The100thAnniversaryYearOfTheBolshevik-LedOctoberRevolution-Lessons-The First World War and the Struggle for Proletarian Power

The100^thAnniversaryYearOfTheBolshevik-LedOctoberRevolution-Lessons-The First World War and the Struggle for Proletarian Power    

Workers Vanguard No. 1106 24 February 2017 TROTSKY LENIN The First World War and the Struggle for Proletarian Power (Quote of the Week) Sparked by an International Women’s Day demonstration on 8 March 1917 (February 23 by the old Julian calendar), the February Revolution in Russia toppled the autocratic rule of Tsar Nicholas II amid the interimperialist First World War. But the Provisional Government that came to power—and was supported by the Mensheviks and petty-bourgeois Socialist-Revolutionaries—was a bourgeois government that continued to prosecute the war. At the same time, Soviets (councils) of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants Deputies were formed, posing a situation of dual power—i.e., whether it would be the proletariat or the bourgeoisie that would ultimately rule. Writing before his return from exile in Switzerland, Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin outlined a course to turn the imperialist war into a fight for working-class power. Lenin’s struggle for this strategy was vital for the victory of the Bolshevik-led proletarian socialist October Revolution. To achieve peace (and still more to achieve a really democratic, a really honourable peace), it is necessary that political power be in the hands of the workers and poorest peasants, not the landlords and capitalists. The latter represent an insignificant minority of the population, and the capitalists, as everybody knows, are making fantastic profits out of the war. The workers and poorest peasants are the vast majority of the population. They are not making profit out of the war; on the contrary, they are being reduced to ruin and starvation. They are bound neither by capital nor by the treaties between the predatory groups of capitalists; they can and sincerely want to end the war. If political power in Russia were in the hands of the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, these Soviets, and the All-Russia Soviet elected by them, could, and no doubt would, agree to carry out the peace programme which our Party (the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party) outlined as early as October 13, 1915, in No. 47 of its Central Organ, Sotsial-Demokrat (then published in Geneva because of the Draconic tsarist censorship). This programme would probably be the following: 1) The All-Russia Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies (or the St. Petersburg Soviet temporarily acting for it) would forthwith declare that it is not bound by any treaties concluded either by the tsarist monarchy or by the bourgeois governments. 2) It would forthwith publish all these treaties in order to hold up to public shame the predatory aims of the tsarist monarchy and of all the bourgeois governments without exception. 3) It would forthwith publicly call upon all the belligerent powers to conclude an immediate armistice. 4) It would immediately bring to the knowledge of all the people our, the workers’ and peasants’, peace terms: liberation of all colonies; liberation of all dependent, oppressed and unequal nations. 5) It would declare that it expects nothing good from the bourgeois governments and calls upon the workers of all countries to overthrow them and to transfer all political power to Soviets of Workers’ Deputies. 6) It would declare that the capitalist gentry themselves can repay the billions of debts contracted by the bourgeois governments to wage this criminal, predatory war, and that the workers and peasants refuse to recognise these debts.... For these peace terms the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies would, in my opinion, agree to wage war against any bourgeois government and against all the bourgeois governments of the world, because this would really be a just war, because all the workers and toilers in all countries would work for its success. —V.I. Lenin, “Letters from Afar, Fourth Letter: How to Achieve Peace” (March 1917)

Free All The Political Prisoners-From Those Outside The Walls To Those Inside-Its The Same Struggle-Build The Resistance

Free All The Political Prisoners-From Those Outside The Walls To Those Inside-Its The Same Struggle-Build The Resistance   

This holiday time of year (and Political Prisoner Month each June as well) is when by traditions of solidarity and comradeship those of us who today stand outside the prison walls sent our best wishes from freedom to our class-war sisters and brothers inside the walls and redouble our efforts in that task.  

Don't forget Mumia, Leonard Peltier, Reality Leigh Winner, The Ohio 7's Tom Manning and Jaan Laaman and all those Black Panther and other black militants still be held in this country's prisons for  risking their necks for a better world for their people, for all people.

  

From The Smedley Butler Brigade-Veterans For Peace-"Racketeers For Peace"

From The Smedley Butler Brigade-Veterans For Peace-"Racketeers For Peace"-A Poem 


The "'racketeer" reference is from a statement by General Smedley Butler who after a lifetime of military service as a Marine from grunt to the highest levels of generalship concluded that "war is a racket"-you can find the rest of his statement with those words pominently in it at Wikipedia by Googling his name. 

                 RACKETEERS  FOR  PEACE

For Sev, Pat and Comrades

                      November 16, 2017

                                    I

Since Cain killed Abel countless years ago,

The world has suffered violence and war

As personal and national ego

Push us to murder and make fields of gore.

A second fundamental motive--fear,

Convinces us to fight in self-defense

When great, imagined menaces appear

To threaten us, with or without good evidence.

Demonic greed will often overrule

God-given reason, urge men to ignore

The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule,

Especially with assists from Emperor.

Patriotism is a shibboleth

That leads poor sheep to slaughterhouse of war,

Whose wealthy stockholders, merchants of death,

Gain gold beyond the dreams of Caesar's whore.

Then countless brave benighted mothers' sons

And fathers' precious daughters fight and die,

Misguided myrmidons and amazons,

Whose needless deaths, most nations glorify.

Poor troops trapped in the labyrinth of war

May relish their adventure for a time,

Until they meet the raging Minotaur

Who murders even warriors in their prime.

That slaughterhouse, that labyrinth, impact

Millions of citizens, both near and far,

Who never plot or fear nor feel attacked

And want no part of useless, senseless war,

But suffer, nonetheless, the insane rage

That shatters lives and cities when it comes,

As mindless armies and armadas wage

War--paragon of pandemoniums.

                                  II

"War is a racket," Smedley Butler said:

"A few men profit while the many pay."

Their costs of business are the masses dead,

Maimed, grieving, homeless--worse in every way.

If General Butler could be here tonight,

He'd recognize and decorate his sons:

Veterans for Peace, determined to fight

The fatal folly of more bombs and guns.

We need to raise a racket for release

From deadly, bankrupting racket of war.

I cast my lot with you brave Vets for Peace,

Who've learned the hard way what's worth fighting for.

Two champions of peace for humankind--

Pat Scanlon, indefatigable man,

And Severyn Bruyn, inestimable mind--

Campaign for peace in every way they can.

These Veterans for Peace have gifts of Orpheus

To soothe the savage heart and pacify the mind:

Composer Sev, bold singer Pat, inspire us

To leave the bloody, so-called "arts of war" behind.

We comrades honor them as Racketeers

For Peace--the kind of citizens we need,

Who work to counter manufactured fears,

Defy the deadly enterprise of greed.

We strive with these prime paladins for peace,

Against the misled partisans of war,

To counter warmongers who want to fleece

The flock, and butcher some, to profit more.

We toast their leadership and zeal for peace,

The end of war´s destruction, death and grief.

Let patriotic theft and murder cease;

Unmask "heroic" war--killer and thief.

Congratulations, Sev, and kudos, Pat,

You guys, politically so incorrect!

May all, like you, heed Smedley's caveat:

The curse of war forevermore reject!

You led us in the church and in the streets,

Brave Racketeers for Peace who boldly say:

War victories are actually defeats.

There has to be….   Peace IS the better way!

 ©   Bob Wire 

General Dynamics Corporate Welfare-The Bath Maine Iron Works

Global Network

12/1/2017 9:23 PM

To  Jason Rawn  

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General Dynamics Corporate Welfare—

 

It’s exciting to live in Maine right now. We face a number of struggles against ever-expanding corporate/government control and consolidation of wealth and power. These include the struggle to convert the BIW facility to peaceful production (it has been dedicated exclusively to producing…

 

Here We Go Again - More welfare for General Dynamics At Bath Maine Iron Works

Here We Go Again - More welfare for General Dynamics

Global Network

9:17 AM

To  Peaceworks  

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http://www.timesrecord.com/news/2017-12-01/Opinion/Here_We_Go_Again.html

 

Times Record

Brunswick

Here We Go Again

GUEST COLUMN

BY GARY ANDERSON

Bath Iron Works is currently competing for new contracts in a $19 billion bidding war against five other shipyards seeking to build 20 frigates for the U.S. Navy. In what is always claimed as being an unprecedented competitive environment, mega-corporate General Dynamics’ local subsidiary maintains that once again its survival is dependent on continued public largesse to pay its taxes. Once again the spectre of lost jobs is trotted out and statewide fears of loosing BIW’s economic stimulus altogether are rekindled. Once again they stand hard hat in hand asking for financial assistance, not with humility, certainly not with transparency, but with an all too familiar expectation of entitlement.

Meanwhile, BIW’s main competitor employs the same tactics to reduce its overhead in Mississippi. No matter who wins the brass ring of the actual contract award, both bring home the gold in their collateral competition for securing the greater corporate welfare. BIW loyalists argue that it is only doing what its competition does. It’s all about “competition.” Everyone seems to readily confuse the positive term “competitiveness” with the more base motive of maximizing “profitability.” If BIW needs a legitimate leg up in procuring contracts they should request it from their parent company which seems to being doing just fine given that in the last several years General Dynamics has reportedly spent $9.4 billion repurchasing its own stock on the open market.

BIW’s employees well deserve a paycheck on their own merits and not on the backs of other hardworking Mainers left fending for themselves in an equally competitive marketplace without needing the government reaching into their pockets in order to assist the deep pockets of one of America’s wealthiest corporations. I wish BIW workers all good things and whatever they can individually or collectively earn, but I don’t understand why my paycheck from a small local business receiving no government hand-holding should be required to subsidize the payroll of one of Maine’s foremost businesses, especially when BIW’s bottom line is totally taxpayer derived in the first place.

“Too big to fail,” or to pay their fair share. What a tiresome economic rationale. General Dynamics and BIW routinely expect their rank and file and Maine’ general citizenry to sacrifice towards unnecessary corporate welfare while hierarchical management portfolios and distant shareholders reap the ultimate benefit. Last year, General Dynamic’s CEO reportedly received $21M in personal compensation.

What average Maine business receives such taxpayer underwriting? When they suffer economic difficulty why doesn’t the “greater good” intervene? Why are Maine’s largest employers economically propped up when they can far better stand on their own than the mom-and-pop businesses asked to suffer additional taxes?

What sort of “economic development” justly asks taxpayers, especially those on fixed incomes, to continue shouldering increased financial burden so that one of the largest businesses in the state can improve its bottom line by continuing to can-kick its tax responsibilities down the road? The whole point of the original BIW state and municipal tax break was that, after 20 years of deferred taxes, BIW would eventually begin paying a greatly increased tax bill in full.

The Navy supposedly gets the best deal through such dog-eat-dog competition, and states where contracts are awarded supposedly benefit overall from being coerced into waiving taxes so revenue from continuing employment and commerce, even if greatly reduced, is sustained. Such winner loser economic competition, pitting city against city and state against state, has become a perverse reality of We the People vs They the Powerful.

In 1997, BIW convinced Maine’s legislature and Bath’s City Council to buy into Tax Increment Financing so that the shipyard could expand and revitalized its facilities by constructing a revolutionary Land Level Transfer Facility. The goal was “competitive efficiency,” meaning enhanced profitability by increasing productivity with less employees, not more. There were no traditional promises of job creation, but rather a publicly stated goal of cutting their workforce by a third. Those objectives were then achieved through major capital improvements substantially underwritten by a combined state and city tax credit of $197 million over a 20 year run. Bath’s contribution alone was $85 million. Despite a boasted 2,000 worker resurgence since 2014, Maine’s once largest employer now retains 5,700 employees from what was 8,500.

In asking Maine’s legislature and Bath’s City Council to embrace the original TIF deal, BIW fanned fears of relocation. In separately asking the DEP and the Army Corps of Engineers for an environmental permit they vehemently asserted that relocation was practicably impossible, that their survival depended on staying in Bath.

In 2013, BIW claimed dire need of an additional municipal tax break to remain “competitive.” After an unprecedented grassroots pushback, the City of Ships conceded only $3.7M of a $6.36M request. BIW accepted nonetheless while almost immediately landing a huge “unforeseen” government procurement. The ultimately unnecessary pocket change of $3,7M spread over 25 years remains “fortuitously” theirs.

When not asking for handouts large or small, BIW’s a very good neighbor. Bath and Maine are indeed fortunate to have its economic engine. But, it’s way past time to just say no to their ongoing addiction to low-hanging fruit.

Gary Anderson lives in Bath.

*When The Capitalist World Was Young- William Manchester's View

In Honor Of The 500th Anniversary Of Martin Luther's Refromation Pleas-*When The Capitalist World Was Young- William Manchester's View

BOOK REVIEW

A World That Was Lit Only By Fire, William Manchester, Little, Brown and Co., Boston 1994

The last time that the name of the late well-known journalist and history writer William Manchester was mentioned in this space was in a review of his biography of the self-promoting American Caesar, World War II and Korean War General Douglas MacArthur. Previously Manchester had also done an analysis of the John F. Kennedy assassination so that he is well versed in the meaning of history and the importance of particular historical facts-as opposed to the self-serving and fraudulent press releases.

The central story of Manchester’s effort here, that takes up about one third of the book, also concerns one of those larger than life historical figures from an earlier period in Western history, the career of the Portuguese explorer extraordinaire Ferdinand Magellan. However, if this was solely Manchester’s purpose that might be worthily satisfied by an extended monogram. He has here provided as well, despite his penchant for great heroic figures, a very readable look at the dawn of capitalism as it merged out of the mire of what used to be known in historical studies as the “Dark Ages”.


In the process of that exposition Manchester has done an interesting job of detailing much of the history of those dark ages- a period of history that today’s readers may not be familiar with but which was an important precursor to the development of European capitalism and to the history of the international labor movement that Karl Marx wrote about in the 19th century. Manchester runs quickly through the decline of the Roman Empire, the rise and stabilization of the Christian church in the wake of that decline and its role as the international (at least for Europe) arbiter of the political, economic and social world of the times. With the proviso that Manchester’s effort here is of a piece with his general theory about the role of heroes in history those of us more familiar with the period can begin to understand something of the nature of the changes that were occurring at the time that his protagonist Magellan was accomplishing his feat in the early 16th century (circumnavigating the earth and therefore empirically proving that the earth was a sphere).


The heart of the book for us, however, is the detailed description that Manchester provides for the bulk of the 16th century an extraordinary period that saw the breakthrough of international trade westward as well as eastward, the rise of nation-states as segments of society gain literacy and begin to express themselves in their home languages, the development of cities as centers of commerce creating the conditions for a division of labor that would later form the basis for industrial capitalism, the struggle between the secular and the sacred in determining the course of social life including some very saucy stories about Popes, princes and their ladies(the Borgias in particular), the feuding between various religious factions most notably between the Roman Church and Martin Luther of Germany and Henry VIII of England and the flowering of artistic culture and learning that we can observe remnants of today in any major art museum.

As historical materialists we look at the history of any period to determine its main thrust. Manchester has done a more than adequate job of detailing those events and movements that caused the decline of Europe for approximately one thousand years from the demise of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance and then the upward curve mentioned above. The most important aspect of this book and the one that makes me want to recommend it to today’s readers is its study of the late 15th and early 16th century- a time when dramatic changes were occurring that would begin the long process of accumulating the expertise to create the progressive capitalist system. Without the changes in the manner of religious thinking, ways of producing goods and notions of culture it is possible that Europe, and through it the world might be very different- and not for the better.

As long as we don’t forget in that content the down side of this spurt in human culture- the rise of colonialism that accompanied international exploration, the religious wars that torn apart families and nations and the rise of a middle class cultural ethos that has placed more than its fair share on individual self-fulfillment at the expense of the social and gone some distance to slow the struggle for socialism down. If you need a quick look at the broad picture of what happened to make Europe a central cog in world history from the 15th century on read this little work to whet your appetite. Then go out and get some more specialized books to appease it.

Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-In Honor Of The Frontline Fighters Of The International Working Class Today-The International Working Class Anthem The Internationale

Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-In Honor Of The Frontline Fighters Of The International Working Class Today-The International Working Class Anthem The Internationale

A YouTube film clip of a performance of the classic international working class song of struggle, The Internationale.

Greg Green comment:

In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our socialist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.

The Struggle For The Labor Party In The United States-Workers' Action- Winter 1969-1970

 I am not familiar with the Riazanov Library as a source, although the choice of the name of a famous Russian Bolshevik intellectual, archivist, and early head of the Marx-Engels Institute there, as well as being a friend and , at various points a political confederate of the great Bolshevik leader, Leon Trotsky, sits well with me.
*******
Thanks to the Riazanov Library for their efforts in digitizing Workers Action. The works provided by the Riazanov Library are © copyrighted by the Riazanov Library in 2010 for the document formatting and editing as they appear here in their PDF format, on the ETOL. The actual content itself remains in the public domain pursuant to US and International copyright conventions.
*****
Greg Green  comment on this series:

Obviously, for a Marxist, the question of working class political power is central to the possibilities for the main thrust of his or her politics- the quest for that socialist revolution that initiates the socialist reconstruction of society. But working class politics, no less than any other kinds of political expressions has to take an organization form, a disciplined organizational form in the end, but organization nevertheless. In that sense every Marxist worth his or her salt, from individual labor militants to leagues, tendencies, and whatever other formations are out there these days on the left, struggles to built a revolutionary labor party, a Bolshevik-style party.

Glaringly, in the United States there is no such party, nor even a politically independent reformist labor party, as exists in Great Britain. And no, the Democratic Party, imperialist commander-in-chief Obama's Democratic Party is not a labor party. Although plenty of people believe it is an adequate substitute, including some avowed socialists. But they are just flat-out wrong. This series is thus predicated on providing information about, analysis of, and acting as a spur to a close look at the history of the labor party question in America by those who have actually attempted to create one, or at to propagandize for one.

As usual, I will start this series with the work of the International Communist League/Spartacist League/U.S. as I have been mining their archival materials of late. I am most familiar with the history of their work on this question, although on this question the Socialist Workers Party's efforts runs a close second, especially in their revolutionary period. Lastly, and most importantly, I am comfortable starting with the ICL/SL efforts on the labor party question since after having reviewed in this space in previous series their G.I. work and youth work (Campus Spartacist and the Revolutionary Marxist Caucus Newsletter inside SDS) I noted that throughout their history they have consistently called for the creation of such a party in the various social arenas in which they have worked. Other organizational and independent efforts, most notably by the Socialist Workers Party and the American Communist Party will follow.
******
Greg Green  comment on this issue:

Obviously a propagandistic left-wing, pro-labor newspaper from 1969, driven by current events, is going to contain a lot of material now of just historic interest like the struggle around the effects of containerization of shipping on the West Coast docks, a question that we now know costs many union jobs by the failure of longshoremen’ union to tie in technological improvement with unionized labor employment. And, of course, the union bureaucracy’s penchant for making “sweetheart” deals rather than a class struggle fight over the issue.

This issue does pose the question of questions centered on the labor movement and war that is currently very much with us with the Iraq, Afghan and whatever other hellish wars the American imperialist are raising around the world. For the anti-war movement, after trying everything but labor action in the previous period, 1969 represented a turning point where even the working class was getting fed up with the Vietnam War. No only by providing the mass base of “cannon fodder” but taking a beating on the economic front as well. The call for labor strikes against the war would later, in 1970, take on a more than propagandistic possibility when important sections of the working class began to take strike action over economic issues. While today, and maybe just today, the slogan has purely propaganda value it is always part of the arsenal of left-wing anti-war work.

The other section that still bears reading for today’s audience is the last article on, well, union caucus organizing. The point about standing on a left-wing militant program is the most important and dovetails with the struggle for the labor party to take state power when the time comes. Once again this says to me that we had better be getting a move on about the business of creating that revolutionary labor party-enough is enough. Break with the Democrats! Build a workers party that fights for our communist future.  

In Commemoration Of The 50th Anniversary Of The Passing Of Legendary Soul Singer Otis Redding (2017)

In Commemoration Of The 50^th Anniversary Of The Passing Of Legendary Soul Singer Otis Redding (2017)

By Zack James (with serious help from oldest brother Alex)

I have been this year, the year of the 50^th anniversary of the famous Summer Of Love, centered mainly in and around San Francisco, probably the number one writer in this space commemorating that event. Prodded unto perdition by my oldest brother Alex who had actually taken part in many aspects of the Summer of Love, 1967 and a couple of years beyond before he settled down to his quiet and lucrative law practice. Quickly the genesis of that prodding and the subsequent over-the-top commemoration of that event was Alex’s business trip out to San Francisco in the spring combined with his viewing of a special exhibition The Summer of Love Experience put on by the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park the scene of much of the activity during that time. When Alex got back he gathered his old high school friends together who had also gone out that year and they commissioned me to write, edit and see to the publication of a small collective memoir book on their experiences.

One of those high school friends was the site administrator here, the soon to be retired Pete Markin, who beyond contributing to the memoir went crazy to have his stable of writers, including me, young and old, acquainted with that time or not, to go all out to commemorate the event. That whirling dervish fury is the main reason that Pete lost a vote of confidence initiated by the so-called “Young Turks” (although all of us are thinking 50 something) and supported decisively by his old friend and colleague old-timer Sam Lowell which has ushered in his retirement and replacement by Greg Green from the on-line American Film Gazette website. (The details of that internal fight will be addressed by others in the future since I was not privy to most of what happened to give Peter the boot. And also not privy to whether the whole affair was not some purge like in the old radical days disguised as a retirement. If Peter goes to the Gulag we will know which one it was) But enough of genesis.         

One of the assignments that Pete in his frenzy ordered up was a review by film critic Sandy Salmon of a documentary by the famed filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker about the first Monterey Pops Festival in June of that same Summer of Love year. That review centered on the explosive appearance of Little Girl Blues Janis Joplin at the Festival. That subsequently led to a review by younger writer Alden Riley ordered by Peter over Sandy’s head when he found out that Alden did not know who Janis Joplin was. All well and good as Ms. Joplin deserved plenty of attention for her short burning star rise and fall too young. What got short shrift in all of this worthy commemoration was the equally explosive entrance of king the essence of soul Otis Redding on that same Monterey stage. Maybe it was that Otis’ music did not fit in with the “acid” rock very much associated with that Summer of Love stuff. Maybe it had something to do with a “white bread” lack of appreciation for the emergence of soul. Maybe a Martin Luther King passive resistance generational “post-racial” break from a serious understanding of the continuing racial sores that mark this country’s landscape.  Maybe it was combination.

Nevertheless not only was Otis Redding worthy of a better representation on this site but in his short, too short, appearance on the wider music stage he had an outsized influence on the subsequent evolution of soulful music. His most famous song, the lonesome hobo Sitting on the Dock of the Bay an instant classic released shortly before his death in a plane crash in the Midwest in late 1967 showed a glimmer of where he was going.

In this 50^th anniversary year for the song and Otis’ death the well-known NPR commentator Christopher Lydon on his Open Source radio show featured the life, work and influence of the great recording artist on one program. Maybe a link here to that program makes up one tiny bit for the previous neglect on this site.

Click here to link to the Open Source program:

http://radioopensource.org/afterlife-otis-redding/