Free Reality Leigh Winner-President Trump Pardon The Heroic Whistlerblower !

President Trump - Pardon Whistle-Blower Reality Leigh Winner!

We Will Not Leave Reality Leigh Winner Behind – On her birthday December 4

th

join the call of Stand

with Reality, Veterans for Peace, Courage to Resist, Code Pink, About Face, Roots Action, Freedom

of the Press Foundation and many other organizations for a pardon by President Trump.

Ms. Winner had been charged under the Espionage Act, a 100-year-old statute originally designed for

spies and saboteurs aiding foreign governments in time of war,

with leaking a document about

Russian interference in the 2016 election

to

The

Intercept

, an on-line news organization.

On June 26,

2018 Ms. Winner, in agreement with her defense attorneys, entered a guilty plea to the espionage

charge in the Federal District Court of Georgia in Augusta and on August 23, 2018 she was

sentenced to sixty-three months in jail and three years of supervised probation thereafter. That leaves

a presidential pardon or commutation of sentence as the only serious remedies left.

This is the stiffest sentence ever given to a civilian whistle-blower.

We believe the sentence against

Ms. Winner is grossly disproportionate to her offense and is designed to create a chilling effect on

investigative journalism by dissuading sources from sharing information that is critical to the public

interest.

Under Article II, Section 2, The President...

shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for

Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

We urge you to add your signature to the pardon campaign. Timing is important: Pardon Reality

Winner

-

bit.ly/pardonreality

For more information about the Winner case and to sign the on-line petition go

to

StandWithReality.org.

Also, please take the time to write or sent a card to Reality:

​

REALITY WINNER

22056-021

FMC CARSWELL FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER

P.O. BOX 27137 FORT WORTH, TX 76127

To find out about other actions for Reality or other whistle blowers, like Julian Assange and Chelsea

Manning, write Susan McLucas at

SusanBMcL@gmail.com

.

President Trump - Pardon Whistle-Blower Reality Leigh Winner!

We Will Not Leave Reality Leigh Winner Behind – On her birthday December 4

th

join the call of Stand

with Reality, Veterans for Peace, Courage to Resist, Code Pink, About Face, Roots Action, Freedom

of the Press Foundation and many other organizations for a pardon by President Trump.

Ms. Winner had been charged under the Espionage Act, a 100-year-old statute originally designed for

spies and saboteurs aiding foreign governments in time of war,

with leaking a document about

Russian interference in the 2016 election

to

The

Intercept

, an on-line news organization.

On June 26,

2018 Ms. Winner, in agreement with her defense attorneys, entered a guilty plea to the espionage

charge in the Federal District Court of Georgia in Augusta and on August 23, 2018 she was

sentenced to sixty-three months in jail and three years of supervised probation thereafter. That leaves

a presidential pardon or commutation of sentence as the only serious remedies left.

This is the stiffest sentence ever given to a civilian whistle-blower.

We believe the sentence against

Ms. Winner is grossly disproportionate to her offense and is designed to create a chilling effect on

investigative journalism by dissuading sources from sharing information that is critical to the public

interest.

Under Article II, Section 2, The President...

shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for

Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

We urge you to add your signature to the pardon campaign. Timing is important: Pardon Reality

Winner

-

bit.ly/pardonreality

For more information about the Winner case and to sign the on-line petition go

to

StandWithReality.org.

Also, please take the time to write or sent a card to Reality:

​

REALITY WINNER

22056-021

FMC CARSWELL FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER

P.O. BOX 27137 FORT WORTH, TX 76127

To find out about other actions for Reality or other whistle blowers, like Julian Assange and Chelsea

Manning, write Susan McLucas at

SusanBMcL@gmail.com

.

“Wasn’t That A Mighty Flood, Lord, That Blew All The People All Away”-The Galveston Flood Of 1900 In Mind

“Wasn’t That A Mighty Flood, Lord, That Blew All The People All Away”-The Galveston Flood Of 1900 In Mind

By Greg Green

[Greg Green has come over from a similar job at the on-line American Film Gazette website to act as administrator of the American Left History and its associated blog sites. Welcome aboard.]

After a 2017 summer season of extraordinary hurricane actions and destruction in the Southeastern part of the United States, the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean, one would at least think, that those who do not see anything in this overwhelming climate change evidence would give pause. Those events have brought other earlier massive floods and storms in the Americas to the fore if only by comparison. On can think of the famous Johnston flood of 1927 and of the big bad one that blew over Galveston town 1900 that literally blew all the people all away, over 6000 of them. In those days there were climate deniers of a different sort, people in Galveston who did not believe that because they lived a little bit upland, a few feet above sea level that they would not get swept away. Just like the people and the Army Corps of Engineers believed that the levees would hold along the Mississippi when the big blow Hurricane Katrina came through in 2005 and turned them to sink mud.    

We all now know plenty about individual stories during these modern horrific storms from acts of heroism to acts of ingenuity to dastardly acts of cowards taking advantage of the chaos to loot and create mayhem but I would have assumed that we would not be able to know what happened first hand in that 1900 Galveston. But I would have been fortunately wrong because the Rosenberg Library in Galveston commissioned an oral history of the survivors not at the time since there was no way to record such information but later when most of the survivors who had been young children in 1900 were themselves in old age.

Recently NPR’s Morning Edition had a segment highlighting that oral history and I provide a link here:   

https://www.npr.org/2017/11/30/566950355/the-tempest-at-galveston-we-knew-there-was-a-storm-coming-but-we-had-no-idea

Not every person around today except maybe those in the Galveston area would be aware of the fury of that storm but I have known about its destruction for about thirty years now although not from an expected history source. I learned about it from a song, a folk song. My parents were both very early folkies in the late 1950s just a shade bit before the folk music revival exploded onto the scene in certain towns and on many college campuses. (My parents actually meet at a small folk concert in a small coffeehouse in Boston, Bailey’s, where they heard the legendary folk singer/songwriter Eric Saint Jean, who has been mentioned on this site on  occasion when that folk minute comes up, strut his stuff.) I, like a lot of kids rebelling against their parents hated folk music with a passion.

My parents as long as they lived they were strong devotees of folk singer/songwriter Tom Rush whom they knew from his Club 47 days in Harvard Square. One of his signature songs from the time was his robust cover of Wasn’t That A Mighty Flood a tradition folk song. I first hear the song, kicking and screaming, when I was young and well after Tom Rush’s big folk time when he started doing yearly concerts around New Year at Symphony Hall in Boston. The rousing song now is one of the few that I actually know all the words too and can bear to listen to. Here are the lyrics and they express very concisely what went down in that terrible time:

WASN'T THAT A MIGHTY STORM

Chorus:
Wasn't that a mighty storm
Wasn't that a mighty storm in the morning, well
Wasn't that a mighty storm
That blew all the people all away.

You know, the year of 1900, children,
Many years ago
Death came howling on the ocean
Death calls, you got to go
Now Galveston had a seawall
To keep the water down,
And a high tide from the ocean
Spread the water all over the town.

You know the trumpets give them warning
You'd better leave this place
Now, no one thought of leaving
'til death stared them in the face
And the trains they all were loaded
The people were all leaving town
The trestle gave way to the water
And the trains they went on down.

Rain it was a-falling
thunder began to roll
Lightning flashed like hellfire
The wind began to blow
Death, the cruel master
When the wind began to blow
Rode in on a team of horses
I cried, "Death, won't you let me go"

Hey, now trees fell on the island
And the houses give away
Some they strained and drowned
Some died in most every way
And the sea began to rolling
And the ships they could not stand
And I heard a captain crying
"God save a drowning man."

Death, your hands are clammy
You got them on my knee
You come and took my mother
Won't you come back after me
And the flood it took my neighbor
Took my brother, too
I thought I heard my father calling
And I watched my mother go.

You know, the year of 1900, children,
Many years ago
Death came howling on the ocean
Death calls, you got to go

"Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm" / "Galveston Flood"

It was the year of 1900
that was 80 years ago
Death come'd a howling on the ocean
and when death calls you've got to go

Galveston had a sea wall
just to keep the water down
But a high tide from the ocean
blew the water all over the town

Chorus
Wasn't that a mighty storm
Wasn't that a mighty storm in the morning
Wasn't that a mighty storm
It blew all the people away

The sea began to rolling
the ships they could not land
I heard a captain crying
Oh God save a drowning man

The rain it was a falling
and the thunder began to roll
The lightning flashed like Hell-fire
and the wind began to blow

The trees fell on the island
and the houses gave away
Some they strived and drowned
others died every way

The trains at the station were loaded
with the people all leaving town
But the trestle gave way with the water
and the trains they went on down

Old death the cruel master
when the winds began to blow
Rode in on a team of horses
and cried death won't you let me go

The flood it took my mother
it took my brother too
I thought I heard my father cry
as I watched my mother go

Old death your hands are clammy
when you've got them on my knee
You come and took my mother
won't you come back after me?

          

The Fate Of The Wanting Habits-The Eternal Search For El Dorado

The Fate Of The Wanting Habits-The Eternal Search For El Dorado  

By Ronan Saint John

When we were kids, when I was a kid, at a time when we had not had a sense of wonder beaten out of us by life, by the damn wanting habits that plagued that childhood we were fascinated by stories of legends, especially legends that had a pot of gold at the end of them. None caught my fancy more than the tales about the lost treasures of El Dorado, the main vein coming out of ancient times. Of course as a project kid, as a kid strung out a mile on the idea of having something more than the meager stuff we had and the endless “noes” of mother some such secret treasure loomed larger than that in the imagination.

The idea of treasure, of something you could just grab and win the prize got me crazy sometimes. I remember once in the spirt of that quest that I took some coins, maybe a couple of dollars’ worth and buried them in the yard. When playmates came over I told them I had heard from some old sailor at the nearby Sailors’ Home that there was treasure buried all over the place in the area from the days when harbor the projects were built next to was a contact point for privateers and others gaining their wares in an ill-gotten manner. With that spark I was able to lead those playmates to the so-called treasure and for the next few months you would find little molehills of dirt in various yards and fields based on that simple “discovery.” All for a couple of dollars’ worth of coin. Imagine finding El Dorado.       

But that was then and this is now. Recently I read an article that down in South America some explorers, maybe archeologists, had found a map or markings I am not sure which since this is all new that appears to be on the trail to El Dorado somewhere in the lower Andes where the indigenous peoples there held sacred ceremonies. These ceremonies, essentially rites of passage to manhood of the young bravos were long rumored to have been occasions when each received gold and silver to be thrown by them into a pile in a designated cave. That cave, the repository of the whole tribal experience was considered sacred, meaning leave it alone-or else. Of course when the Spaniards and later Europeans came to grab their shares of gold and silver and whatever else was not nailed to the ground they would hear of this pot of gold just waiting to be found like money on the ground.

Some of the stories of those who actually tried to find the trail, tried to follow the markings is one of the sad tales of history. More than a few were killed once the by the locals found out what they were looking for, others never came back to the small village where the trail was allegedly to start. Some came back with wild tales of huge monsters and other oddities guarding the cave. Then once the silver ran out, the gold and explorers looked elsewhere the story was left behind. These latter-day explorers are the first known adventurers to go looking again. Good luck, but maybe I should give a cautionary tale while I am on the subject. Maybe I was not the first guy to “seed” other dreams as I did when I was a kid back in the projects. Maybe some young indigenous kid back then played the same game by conveniently leaving a map or markings for some unsuspecting people with severe wanting habits to happen upon.                   

The Centennial Of Pete Seeger’s Birthday (1919-2014)- * Another Figure From The 1960s Folk Revival Passes From The Scene- Folklorist Bess Lomax Hawes

Click on the title to link to "The Boston Globe" obituary for Bess Lomax Hawes, an important secondary fixture on the folk revival circuit in the 1950s and 1960s and co-writer of the famous "The MTA Song" .


From The Charlie On The MTA Web site:

Charlie on the MTA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have long enjoyed listening to "The M.T.A. Song", better known as "Charlie on the M.T.A". In recent years, I have learned a great deal about the song and about the M.T.A (now M.B.T.A) itself, and would like to share this information here. About a year ago, I had the privilege to hear the original recording of the song (only two copies of the record exist) - regrettably I did not have a tape recorder with me at the time :-). I would like to give credit to the speaker at the BSRA meeting who gave the presentation, but I can't recall his name. If you're that person, let me know.

Melody

The melody of this song is a fairly old one. The first song (as far as I know) to use this melody was "The Ship That Never Returned", written in 1865 by Henry Clay Work. Work also wrote the more well-known song "My Grandfather's Clock" (and there are some similarities in melody between the two). The more famous use of this melody was in "The Wreck of Old #97".

Short clips of the songs are here (MP3 format):
The Ship That Never Returned (899K) - listen to the chorus - it's almost exactly the same
The Wreck of Old 97 (860K)


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lyrics
Copyright Info: These words, as far as I know, are copyright Jacqueline Steiner, and Bess Lomax-Hawes. The Kingston Trio version is copyright Capitol Records.
Before I get into the background of the song, let me present the lyrics in their entirety. The version recorded by The Kingston Trio includes the chorus after each verse. Words in italics indicate the changes made by The Kingston Trio in their later recording. Parentheses indicate backing vocals.

Let me tell you the story
Of a man named Charlie
On a tragic and fateful day
He put ten cents in his pocket,
Kissed his wife and family
Went to ride on the MTA

Charlie handed in his dime
At the Kendall Square Station
And he changed for Jamaica Plain
When he got there the conductor told him,
"One more nickel."
Charlie could not get off that train.

Chorus:
Did he ever return,
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearn'd
He may ride forever
'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned.

Now all night long
Charlie rides through the tunnels
the station
Saying, "What will become of me?
Crying
How can I afford to see
My sister in Chelsea
Or my cousin in Roxbury?"

Charlie's wife goes down
To the Scollay Square station
Every day at quarter past two
And through the open window
She hands Charlie a sandwich
As the train comes rumblin' through.

As his train rolled on
underneath Greater Boston
Charlie looked around and sighed:
"Well, I'm sore and disgusted
And I'm absolutely busted;
I guess this is my last long ride."
{this entire verse was replaced by a banjo solo}

Now you citizens of Boston,
Don't you think it's a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay
Vote for Walter A. O'Brien
Fight the fare increase!
And fight the fare increase
Vote for George O'Brien!
Get poor Charlie off the MTA.

Chorus:
Or else he'll never return,
No he'll never return
And his fate will be unlearned
He may ride forever
'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man (Who's the man)
He's the man who never returned.
He's the man (Oh, the man)
He's the man who never returned.
He's the man who never returned.

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History
(If you have any corrections to the information here, please let me know)

In the 1940s, the MTA fare-schedule was very complicated - at one time, the booklet that explained it was 9 pages long. Fare increases were implemented by means of an "exit fare". Rather than modify all the turnstiles for the new rate, they just collected the extra money when leaving the train. (Exit fares currently exist on the Braintree branch of the Red Line.) One of the key points of the platform of Walter A. O'Brien, a Progressive Party candidate for mayor of Boston, was to fight fare increases and make the fare schedule more uniform. Charlie was born.

The text of the song was written in 1949 by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes. It was one of seven songs written for O'Brien's campaign, each one emphasized a key point of his platform. One recording was made of each song, and they were broadcast from a sound truck that drove around the streets of Boston. This earned O'Brien a $10 fine for disturbing the peace.

A singer named Will Holt recorded the story of Charlie as a pop song for Coral Records after hearing an impromptu performance of the tune in a San Francisco coffee house by a former member of the group. The record company was astounded by a deluge of protests from Boston because the song made a hero out of a local "radical". During the McCarthy era of the 1950s, the Progressive Party became synonymous with the Communist Party, and, since O'Brien was a Progressive, he was labeled a Communist. It is important to note that, contrary to popular belief, O'Brien was never on the Communist Party ticket. Holt's record was hastily withdrawn.

In 1959, The Kingston Trio released a recording of the song. The name Walter A. was changed to George to avoid the problems that Holt experienced. Thus ended Walter O'Brien's claim to fame.

Walter A. O'Brien lost the election, by the way. He moved back to his home state of Maine in 1957 and became a school librarian and a bookstore owner. He died in July of 1998.

While the information above is in the public domain, the text was written by me in late '98/early '99. Some wanker ripped off part of my text and is using it on other pages.

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charlie's Route
Of course, one has to estimate Charlie's route given that the MBTA has changed dramatically between 1949 and the current day, but I have compiled what I imagine is a fairly accurate route:

Kendall Square -> Park Street -> Arborway

Here is my basis for this:

Charlie handed in his dime at the Kendall Square Station
that's pretty self-explanatory
and he changed for Jamaica Plain
As far as I know, there was no stop called "Jamaica Plain", so that line means that Charlie changed to a train going in the general direction of JP. The only lines that go anywhere near Jamaica Plain are the E branch of the Green line and the Orange Line.
The Red line from Kendall Square connects to both the Green and Orange lines, however in the next step, you'll see why he didn't take the Orange Line.

Charlie's wife goes down to the Scollay Square Station..
Scollay (pronounced 'Scully') Square Station is the old name for Government Center, which is on the Green Line. When Charlie got to his stop on the E-line, he couldn't get off without paying the five cents. So, they kept him on the train, which would have eventually gone through the loop at Arborway and returned to the line, probably passing through Scollay Square.
Charlie might just have been able to get off the train at some point the '70s. From 1968 to 1980, the subway fare was 25 cents. In the mid 1970s, a senior citizen discount was introduced for "half fare". Rather than charge 12.5 cents, half-fare was defined as "10 cents". If Charlie was well into his 30s when he got on the train, he might just have been over 65 before 1980, and could have gotten off the train in Jamaica Plain. Getting might be a problem...

From The Pens Of Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels-Their Struggles To Build Communist Organizations-The Early Days

From The Pens Of Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels-Their Struggles To Build Communist Organizations-The Early Days

Click below to link to the Marx-Engels Internet Archives.

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

Greg Green comment:

The foundation article by Marx or Engels listed in the headline goes along with the propaganda points in the fight for our communist future mentioned in other posts in this space. Just below is a thumbnail sketch of the first tentative proceedings to form a communist organization that would become a way-station on the road to building a Bolshevik-type organization in order fight for the socialist revolution we so desperately need and have since Marx and Engels first put pen to ink.

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

Marx/Engels Internet Archive-The Communist League

A congress of the League of the Just opened in London on June 2, 1847. Engels was in attendance as delegate for the League's Paris communities. (Marx couldn't attend for financial reasons.)

Engels had a significant impact throughout the congress -- which, as it turned out, was really the "inaugural Congress" of what became known as the Communist League. This organization stands as the first international proletarian organization. With the influence of Marx and Engels anti-utopian socialism, the League's motto changed from "All Men are Brothers" to "Working Men of All Countries, Unite!"

Engels: "In the summer of 1847, the first league congress took place in London, at which W. Wolff represented the Brussels and I the Paris communities. At this congress the reorganization of the League was carried through first of all. ...the League now consisted of communities, circles, leading circles, a central committee and a congress, and henceforth called itself the 'Communist League'."

The Rules were drawn up with the participation of Marx and Engels, examined at the First Congress of the Communist League, and approved at the League's Second Congress in December 1847.

Article 1 of the Rules of the Communist League: "The aim of the league is the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the rule of the proletariat, the abolition of the old bourgeois society which rests on the antagonism of classes, and the foundation of a new society without classes and without private property."

The first draft of the Communist League Programme was styled as a catechism -- in the form of questions and answers. Essentially, the draft was authored by Engels. The original manuscript is in Engels's hand.

The League's official paper was to be the Kommunistische Zeitschrift, but the only issue produced was in September 1847 by a resolution of the League's First Congress. It was First Congress prepared by the Central Authority of the Communist League based in London. Karl Schapper was its editor.

The Second Congress of the Communist League was held at the end of November 1847 at London's Red Lion Hotel. Marx attended as delegate of the Brussels Circle. He went to London in the company of Victor Tedesco, member of the Communist League and also a delegate to the Second Congress. Engels again represented the Paris communities. Schapper was elected chairman of the congress, and Engels its secretary.

Friedrich Lessner: "I was working in London then and was a member of the communist Workers' Educational Society at 191 Drury Lane. There, at the end of November and the beginning of December 1847, members of the Central Committee of the Communist League held a congress.Karl Marx and Frederick Engels came there from Brussels to present their views on modern communism and to speak about the Communists' attitude to the political and workers' movement. The meetings, which, naturally, were held in the evenings, were attended by delegates only... Soon we learned that after long debates, the congress had unanimously backed the principles of Marx and Engels..."

The Rules were officially adopted December 8, 1847.

Engels: "All contradiction and doubt were finally set at rest, the new basic principles were unanimously adopted, and Marx and I were commissioned to draw up the Manifesto." This would, of course, become the Communist Manifesto.

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

Markin comment on this series:

No question that today at least the figures of 19th century communist revolutionaries, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, are honored more for their “academic” work than their efforts to build political organizations to fight for democratic and socialist revolutions, respectively, as part of their new worldview. Titles like Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital, The Peasants Wars In Germany, and the like are more likely to be linked to their names than Cologne Communist League or Workingmen’s International (First International).

While the theoretical and historical materialist works have their honored place in the pantheon of revolutionary literature it would be wrong to neglect that hard fact that both Marx and Engels for most of their lives were not “arm chair" revolutionaries or, in Engels case, merely smitten by late Victorian fox hunts with the upper crust. These men were revolutionary politicians who worked at revolution in high times and low. Those of us who follow their traditions can, or should, understand that sometimes, a frustratingly long sometimes, the objective circumstances do not allow for fruitful revolutionary work. We push on as we can. Part of that pushing on is to become immersed in the work of our predecessors and in this series specifically the work of Marx and Engels to create a new form of revolutionary organization to fight the fights of their time, the time from about the Revolutions of 1848 to the founding of various socialist parties in Europe in the latter part of the 19th century.

History of the Paris Commune, Prosper Olivier Lissagaray, translated by Eleanor Marx, Black and Red Press, St. Petersburg, Florida, 2007

When one studies the history of the Paris Commune of 1871 one learns something new from it even though from the perspective of revolutionary strategy the Communards made virtually every mistake in the book. This book by a participant and survivor of the Commune has historically been the starting point for any pro-Commune analysis. The original English translation by Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx, has given the imprimatur of the Marx family to that view.

Through a close study of the Paris Commune one learn its lessons and measure it against the experience acquired by later revolutionary struggles and above all by later revolutions, not only the successful Russian Revolution of October 1917 but the failed German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Chinese and Spanish revolutions in the immediate aftermath of World War I. More contemporaneously we have the experiences of the partial victories of the later Chinese, Cuban and Vietnamese revolutions.

Notwithstanding the contradictory nature of these later experiences, as if to show that history is not always totally a history of horrors against the fate of the masses we honor the Paris Commune as a beacon of the coming world proletarian revolution. It is just for that reason that Karl Marx fought tooth and nail in the First International to defend it against the rage of capitalist Europe. It is one of our peaks. The Commune also presented in embryo the first post-1848 Revolution instance of what was later characterized by Lenin at the beginning of World War I as the crisis of revolutionary leadership of the international labor movement. So this question that after Lenin’s death preoccupied Trotsky for much of the later part of his life really has a much longer lineage that I had previously recognized. Unfortunately, as we are too painfully aware that question is still to be resolved. Therefore, even at this great remove, it is necessary to learn the lessons of that experience in facing today’s crisis of leadership in the international labor movement.

As a final thought, I note that in the preface to this edition that the editors have given their own view about the lessons to be learned from the experience of the Paris Commune. Although virtually every page of Lissagaray’s account drips with examples of the necessity of a vanguard party their view negates that necessity. While we can argue until hell freezes over, and should, about the form that a future socialist state will take one would think that there should be no dispute on that necessity at this late date in history. In any case read this important work (including the above-mentioned provocative preface) as it tells the tale of an important part of our working class history. 

From The Pens Of Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels-Their Struggles To Build Communist Organizations-The Early Days

From The Pens Of Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels-Their Struggles To Build Communist Organizations-The Early Days

Click below to link to the Marx-Engels Internet Archives.

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

Greg Green comment:

The foundation article by Marx or Engels listed in the headline goes along with the propaganda points in the fight for our communist future mentioned in other posts in this space. Just below is a thumbnail sketch of the first tentative proceedings to form a communist organization that would become a way-station on the road to building a Bolshevik-type organization in order fight for the socialist revolution we so desperately need and have since Marx and Engels first put pen to ink.

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

Marx/Engels Internet Archive-The Communist League

A congress of the League of the Just opened in London on June 2, 1847. Engels was in attendance as delegate for the League's Paris communities. (Marx couldn't attend for financial reasons.)

Engels had a significant impact throughout the congress -- which, as it turned out, was really the "inaugural Congress" of what became known as the Communist League. This organization stands as the first international proletarian organization. With the influence of Marx and Engels anti-utopian socialism, the League's motto changed from "All Men are Brothers" to "Working Men of All Countries, Unite!"

Engels: "In the summer of 1847, the first league congress took place in London, at which W. Wolff represented the Brussels and I the Paris communities. At this congress the reorganization of the League was carried through first of all. ...the League now consisted of communities, circles, leading circles, a central committee and a congress, and henceforth called itself the 'Communist League'."

The Rules were drawn up with the participation of Marx and Engels, examined at the First Congress of the Communist League, and approved at the League's Second Congress in December 1847.

Article 1 of the Rules of the Communist League: "The aim of the league is the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the rule of the proletariat, the abolition of the old bourgeois society which rests on the antagonism of classes, and the foundation of a new society without classes and without private property."

The first draft of the Communist League Programme was styled as a catechism -- in the form of questions and answers. Essentially, the draft was authored by Engels. The original manuscript is in Engels's hand.

The League's official paper was to be the Kommunistische Zeitschrift, but the only issue produced was in September 1847 by a resolution of the League's First Congress. It was First Congress prepared by the Central Authority of the Communist League based in London. Karl Schapper was its editor.

The Second Congress of the Communist League was held at the end of November 1847 at London's Red Lion Hotel. Marx attended as delegate of the Brussels Circle. He went to London in the company of Victor Tedesco, member of the Communist League and also a delegate to the Second Congress. Engels again represented the Paris communities. Schapper was elected chairman of the congress, and Engels its secretary.

Friedrich Lessner: "I was working in London then and was a member of the communist Workers' Educational Society at 191 Drury Lane. There, at the end of November and the beginning of December 1847, members of the Central Committee of the Communist League held a congress.Karl Marx and Frederick Engels came there from Brussels to present their views on modern communism and to speak about the Communists' attitude to the political and workers' movement. The meetings, which, naturally, were held in the evenings, were attended by delegates only... Soon we learned that after long debates, the congress had unanimously backed the principles of Marx and Engels..."

The Rules were officially adopted December 8, 1847.

Engels: "All contradiction and doubt were finally set at rest, the new basic principles were unanimously adopted, and Marx and I were commissioned to draw up the Manifesto." This would, of course, become the Communist Manifesto.

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Markin comment on this series:

No question that today at least the figures of 19th century communist revolutionaries, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, are honored more for their “academic” work than their efforts to build political organizations to fight for democratic and socialist revolutions, respectively, as part of their new worldview. Titles like Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital, The Peasants Wars In Germany, and the like are more likely to be linked to their names than Cologne Communist League or Workingmen’s International (First International).

While the theoretical and historical materialist works have their honored place in the pantheon of revolutionary literature it would be wrong to neglect that hard fact that both Marx and Engels for most of their lives were not “arm chair" revolutionaries or, in Engels case, merely smitten by late Victorian fox hunts with the upper crust. These men were revolutionary politicians who worked at revolution in high times and low. Those of us who follow their traditions can, or should, understand that sometimes, a frustratingly long sometimes, the objective circumstances do not allow for fruitful revolutionary work. We push on as we can. Part of that pushing on is to become immersed in the work of our predecessors and in this series specifically the work of Marx and Engels to create a new form of revolutionary organization to fight the fights of their time, the time from about the Revolutions of 1848 to the founding of various socialist parties in Europe in the latter part of the 19th century.

History of the Paris Commune, Prosper Olivier Lissagaray, translated by Eleanor Marx, Black and Red Press, St. Petersburg, Florida, 2007

When one studies the history of the Paris Commune of 1871 one learns something new from it even though from the perspective of revolutionary strategy the Communards made virtually every mistake in the book. This book by a participant and survivor of the Commune has historically been the starting point for any pro-Commune analysis. The original English translation by Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx, has given the imprimatur of the Marx family to that view.

Through a close study of the Paris Commune one learn its lessons and measure it against the experience acquired by later revolutionary struggles and above all by later revolutions, not only the successful Russian Revolution of October 1917 but the failed German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Chinese and Spanish revolutions in the immediate aftermath of World War I. More contemporaneously we have the experiences of the partial victories of the later Chinese, Cuban and Vietnamese revolutions.

Notwithstanding the contradictory nature of these later experiences, as if to show that history is not always totally a history of horrors against the fate of the masses we honor the Paris Commune as a beacon of the coming world proletarian revolution. It is just for that reason that Karl Marx fought tooth and nail in the First International to defend it against the rage of capitalist Europe. It is one of our peaks. The Commune also presented in embryo the first post-1848 Revolution instance of what was later characterized by Lenin at the beginning of World War I as the crisis of revolutionary leadership of the international labor movement. So this question that after Lenin’s death preoccupied Trotsky for much of the later part of his life really has a much longer lineage that I had previously recognized. Unfortunately, as we are too painfully aware that question is still to be resolved. Therefore, even at this great remove, it is necessary to learn the lessons of that experience in facing today’s crisis of leadership in the international labor movement.

As a final thought, I note that in the preface to this edition that the editors have given their own view about the lessons to be learned from the experience of the Paris Commune. Although virtually every page of Lissagaray’s account drips with examples of the necessity of a vanguard party their view negates that necessity. While we can argue until hell freezes over, and should, about the form that a future socialist state will take one would think that there should be no dispute on that necessity at this late date in history. In any case read this important work (including the above-mentioned provocative preface) as it tells the tale of an important part of our working class history. 

New Hampshire Canvass For Bernie -Sat Dec 7th -Feel The Bern

New Hampshire Canvass For Bernie -Sat Dec 7th -Feel The Bern 

Of The Big Fix, The Bagman Cometh And The American Political Scene Circa 2019

Of The Big Fix, The Bagman Cometh And The American Political Scene Circa 2019

By Allan Jackson

Ever since the Supreme Court handed down Citizens United several years ago which has essentially allowed unfettered political contributions from who knows where there has been a steady stream of complaints about the role of money in politics. Some Democratic presidential campaign like the Warren and Sanders efforts have highlighted the overwhelming weight corporations and billionaires have over the political process. And something must be done about it, at least to curb the flow for now. Today though I want to deal with the rise of that money flow well before that Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates since it can be traced back at least to the 1980s if not before.

I was reading, or rather re-reading the late Hunter Thompson’s Generation of Swine mainly articles compiled from work he did for the San Francisco Examiner during that period and noted that in more than one piece he was hollering against the role of money in politics back then. His thesis is that sometime after Richard Nixon’s reelection in 1972 which cost in total, if you can believe this, 20-million dollar chicken feed today for maybe a small town mayor’s race, a new generation of politicians figured out that it was well-placed money targeted to particular audiences that won the day not some programmatic or ideological scheme. That would make a certain amount of sense since the role of parties, the hold of parties over the electorate has been severely eroded and it is essentially each candidate for him or herself.         

The funny thing about all this is that money has always played some role in politics but in the old days, the days of party machines when they controlled votes and patronage it was small time stuff. I remember Biff Walsh the old reporter at the State House in Boston for years telling me when I was starting out that when somebody wanted something, maybe a city contract they would have their courier, their bag man deliver the dough in small bills in a bag, a freaking lunch bag. Biff told a couple of memorable stories, one about how somebody’s bag man delivered the bag to the wrong John Kelly. Put twenty thousand right on the desk. Right or wrong Kelly that was the last that bag was seen and what was anybody to do about it since everybody was “on the take,” right door or wrong. The other story was how a member of the State Senate leadership took a fit when Bernie Walsh’s bagman delivered the cold hard cash in hand. Seems the guy was sentimental and refused to take the donation unless it was in the classic bag. Small time stuff but there you have it.

Of course now everything is done with mirrors and computers with every known organizational trick in the books. Super-Pacs and “interest” groups abound. Now for the upcoming 2020 elections well over a billion dollars will flow, mainly for media. And that is the rub. That is the point old Hunter Thomson was trying to make when he interviewed some bright young K Street lobbyists and dealmakers. Everything in a divided country is now targeted to a small portion of the population that might change its mind and the rest is so much wasted money and time. Sad but maybe Bernie or Elizabeth can turn things around if they get into the Oval Office.