|
Please circulate widely!
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| ||
|
|
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| |
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|
Action Alert!!! The trial of the Dallas 6 is going forward on Monday August
24. PACK THE COURT for
Pennsylvania Prisoner
Whistleblowers
Stop the abuse and
torture of prisoners!
|
| |
|
|
The Dallas
6 are six African-American prisoners who, while in
solitary confinement in SCI Dallas PA prison, blew the whistle on &
peacefully protested against abuse and violence by prison guards. They were
charged with “rioting.” Without the benefit of cell phones that have exposed
police violence on the street, we are dependent on whistleblowers to expose
abuse by guards behind bars. After dragging on for five years, the trial of the
remaining three Dallas 6 members begins on Aug 24 in Luzerne County (infamous
for the “kids for cash” scandal).
|
Why support the Dallas 6?
They are whistleblowers who put their lives on the line by taking action to
stop the rampant abuse and violence by guards at SCI Dallas and other PA
prisons.
We all depend on prisoners like the Dallas
6 to tell the truth about
our society and to defend all our civil and human rights.
They are part of a movement of prisoners taking action and speaking out through
hunger and work strikes such as in Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana,
Virginia and California.
Torture must remain illegal in this country. Charles Graner honed his torture
skills in PA where he was a prison guard before moving on to Abu Ghraib. We
should not have to go to Iraq to find out what is happening here, not when there
are prisoners telling it like it is.
Solitary confinement is torture according to Juan Méndez, UN Special
Rappateur on Torture, who has called for an absolute ban on solitary for longer
than 15 days.
Mass incarceration has meant many prisoners are inside for non-violent
offenses such as minor drug convictions, immigration and parole violations
& not paying fines, or are innocent of any offense. But whatever the
offense, the sentence does not include
torture.
Their trial is taking place
in the
infamous Luzerne ‘Kids for Cash’ County where judges were convicted of
kickbacks for incarcerating children. Legal help is needed to navigate those
dirty waters.
|
|
|
What can
you do?
► Help to pack the court on Aug 24.
Sign up
here if you
are planning to come, need or can offer housing or transportation.
► Set up a speaking engagement for Shandre and
Derrick who give dynamic
presentations (see video below).
| |||
|
Your support is needed to ensure that
these men receive a fair trial, that the abuses that they faced in prison do not
continue, and, for the legal precedent that this court case will
establish.
If the Dallas 6 are justifiably cleared of all charges Pennsylvania prisoners
will be able to speak up against abuse and torture without fear of
retaliation.
| |||
|
|
For more
information
|
| |
|
|
| ||
|
|
Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign: Abolitionist Law Center; Every Mother is a Working Mother Network;
Fight for Lifers West; Germantown Friends Meeting Mass Incarceration Working
Group; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS – US; Human Rights
Coalition – Fed Up; Human Rights Coalition – Philadelphia; Marcellus Shale Earth
First; Mishkan Shalom New Jim Crow Study-Action Group; Payday men’s network;
Peacehome Campaigns; Shalefield Organizing Committee. Endorsements: Brandywine Peace Community; California Families Against
Solitary Confinement (CFASC); The Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC);
Decarcerate PA; Defending Dissent Foundation; Global Women’s Strike & Women
of Color@GWS – UK; Human Rights Defense Center – Lake Worth, Florida; Jewish
Voice For Peace - Philadelphia; Sin Barras – Without (Prison) Bars – Santa Cruz;
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; WHAT’S UP?! Pittsburgh; Welfare
Warriors; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) –
Philadelphia. Individual Endorsements: Pam Africa, International
Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Patrice Armstead, Building
People’s Power and Coalition Demanding Reinstatement of Dr. Monteiro; Malik
Aziz, Founder, Men United for a Better Philadelphia and Chairman, National
Exhoodus Council; Pastor Antoinette Johnson, King Solomon Baptist Church; Dr.
Anthony Monteiro; Rev. Bob Moore, Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action
(for id purposes only); Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of African American
Studies & History, Temple University; Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University;
Dr. Carla Willard, Africana Studies Program, Franklin & Marshall College.
Partnering with: AFSC Prison Watch.
|
| |
|
|
| ||
|
|
Background
|
| |
|
|
Six African-American
prisoners from the State Correctional Institute (SCI) in Dallas, PA are facing
charges of “rioting” for blowing the whistle on the abuse of prisoners in
solitary confinement.
On April 10, 2010,
illegal and barbaric conditions at the hands of prison guards at SCI Dallas led
these inmates, held in solitary confinement, to stage a protest. For over a year
they had suffered food deprivation, destruction of mail, beatings, neglect of
medical conditions, use of a torture chair and the
deaths of some other prisoners, including the coerced suicide of an older white
prisoner with mental health issues.
After guards kept
prisoner Isaac Sanchez confined in a torture chair overnight, six protested by
covering their cell door windows with their bedding. The prisoners demanded that
the abuse stop, and requested access to their counselors, state police, the
District Attorney and the Public Defenders’ Office. They had no access to
telephones or computers and their incoming and out-going mail were being
destroyed to undermine their ability to expose the corruption.
Prison guards
responded with an armed assault against the unarmed men locked inside individual
cells. They attacked the six men with electroshock shields, tasers, fists and
pepper spray.
The guards involved
suffered no injuries and initially no charges were filed against the Dallas 6,
who were left bloodied, naked, burnt and in pain. Although some of the men were
transferred to other prisons, they were able to file complaints and initiate
civil actions against the prison guards and officials involved.
Prison officials,
state police and the Luzerne County DA retaliated four months later by charging
the Dallas 6 with rioting. The Dallas 6 believe that they are facing these
trumped up charges because they contributed to Institutionalized
Cruelty, Human Rights Coalition Report 1, and, then
subsequently stood up for their lives, which is documented in Resistance &
Retaliation, Report 2.
The US has the
largest prison population in the world with Black and Brown communities
disproportionately impacted. Prisoners across the US are taking action and
speaking out against their inhumane and tortuous conditions, including prisoner
hunger and work strikes in Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia
and California. As a result of their actions, prisoners are retaliated against by prison authorities. The trial of the
Dallas 6 will represent a moment of truth and exposure about wide-spread use of
solitary confinement and torture in prisons. We call on all who believe in
justice and equality to support the Dallas 6.
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Action Alert!!! The trial of the Dallas 6 is going forward on Monday August 24. PACK THE COURT for
Action Alert!!! The trial of the Dallas 6 is going forward on Monday August 24. PACK THE COURT for
|
Please circulate widely!
|
| ||
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Action Alert!!! The trial of the Dallas 6 is going forward on Monday August
24. PACK THE COURT for
Pennsylvania Prisoner
Whistleblowers
Stop the abuse and
torture of prisoners!
|
| |
|
|
The Dallas
6 are six African-American prisoners who, while in
solitary confinement in SCI Dallas PA prison, blew the whistle on &
peacefully protested against abuse and violence by prison guards. They were
charged with “rioting.” Without the benefit of cell phones that have exposed
police violence on the street, we are dependent on whistleblowers to expose
abuse by guards behind bars. After dragging on for five years, the trial of the
remaining three Dallas 6 members begins on Aug 24 in Luzerne County (infamous
for the “kids for cash” scandal).
|
Why support the Dallas 6?
They are whistleblowers who put their lives on the line by taking action to
stop the rampant abuse and violence by guards at SCI Dallas and other PA
prisons.
We all depend on prisoners like the Dallas
6 to tell the truth about
our society and to defend all our civil and human rights.
They are part of a movement of prisoners taking action and speaking out through
hunger and work strikes such as in Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana,
Virginia and California.
Torture must remain illegal in this country. Charles Graner honed his torture
skills in PA where he was a prison guard before moving on to Abu Ghraib. We
should not have to go to Iraq to find out what is happening here, not when there
are prisoners telling it like it is.
Solitary confinement is torture according to Juan Méndez, UN Special
Rappateur on Torture, who has called for an absolute ban on solitary for longer
than 15 days.
Mass incarceration has meant many prisoners are inside for non-violent
offenses such as minor drug convictions, immigration and parole violations
& not paying fines, or are innocent of any offense. But whatever the
offense, the sentence does not include
torture.
Their trial is taking place
in the
infamous Luzerne ‘Kids for Cash’ County where judges were convicted of
kickbacks for incarcerating children. Legal help is needed to navigate those
dirty waters.
|
|
|
What can
you do?
► Help to pack the court on Aug 24.
Sign up
here if you
are planning to come, need or can offer housing or transportation.
► Set up a speaking engagement for Shandre and
Derrick who give dynamic
presentations (see video below).
| |||
|
Your support is needed to ensure that
these men receive a fair trial, that the abuses that they faced in prison do not
continue, and, for the legal precedent that this court case will
establish.
If the Dallas 6 are justifiably cleared of all charges Pennsylvania prisoners
will be able to speak up against abuse and torture without fear of
retaliation.
| |||
|
|
For more
information
|
| |
|
|
| ||
|
|
Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign: Abolitionist Law Center; Every Mother is a Working Mother Network;
Fight for Lifers West; Germantown Friends Meeting Mass Incarceration Working
Group; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS – US; Human Rights
Coalition – Fed Up; Human Rights Coalition – Philadelphia; Marcellus Shale Earth
First; Mishkan Shalom New Jim Crow Study-Action Group; Payday men’s network;
Peacehome Campaigns; Shalefield Organizing Committee. Endorsements: Brandywine Peace Community; California Families Against
Solitary Confinement (CFASC); The Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC);
Decarcerate PA; Defending Dissent Foundation; Global Women’s Strike & Women
of Color@GWS – UK; Human Rights Defense Center – Lake Worth, Florida; Jewish
Voice For Peace - Philadelphia; Sin Barras – Without (Prison) Bars – Santa Cruz;
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; WHAT’S UP?! Pittsburgh; Welfare
Warriors; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) –
Philadelphia. Individual Endorsements: Pam Africa, International
Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Patrice Armstead, Building
People’s Power and Coalition Demanding Reinstatement of Dr. Monteiro; Malik
Aziz, Founder, Men United for a Better Philadelphia and Chairman, National
Exhoodus Council; Pastor Antoinette Johnson, King Solomon Baptist Church; Dr.
Anthony Monteiro; Rev. Bob Moore, Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action
(for id purposes only); Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of African American
Studies & History, Temple University; Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University;
Dr. Carla Willard, Africana Studies Program, Franklin & Marshall College.
Partnering with: AFSC Prison Watch.
|
| |
|
|
| ||
|
|
Background
|
| |
|
|
Six African-American
prisoners from the State Correctional Institute (SCI) in Dallas, PA are facing
charges of “rioting” for blowing the whistle on the abuse of prisoners in
solitary confinement.
On April 10, 2010,
illegal and barbaric conditions at the hands of prison guards at SCI Dallas led
these inmates, held in solitary confinement, to stage a protest. For over a year
they had suffered food deprivation, destruction of mail, beatings, neglect of
medical conditions, use of a torture chair and the
deaths of some other prisoners, including the coerced suicide of an older white
prisoner with mental health issues.
After guards kept
prisoner Isaac Sanchez confined in a torture chair overnight, six protested by
covering their cell door windows with their bedding. The prisoners demanded that
the abuse stop, and requested access to their counselors, state police, the
District Attorney and the Public Defenders’ Office. They had no access to
telephones or computers and their incoming and out-going mail were being
destroyed to undermine their ability to expose the corruption.
Prison guards
responded with an armed assault against the unarmed men locked inside individual
cells. They attacked the six men with electroshock shields, tasers, fists and
pepper spray.
The guards involved
suffered no injuries and initially no charges were filed against the Dallas 6,
who were left bloodied, naked, burnt and in pain. Although some of the men were
transferred to other prisons, they were able to file complaints and initiate
civil actions against the prison guards and officials involved.
Prison officials,
state police and the Luzerne County DA retaliated four months later by charging
the Dallas 6 with rioting. The Dallas 6 believe that they are facing these
trumped up charges because they contributed to Institutionalized
Cruelty, Human Rights Coalition Report 1, and, then
subsequently stood up for their lives, which is documented in Resistance &
Retaliation, Report 2.
The US has the
largest prison population in the world with Black and Brown communities
disproportionately impacted. Prisoners across the US are taking action and
speaking out against their inhumane and tortuous conditions, including prisoner
hunger and work strikes in Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia
and California. As a result of their actions, prisoners are retaliated against by prison authorities. The trial of the
Dallas 6 will represent a moment of truth and exposure about wide-spread use of
solitary confinement and torture in prisons. We call on all who believe in
justice and equality to support the Dallas 6.
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Action Alert!!! The trial of the Dallas 6 is going forward on Monday August 24. PACK THE COURT for
|
Please circulate widely!
|
| ||
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Action Alert!!! The trial of the Dallas 6 is going forward on Monday August
24. PACK THE COURT for
Pennsylvania Prisoner
Whistleblowers
Stop the abuse and
torture of prisoners!
|
| |
|
|
The Dallas
6 are six African-American prisoners who, while in
solitary confinement in SCI Dallas PA prison, blew the whistle on &
peacefully protested against abuse and violence by prison guards. They were
charged with “rioting.” Without the benefit of cell phones that have exposed
police violence on the street, we are dependent on whistleblowers to expose
abuse by guards behind bars. After dragging on for five years, the trial of the
remaining three Dallas 6 members begins on Aug 24 in Luzerne County (infamous
for the “kids for cash” scandal).
|
Why support the Dallas 6?
They are whistleblowers who put their lives on the line by taking action to
stop the rampant abuse and violence by guards at SCI Dallas and other PA
prisons.
We all depend on prisoners like the Dallas
6 to tell the truth about
our society and to defend all our civil and human rights.
They are part of a movement of prisoners taking action and speaking out through
hunger and work strikes such as in Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana,
Virginia and California.
Torture must remain illegal in this country. Charles Graner honed his torture
skills in PA where he was a prison guard before moving on to Abu Ghraib. We
should not have to go to Iraq to find out what is happening here, not when there
are prisoners telling it like it is.
Solitary confinement is torture according to Juan Méndez, UN Special
Rappateur on Torture, who has called for an absolute ban on solitary for longer
than 15 days.
Mass incarceration has meant many prisoners are inside for non-violent
offenses such as minor drug convictions, immigration and parole violations
& not paying fines, or are innocent of any offense. But whatever the
offense, the sentence does not include
torture.
Their trial is taking place
in the
infamous Luzerne ‘Kids for Cash’ County where judges were convicted of
kickbacks for incarcerating children. Legal help is needed to navigate those
dirty waters.
|
|
|
What can
you do?
► Help to pack the court on Aug 24.
Sign up
here if you
are planning to come, need or can offer housing or transportation.
► Set up a speaking engagement for Shandre and
Derrick who give dynamic
presentations (see video below).
| |||
|
Your support is needed to ensure that
these men receive a fair trial, that the abuses that they faced in prison do not
continue, and, for the legal precedent that this court case will
establish.
If the Dallas 6 are justifiably cleared of all charges Pennsylvania prisoners
will be able to speak up against abuse and torture without fear of
retaliation.
| |||
|
|
For more
information
|
| |
|
|
| ||
|
|
Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign: Abolitionist Law Center; Every Mother is a Working Mother Network;
Fight for Lifers West; Germantown Friends Meeting Mass Incarceration Working
Group; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS – US; Human Rights
Coalition – Fed Up; Human Rights Coalition – Philadelphia; Marcellus Shale Earth
First; Mishkan Shalom New Jim Crow Study-Action Group; Payday men’s network;
Peacehome Campaigns; Shalefield Organizing Committee. Endorsements: Brandywine Peace Community; California Families Against
Solitary Confinement (CFASC); The Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC);
Decarcerate PA; Defending Dissent Foundation; Global Women’s Strike & Women
of Color@GWS – UK; Human Rights Defense Center – Lake Worth, Florida; Jewish
Voice For Peace - Philadelphia; Sin Barras – Without (Prison) Bars – Santa Cruz;
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; WHAT’S UP?! Pittsburgh; Welfare
Warriors; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) –
Philadelphia. Individual Endorsements: Pam Africa, International
Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Patrice Armstead, Building
People’s Power and Coalition Demanding Reinstatement of Dr. Monteiro; Malik
Aziz, Founder, Men United for a Better Philadelphia and Chairman, National
Exhoodus Council; Pastor Antoinette Johnson, King Solomon Baptist Church; Dr.
Anthony Monteiro; Rev. Bob Moore, Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action
(for id purposes only); Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of African American
Studies & History, Temple University; Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University;
Dr. Carla Willard, Africana Studies Program, Franklin & Marshall College.
Partnering with: AFSC Prison Watch.
|
| |
|
|
| ||
|
|
Background
|
| |
|
|
Six African-American
prisoners from the State Correctional Institute (SCI) in Dallas, PA are facing
charges of “rioting” for blowing the whistle on the abuse of prisoners in
solitary confinement.
On April 10, 2010,
illegal and barbaric conditions at the hands of prison guards at SCI Dallas led
these inmates, held in solitary confinement, to stage a protest. For over a year
they had suffered food deprivation, destruction of mail, beatings, neglect of
medical conditions, use of a torture chair and the
deaths of some other prisoners, including the coerced suicide of an older white
prisoner with mental health issues.
After guards kept
prisoner Isaac Sanchez confined in a torture chair overnight, six protested by
covering their cell door windows with their bedding. The prisoners demanded that
the abuse stop, and requested access to their counselors, state police, the
District Attorney and the Public Defenders’ Office. They had no access to
telephones or computers and their incoming and out-going mail were being
destroyed to undermine their ability to expose the corruption.
Prison guards
responded with an armed assault against the unarmed men locked inside individual
cells. They attacked the six men with electroshock shields, tasers, fists and
pepper spray.
The guards involved
suffered no injuries and initially no charges were filed against the Dallas 6,
who were left bloodied, naked, burnt and in pain. Although some of the men were
transferred to other prisons, they were able to file complaints and initiate
civil actions against the prison guards and officials involved.
Prison officials,
state police and the Luzerne County DA retaliated four months later by charging
the Dallas 6 with rioting. The Dallas 6 believe that they are facing these
trumped up charges because they contributed to Institutionalized
Cruelty, Human Rights Coalition Report 1, and, then
subsequently stood up for their lives, which is documented in Resistance &
Retaliation, Report 2.
The US has the
largest prison population in the world with Black and Brown communities
disproportionately impacted. Prisoners across the US are taking action and
speaking out against their inhumane and tortuous conditions, including prisoner
hunger and work strikes in Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia
and California. As a result of their actions, prisoners are retaliated against by prison authorities. The trial of the
Dallas 6 will represent a moment of truth and exposure about wide-spread use of
solitary confinement and torture in prisons. We call on all who believe in
justice and equality to support the Dallas 6.
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
In Memory of Leon Trotsky On The 75th Anniversary Of His Death
In Memory of Leon Trotsky On The 75th Anniversary Of His Death
Workers Vanguard No. 1072 | 7 August 2015 |  |
| ||
TROTSKY
|
LENIN
|
In Memory of Leon Trotsky
Yeah, Listen To The Babies By Jasiri X-Black Lives Matter-Got It
Yeah, Listen To The Babies By Jasiri X-Black Lives Matter-Got It
From The Pen Of Sam Lowell
Sam Eaton turned about sixty shades of
red when George Brent, a young friend of his and his old friend Ralph Morris from
the anti-war and black liberation struggles of the past several years, told him
to “pipe down” in his leading the chants at a Black Lives Matter support rally
held in downtown Boston a few months back. That remark hit Sam hard. First because
he had been a chant-master since the days back in the late 1960s when he had gotten
“religion” on the anti-war issue during the Vietnam War after his boyhood friend,
Jeff Mullins, from Carver had been killed in the Central Highlands of that benighted
country and he had in letters back home to Sam begged him to tell the world (or
the part the world that would listen) what a hell-hole the place was if he did
not make it back.
That started the thing rolling and increased
study about such issues and many conversations with his oldest political friend
still standing Ralph had led to a life-time commitment as best he could to the “struggle.”
And in the time honored task of giving spirit to various rallies, vigils, speak-outs
and acts of civil disobedience he had with his droll voice cranked up the “troops’
with his sing-song chants from Bring the
Troops Home to the current Hands Up,
Don’t Shoot of the Black Lives Matter.
What was the matter with that.
Now Sam had no problem with the fact
that the BLM movement is being led, should be led, by the young, mostly black
militants who have the most to lose, and gain. As an old white guy only getting
older he had already faced that prospect when he attended his first such BLM rallies
and noticed that the language of struggle among the young centered more on
identity politics than the broader social struggle aspects that drove him and
Ralph in their youths (not that the languages were naturally mutually exclusive
but there was an emotive value to the difference in language that might turn out
to be). But to be called to task by an old (younger) comrade closer in age to
the young blacks organizing things these days seemed out of place. Particularly
when some young black women militants enthusiastically helped him through a
couple of chants when his voice faltered (not having had much occasion of late
to chant for any purpose). So after some reflection he took George’s remarks
with a certain amount of good grace at the time. Although in the back of his
mind the question gnawed at him.
The question being mainly what role others
had in the movement, whites, latinos, labor militants, Asians, women, the LGBTQ
community, young and old in the burgeoning and ever-present BLM, especially his
old white AARP guys in the movement. That question and how he (and Ralph) could
impart whatever wisdom they had gathered over the years of struggle to pass on to
the new politically awakened generation. Yeah, the kids would make their own
mistakes just like he, Ralph and their generation of ’68 had done ignoring the
older generations of their time but was it really necessary to re-invent the wheel
every time a new generation rose up in arms against the same entrenched class and
race enemies.
Then one night Ralph and he were sitting
in Jack’s a bar, an old-time radical hang-out over in Cambridge where Sam lives
sipping high-shelf whiskeys and discussing how back in their respective working
class youths in Troy, New York and Carver, Massachusetts they imbibed the
racial attitudes of their time and white neighborhoods. Ralph confessed that he
had stood shoulder to shoulder with his father, Ralph, Senior, back then physically trying to keep black
people from moving into the Tappan Street neighborhood where they lived (black
people called the “n” word freely back then in that neighborhood without the
ironic, desperate sense of today’s usage). Sam told Ralph that he had never
even seen a black person in Carver and did not know a single black person until
he went to work in Boston. So that night they began to sense something existed more
than a generational gap between them and the youth of the BLM. A whole missing
link about experiences.
That new understanding came to a head when
Ralph mentioned that he had heard on the radio one day a white woman talking on
some talk show that she had been before Trayvon Martin, before Ferguson and Michael
Brown, before Eric Garner clueless about the plight of black people in current
time America, especially young black men. Ralph mentioned that she had said
that she had lived in Barrington up in Podunk New Hampshire and so maybe she just
did not get around enough. But her remarks got Ralph thinking that even with
all their political experiences doing support work for the Black Panthers when
they were under the guns of the state, the struggle to free Nelson Mandela in
South Africa and support of the African National Congress they were probably
now out of the loop about the black struggle.
Maybe Malcolm X was right that the gap between
white and black experiences could not be bridged in this country together. Sobering
thoughts, no question. Sobering too though that the BLM needed allies, many allies
in this deeply bedrock racist slavery-born country. So they would study some
more, get out more and try like hell to figure out what the words to The Babies above from YouTube really
mean.
Books To While Away The Class Struggle By-From The Pen Of Leon Trotsky-"Literature And Revolution"
Click on the headline to link to the Leon Trotsky Internet Archives
Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By” and "Films To While Away The Class Struggle By"-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs and films that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some books that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. Markin
Book Review
Literature and Revolution, Leon Trotsky, 1924
Trotsky once wrote that of the three great tragedies in life- hunger, sex and death- revolutionary Marxism, which was the driving force behind his life and work, mainly concerned itself with the struggle against hunger. That observation contains an essential truth about the central thrust of the Marxist tradition. However, as Trotsky demonstrates here, Marxist methodology cannot and should not be reduced to an analysis of and prescription for that single struggle. Here Trotsky takes on an aspect of the struggle for mass cultural development.
In a healthy post-capitalist society mass cultural development would be greatly expanded and encouraged. If the task of socialism were merely to vastly expand economic equality, in a sense, it would be a relativity simple task for a healthy socialist society in concert with other like-minded societies to provide general economic equality with a little tweaking after vanquishing the capitalism mode of production. What Marxism aimed for, and Trotsky defends here, is a prospect that with the end of class society and with it an end to economic and social injustice the capacity of individual human beings to reach new heights of intellectual and creative development would flourish. That is the thought that underpins Trotsky’s work here as he analyzes various trends in Russian literature in the immediate aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. In short, Marxism is certainly not a method to be followed in order to write great literature but it does allow one to set that literature in its social context and interrelatedness.
You will find no Deconstructionist or other fashionable literary criticism here. Quite the contrary. Trotsky uses his finely tuned skill as a Marxist to great effect as he analyzes the various trends of literature as they were affected (or not affected) by the October Revolution and sniffs out what in false in some of the literary trends. Mainly, at the time of writing, the jury was still out about the prospects of many of these trends. He analyzes many of the trends that became important later in the century in world literature, like futurism and constructivism, and others- some of which have disappeared and some of which still survive.
The most important and lasting polemic which Trotsky raised here, however, was the fight against the proponents of ‘proletarian culture.’ The argument put forth by this trend maintained that since the Soviet Union was a workers' state those who wrote about working-class themes or were workers themselves should in the interest of cultural development be given special status and encouragement (read: a monopoly on the literary front). Trotsky makes short shrift of this argument by noting that, in theory at least as its turned out later, the proletarian state was only a transitional state and therefore no lasting ‘proletarian culture’ would have time to develop. Although history did not turn out to prove Trotsky correct the polemic is still relevant to any theory of mass cultural development.
One of the results of the publication of this book is that many intellectuals, particularly Western intellectuals, based some of their sympathy for Trotsky the man and fallen hero on his literary analysis and his ability to write. This was particularly true during the 1930’s here in America where those who were anti-Stalinist but were repelled by the vacuity of the Socialist Party were drawn to him. A few, like James T. Farrell (Studs Lonigan trilogy), did this mostly honorably. Most, like Dwight MacDonald and Sidney Hooks, etc. did not and simply used that temporary sympathy as a way station on their way to anti-Communism. Such is the nature of the political struggle.
A note for the politically- inclined who read this book. Trotsky wrote this book in 1923-24 at the time of Lenin’s death and later while the struggle for succession by Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev was in full swing. While Trotsky did not recognize it until later (nor did others, for that matter) this period represented the closing of the rising tide of the revolution. Hereafter, the people who ruled the Soviet Union, the purposes for which they ruled, and the manner in which they ruled changed dramatically. In short, Thermidor in the classical French revolutionary expression was victorious. Given his precarious political position why the hell was he writing a book on literary trends in post-revolutionary society at that time?
Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By” and "Films To While Away The Class Struggle By"-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs and films that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some books that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. Markin
Book Review
Literature and Revolution, Leon Trotsky, 1924
Trotsky once wrote that of the three great tragedies in life- hunger, sex and death- revolutionary Marxism, which was the driving force behind his life and work, mainly concerned itself with the struggle against hunger. That observation contains an essential truth about the central thrust of the Marxist tradition. However, as Trotsky demonstrates here, Marxist methodology cannot and should not be reduced to an analysis of and prescription for that single struggle. Here Trotsky takes on an aspect of the struggle for mass cultural development.
In a healthy post-capitalist society mass cultural development would be greatly expanded and encouraged. If the task of socialism were merely to vastly expand economic equality, in a sense, it would be a relativity simple task for a healthy socialist society in concert with other like-minded societies to provide general economic equality with a little tweaking after vanquishing the capitalism mode of production. What Marxism aimed for, and Trotsky defends here, is a prospect that with the end of class society and with it an end to economic and social injustice the capacity of individual human beings to reach new heights of intellectual and creative development would flourish. That is the thought that underpins Trotsky’s work here as he analyzes various trends in Russian literature in the immediate aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. In short, Marxism is certainly not a method to be followed in order to write great literature but it does allow one to set that literature in its social context and interrelatedness.
You will find no Deconstructionist or other fashionable literary criticism here. Quite the contrary. Trotsky uses his finely tuned skill as a Marxist to great effect as he analyzes the various trends of literature as they were affected (or not affected) by the October Revolution and sniffs out what in false in some of the literary trends. Mainly, at the time of writing, the jury was still out about the prospects of many of these trends. He analyzes many of the trends that became important later in the century in world literature, like futurism and constructivism, and others- some of which have disappeared and some of which still survive.
The most important and lasting polemic which Trotsky raised here, however, was the fight against the proponents of ‘proletarian culture.’ The argument put forth by this trend maintained that since the Soviet Union was a workers' state those who wrote about working-class themes or were workers themselves should in the interest of cultural development be given special status and encouragement (read: a monopoly on the literary front). Trotsky makes short shrift of this argument by noting that, in theory at least as its turned out later, the proletarian state was only a transitional state and therefore no lasting ‘proletarian culture’ would have time to develop. Although history did not turn out to prove Trotsky correct the polemic is still relevant to any theory of mass cultural development.
One of the results of the publication of this book is that many intellectuals, particularly Western intellectuals, based some of their sympathy for Trotsky the man and fallen hero on his literary analysis and his ability to write. This was particularly true during the 1930’s here in America where those who were anti-Stalinist but were repelled by the vacuity of the Socialist Party were drawn to him. A few, like James T. Farrell (Studs Lonigan trilogy), did this mostly honorably. Most, like Dwight MacDonald and Sidney Hooks, etc. did not and simply used that temporary sympathy as a way station on their way to anti-Communism. Such is the nature of the political struggle.
A note for the politically- inclined who read this book. Trotsky wrote this book in 1923-24 at the time of Lenin’s death and later while the struggle for succession by Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev was in full swing. While Trotsky did not recognize it until later (nor did others, for that matter) this period represented the closing of the rising tide of the revolution. Hereafter, the people who ruled the Soviet Union, the purposes for which they ruled, and the manner in which they ruled changed dramatically. In short, Thermidor in the classical French revolutionary expression was victorious. Given his precarious political position why the hell was he writing a book on literary trends in post-revolutionary society at that time?
***Artist's Corner- "Nighthawks " -The Work Of Edward Hopper
Click below to link to site that has information about the famous American realist (?) artist Edward Hooper. Tom Waits lyrics and Edward Hopper's art (at least his famous "Nighthawks At The Diner") definitely fit together.
The Specter Haunting….British Intelligence-With Heroic Soviet Spy Kim Philby In Mind
The Specter Haunting….British
Intelligence-With Heroic Soviet Spy Kim Philby In Mind
Kim Philby via Wikipedia
Click below to link to a BBC segment on alleged Soviet spy Cedric Belfrage:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34012395
From The Pen Of Sam Lowell
There is a specter haunting British
intelligence, you know, MI5, MI6, the spooks, the James Bond wanna-be’s who
wind up as cut-rate George Smileys. That specter has a name even seventy-five
plus years later, the heroic Kim Philby. Oh sure there were others, Burgess,
MacLean, Blount, the Cambridge Five boys, but Philby is the one that got under
their skin, the one who still gets under their skin as the latest report out of
BBC details. Philby’s fingerprints are over everything that touches British
intelligence from the late 1930s until the 1960s when he got away, breezed
right through their fingers.
Here is the beauty of what Philby knew,
counted on. See he knew that when the deal went down, the good old boys clubs
that dotted the upper edges of British class life (still do just ask David Cameron)
starting back in early childhood would never ever do anything to do harm to his
or her majesty’s realm. So the spy boys never thought, at least in time, even
if they claim otherwise post hoc they
had to worry about one of their own. (Forget all the lying subterfuge stuff by
James Jesus Angleton to the contrary.) Never thought to worry about that six
generations or more of being on top against the insurgent up-start Soviets. And
so never know what hit them.
Yeah, no question, when the old Soviet Union
was around, warts and all, it was good to have a “class traitor” like Philby on
your side. Damn, wish we had some serious prospects these days of socialism
(not of the necessary of that system that has been there since Marx’s time,
maybe before) in order to find some guys like Philby to
defend it. Still I am willing to bet in another seventy-five plus years they
will still be scratching their heads wondering how they “missed” the six
million signs that Philby was working the other side of the street.
Friday, August 21, 2015
On The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Jefferson Airplane's First Album -From The Archives-Out In The Be-Bop, Be-Bop 1960s Night- The Great San Francisco Summer Of Love Explosion-Or When Owsley Turned The World Upside Down.
On The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Jefferson Airplane's First Album -From The Archives
CD Review
1967: Blowin’ Your Mind, various artists, Time-Life Music, 1990
Scene: Brought to mind by one of the songs in this compilation, The Byrds Filimore West-driven classic wa-wa song, So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star .
Phil Larkin, now road-weary “Far-Out” Phil Larkin, for those who want to trace his evolution from North Adamsville early 1960s be-bop night “Foul-Mouth” Phil, the vocal terror of every mother’s daughter from six to sixty (and, occasionally, secret delight, secret delight of one Minnie Callahan, damn him, for one of some girl classmates), to full-fledged merry prankster now sits on a 1967 be-bop night San Francisco hill with his new flame Butterfly Swirl, and his old flame, Luscious Lois, now transformed into Lilly Rose, transformed at the flip of a switch, as was her way when some whim, or some word in the air, hit her dead center. (Sometime, but not now, remind me to give you my take on this name-changing epidemic as not only were we re-inventing ourselves physically and spiritually but in our public personas shedding our “slave names” much as some blacks were doing for more serious reasons than we had at the time. Yes, remind me.) A nameless hill, nameless to first time ‘Frisco Phil, although maybe not to some ancient Native American shaman delighted to see our homeland the sea out in the bay working it way to far-off Japans. Or to some Spanish conquistador, full of gold dreams but longing for the hills of Barcelona half a world away.
But enough of old-time visions, of old time rites of passage, and of foundling dreams. Phil, and his entourage (nice word, huh, no more girlfriend solo, or as here paired, lovingly paired, to be hung up about, just go with the flow). Phil, Butterfly, hell, even jaded Lilly Rose (formerly known as Luscious Lois in case you forgot, or we not paying attention) are a “family,” or rather part of the Captain Crunch extended intentional family of merry pranksters (small case, so as not to be confused with their namesakes and models legendary mad man writer Ken Kesey and his La Honda Merry Pranksters, okay) who just yesterday hit ‘Frisco and have planted their de rigueur day-glo bus in the environs of Golden Gate Park after many months on the road west, and some time down south in La Jolla. After hearing the siren call they have now advanced north to feast on the self-declared Summer of Love that is guaranteed to mend broken hearts, broken spirits, broken rainbows, broken china, and broken, well broken everything. The glue: drug, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll, although not just any old-timey be-bop fifties rock and roll but what everybody now calls “acid” rock. And acid, for the squares out there, is nothing but the tribal name for LSD that has every parent from the New York island to the Redwood forests, every public official from ‘Frisco to France, and every police officer (I am being nice here and will not use the oink word) from the Boston to Bombay and back, well, “freaked out” (and clueless). Yes, our Phil has come a long way from that snarly wise guy corner boy night of that old town he lammed out from (according to his told story) just about a year ago.
Or has he? Well, sure Phil’s hair is quite a bit longer, his beard less wispy and more manly, his tattered Chuck Taylor sneakers transformed into sensible (West Coast ocean sensible) roman sandals and his weight, well, his weight is way down from those weekly bouts with three-day drug escape, and fearful barely eaten four in the morning open hearth stews, and not much else. And as he sits on that nameless hill with his “ladies” he no longer has the expectation of just trying LSD for the hell of it, having licked it (off a blotter), or drank it (the famous, or infamous, kool-aid fix), several times down in La Jolla, watching the surf (and surfers) splashing against the Pacific world with blond-haired, blue-eyed, bouncy Butterfly, and the raven-haired, dark as night-eyed Lilly Rose, or both listening to the music fill the night air. Not square music either (anything pre-1964 except maybe some be-bop wild piano man Jerry Lee Lewis, or some Chicago blues guitar fired by Muddy Waters or microphone-eating Howlin’ Wolf), but moog, boog, foog-filled music.
Just that nameless hill minute though, and to be honest, while in the midst of another acid trip (LSD, for the squares just in case you forgot), Phil sensed that something had crested in the Pacific night and that just maybe this scene will not evolve into the “newer world” that everybody, especially Captain Crunch, keeps expecting any day now. Worst, now that he knows he can’t, no way, go back to some department clerk’s job, some picket-fenced white house with dog, two point three children, and a wife what is to happen to him when Butterfly, Lilly Rose, and even Captain Crunch “find” themselves and go back to school, home, academic careers, or whatever. Heavy, man, heavy.
1967: Blowin’ Your Mind, various artists, Time-Life Music, 1990
Scene: Brought to mind by one of the songs in this compilation, The Byrds Filimore West-driven classic wa-wa song, So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star .
Phil Larkin, now road-weary “Far-Out” Phil Larkin, for those who want to trace his evolution from North Adamsville early 1960s be-bop night “Foul-Mouth” Phil, the vocal terror of every mother’s daughter from six to sixty (and, occasionally, secret delight, secret delight of one Minnie Callahan, damn him, for one of some girl classmates), to full-fledged merry prankster now sits on a 1967 be-bop night San Francisco hill with his new flame Butterfly Swirl, and his old flame, Luscious Lois, now transformed into Lilly Rose, transformed at the flip of a switch, as was her way when some whim, or some word in the air, hit her dead center. (Sometime, but not now, remind me to give you my take on this name-changing epidemic as not only were we re-inventing ourselves physically and spiritually but in our public personas shedding our “slave names” much as some blacks were doing for more serious reasons than we had at the time. Yes, remind me.) A nameless hill, nameless to first time ‘Frisco Phil, although maybe not to some ancient Native American shaman delighted to see our homeland the sea out in the bay working it way to far-off Japans. Or to some Spanish conquistador, full of gold dreams but longing for the hills of Barcelona half a world away.
But enough of old-time visions, of old time rites of passage, and of foundling dreams. Phil, and his entourage (nice word, huh, no more girlfriend solo, or as here paired, lovingly paired, to be hung up about, just go with the flow). Phil, Butterfly, hell, even jaded Lilly Rose (formerly known as Luscious Lois in case you forgot, or we not paying attention) are a “family,” or rather part of the Captain Crunch extended intentional family of merry pranksters (small case, so as not to be confused with their namesakes and models legendary mad man writer Ken Kesey and his La Honda Merry Pranksters, okay) who just yesterday hit ‘Frisco and have planted their de rigueur day-glo bus in the environs of Golden Gate Park after many months on the road west, and some time down south in La Jolla. After hearing the siren call they have now advanced north to feast on the self-declared Summer of Love that is guaranteed to mend broken hearts, broken spirits, broken rainbows, broken china, and broken, well broken everything. The glue: drug, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll, although not just any old-timey be-bop fifties rock and roll but what everybody now calls “acid” rock. And acid, for the squares out there, is nothing but the tribal name for LSD that has every parent from the New York island to the Redwood forests, every public official from ‘Frisco to France, and every police officer (I am being nice here and will not use the oink word) from the Boston to Bombay and back, well, “freaked out” (and clueless). Yes, our Phil has come a long way from that snarly wise guy corner boy night of that old town he lammed out from (according to his told story) just about a year ago.
Or has he? Well, sure Phil’s hair is quite a bit longer, his beard less wispy and more manly, his tattered Chuck Taylor sneakers transformed into sensible (West Coast ocean sensible) roman sandals and his weight, well, his weight is way down from those weekly bouts with three-day drug escape, and fearful barely eaten four in the morning open hearth stews, and not much else. And as he sits on that nameless hill with his “ladies” he no longer has the expectation of just trying LSD for the hell of it, having licked it (off a blotter), or drank it (the famous, or infamous, kool-aid fix), several times down in La Jolla, watching the surf (and surfers) splashing against the Pacific world with blond-haired, blue-eyed, bouncy Butterfly, and the raven-haired, dark as night-eyed Lilly Rose, or both listening to the music fill the night air. Not square music either (anything pre-1964 except maybe some be-bop wild piano man Jerry Lee Lewis, or some Chicago blues guitar fired by Muddy Waters or microphone-eating Howlin’ Wolf), but moog, boog, foog-filled music.
Just that nameless hill minute though, and to be honest, while in the midst of another acid trip (LSD, for the squares just in case you forgot), Phil sensed that something had crested in the Pacific night and that just maybe this scene will not evolve into the “newer world” that everybody, especially Captain Crunch, keeps expecting any day now. Worst, now that he knows he can’t, no way, go back to some department clerk’s job, some picket-fenced white house with dog, two point three children, and a wife what is to happen to him when Butterfly, Lilly Rose, and even Captain Crunch “find” themselves and go back to school, home, academic careers, or whatever. Heavy, man, heavy.
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