Saturday, July 06, 2013

Join us at the Fort Meade hearings to stand with Brad

Join us at the Fort Meade hearings to stand with Brad

Court is in recess for the holiday. Proceedings will resume Monday, July 8 at 9:30am.

Next Fort Meade vigil: Monday, July 8 from 7:00am to 8:30am.

Heroic WikiLeaks whistle-blower PFC Bradley Manning’s trial began on June 3. It is expected to last into August. We encourage everyone to attend one or more days!
The first day that court is in session each week of the trial, we hold a vigil from 7:00 am to 8:30 am in front of the Fort Meade Main Gate at Reece Road and US 175 (Google map). Afterwards, we enter Fort Meade (via the Visitor Control Center), and go to the courtroom. E-mail emma@bradleymanning.org for vigil updates. On other days, we recommend arriving at the base at 8:30am in order to leave time to clear security before court begins at 9:30am. However, if you arrive later you’ll still be able to enter at a court recess.
It has been over three years since his arrest. Enough is enough. Free Bradley Manning! Help us show Bradley we care by filling the court room. Many of us wear “truth” shirts onto Fort Meade, and in the courtroom, to symbolize our solidarity.
To enter Fort Meade, bring a government issued ID, such as a state issued drivers license or passport. Non-US passports are accepted. Be prepared to remove any shirts or buttons that show support for Bradley Manning while on base.
If you are driving onto Fort Meade, make sure to:
  • Have your up-to-date vehicle registration
  • Have your up-to-date vehicle insurance (printed copy–not a electronic version on your mobile phone)
  • Obey posted speed limits (they are strictly enforced by military police–especially for “special visitors”)
  • Be prepared to cover “political” bumper stickers on your vehicle with tape
Unlike most trials, the government is refusing to release any official transcripts of the trials. It is up to the public to attend, and comment on, what happens inside the otherwise secretive court room. Thank you for your support and please join us at Fort Meade!

Click here for Carpool information

Click here for our guide to transit & lodging near Ft. Meade

Getting there by car:

From Washington, D.C.

  • Take MD-295 NORTH towards BALTIMORE to US 175 EAST. Take 175 EAST until you come to the Reece Road intersection (there is a traffic light). Turn right at the traffic light onto Reece road, and proceed to the Visitor Control Center to your right.

From Baltimore, M.D.

  • Take MD-295 SOUTH towards WASHINGTON DC to US 175 EAST. Take 175 EAST until you come to the Reece Road intersection (there is a traffic light). Turn right at the traffic light onto Reece road, and proceed to the Visitor Control Center to your right.

Visitor Control Center

  • Fort Meade is a ‘closed’ post, all visitors should go to the Visitor Control Center at the Reece Road gate for access information. This information may change from day to day. There is a parking lot outside of the Visitor Control Center.

Courtroom

  • After entering Fort Meade at Reece Road, drive or walk to the Magistrate Court, 4432 Llewellyn Avenue, Fort Meade, MD. (After entering through Main Gate security, go down Reece Rd until you get to Cooper Rd, and then turn left. The courtroom parking lot is at the end of Cooper Rd, where it intersects with Llewellyn Ave.) There is usually parking available near the courtroom. It is 2 miles from the Visitor Control Center. There are no electronic devices allowed through the security check to enter the courtroom–you must leave your mobile phone in your vehicle (or someone’s vehicle).
  • Inside the courtroom, we think the best way to show our support for Bradley is by keeping the courtroom full and wearing our “Truth” t-shirts. The defense is working very hard to argue its case, and so we ask that people conduct themselves respectfully inside the courtroom, so that attention will not be taken away from their efforts. Talking, loud noises and sleeping are also not allowed while court is in session. We recommend that people bring a clear water bottle, as food and drinks are not allowed in the courtroom. We also recommend people bring a cardigan or jacket, as the courtroom is usually significantly cooler than the weather outside. You may choose to bring a notebook or sketchpad for note-taking/drawing, and a book or newspaper for periods when court is slow.
    Outside the courtroom, in front of public officials in DC is where we have the potential to make the most impact with our activism. You can follow news at www.bradleymanning.org about upcoming actions to protest whistleblower Bradley Manning’s prosecution.
If you have any questions about attending the court room proceedings, and the vigil please contact mckee@bradleymanning.org

From The Marxist Archives-American "Democracy" and Colonial Oppression

Workers Vanguard No. 878
13 October 2006

TROTSKY

LENIN

American "Democracy" and Colonial Oppression

(Quote of the Week)



Radical American journalist John Reed was won to Bolshevism while covering the Russian Revolution in Petrograd in 1917, after which he wrote his classic eyewitness account, Ten Days That Shook the World. We print below an excerpt from an undelivered speech Reed had prepared for the First Congress of the Peoples of the East, held in September 1920 in Baku, capital of Soviet Azerbaijan. Reed attended the Congress as a delegate from the U.S. and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Third (Communist) International, which was founded by Lenin and Trotsky’s Bolshevik Party as the necessary instrumentality to achieve world socialist revolution. Reed died of typhus after returning to Moscow from the Baku Congress.

The workers and peasants of the Philippines, the peoples of Central America and the islands of the Caribbean—they know what it means to live under the rule of “free America.”

Take, for example, the peoples of the Philippines. In 1898 the Filipinos rebelled against the cruel colonial government of Spain, and the Americans helped them. But when the Spaniards had been driven out, the Americans did not want to go away.

Then the Filipinos rose against the Americans, and this time the “liberators” started to kill them, their wives, and children, torturing and eventually conquering them. They seized their land and forced them to work and make profits for American capitalists.

The Americans have promised the Filipinos independence. Soon an independent Filipino republic will be proclaimed. But that does not mean that the American capitalists will leave or that the Filipinos will not continue to work to make profits for them. For the American capitalists have given the Filipino leaders a share of their profits; they have given them government jobs, land, and money. They have created a Filipino capitalist class that also lives on the profits created by the workers—and in whose interest it is to keep the Filipinos in slavery….

These same American capitalists incite the American workers and farmers against each other. They starve and exploit the peoples of Cuba and the Philippines. Savagely they kill American Negroes and burn them alive. And in America itself, American workers are obliged to work under frightful conditions, receiving low wages for a long workday. When they are exhausted and used up they are thrown out onto the street, where they die of hunger….

We appreciate the need for solidarity among all oppressed and toiling peoples, for unity of the revolutionary workers of all the countries of Europe and America under the leadership of the Russian Bolsheviks, in the Communist International. And we say to you, peoples of the East: Do not believe the promises of the American capitalists!

There is only one road to freedom. Unite with the Russian workers and peasants who have overthrown their capitalists and whose Red Army has beaten the foreign imperialists! Follow the red star of the Communist International!

—“Speech by John Reed,” To See the Dawn: Baku, 1920—First Congress of
the Peoples of the East
(Pathfinder, 1993)
*******

Baku Congress of the Peoples of the East

Appendix to the report of the Fourth Session


John Reed’s speech:

I represent here the revolutionary workers of one of the great imperialist powers, the United States of America, which exploits and oppresses the peoples of the colonies.

You, the peoples of the East, the peoples of Asia, have not yet experienced for yourselves the rule of America. You know and hate the British, French and Italian imperialists, and probably you think that ‘free America’ will govern better, will liberate the peoples of the colonies, will feed and defend them.

No. The workers and peasants of the Philippines, the peoples of Central America and the islands of the Caribbean, they know what it means to live under the rule of ‘free America’.

Take, for example, the peoples of the Philippines. In 1898 the Filipinos rebelled against the cruel colonial government of Spain, and the Americans helped them. But after the Spaniards had been driven out the Americans did not want to go away.

Then the Filipinos rose against the Americans, and this time the ‘liberators’ started to kill them, their wives and children: they tortured them and eventually conquered them. They seized their land and forced them to work and make profits for American capitalists.

The Americans have promised the Filipinos independence. Soon an independent Filipino republic will be proclaimed. But this does not mean that the American capitalists will leave or that the Filipinos will not continue to work to make profits for them. The American capitalists have given the Filipino leaders a share of their profits — they have given them government jobs, land and money — they have created a Filipino capitalist class which also lives on the profits created by the workers — and in whose interest it is to keep the Filipinos in slavery.

This has also happened in Cuba, which was freed from Spanish rule with the help of the Americans. It is now an independent Republic. But American millionaire trusts own all the sugar plantations, apart from some small tracts which they have let the Cuban capitalists have: the latter also administer the country. And the moment that the workers of Cuba try to elect a government which is not in the interests of the American capitalists, the United States of America sends soldiers into Cuba to compel the people to vote for their oppressors.

Or let us take the example of the republics of Haiti and San Domingo, where the peoples won freedom a century ago. Since this island was fertile and the people living on it could be put to use by the American capitalists, the government of the US sent soldiers and sailors there on the pretext of maintaining order and smashed these two republics, setting up in their place a military dictatorship worse than the British tyrants.

Mexico is another rich country which is close to the USA. In Mexico live a backward people who were enslaved for centuries, first by the Spaniards and then by foreign capitalists. There, after many years of civil war, the people formed their own government, not a proletarian government but a democratic one, which wanted to keep the wealth of Mexico for the Mexicans and tax the foreign capitalists. The American capitalists did not concern themselves with sending bread to the hungry Mexicans. No, they initiated a counter-revolution in Mexico, in which Madero, the first revolutionary President, was killed. Then, after a three-year struggle, the revolutionary regime was restored, with Carran a as President. The American capitalists made another counter-revolution and killed Carranza, establishing once more a government friendly to themselves.

In North America itself there are ten million Negroes who possess neither political or civil rights, despite the fact that by law they are equal citizens. With the purpose of distracting the attention of the American workers from the capitalists, their exploiters, the latter stir up hatred against the Negroes, provoking war between the white and black races. The Negroes, whom they lawlessly burn alive, are beginning to see that their only hope lies in armed resistance to the white bandits.

At the present time the American capitalists are addressing friendly words to the peoples of the East, with a promise of aid and food. This applies especially to Armenia. Millions of dollars have been collected by the American millionaires in order to send bread to the starving Armenians. And many Armenians are now looking for help to Uncle Sam.

These same American capitalists incite the American workers and farmers against each other: they starve and exploit the peoples of Cuba and the Philippines, they savagely kill and burn alive American Negroes, and in America itself American workers are obliged to work under frightful conditions, receiving low wages for a long work-day. When they are exhausted they are thrown out on to the street, where they die of hunger.

The same gentleman who is now in charge of bringing aid to the starving Armenians, Mr. Cleveland Dodge who writes emotional articles about how the Turks have driven the Armenians into the desert, is the owner of big copper mines where thousands of American workers are exploited, and when these workers dared to go on strike the guards protecting Mr. Dodge’s mines drove them at the point of the bayonet out into the desert — just as was done to the Armenians.

Many Armenians are grateful to America for its attitude to the Armenians who suffered from the brutality of the Turks during the war. But what has America done for the Armenians apart from issuing wordy declarations? Nothing. I was in Constantinople at that time, in 1915, and I know that the missionaries refused to make any serious protest against the atrocities, saying that they had a lot of property in Turkey and so did not want to bring pressure to bear on the Turks. The American ambassador, Mr. Strauss, himself a millionaire who exploited thousands of workers in his enterprises in America, proposed that the entire Armenian people be shipped to America, and himself donated quite a large sum for this project to be carried out; but his plan was to make the Armenians work in American factories and provide cheap labour so as to increase the profits of Mr. Strauss and his friends.

But why do the American capitalists promise aid and food to Armenia? Is it out of pure philanthropy? If so, let them feed the peoples of Central America and help the Negroes of America itself.

No. The main reason is that there is mineral wealth in Armenia, and that it is a big reservoir of cheap labour which can be exploited by American capitalists.

The American capitalists want to win the confidence of the Armenians with a view to getting their claws into Armenia and enslaving the Armenian nation. It is with this aim that American missionaries have established schools in the Near East.

But there is also another very important reason: the American capitalists, together with the other capitalist nations, united in the League of Nations, are afraid that the workers and peasants of Armenia will follow the example of Soviet Russia and Soviet Azerbaidzhan, will take power and their country’s resources into their own hands, and will work for themselves, making a united front with the workers and peasants of the whole world against world imperialism. The American capitalists are afraid of a revolution in the East.

Promising food to starving peoples and at the same time organising a blockade of the Soviet Republics — that is the policy of the United States. The blockade of Soviet Russia has starved to death thousands of Russian women and children. This same method of blockade was applied in order to turn the Hungarian people against their Soviet Government. The same tactic is now being used in order to draw the people of White Hungary into war against Soviet Russia. This method is also being used in the small countries bordering on Russia-Finland, Estonia, Latvia. But now all these small countries have been obliged to make peace with Soviet Russia: they are bankrupt and starving. Now the American Government no longer offers them food; they are no longer of any use to America, and so their peoples can starve.

The American capitalists promise bread to Armenia. This is an old trick. They promise bread but they never give it. Did Hungary get bread after the fall of the Soviet Government? No. The Hungarian people are still starving today. Did the Baltic countries get bread? No. At a time when the starving Estonians had nothing but potatoes, the American capitalists sent them ships laden with rotten potatoes which could not be sold at a profit in America. No, comrades, Uncle Sam is not one ever to give anybody something for nothing. He comes along with a sack stuffed with straw in one hand and a whip in the other. Whoever takes Uncle Sam’s promises at their face value will find himself obliged to pay for them with blood and sweat. The American workers are demanding an ever larger share of the product of their labour; with a view to preventing revolution at home, the American capitalists are forced to seek out colonial peoples to exploit, peoples who will furnish sufficient profit to keep the American workers in obedience and so make them participants in the exploitation of the Armenians. I represent thousands of revolutionary American workers who know this, and who understand that, acting together with the Armenian workers and peasants, with the toiling masses of the whole world, they will overthrow capitalism. World capitalism will be destroyed, and all the peoples will be free. We appreciate the need for solidarity between all the oppressed and toiling peoples, for unity of the revolutionary workers of all the countries of Europe and America under the leadership of the Russian Bolsheviks, in the Communist International. And we say to you, peoples of the East: Do not believe the promises of the American capitalists!

There is only one road to freedom. Unite with the Russian workers and peasants who have overthrown their capitalists and whose Red Army has beaten the foreign imperialists! Follow the red star of the Communist International!

From The Marxist Archives -Immigrant Rights in the Early Soviet Republic

Workers Vanguard No. 873
7 July 2006


TROTSKY


LENIN

Immigrant Rights in the Early Soviet Republic

(Quote of the Week)



In its 1918 Constitution, the Soviet workers republic granted citizenship rights to all foreign working people in its territory, while taking measures to safeguard the proletarian dictatorship against counterrevolutionaries. Today, based on the program of Lenin and Trotsky’s Bolshevik Party, the Spartacist League calls for full citizenship rights for all immigrants as part of our struggle for new October Revolutions.

20. Acting on the principle of the solidarity of the toilers of all nations, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic grants all political rights enjoyed by Russian citizens to foreigners resident within the territory of the Russian Republic provided they belong to the working class or to the peasantry not using hired labor. Local Soviets are authorized to confer the rights of Russian citizenship upon such foreigners without any formalities or difficulties.

21. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic offers asylum to all foreigners persecuted for political and religious offenses.

22. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, recognizing the equality of all citizens, regardless of race or nationality, declares it contrary to the fundamental laws of the Republic to institute or tolerate any privileges or advantages based upon such grounds, or to repress national minorities, or to limit their rights in any way.

23. To safeguard the interests of the working class as a whole, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic deprives individuals and groups of rights which they may use to the detriment of the Socialist Revolution.

—James Bunyan, ed., Intervention, Civil War, and Communism in Russia: April-December 1918—Documents and Materials (The Johns Hopkins Press, 1936)

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

Leon Trotsky

The First Five Years of the Communist International

Volume 2


The Economic Situation of Soviet Russia
from the Standpoint of the Socialist Revolution
(Theses)
[1*]

December 1, 1922

1) The question of the direction taken by the economic development of soviet Russia must be appraised and understood by the class conscious workers of the whole world from a twofold standpoint: Both from the standpoint of the destinies of the first workers’ republic in the world, its stability, its strength, its enhanced well-being and its evolution toward socialism, as well as from the standpoint of those lessons and conclusions to be drawn from the Russian experience by the proletariat of other countries for their own constructive economic work, upon their conquest of state power.
2) The methods and tempo of economic construction by the victorious proletariat are determined:
  1. by the level of development attained by the productive forces in economy as a whole as well as in its separate branches, and especially the reciprocal relation between industry and agriculture;
  2. by the cultural and organizational level of the proletariat as the ruling class;
  3. by the political situation consequent upon the conquest of power by the proletariat (resistance of the overthrown bourgeois classes, the attitude of the petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry, the extent of the civil war and its consequences, military interventions from outside, and so forth).
It is perfectly clear that the higher the level of the productive forces of a country, the higher the cultural organizational level of the proletariat, all the weaker will be the resistance of the deposed classes, the more regularly, systematically, rapidly and successfully can the transition from capitalist to socialist economics be carried out by the victorious proletariat.
Owing to a peculiar combination of historical conditions, Russia is the first country to enter the path of socialist development, and this, although Russia, despite the high concentration of the most important branches of her industry, is economically backward: although Russia’s worker and peasant masses, despite the extraordinarily superb revolutionary political qualities of the proletarian vanguard, are backward in culture and organization.
These contradictions in the economic, social and political structure of Russia, coupled with the fact that the soviet republic has been, as it remains, encircled by capitalism during the whole of its existence, determine the fate of the economic construction by the workers’ and peasants’ power; determine the turns made in this construction and the reasons for adopting the present so-called New Economic Policy.
3) The wholesale expropriation not only of the big and middle bourgeoisie but also of the petty bourgeoisie in city and country was a measure dictated not by economic expediency but by political necessity. The continued rule of capitalism over the rest of the world resulted in this, that not only the Russian big bourgeoisie but also the petty bourgeoisie refused to believe in the stability of the workers’ state; and this tended to convert the petty bourgeoisie into a reservoir for the landlord-bourgeois counter-revolution. Under these conditions the resistance of the landlords and the bourgeoisie could be broken and the Soviet power maintained by no other means than the complete expropriation of the bourgeoisie and the exploiting upper layers in the villages. Victory for the workers’ state was secured only by this resolute and ruthless policy which forced the vacillating peasant masses to choose between the restoration of landlords and the workers’ state.
4) The workers’ state, as soon as it began functioning, thus came into possession of all the industrial enterprises down to the very smallest ones. The internal reciprocal relations among the various branches of the industry, including, above all, the basic branches, had already been completely disrupted and distorted by the conversion of industry for the war. The personnel of the main apparatus of economic administration had either emigrated or flocked to the White Guard fronts. As for those who remained in Soviet service, they served in the capacity of saboteurs.
The conquest and maintenance of power by the working class was paid for by a swift and ruthless destruction of the entire bourgeois apparatus of economic administration from top to bottom, in every enterprise and all over the country.
These were the conditions under which the so-called “War Communism” originated.
5) The new régime had as its most un-postponable task to secure food for the cities and for the army. The imperialist war had already forced the change from free trade in grain to monopoly. The workers’ state, having destroyed all the organizations of trading capital, under the pressure of the civil war was naturally unable to make a beginning by re-establishing free trade in grain. It was compelled to replace the destroyed trade apparatus by a state apparatus, which operated on the basis of compulsory confiscation of the peasant grain surpluses.
The distribution of foodstuffs and other articles of consumption took the form of issuing uniform state rations, almost completely without regard to the skill and productivity of the workers. This “communism” was rightly called War Communism not only because it replaced economic methods by military ones but also because it served military purposes above all others. It was not a question of assuring a systematic development of economic life under the prevailing conditions but of securing the indispensable food supply for the army at the fronts and of preventing the working class from dying out altogether. War Communism was the régime of a beleaguered fortress.
6) In the field of industry, a crude centralized apparatus was created, based on the trade unions and aided by them. This apparatus pursued the immediate aim of at least extracting from industry – totally ruined by the war, by the revolution and by sabotage – the minimum of products necessary to enable the civil war to be carried on. Something resembling a unified plan was obtained only by utilizing the existing productive forces to a very limited extent.
7) Had the victory of the Western European proletariat followed shortly upon the victory of the Russian proletariat, this would not only have very much shortened the civil war in Russia, but would have also opened up new possibilities of organization and technology for the Russian proletariat by firmly coupling soviet Russia’s economy to the more advanced economies of other proletarian countries. In that case the transition from “War Communism” to genuine socialism would doubtless have taken place in a much shorter time and without the convulsions and retreats which isolated proletarian Russia has had to endure during these five years.
8) The economic retreat, or more accurately the political retreat on the economic front became absolutely unavoidable as soon as it became finally established that soviet Russia was confronted with the task of building her economy with her own organizational and technical forces and resources during the indefinite period required to prepare the European proletariat for the conquest of power.
The counter-revolutionary events of February 1921 [1] showed that it was absolutely impossible to postpone any longer a major adjustment of economic methods of socialist construction to the needs of the peasantry. The revolutionary events in March 1921 in Germany showed that it was absolutely impossible to postpone further a political “retreat”, in the sense of preparing the struggle for winning over the majority of the working class. Both of these retreats, which coincided in point of time, are, as we have seen, most intimately connected. They are retreats in a qualified sense, for what they demonstrated most graphically was the necessity, in Germany as in Russia, of our passing through a certain period of preparation: a new economic course in Russia; a fight for transitional demands and for the united front in the West.
9) The soviet state has shifted from the methods of War Communism to the methods of the market. The compulsory collections of grain surpluses have been replaced by taxes in kind, enabling the peasantry to freely sell its surpluses on the market; monetary circulation has been restored and a number of measures taken to stabilize the currency; the principles of commercial calculation have been reintroduced into the state-owned enterprises and the wages again made dependent on skill and output of workers; a number of small and medium industrial enterprises have been leased to private business. The gist of the New Economic Policy lies in the revival of the market, of its methods and of its institutions.
10) On the fifth anniversary of the soviet republic, its economy may be roughly outlined as follows:
  1. All land belongs to the state. Approximately 95 per cent of the arable land is at the disposal of the peasantry for cultivation in return for which the peasantry has during the current year made payments in taxes in kind amounting to more than 300 million poods of rye from a crop approximately three-fourths of the average pre-war yield.
  2. The entire railway network (more than 63,000 versts) is state property. Staffed by more than 800,000 employees and workers, the railroads are now fulfilling about one-third of the work done before the war.
  3. All industrial enterprises belong to the state. The most important of these (more than 4,000 enterprises), employ about a minion workers, and are operated by the state on its own account. Up to 4,000 enterprises of second and third rank, employing about 80,000 workers, are leased. Each state enterprise employs on an average 207 workers each; each leased enterprise averages 17 workers. But of the leased enterprises only about one half are in the hands of private businessmen; the others have been leased by various state institutions or co-operative organizations.
  4. Private capital accumulates and operates at the present time chiefly in the sphere of trade. According to initial estimates which are very rough and unreliable, about 30 per cent of the total trade turnover falls to private capital, with the remaining 70 per cent consisting of sums owned by the state organizations and the co-operatives closely connected with the state
  5. Foreign trade, amounting during the current year to one-quarter of the pre-war import and a twentieth of the pre-war export, is completely concentrated in the hands of the state.
11) The methods of War Communism, that is, the methods of an extremely crude centralized registration and distribution are superseded under the new policy by market methods: by buying and selling, by commercial calculation and competition. But in this market the workers’ state plays the leading part as the most powerful property owner, and buyer and seller. Directly concentrated in the hands of the workers’ state are the overwhelming majority of the productive forces of industry as well as all means of railway traffic. The activity of the state organs is thus controlled by the market and to a considerable extent also directed by it. The profitability of each separate enterprise is ascertained through competition and commercial calculation. The market serves as the connecting link between agriculture and industry, between city and country.
12) However, insofar as a free market exists, it inevitably gives rise to private capital which enters into competition with state capital – at first in the sphere of trade only, but attempting later to penetrate into industry as well. In place of the recent civil war between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie there has come the competition between proletarian and bourgeois industry. And just as the contest in the civil war involved in the main which side would succeed in attracting the peasantry politically, so today the struggle revolves chiefly around the peasant market. In this struggle the proletariat has mighty advantages on its side: the country’s most highly developed productive forces and the state power. On the side of the bourgeoisie lies the advantage of greater proficiency and to a certain extent of connections with foreign capital, particularly that of the White Guard émigrés.
13) Special emphasis must be laid on the taxation policy of the workers’ state and the concentration of all the credit institutions in the hands of the state. These are two powerful mediums for securing the ascendancy of state forms of economy, that is, of forms socialist in their tendency, over private capitalist forms. The taxation policy provides the opportunity for siphoning off increasingly greater portions of private capital incomes for the purposes of state economy, not only in the sphere of agriculture (taxes in kind) but also in the sphere of commerce and industry. Thus under the proletarian dictatorship private capital (the concessions!) is compelled to pay tribute to primitive socialist accumulation.
On the other hand the commercial-industrial credit system concentrated in the hands of the state supplies – as is proved by the statistical data of the last few months – the state enterprises, to the extent of 75 per cent, the co-operatives, 20 per cent and the private enterprises, 5 per cent at the most.
14) The assertion of the Social Democrats to the effect that the soviet state has “capitulated” to capitalism is thus an obvious and crass distortion of the reality. As a matter of fact the Soviet government is following an economic path which it would doubtless have pursued in 1918-19 had not the implacable demands of the civil war obliged it to expropriate the bourgeoisie at one blow, to destroy the bourgeois economic apparatus and to replace the latter hastily by the apparatus of War Communism.
15) The most important political and economic result of the NEP is our obtaining a serious and stable understanding with the peasantry who are stimulated to expand and intensify their work by gaining access to the free market. Last year’s experience, especially the increase of winter sowing, affords every reason to expect a continued systematic rehabilitation of agriculture. There is thus being created not only a reserve of foodstuffs for Russia’s industrial development but also a highly important reserve of commodities for foreign trade. Henceforward Russian grain will appear in ever increasing quantities in the European market. The significance of this factor for the socialist revolution in the West is self-evident.
16) The branches of industry working for immediate consumption. and especially for the peasant market, have already made undoubted and quite noticeable progress during the first year of the NEP. Heavy industry is admittedly still in an extremely difficult situation, but the reasons for this lag in heavy industry, stemming entirely from the conditions during the last few years, are likewise to be found in the conditions for the incipient reconstruction of a commodity economy: Only after the first successes have been gained in the agricultural field and the field of light industry can a real impetus be given to the proper development of machine building, metallurgy and coal, oil and other fuel production, which are naturally assured of receiving the utmost attention from the state. The state will constantly expand its field of operations, concentrate in its hands an ever-increasing volume of turnover capital, and later likewise renew and increase its basic capital by way of state accumulation (“primitive socialist accumulation“). There is no ground whatever for assuming that state accumulation will proceed more slowly than private capitalist accumulation and that private capital will thus be likely to emerge from the struggle as the victor.
17) As touches foreign capital (mixed companies, concessions, etc.), separate and apart from its own super-hesitant and super-cautious policy, its role on Russian territory is determined by considerations and calculations of the workers’ state, which grants industrial concessions and enters into commercial agreements only within such limits as will safeguard the foundations of its state economy from being undermined. The monopoly of foreign trade is in this respect an extraordinarily important safeguard of socialist development.
18) The workers’ state, while shifting its economy to the foundations of the market, does not, however, renounce the beginnings of planned economy, not even for the period immediately ahead. The single fact that the whole railway system and the overwhelming majority of industrial enterprises are already being operated and financed by the state directly for its account renders inevitable that the centralized state control over these enterprises will be combined with the automatic control of the market. The state is centring its attention more and more on heavy industry and transport, as the foundations of economic life, and adjusts its policy with regard to finances, revenues, concessions and taxes to a great degree to the requirements of heavy industry and transport. Under the conditions of the present period the state economic plan does not set itself the utopian task of substituting omniscient prescience for the elemental interplay of supply and demand. On the contrary, taking its starting point from the market, as the basic form of distribution of goods and of regulation of production, our present economic plan aims at securing the greatest possible preponderance of state enterprises in the market by means of combining all the factors of credit, tax, industry and trade; and this plan aims at introducing in the reciprocal relations between the state enterprises the maximum of foresight and uniformity so that by basing itself on the market, the state may aid in eliminating the market as quickly as possible, above all in the sphere of the reciprocal relations between the state-owned enterprises themselves.
19) The inclusion of the peasantry in planned state economy, that is, socialist economy, is a task far more complicated and tedious. Organizationally the way is being paved for this by the state-controlled and state-directed co-operatives, which satisfy the most pressing needs of the peasant and his individual enterprise. Economically this process will be speeded up all the more, the greater is the volume of products which the state industry will be able to supply to the village through the medium of co-operative societies. But the socialist principle can gain complete victory in agriculture only through the electrification of agriculture which will put a salutary end to the barbaric disjunction of peasant production. The electrification plan is therefore an important component part of the overall state economic plan; and because its importance will doubtless increase in proportion to the growing productive forces of Soviet economy it is bound to gain in ascendancy in the future, until it becomes the basis for the overall socialist economic plan as a whole.
20) The organization of economy consists in a correct and expedient allocation of forces and means among the various branches and enterprises; and in a rational, that is, the most efficient utilization of these forces and means within each enterprise. Capitalism attains this goal through supply and demand, through competition, through booms and crises.
Socialism will attain the same goal through the conscious up-building first of the national and later of the world economy, as a uniform whole. This up-building will proceed on a general plan, which takes as its starting point the existing means of production and the existing needs, and which will be at one and the same time completely comprehensive and extraordinarily flexible. Such a plan cannot be made a priori. It has to be worked out by departing from the economic heritage bequeathed to the proletariat by the past; it has to be worked out by means of systematic alterations and recastings, with increasing boldness and resoluteness in proportion to the increase of economic “know-how” and technical powers of the proletariat.
21) It is perfectly clear that a lengthy epoch must necessarily elapse between the capitalist régime and complete socialism; and that during this epoch the proletariat must, by making use of the methods and organizational forms of capitalist circulation (money, exchanges, banks, commercial calculation), On an ever increasing control of the market, centralizing and unifying it and thereby, in the final analysis, abolishing the market in order to replace it by a centralized plan which stems from the whole previous economic development and which supplies the premise for the administration of economic life in the future. The soviet republic is now following this path. But it still is far nearer to its point of departure than to its ultimate goal. The mere fact that the soviet state, after being compelled by domestic conditions to adopt War Communism, found itself driven by the delay of the revolution in the West to execute a certain retreat – a retreat, by the way, more formal than substantial in character – this fact has tended to becloud the picture and has afforded the petty-bourgeois opponents of the workers’ state a pretext for discerning a capitulation to capitalism. In reality, however, the development of soviet Russia proceeds not from socialism to capitalism but from capitalism – temporarily pressed to the wall by the methods of so-called War Communism – to socialism.
22) Completely untenable and historically absurd is the contention that the decline of Russia’s productive forces is a product of the irrationality of socialist or communist economic methods. In point of fact this decline came above all as a result of the war and then as a result of the revolution, in the form it assumed in Russia, that of a bitter and protracted civil war. The Great French Revolution which created the premises for the mighty capitalist development of France and the whole of Europe had for its immediate result the greatest devastation and decline in economic life. Ten years after the start of her Great Revolution, France was poorer than before the revolution. The circumstance that the soviet republic’s industry did not produce last year more than a quarter of the average pre-war output does not go to prove the bankruptcy of socialist methods. Because it has not even been possible to apply these methods as yet. All this shows is the extent of economic, disorganization unavoidably attendant on revolution as such. But so long as class society exists, among mankind, every great advance will ineluctably be paid for by the sacrifice of human lives and material wealth – whether the transition be from feudalism to capitalism or the incomparably more far-reaching transition: from capitalism to socialism.
23) In and by itself the foregoing answers the question of the degree to which the economic policy designated as new in Russia forms a necessary stage of every proletarian revolution. In the New Economic Policy two elements must be distinguished:
  1. the element of “retreat” already characterized above: and
  2. of economic management by the proletarian state on the basis of the market, with all its methods, processes and institutions.
a) As regards the “retreat”, it may also occur in other countries owing to purely political causes, that is, owing to the necessity, in the heat of civil war, of wresting from the enemy a far greater number of enterprises than the proletariat is able to organize economically. Partial retreats consequent upon this are not excluded in every single country. But in other countries such retreats are not likely to bear so severe a character as in peasant Russia where the civil war, moreover, did not actually start until after the seizure of power by the proletariat. Today we can no longer entertain doubts that in the majority of capitalist countries the proletariat will come to power only after a fierce, stubborn and lengthy civil war. In other words the proletariat of Europe will have to crush the main forces of the enemy before conquering power and not after this conquest. At all events, the resistance of the bourgeoisie – militarily, politically and economically – will be the weaker all the greater is the number of countries in which the proletariat succeeds in wresting power. And this means that the moment of military seizure of industry and the following moment of economic retreat will in all likelihood play a far lesser role elsewhere in the world than in Russia.
b) As regards the second element: the utilization of methods and institutions created by capitalism for regulating economic life, all workers’ states will, in a greater or lesser degree, have to pass through this stage, on the road from capitalism to socialism. In other words, every new workers’ government – after unavoidably destroying to a greater or lesser degree the capitalist economic organs during the civil war – the exchanges, banks, trusts, syndicates – will find itself compelled to restore these institutions again, subordinating them politically and organizationally; and after linking them up with the entire mechanism of the proletarian dictatorship, will have to master them by creative work in order to carry out gradually with their aid the reconstruction of economic life on socialist beginnings. The greater the number of countries in which the proletariat is already in power; and the more powerful is the proletariat seizing the power in any country, all the more difficult will it be for capital, or even the individual capitalists to emigrate, all the less and all the weaker will be the support afforded for sabotage on the part of administrative-technical intellectuals, and, in consequence, all the slighter will be the destruction of the material and organizational capitalist apparatuses – and all the easier the work of restoring them.
24) The speed with which the workers’ state traverses this stage, during which socialism while under construction still lives and develops in a capitalist integument – this speed, as already indicated will depend, separate and apart from the military and political situation, upon the level of organization and culture and the conditions of the productive forces existing when the workers’ state comes into power. It is absolutely clear that the higher both of these levels are, all the more rapidly will the workers’ state accomplish the transition to socialist economy and from this to complete Communism.
Deccember 1, 1922

Trotsky’s Footnote

1*. These theses are a summary of the report delivered by me to the Fourth Congress of the Communist International on the economic position of Soviet Russia and the perspectives of the world revolution. – L.T.

Note

Friday, July 05, 2013

***Out In The 1940s Crime Noir Night-The Mexican Immigration Situation-Then- Anthony Mann’s “Border Incident”-A Film Review

 
 
 
DVD Review

Border Incident, starring Ricardo Montaban, George Murphy, directed by Anthony Mann, M-G-M, 1949

No question I am a film noir, especially a crime noir, aficionado. Recently I have been on a tear reviewing various crime noir efforts and drawing comparisons between the ones that “speak” to me and those that, perhaps, should have been better left on the cutting room floor. The classics are easy and need no additional comment from me for their plot lines stand on their own merits. Others, because they have a fetching, or wicked, for that matter, femme fatale to muddy the waters also get a pass. Some, such as the film under review, which deals with the American and Mexican governments’ attempts to curb illegal immigration and those who benefit from it, the 1940s black and white B-film Border Incident, offers very little of either.

It is not for lack of interesting subject matter- the question of illegal Mexican immigrant migration is still very much with us as the news headlines scream out almost daily. Certainly the “coyotes” (illegal alien smugglers) and other social relationships (complicit farm owners, governmental agents, etc.) featured in this film are very much with us as the periodic finding of clots of dead illegal immigrants in some woe begotten deserts testifies to. It is also not for lack of trying to draw attention to the importance of the issue but rather that the stilted dialogue of the main characters, relentlessly hammering us with clear cut choices between good and evil when a lot of life is very gray, very gray indeed, gets in the way.

Probably the biggest problem, however, and one which is seemingly endemic to the police procedural crime noir B-movie genre, is that in the attempt to earnestly portray a living social problem involving governmental action takes the life out of the film and becomes mere propaganda. I would contrast this one with, let us say, Orson Welles’ Touch Of Evil, another border town-centered film and you will in one minute both get my point and get the different. If you insist on seeing this one then it is because of the great black and white gritty cinematography of the great American West landscape and some tense character-shot moments. But again Touch has all that, and more.

Festival of Resistance protest planned for July 4 in Boston.

Festival of Resistance protest planned for July 4 in Boston.

2 weeks ago · 552 views · 184.73 MB bandwidth

As The Class Struggle Heats Up And We Take Arrests-Some Important Information From The American Civil Liberties Union



Click on the headline to link to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)-Massachusetts website for additional information and links to other chapters.

Markin comment:

I have crossed swords with the ACLU over their defense of "free speech" for fascists and other issues but this information is very useful as we take more arrests in our current struggles. And as the class struggle heats up and more occasions for arrest occur. We are not constrained by legalism, the ACLU's or anybody else's, in our actions, obviously, but we had better, collectively, be prepared on all fronts otherwise we will be picked off one by one.

*********

WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE STOPPED BY POLICE, IMMIGRATION AGENTS OR THE FBI

We rely on the police to keep us safe and treat us all fairly, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin or religion. This card provides tips for interacting with police and understanding your rights. <br />

Note: Some state laws may vary. Separate rules apply at checkpoints and when entering the U.S. (including at airports).

YOUR RIGHTS

- You have the right to remain silent. If you wish to exercise that right, say so out loud.

- You have the right to refuse to consent to a search of yourself, your car or your home.

- If you are not under arrest, you have the right to calmly leave.

- You have the right to a lawyer if you are arrested. Ask for one immediately.

- Regardless of your immigration or citizenship status, you have constitutional rights.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

- Do stay calm and be polite.

- Do not interfere with or obstruct the police.

- Do not lie or give false documents.

- Do prepare yourself and your family in case you are arrested.

- Do remember the details of the encounter.

Do file a written complaint or call your local ACLU if you feel your rights have been violated.

IF YOU ARE STOPPED FOR QUESTIONING

Stay calm. Don't run. Don't argue, resist or obstruct the police, even if you are innocent or police are violating your rights. Keep your hands where police can see them.

Ask if you are free to leave. If the officer says yes, calmly and silently walk away. If you are under arrest, you have a right to know why. <br />

You have the right to remain silent and cannot be punished for refusing to answer questions. If you wish to remain silent, tell the officer out loud. <br >

In some states, you must give your name if asked to identify yourself. <br />

You do not have to consent to a search of yourself or your belongings, but police may "pat down" your clothing if they suspect a weapon. You should not physically resist, but you have the right to refuse consent for any further search. If you do consent, it can affect you later in court.

IF YOU ARE STOPPED IN YOUR CAR

Stop the car in a safe place as quickly as possible. Turn off the car, turn on the internal light, open the window part way and place your hands on the wheel.

Upon request, show police your driver's license, registration and proof of insurance.

If an officer or immigration agent asks to look inside your car, you can refuse to consent to the search. But if police believe your car contains evidence of a crime, your car can be searched without your consent. <br />

Both drivers and passengers have the right to remain silent. If you are a passenger, you can ask if you are free to leave. If the officer says yes, sit silently or calmly leave. Even if the officer says no, you have the right to remain silent. <br />

IF YOU ARE QUESTIONED ABOUT YOUR IMMIGRATION STATUS

You have the right to remain silent and do not have to discuss your immigration or citizenship status with police, immigration agents or any other officials. You do not have to answer questions about where you were born, whether you are a U.S. citizen, or how you entered the country. <br />

(Separate rules apply at international borders and airports, and for individuals on certain nonimmigrant visas, including tourists and business travelers.) <br />

If you are not a U.S. citizen and an immigration agent requests your immigration papers, you must show them if you have them with you. If you are over 18, carry your immigration documents with you at all times. If you do not have immigration papers, say you want to remain silent. <br />

Do not lie about your citizenship status or provide fake documents. <br />

IF THE POLICE OR IMMIGRATION AGENTS COME TO YOUR HOME

If the police or immigration agents come to your home, you do not have to let them in unless they have certain kinds of warrants. <br />

Ask the officer to slip the warrant under the door or hold it up to the window so you can inspect it. A search warrant allows police to enter the address listed on the warrant, but officers can only search the areas and for the items listed. An arrest warrant allows police to enter the home of the person listed on the warrant if they believe the person is inside. A warrant of removal/deportation (ICE warrant) does not allow officers to enter a home without consent. <br />

Even if officers have a warrant, you have the right to remain silent. If you choose to speak to the officers, step outside and close the door. <br />

IF YOU ARE CONTACTED BY THE FBI

If an FBI agent comes to your home or workplace, you do not have to answer any questions. Tell the agent you want to speak to a lawyer first. <br If you are asked to meet with FBI agents for an interview, you have the right to say you do not want to be interviewed. If you agree to an interview, have a lawyer present. You do not have to answer any questions you feel uncomfortable answering, and can say that you will only answer questions on a specific topic. <br />

IF YOU ARE ARRESTED

Do not resist arrest, even if you believe the arrest is unfair. </b>Say you wish to remain silent and ask for a lawyer immediately. Don't give any explanations or excuses. If you can't pay for a lawyer, you have the right to a free one. Don't say anything, sign anything or make any decisions without a lawyer. <br />

You have the right to make a local phone call. The police cannot listen if you call a lawyer. <br />

Prepare yourself and your family in case you are arrested. Memorize the phone numbers of your family and your lawyer. Make emergency plans if you have children or take medication.< br />

Special considerations for non-citizens:< /b><br />

- Ask your lawyer about the effect of a criminal conviction or plea on your immigration status. <br />

- Don't discuss your immigration status with anyone but your lawyer. <br />

- While you are in jail, an immigration agent may visit you. Do not answer questions or sign anything before talking to a lawyer. <br />

- Read all papers fully. If you do not understand or cannot read the papers, tell the officer you need an interpreter. <br />

IF YOU ARE TAKEN INTO IMMIGRATION (OR "ICE") CUSTODY

You have the right to a lawyer, but the government does not have to provide one for you. If you do not have a lawyer, ask for a list of free or low-cost legal services. <br />

You have the right to contact your consulate or have an officer inform the consulate of your arrest. <br />

Tell the ICE agent you wish to remain silent. Do not discuss your immigration status with anyone but your lawyer. <br />

Do not sign anything, such as a voluntary departure or stipulated removal, without talking to a lawyer. If you sign, you may be giving up your opportunity to try to stay in the U.S.< br />

Remember your immigration number ("A" number) and give it to your family. It will help family members locate you. <br />

Keep a copy of your immigration documents with someone you trust. <br />

</b><br />

<br /> IF YOU FEEL YOUR RIGHTS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED

<b>Remember: police misconduct cannot be challenged on the street. Don't physically resist officers or threaten to file a complaint.

Write down everything you remember, including officers' badge and patrol car numbers, which agency the officers were from, and any other details. Get contact information for witnesses. If you are injured, take photographs of your injuries (but seek medical attention first). <br />

File a written complaint with the agency's internal affairs division or civilian complaint board. In most cases, you can file a complaint anonymously if you wish. <br />

Call your local ACLU or visit www.aclu.org/profiling. <br />

This information is not intended as legal advice. <br />

This brochure is available in English and Spanish / Esta tarjeta tambián se puede obtener en inglés y español. <br />

Produced by the American Civil Liberties Union 6/2010




Out In The 1950s Film Noir Night-With Cornel Wilde’s Shockproof In Mind

Out In The 1950s Film Noir Night-With Cornel Wilde’s Shockproof In Mind



From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Jenny Marsh grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, the 1930s Great Depression wrong side of the tracks that made it very wrong, made it much worse for the ninth child of a drunken father and a hard-pressed mother trying to keep nine growing hungry mouths fed. And not succeeding. Trying to raise nine kids in a small one room cold- water flat in expansive Westminster just outside Los Angeles. So all Jenny knew was wants, all she knew was nots, not this not that, all she knew was cramped spaces and not room to breathe, no room to do anything but claw her way out, claw her way out just as fast as she could. Any way she could. With anybody she could, knowing that if there was a role call count at the Marsh household one child more or less would not be missed. She would not be missed especially since Jenny as the last child was the end of the road on the hand-me-downs. That was the way her sweet young life had played out, kind of the child left behind of the lot and while she never spoke of it one way or the other, never expressed any bitterness about it publicly; she early on saw the writing on the wall and acted accordingly. Kept her thoughts, her emotions, and her angers in check, from the rest of the brood. But any outsider could see, any observant outsider could see, she was holding some flames, some burning desires inside.

At thirteen, not being much of a student, and not having anybody looking over her shoulder to see that she attended school one truant day Jenny met Soldier Johnson down at the arcade, down at the Santa Monica pier. Soldier the well-known and feared leader of the biker corner boy gang in Westminster saw her budding womanly figure, her dark blue eyes, her long brown hair grabbed her up without a second thought (although he was married, very married as she found out later, too much later) and staked his claim to her. Needless to say she lost her virginity to him quickly. But she also lost, lost in the shuffle of being paid attention too, of the thrilling thought of being some man’s girl, of being the small time boss man’s girl, her moral compass. While Soldier never abused her, never hit her like some of the gang members did with their women, or anything like that he had an evil hold on her, on her needs and on her naïve in this wicked old world. After a couple of years of her undying devotion he felt no compulsion about pimping her to the squares a few times when he was strapped for cash. She in love, or just tired of wanting obliged him as her walking daddy, no questions asked, and while hustling for tricks at the bars in Westminster and later along Hollywood Boulevard, accumulated a few thirty day stays in county for her efforts.

That arrangement went on until Soldier Johnson drew to an inside straight one night, got caught in a jam with some rival chieftain of the Inglewood bikers, picked up a dime for manslaughter and flew the coop to the Q (San Quentin, if you didn’t know). He left Jenny, who said she would wait for him (that was when she found out he was married, married with two kids) stranded, stranded walking the streets picking up an odd trick or two without the benefit of her walking daddy to protect her. Thus she was picked a couple more times for the thirty day cure. So times were no question tough, although not as tough as hanging around some nine to a room cold water flat at least that is how Jenny scoped the scene. Then Harry came along.


Yes, for the record, Harry picked her up one night on the streets when he had a manly urge and she was walking, walking from hunger, so their romance, and whether you or I see it that, way it was a romance, was not something built from watching some melodramatic movie. But for Jenny Harry had something, had something to hold onto. See Harry was a college guy, a guy who came from some blueblood family back east that had fallen on hard times and so Harry was left to do the best that he could do. And for Harry the best that he could do, the best that he wanted to do, was to be a gentleman gambler. And for the most part he was good at it. Jenny was enthralled, since her idea of a good man turned out to be a guy like Harry. Harry who moreover taught her how to dress, taught her some gentle manners, and taught her how to talk without swearing out every other word. Our Harry was a regular Professor Higgins. Well almost. See Harry took his gentleman gambler job seriously, seriously enough to scorn the idea of working when times were tough, times when lady luck was against him. So well-dressed, well-mannered, well-spoken from time to time Jenny had to work in some high-end whorehouse that Harry knew of until his luck changed. She didn’t mind, not after all Harry had for done for her, not after he was the first man who cared for her, really cared for her. She would do anything for Harry, anything.

And as luck, bad luck, would have it she was taken up on that pledge one night when the other shoe dropped. It seemed some guy, another gentleman gambler, Frank Little, was spreading the word that Harry’s luck was, well, enhanced, was helped along by a little manipulation. Jenny who couldn’t stand to hear anything like that about her walking daddy in a fit of anger blasted him with a couple of shots in the heart that night. As so for protecting her walking daddy, for protecting her man’s reputation, Jenny drew dime up at the Women’s Prison in Los Gatos. Harry said her would get her help, get her out somehow, and stand by her. And funny thing he did, did stand by her and did grease enough palms to get her paroled after five years. So it must have been some kind of love Harry carried for Jenny, although you and I might not appreciate the finer points of that love.

But this California parole stuff is a drag. Jenny couldn’t, couldn’t do a million things, including being seen with the likes of Harry. What she could do was get a legitimate job, one approved of by her parole officer. That turned out to be serving them off the arm working for Jeff, Jeff Morse, who owned a hash house on the Pacific Coast Highway above Malibu. Jeff, a friend of the parole officer, was supposed to enforce the regulations to the letter. So for a while, a fairly long while, about a year, there was a tug of war between Jenny and Jeff over her relationship with Harry since she was seeing him on the sly. At one point Jeff, fed up with covering for Jenny, had her down at the station all ready to be sent back to Los Gatos so things were dicey. But here is the funny part throughout these tussles Jeff and Jenny were kind of falling for each other, falling hard once Jenny started to see that Harry all about Harry (with Jeff egging that idea on by reminding her that she did the time for Harry not the other way around). After a few months (and more than a few nights under the sheets over at Jeff’s apartment) they were married.

So Jenny tried to break it off with Harry. But guys like Harry don’t get to be guys like Harry by taking a hit to their pride and pocketbook so Harry threatened to expose he knew about her and her whoring days. Jeff would not like that, for sure. So one night, a night very much like the night Frank Little went to his just rewards Jenny put a couple of random slugs in Harry. And that action started a whole cascade of madness once Jenny explained to Jeff what Harry was trying to do. And Jeff bought her story, bought it without rancor. So he too became an outlaw as they fled town not sure whether Harry was dead or alive but also not wanting to stay aroundto find out.

So they bummed around, Jeff working odd jobs, and Jenny keeping house, keeping on the move though, waiting, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. And somehow through this entire trauma Jenny developed a moral compass, or the one she always had hidden showed up, because she was the one who said they had to go back and face the music. And they did. Here is how things get a little crazy in human existence though when it came time for Harry to press charges he passed, passed when he saw the Jeff-Jenny set-up as real. Yes, that Jenny must have had something, even if she did come from the wrong side of the track.

Taking PRIDE in Bradley Manning

Taking PRIDE in Bradley Manning

With Bradley Manning’s court martial in full swing, Bradley Manning contingents marched in PRIDE parades around the country and world. Supporters organized street theatre performances, parade floats, and in SF an airplane swooped over the event carrying a Free Bradley Manning banner! All this public support for Bradley has sent a clear message: Bradley Manning is a heroic whistleblower, and enough is enough – he must be set free! The military cannot get away with having persecuted a gay soldier who did the right thing. Exposing war crimes is not a crime! Free Bradley Manning!
The Bradley Manning contingent in the SF Pride parade was the largest non corporate group in attendance! Free Bradley Manning!
The Bradley Manning contingent in the SF Pride parade was the largest non corporate group in attendance! Free Bradley Manning!
In San Francisco, Bradley Manning supporters made up the largest non-corporate sponsored group, consisting of well over a thousand people. Courage to Resist reports:
The contingent featured former military strategist Daniel Ellsberg who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times. Ellsberg, adorned with a pink boa, rode on a pickup truck declaring Bradley Manning “The People’s Grand Marshal.”
The contingent featured dozens of supporters riding a trolley car, the Brass Liberation Orchestra marching band, and a synchronized dance group doing a routine to Michael Jackson’s ‘They don’t care about us’. High above Market Street, an airplane dragged a banner reading ‘Our LGTBQ Hero – Bradley Manning’.
In New York City, the Bradley Manning contingent included a street theatre performance with a large moving jail cell and an actor playing Bradley Manning inside it. The theatre performance was organized by playwright Claire Lebowitz. Members of Veterans For Peace also joined the march. Elias Holtz, an organizer from the NYC Pride contingent writes:
… it wasn’t my crush that motivated me to spend over two months organizing a big group of queers (and allies) to march for Bradley in the New York Pride Parade.
I was motivated more by the fact that Pride would come while Bradley was on trial and would be a huge opportunity to show that the LGBT community stands with Bradley and his actions. I knew that we could rally tens of thousands behind his case in New York City alone. LGBT people know how brave one has to be to speak the truth. We back up people who speak out.
The effort became national, and we coordinated with #BradleyPride contingents in Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, and San Francisco.

In Chicago, the Gay Liberation Network initiated a “Free Bradley Manning” contingent in this year’s Pride Parade in Chicago — as an opportunity to spread the anti-war message and to defend civil liberties.
Marching for Bradley in the Chicaco Pride Parade
Marching for Bradley in the Chicaco Pride Parade
In Seattle, the Bradley Manning contingent was placed right near the head of the parade, third from the start.
In London, Queer+ Friends of Bradley Manning organized a contingent in support of the heroic whistleblower. Supporters marched behind a hand painted banner, while handing out more than 4000 flyers and thousands of stickers.
And at the Twin Cities Pride parade a photo booth was setup for people to take “I Am Bradley Manning” photos.

More great links:
Video of London Pride march.
Photos from Queer+ Friends of Bradley Manning
More photos from the NYC Bradley Manning contingent