenner either (played by Humphrey Bogart), the guy who helped Johnny cash his check in that big pool of blood while cashing in his chips at the same time, courtesy of the late Detective Johnny Blake. Nobody from Fulton’s Fish Market where he extorted (such an ugly word, let’s say received tribute) so much for each fish that passed through, nobody from Biggie’s Meat Market where he also got tribute for each steak that passeth through, nobody from the Dairy Co-Operative when each glass of milk for growing city kids required a tariff, and no fruits and vegetables guys who were weighed down by a Bugs toll. No strong arm guys, no axe murderers, not safe-crackers, and none of the aforementioned grifters, drifters and midnight sifter either, not a sentimental guy in the lot. Not sentimental either would be one Jimmy the Slice, Bugs, number two guy in his extortion rackets, oops, tribute operation, who even a couple of minutes after Bugs’ sent-off had been seen is removing Bugs’ name from his office door. See Jimmy and a whole slew of guys just moved one rung up the food chain, nothing else. That was just how it was with the tough guys who gave no quarter and expected none in the film under review, Bullets or Ballots.
But maybe I had better step back and give you the story of how and why Johnny bought his ticket (everybody called him Johnny, copper or hood, so we will use that designation here as well) and why nobody cried that precious tear over the matter. Johnny and all those corner boys, bookies, extortionists, armed robbers, murderers, con men, numbers racketeers, drifters, grifters and midnight sifters all grew up in the same neighborhood, all started out life with a two strikes against them and a chip on their shoulders, even Johnny. But Johnny, had been smart, “street smart,” Johnny played the percentages and figured that if he didn’t want to do a nickel or dime at Sing Sing for this and that, maybe more than once, he had better move on. Moving on meant joining the cops, and why not, since he already knew who the clientele would be. Not just a regular New York City cop cadging coffee and doughnuts just for being a copper though, a hard-boiled honest one too. So he pinched a lot of his old time cronies, worse, he made them (when they were not in the slammer) tip their hats to him, to the law, on the streets. That little act of homage ate at a lot of them and explains why there were tearless Bronx boys.
So Johnny good cop went about his business of smacking down the bad guys and making them like it, almost. But you know cities, cities like New York, have more criminals and more rackets per square mile than you can shake a stick at so crime was rampant, out of control, beginning to take over the ethos of the city. A few guys, do-gooders fought back, including one publisher who really was serious about cleaning up the town, a guy who guys like Johnny Blake could look up to and maybe help out. Except that publisher was disrupting the flow of criminal dough, no, was making such a ruckus that he might disrupt the flow of criminal dough and that was enough, enough for Bugs, and so one night under the orders of this reputed crime boss he went down in a hail of bullets. The irony, or maybe the naïve on his part, was that this publisher’s idea was to use the ballot box to get rid of the public officials and coppers who were “on the take.” A silly, if brave, man with a silly idea then, or now, when money, lots of it, greases the wheels of government in your favor if you have the kale.
Johnny, and not just Johnny, took that publisher’s murder hard, took it hard knowing flat-out that Bugs had done it, had decided to send a strong message to do-gooders to put their heads down and take it, take whatever was dished out and like it. But Bug’s free-lance action caused waves among the racketeers too, especially Bugs’ boss up the food chain, Al Kruger, and his bosses at the top, the central committee of the WASP establishment of the city who were bankrolling the rackets and raking in the profits (okay, okay since this is New York City maybe a few Dutch guys thrown in the mix too). So there was an upper management dispute as Kruger was given orders to clean house, to get rid of guy who still believed that shoot-outs were the way to do business.
Meanwhile that murder stuck in Johnny’s craw, others too, and he and his co-thinkers really wanted to take a little action, and they did. And here is where Johnny’s skills as an old corner boy who knew all the hard guys, especially Kruger, came into play. The plan hatched at the highest levels of the police department was for Johnny to take a tumble off the force, get kicked off for not playing ball with the new police regime, then take umbrage at being kicked off the force in a public way, and in revenge take a “consultant” job with Kruger checking for weak spots in his operations. The number one weak spot of course being one old Capote-like Bugs Fenner. And so the deal went down, Johnny got on the inside, got tight with Kruger whom he had known from the old days, and started to see how the operation worked right up to the top, up to that WASP central committee (and the Dutchies thrown in).
Funny it worked, well, mainly worked, for a while. Johnny was moving in nicely and Kruger was happy, happy until old Bugs got his nose bent out of shape and knocked him off. Meanwhile Johnny keeps plugging away at the mechanics of the operation and wound up being the guy who delivered the dough to the guys at the top, their profits. A big deal, and that might have worked out in the end except Bugs really did not like Johnny, didn’t believe he had turned rogue cop, and went after him prior to Johnny’s deliver debut. That is when the shoot-out occurred and Bugs wound up very dead and Johnny mortally wounded. Johnny, good cop to the end, delivers the dough to the WASP committee as part of the “sting” operation and then cashed his check at the coppers busted up the committee’s operation. So that is why Johnny may draw a tear from his old sweetie, Moll. And why no self-respecting hard guy will shed any, and empathically not tip his hat, when they hear Johnny Blake passed on.
DVD Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
Bullets or Ballots, starring Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, 1936
Not one of the Bronx corner boys, not one of Harry’s Variety’s bookie joint backroom horseplayers, not one of the crap-shooters from the 242nd Street back alleys, not one of the flim-flam armed robbery, grand larceny guys, not one of the grifters, drifters, or midnight sifters, not one of fixer boys, not one of the percentage guys, cried a tear when they heard that Johnny B., Johnny Blake, Detective Johnny Blake (played by Edward G. Robinson) cashed his check in a pool of blood on the street in front of the Oceanic Bank. Oh, well, maybe Moll, Moll the queen of the numbers on that side of town, Bronx , Harlem, places like that, did cry one tear but what would you expect from an old Johnny flame whose operation he winked at. Winked at since Moll was seen on more than one occasion coming out of Johnny’s digs and he after her with a smile on his face from her “curling his toes.” But she will get over it, if she hasn’t already, when the next Johnny cop comes by and needs his toes curled for a wink at her operation.
Oh, yeah, in the interest of full disclosure, nobody will be crying a tear over the fate of the late “Bugs” Fenner either (played by Humphrey Bogart), the guy who helped Johnny cash his check in that big pool of blood while cashing in his chips at the same time, courtesy of the late Detective Johnny Blake. Nobody from Fulton’s Fish Market where he extorted (such an ugly word, let’s say received tribute) so much for each fish that passed through, nobody from Biggie’s Meat Market where he also got tribute for each steak that passeth through, nobody from the Dairy Co-Operative when each glass of milk for growing city kids required a tariff, and no fruits and vegetables guys who were weighed down by a Bugs toll. No strong arm guys, no axe murderers, not safe-crackers, and none of the aforementioned grifters, drifters and midnight sifter either, not a sentimental guy in the lot. Not sentimental either would be one Jimmy the Slice, Bugs, number two guy in his extortion rackets, oops, tribute operation, who even a couple of minutes after Bugs’ sent-off had been seen is removing Bugs’ name from his office door. See Jimmy and a whole slew of guys just moved one rung up the food chain, nothing else. That was just how it was with the tough guys who gave no quarter and expected none in the film under review, Bullets or Ballots.
But maybe I had better step back and give you the story of how and why Johnny bought his ticket (everybody called him Johnny, copper or hood, so we will use that designation here as well) and why nobody cried that precious tear over the matter. Johnny and all those corner boys, bookies, extortionists, armed robbers, murderers, con men, numbers racketeers, drifters, grifters and midnight sifters all grew up in the same neighborhood, all started out life with a two strikes against them and a chip on their shoulders, even Johnny. But Johnny, had been smart, “street smart,” Johnny played the percentages and figured that if he didn’t want to do a nickel or dime at Sing Sing for this and that, maybe more than once, he had better move on. Moving on meant joining the cops, and why not, since he already knew who the clientele would be. Not just a regular New York City cop cadging coffee and doughnuts just for being a copper though, a hard-boiled honest one too. So he pinched a lot of his old time cronies, worse, he made them (when they were not in the slammer) tip their hats to him, to the law, on the streets. That little act of homage ate at a lot of them and explains why there were tearless Bronx boys.
So Johnny good cop went about his business of smacking down the bad guys and making them like it, almost. But you know cities, cities like New York, have more criminals and more rackets per square mile than you can shake a stick at so crime was rampant, out of control, beginning to take over the ethos of the city. A few guys, do-gooders fought back, including one publisher who really was serious about cleaning up the town, a guy who guys like Johnny Blake could look up to and maybe help out. Except that publisher was disrupting the flow of criminal dough, no, was making such a ruckus that he might disrupt the flow of criminal dough and that was enough, enough for Bugs, and so one night under the orders of this reputed crime boss he went down in a hail of bullets. The irony, or maybe the naïve on his part, was that this publisher’s idea was to use the ballot box to get rid of the public officials and coppers who were “on the take.” A silly, if brave, man with a silly idea then, or now, when money, lots of it, greases the wheels of government in your favor if you have the kale.
Johnny, and not just Johnny, took that publisher’s murder hard, took it hard knowing flat-out that Bugs had done it, had decided to send a strong message to do-gooders to put their heads down and take it, take whatever was dished out and like it. But Bug’s free-lance action caused waves among the racketeers too, especially Bugs’ boss up the food chain, Al Kruger, and his bosses at the top, the central committee of the WASP establishment of the city who were bankrolling the rackets and raking in the profits (okay, okay since this is New York City maybe a few Dutch guys thrown in the mix too). So there was an upper management dispute as Kruger was given orders to clean house, to get rid of guy who still believed that shoot-outs were the way to do business.
Meanwhile that murder stuck in Johnny’s craw, others too, and he and his co-thinkers really wanted to take a little action, and they did. And here is where Johnny’s skills as an old corner boy who knew all the hard guys, especially Kruger, came into play. The plan hatched at the highest levels of the police department was for Johnny to take a tumble off the force, get kicked off for not playing ball with the new police regime, then take umbrage at being kicked off the force in a public way, and in revenge take a “consultant” job with Kruger checking for weak spots in his operations. The number one weak spot of course being one old Capote-like Bugs Fenner. And so the deal went down, Johnny got on the inside, got tight with Kruger whom he had known from the old days, and started to see how the operation worked right up to the top, up to that WASP central committee (and the Dutchies thrown in).
Funny it worked, well, mainly worked, for a while. Johnny was moving in nicely and Kruger was happy, happy until old Bugs got his nose bent out of shape and knocked him off. Meanwhile Johnny keeps plugging away at the mechanics of the operation and wound up being the guy who delivered the dough to the guys at the top, their profits. A big deal, and that might have worked out in the end except Bugs really did not like Johnny, didn’t believe he had turned rogue cop, and went after him prior to Johnny’s deliver debut. That is when the shoot-out occurred and Bugs wound up very dead and Johnny mortally wounded. Johnny, good cop to the end, delivers the dough to the WASP committee as part of the “sting” operation and then cashed his check at the coppers busted up the committee’s operation. So that is why Johnny may draw a tear from his old sweetie, Moll. And why no self-respecting hard guy will shed any, and empathically not tip his hat, when they hear Johnny Blake passed on.
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/
COMMENTARY
THE DUTY OF A REVOLUTIONARY IS TO MAKE THE REVOLUTION-OR FALL TRYING
FORGET DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS AND GREENS- BUILD A WORKERS PARTY
I was recently asked by a young militant leftist of vague socialist sympathies why an old militant like myself was still trying to put up what apparently appears to be a forlorn task in my lifetime- the ‘good fight’ for socialism. My short answer to her was that I was doing it for her. It is true that each political generation will come to terms with the socialist tasks of its era in its own way. However, it would be a serious mistake on the part of young socialist militants to ignore the lessons of the past.
The lessons: the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Paris Commune, the early history of the American Communist Party and later the Socialist Workers Party now seemingly in the historic mist of time to today’s young militants need examination. Old militants may not be able to immediately bring about the socialist vision that animated their youth but we sure as hell can pass on the torch to the next generation. Moreover, the links to that past by death, attrition and abandonment of politics by earlier cadre have become extremely attenuated, particularly here in the heartland of world imperialism, and the relatively few of us who still remember that past and who are still fighting that ‘good fight’ are duty bound to pass on what we know.
Now for a little longer answer to that young militant’s question. I came of political age in the 1960’s, a time of much political ferment and many political mistakes on the part of the young leftists of my generation, what I have euphemistically called elsewhere the generation of ’68. Personally, I came, kicking and screaming, relatively late to the Marxist worldview after abandoning left liberal and then 'soft' socialist political positions. I can, however, state with some pride that the lateness of my conversion probably helped to keep my convictions that much more solid. Certainly nothing politically over the past 30 plus years has changed my basis view of the necessity of socialism and the probability that a knock down, drag out fight against the imperialists will be necessary to achieve it. If nothing else that is the example I wish to set by my writings and political actions.
Truth to tell, nobody ever said that individual revolutionaries would live to see the socialist society in their life time. If any thought so they bought the wrong ticket. While it is certainly true that individual activists make their own judgments about the extend of their commitment to their political goals, especially something as seemingly esoteric as the hard fight for socialism, this wicked world holds too many surprises to base one’s political calculations on the dream of actually being a commissar in a soviet society. Our models, moreover, should be Marx who after 1848 never came close to seeing the society that he predicted but still fought savagely for his worldview until his death. And Lenin, who only saw a partial and a much distorted completion of his world view before his untimely death. And Trotsky who fought to save the Russian Revolution and later in exile fought to create a new revolutionary international died at his post with his work still uncompleted. Can we do less?
Finally, let me give a specific example that has sustained me throughout the years. As part of my early Marxist political activity I did a massive amount of political reading, especially about the American socialist movement. In that reading I was drawn to the struggle of the American Trotskyists in the 1930’s who as followers of Trotsky’s Left International were trying to create a new revolutionary communist party in opposition to the Stalinized American Communist Party. As part of that process they tried to regroup with other active left wing anti-Stalinist organizations.
One such successful regroupment was with the Workers Party that had led the famous Toledo Auto-Lite strike in 1934 and which along with other later regroupments formed the Socialist Workers Party. One of the leaders of the Workers Party was New York University Professor, James Burnham. Burnham was a high-powered intellectual who could write very persuasively and wrote many articles and pamphlets that militants today can still profitably read. In 1940 he led a major split from the SWP over the question of defense of the Soviet Union. He in turn split from Marxism and later would end up a die-hard anti-Communist in league with conservative William Buckley’s National Review. Such are vagaries of politics, but that is not the main point here. In his heyday in the Socialist Workers Party Burnham was asked by fellow leader James P. Cannon to take a more central and active role in the leadership of the organization. In response Burnham stated that he personally could or would not do so as he was uncertain whether the socialist goals of the organization were attainable in his life time. That, fellow militants, is exactly the bad example that I have been fighting against most of my political life. I remain at my post.
*****************
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?
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.
************COMMENTARY
THE DUTY OF A REVOLUTIONARY IS TO MAKE THE REVOLUTION-OR FALL TRYING
FORGET DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS AND GREENS- BUILD A WORKERS PARTY
I was recently asked by a young militant leftist of vague socialist sympathies why an old militant like myself was still trying to put up what apparently appears to be a forlorn task in my lifetime- the ‘good fight’ for socialism. My short answer to her was that I was doing it for her. It is true that each political generation will come to terms with the socialist tasks of its era in its own way. However, it would be a serious mistake on the part of young socialist militants to ignore the lessons of the past.
The lessons: the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Paris Commune, the early history of the American Communist Party and later the Socialist Workers Party now seemingly in the historic mist of time to today’s young militants need examination. Old militants may not be able to immediately bring about the socialist vision that animated their youth but we sure as hell can pass on the torch to the next generation. Moreover, the links to that past by death, attrition and abandonment of politics by earlier cadre have become extremely attenuated, particularly here in the heartland of world imperialism, and the relatively few of us who still remember that past and who are still fighting that ‘good fight’ are duty bound to pass on what we know.
Now for a little longer answer to that young militant’s question. I came of political age in the 1960’s, a time of much political ferment and many political mistakes on the part of the young leftists of my generation, what I have euphemistically called elsewhere the generation of ’68. Personally, I came, kicking and screaming, relatively late to the Marxist worldview after abandoning left liberal and then 'soft' socialist political positions. I can, however, state with some pride that the lateness of my conversion probably helped to keep my convictions that much more solid. Certainly nothing politically over the past 30 plus years has changed my basis view of the necessity of socialism and the probability that a knock down, drag out fight against the imperialists will be necessary to achieve it. If nothing else that is the example I wish to set by my writings and political actions.
Truth to tell, nobody ever said that individual revolutionaries would live to see the socialist society in their life time. If any thought so they bought the wrong ticket. While it is certainly true that individual activists make their own judgments about the extend of their commitment to their political goals, especially something as seemingly esoteric as the hard fight for socialism, this wicked world holds too many surprises to base one’s political calculations on the dream of actually being a commissar in a soviet society. Our models, moreover, should be Marx who after 1848 never came close to seeing the society that he predicted but still fought savagely for his worldview until his death. And Lenin, who only saw a partial and a much distorted completion of his world view before his untimely death. And Trotsky who fought to save the Russian Revolution and later in exile fought to create a new revolutionary international died at his post with his work still uncompleted. Can we do less?
Finally, let me give a specific example that has sustained me throughout the years. As part of my early Marxist political activity I did a massive amount of political reading, especially about the American socialist movement. In that reading I was drawn to the struggle of the American Trotskyists in the 1930’s who as followers of Trotsky’s Left International were trying to create a new revolutionary communist party in opposition to the Stalinized American Communist Party. As part of that process they tried to regroup with other active left wing anti-Stalinist organizations.
One such successful regroupment was with the Workers Party that had led the famous Toledo Auto-Lite strike in 1934 and which along with other later regroupments formed the Socialist Workers Party. One of the leaders of the Workers Party was New York University Professor, James Burnham. Burnham was a high-powered intellectual who could write very persuasively and wrote many articles and pamphlets that militants today can still profitably read. In 1940 he led a major split from the SWP over the question of defense of the Soviet Union. He in turn split from Marxism and later would end up a die-hard anti-Communist in league with conservative William Buckley’s National Review. Such are vagaries of politics, but that is not the main point here. In his heyday in the Socialist Workers Party Burnham was asked by fellow leader James P. Cannon to take a more central and active role in the leadership of the organization. In response Burnham stated that he personally could or would not do so as he was uncertain whether the socialist goals of the organization were attainable in his life time. That, fellow militants, is exactly the bad example that I have been fighting against most of my political life. I remain at my post.
*****************
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?
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