Saturday, July 13, 2013

From The Pen Of Vladimir Lenin -Lecture on the 1905 Revolution
 




Click on the headline to link to the Lenin Internet Archives.

 
Markin comment from the American Left History blog:

DVD REVIEW

LENIN-VOICE OF THE REVOLUTION, A&E PRODUCTION, 2005

Every militant who wants to fight for socialism, or put the fight for socialism back on the front burner, needs to  come to terms with the legacy of Vladimir Lenin and his impact on 20th century revolutionary thought. Every radical who believes that society can be changed by just a few adjustments needs to address this question as well in order to understand the limits of such a position. Thus, it is necessary for any politically literate person of this new generation to go through the arguments both politically and organizationally associated with Lenin’s name. Before delving into his works a review of his life and times would help to orient those unfamiliar with the period. Obviously the best way to do this is read one of the many biographies about him. There is not dearth of such biographies although they overwhelmingly tend to be hostile. But so be it. For those who prefer a quick snapshot view of his life this documentary, although much, much too simply is an adequate sketch of the highlights of his life. It is worth an hour of your time, in any case.

The film goes through Lenin's early childhood, the key role that the execution of older brother Alexander for an assassination attempt on the Czar played in driving him to revolution, his early involvement in the revolutionary socialist movement, his imprisonment and various internal and external exiles, his role in the 1905 Revolution, his role in the 1917 Revolution, his consolidation of power through the Bolshevik Party and his untimely death in 1924. An added feature, as is usual in these kinds of films, is the use of ‘talking heads’ who periodically explain what it all meant. I would caution those who are unfamiliar with the history of the anti-Bolshevik movement that three of the commentators, Adam Ulam, Richard Daniels and Robert Conquest were ‘stars’ of that movement at the height of the anti-Soviet Cold War. I would also add that nothing presented in this biography, despite the alleged additional materials available with the ‘opening’ of the Soviet files, that has not been familiar for a long time.
***********
V. I. Lenin

Lecture on the 1905 Revolution[6]


Published: First published in Pravda No. 18, January 22, 1925. Written in German before January 9 (22), 1917. Signed: N. Lenin.
Source:Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1964, Moscow, Volume 23, pages 236-253.
Translated: M. S. Levin, The Late Joe Fineberg and and Others
Transcription\Markup:R. Cymbala
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive 2002 (2005). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Other Formats: TextREADME






My young friends and comrades,
Today is the twelfth anniversary of “Bloody Sunday”, which is rightly regarded as the beginning of the Russian revolution.
Thousands of workers—not Social-Democrats, but loyal God-fearing subjects—led by the priest Gapon, streamed from all parts of the capital to its centre, to the square in front of the Winter Palace, to submit a petition to the tsar. The workers carried icons. In a letter to the tsar, their then leader, Gapon, had guaranteed his personal safety and asked him to appear before the people.
Troops were called out. Uhlans and Cossacks attacked the crowd with drawn swords. They fired on the unarmed workers, who on their bended knees implored the Cossacks to allow them to go to the tsar. Over one thousand were killed and over two thousand wounded on that day, according to police reports. The indignation of the workers was indescribable.
Such is the general picture of January 22, 1905—“Bloody Sunday”.
That you may understand more clearly the historic significance of this event, I shall quote a few passages from the workers’ petition. It begins with the following words:
We workers, inhabitants of St. Petersburg, have come to Thee. We are unfortunate, reviled slaves, weighed down by despotism and tyranny. Our patience exhausted, we ceased work and begged our masters to give us only that without which life is a torment. But this was refused; to the employers everything seemed unlawful. We are here, many thou sands of us. Like the whole of the Russian people, we have no human rights whatever. Owing to the deeds of Thy officials we have become slaves.”

The petition contains the following demands: amnesty, civil liberties, fair wages, gradual transfer of the land to the people, convocation of a constituent assembly on the basis of universal and equal suffrage. It ends with the following words:
Sire, do not refuse aid to Thy people! Demolish the wall that separates Thee from Thy people. Order and promise that our requests will be granted, and Thou wilt make Russia happy; if not, we are ready to die on this very spot. We have only two roads: freedom and happiness, or the grave.”
Reading it now, this petition of uneducated, illiterate workers, led by a patriarchal priest, creates a strange impression. Involuntarily one compares this naïve petition with the present peace resolutions of the social-pacifists, the would-be socialists who in reality are bourgeois phrase-mongers. The unenlightened workers of pre-revolutionary Russia did not know that the tsar was the head of theruling class, the class, namely, of big landowners, already bound by a thousand ties with the big bourgeoisie and prepared to defend their monopoly, privileges and profits by every means of violence. The social-pacifists of today, who pretend to be “highly educated”people—no joking—do not realise that it is just as foolish to expect a“democratic” peace from bourgeois governments that are waging an imperialist predatory war, as it was to believe that peaceful petitions would induce the bloody tsar to grant democratic reforms.
Nevertheless, there is a great difference between the two—the present-day social-pacifists are, to a large extent, hypocrites, who strive by gentle admonitions to divert the people from the revolutionary struggle, whereas the uneducated workers in pre-revolutionary Russia proved by their deeds that they were straightforward people awakened to political consciousness for the first time.
It is in this awakening of tremendous masses of the people to political consciousness and revolutionary struggle that the historic significance of January 22, 1905 lies.
There is not yet a revolutionary people in Russia,” wrote Mr. Pyotr Struve, then leader of the Russian liberals and publisher abroad of an illegal, uncensored organ, two daysbefore “Bloody Sunday”. The idea that an illiterate peasant country could produce a revolutionary people seemed utterly absurd to this “highly educated”, supercilious and extremely stupid leader of the bourgeois reformists. So deep was the conviction of the reformists of those days—as of the reformists of today—that, a real revolution was impossible!

Prior to January 22 (or January 9, old style), 1905, the revolutionary party of Russia consisted of a small group of people, and the reformists of those days (exactly like the reformists of today) derisively called us a“sect”. Several hundred revolutionary organisers, several thousand members of local organisations, half a dozen revolutionary papers appearing not more frequently than once a month, published mainly abroad and smuggled into Russia with incredible difficulty and at the cost of many sacrifices—such were the revolutionary parties in Russia, and the revolutionary Social-Democracy in particular, prior to January 22, 1905. This circumstance gave the narrow-minded and overbearing reformists formal justification for their claim that there was not yet a revolutionary people in Russia.
Within a few months, however, the picture changed completely. The hundreds of revolutionary Social-Democrats “suddenly” grew into thousands; the thousands became the leaders of between two arid three million proletarians. The proletarian struggle produced widespread ferment, often revolutionary movements among the peasant masses, fifty to a hundred million strong; the peasant movement had its reverberations in the army and led to soldiers’ revolts, to armed clashes between one section of the army and another. In this manner a colossal country, with a population of 130,000,000, went into the revolution; in this way, dormant Russia was transformed into a Russia of a revolutionary proletariat and a revolutionary people.
It is necessary to study this transformation, understand why it was possible, its methods and ways, so to speak.
The principal factor in this transformation was the mass strike. The peculiarity of the Russian revolution is that it was abourgeois-democratic revolution in its social content, but aproletarian revolution in its methods of struggle. It was a bourgeois-democratic revolution since its immediate aim, which it could achieve directly and with its own forces, was a democratic republic, the eight-hour day and confiscation of the immense estates of the nobility—all the measures the French bourgeois revolution in 1792–93 had almost completely achieved.

At the same time, the Russian revolution was also a proletarian revolution, not only in the sense that the proletariat was the leading force, the vanguard of the movement, but also in the sense that a specifically proletarian weapon of struggle—the strike—was the principal means of bringing the masses into motion and the most characteristic phenomenon in the wave-like rise of decisive events.
The Russian revolution was the first, though certainly not the last, great revolution in history in which the mass political strike played an extraordinarily important part. It may even be said that the events of the Russian revolution and the sequence of its political forms cannot be understood without a study of the strike statistics to disclose the basis of these events and this sequence of forms.
I know perfectly well that dry statistics are hardly suit able in a lecture and are likely to bore the hearer. Nevertheless, I cannot refrain from quoting a few figures, in order that you may be able to appreciate the real objective basis of the whole movement. The average annual number of strikers in Russia during the ten years preceding the revolution was 43,000, which means 430,000 for the decade. In January 1905, the first month of the revolution, the number of strikers was 440,000. In other words, there were more strikers in one month than in the whole of the preceding decade!
In no capitalist country in the world, not even in the most advanced countries like England, the United States of America, or Germany, has there been anything to match the tremendous Russian strike movement of 1905. The total number of strikers was 2,800,000, more than two times the number of factory workers in the country! This, of course, does not prove that the urban factory workers of Russia were more educated, or stronger, or more adapted to the struggle than their brothers in Western Europe. The very opposite is true.


But it does show how great the dormant energy of the proletariat can be. It shows that in a revolutionary epoch—I say this without the slightest exaggeration, on the basis of the most accurate data of Russian history—the proletariat can generate fighting energy ahundred times greater than in ordinary, peaceful times. It shows that up to 1905 mankind did not yet know what a great, what a tremendous exertion of effort the proletariat is, and will be, capable of in a fight for really great aims, and one waged in a really revolutionary manner!
The history of the Russian revolution shows that it was the vanguard, the finest elements of the wage-workers, that fought with the greatest tenacity and the greatest devotion. The larger the mills and factories involved, the more stubborn were the strikes, and the more often did they recur during the year. The bigger the city, the more important was the part the proletariat played in the struggle. Three big cities, St. Petersburg, Riga and Warsaw, which have the largest and most class-conscious working-class element, show an immeasurably greater number of strikers, in relation to all workers, than any other city, and, of course, much greater than the rural districts.[1]
In Russia—as probably in other capitalist countries—the metalworkers represent the vanguard of the proletariat. In this connection we note the following instructive fact: taking all industries, the number of persons involved in strikes in 1905 was 160 per hundred workers employed, but in the metal industrythe number was 320 per hundred! It is estimated that in consequence of the 1905 strikes every Russian factory worker lost an average of ten rubles in wages—approximately 26 francs at the pre-war rate of exchange—sacrificing this money, as it were, for the sake of the struggle. But if we take the metalworkers, we find that the loss in wages was three times as great! The finest elements of the working class marched in the forefront, giving leadership to the hesitant, rousing the dormant and encouraging the weak.
A distinctive feature was the manner in which economic strikes were interwoven with political strikes during the revolution. There can be no doubt that only this very close link-up of the two forms of strike gave the movement its great power. The broad masses of the exploited could not have been drawn into the revolutionary movement had they not been given daily examples of how the wage-workers in the various industries were forcing the capitalists to grant immediate, direct improvements in their conditions. This struggle imbued the masses of the Russian people with a new spirit. Only then did the old serf-ridden, sluggish, patriarchal, pious and obedient Russia cast out the old Adam; only then did the Russian people obtain a really democratic and really revolutionary education.

When the bourgeois gentry and their uncritical echoers, the social-reformists, talk priggishly about the “education” of the masses, they usually mean something schoolmasterly, pedantic, something that demoralises the masses and instils in them bourgeois prejudices.
The real education of the masses can never be separated from their independent political, and especially revolutionary, struggle. Only struggle educates the exploited class. Only struggle discloses to it the magnitude of its own power, widens its horizon, enhances its abilities, clarifies its mind, forges its will. That is why even reactionaries bad to admit that the year 1905, the year of struggle, the “mad year”,definitely buried patriarchal Russia.
Let us examine more closely the relation, in the 1905 strike struggles, between the metalworkers and the textile workers. The metalworkers are the best paid, the most class-conscious and best educated proletarians: the textile workers, who in 1905 were two and a half times more numerous than the metalworkers, are the most backward and the worst paid body of workers in Russia, and in very many cases have not yet definitely severed connections with their peasant kinsmen in the village. This brings us to a very important circumstance.
Throughout the whole of 1905, the metalworkers strikes show a preponderance of political over economic strikes, though this preponderance was far greater toward the end of the year than at the beginning. Among the textile workers, on the other hand, we observe an overwhelming preponderance of economic strikes at the beginning of 1905, and it is only at the end of the year that we get a preponderance of political strikes. From this it follows quite obviously that the economic struggle, the struggle for immediate and direct improvement of conditions, is alone capable of rousing the most backward strata of the exploited masses, gives them a real education and transforms them—during a revolutionary period—into an army of political fighters within the space of a few months.

Of course, for this to happen, it was necessary for the vanguard of the workers not to regard the class struggle as a struggle in the interests of a thin upper stratum—a conception the reformists all too often try to instil—but for the proletariat to come forward as the real vanguard of the majority of the exploited and draw that majority into the struggle, as was the case in Russia in 1905, and as must be, and certainly will be, the case in the impending proletarian revolution in Europe.[2]
The beginning of 1905 brought the first great wave of strikes that swept the entire country. As early as the spring of that year we see the rise of the first big, not only economic, but also political peasant movement in Russia. The importance of this historical turning-point will be appreciated if it is borne in mind that the Russian peasantry was liberated from the severest form of serfdom only in 1861, that the majority of the peasants are illiterate, that they live in indescribable poverty, oppressed by the landlords, deluded by the priests and isolated from each other by vast distances and an almost complete absence of roads.
Russia witnessed the first revolutionary movement against tsarism in 1825, a movement represented almost exclusively by noblemen. Thereafter and up to 1881, when Alexander II was assassinated by the terrorists, the movement was led by middle-class intellectuals. They displayed supreme self-sacrifice and astonished the whole world by the heroism of their terrorist methods of struggle. Their sacrifices were certainly not in vain. They doubtlessly contributed—directly or indirectly—to the subsequent revolutionary education of the Russian people. But they did not, and could not, achieve their immediate aim of generating a people’s revolution.

That was achieved only by the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat. Only the waves of mass strikes that swept over the whole country, strikes connected with the severe lessons of the imperialist Russo-Japanese War, roused the broad masses of peasants from their lethargy. The word “striker” acquired an entirely new meaning among the peasants: it signified a rebel, a revolutionary, a term previously expressed by the word “student”. But the “student” belonged to the middle class, to the “learned”, to the “gentry”, and was therefore alien to the people. The “striker”, on the other hand, was of the people; he belonged to the exploited class. Deported from St. Petersburg, he often returned to the village where he told his fellow-villagers of the conflagration which was spreading to all the cities and would destroy both the capitalists and the nobility. A new type appeared in the Russian village—the class-conscious young peasant. He associated with“strikers”, he read newspapers, he told the peasants about events in the cities, explained to his fellow-villagers the meaning of political demands, and urged them to fight the landowning nobility, the priests and the government officials.
The peasants would gather in groups to discuss their conditions, and gradually they were drawn into the struggle. Large crowds attacked the big estates, set fire to the manor-houses and appropriated supplies, seized grain and other foodstuffs, killed policemen and demanded transfer to the people of the huge estates.
In the spring of 1905, the peasant movement was only just beginning, involving only a minority, approximately one-seventh, of the uyezds.
But the combination of the proletarian mass strikes in the cities with the peasant movement in the rural areas was sufficient to shake the“firmest” and last prop of tsarism. I refer to the army.
There began a series of mutinies in the navy and the army. During the revolution, every fresh wave of strikes and of the peasant movement was accompanied by mutinies in all parts of Russia. The most well-known of these is the mutiny on the Black Sea cruiser Prince Potemkin, which was seized by the mutineers and took part in the revolution in Odessa. After the defeat of the revolution and unsuccessful attempts to seize other ports (Feodosia in the Crimea, for instance), it surrendered to the Rumanian authorities in Constantsa.

Permit me to relate in detail one small episode of the Black Sea mutiny in order to give you a concrete picture of events at the peak of the movement.
Gatherings of revolutionary workers and sailors were being organised more and more frequently. Since servicemen were not allowed to attend workers’ meetings, large crowds of workers came to military meetings. They came in thousands. The idea of joint action found a lively response. Delegates were elected from the companies where political understanding among the men was higher.
The military authorities thereupon decided to take action. Some of the officers tried to deliver ‘patriotic’ speeches at the meetings but failed dismally: the sailors, who were accustomed to debating, put their officers to shameful flight. In view of this, it was decided to prohibit meetings altogether. On the morning of November 24, 1905, a company of sailors, in full combat kit, was posted at the gates of the naval bar racks. Rear-Admiral Pisarevsky gave the order in a loud voice: ‘No one is to leave the barracks! Shoot anyone who disobeys!’ A sailor named Petrov, of the company that had been given that order, stepped forth from the ranks,load ed his rifle in the view of all,and with one shot killed Captain Stein of the Belostok Regiment, and with another wounded Rear-Admiral Pisarevsky. ‘Arrest him!’ one of the officers shouted. No one budged. Petrov threw down his rifle, exclaiming: ‘Why don’t you move? Take me!’ He was arrested. The sailors, who rushed from every side, angrily demanded his release, declaring that they vouched for him. Excitement ran high.
“‘Petrov, the shot was an accident, wasn’t it?’ asked one of the officers, trying to find a way out of the situation.
“‘What do you mean, an accident? I stepped forward, loaded and took aim. Is that an accident?’
“‘They demand your release....’
And Petrov was released. The sailors, however, were not content with that; all officers on duty were arrested, disarmed, and locked up at headquarters.... Sailor delegates, about forty in number, conferred the whole night. The decision was to release the officers, but not to permit them to enter the barracks again.”
This small incident clearly shows you how events developed in most of the mutinies. The revolutionary ferment among the people could not but spread to the armed forces. It is indicative that the leaders of the movement came from those elements in the army and the navy who had been recruited mainly from among the industrial workers and of whom more technical training was required, for instance, the sappers. The broad masses, however, were still too naïve, their mood was too passive, too good-natured, too Christian. They flared up rather quickly; any instance of injustice, excessively harsh treatment by the officers, bad food, etc., could lead to revolt. But what they lacked was persistence, a clear perception of aim, a clear understanding that only the most vigorous continuation of the armed struggle, only a victory over all the military and civil authorities, only the overthrow of the government and the seizure of power throughout the country could guarantee the success of the revolution.

The broad masses of sailors and soldiers were easily roused to revolt. But with equal light-heartedness they foolishly released arrested officers. They allowed the officers to pacify them by promises and persuasion: in this way the officers gained precious time, brought in reinforcements, broke the strength of the rebels, and then followed the most brutal suppression of the movement and the execution of its leaders.
A comparison of these 1905 mutinies with the Decembrist uprising of 1825 is particularly interesting. In 1825 the leaders of the political movement were almost exclusively officers, and officers drawn from the nobility. They had become infected, through contact, with the democratic ideas of Europe during the Napoleonic wars. The mass of the soldiers, who at that time were still serfs, remained passive.
The history of 1905 presents a totally different picture. With few exceptions, the mood of the officers was either bourgeois-liberal, reformist, or frankly counter-revolutionary. The workers and peasants in military uniform were the soul of the mutinies. The movement spread to all sections of the people, and for the first time in Russia’s history involved the majority of the exploited. But what it lacked was, on the one hand, persistence and determination among the masses—they were too much afflicted with the malady of trustfulness—and, on the other, organisation of revolutionary Social-Democratic workers in military uniform—they lacked the ability to take the leadership into their own hands, march at the head of the revolutionary army and launch an offensive against the government.


I might remark, incidentally, that these two shortcomings will—more slowly, perhaps, than we would like, but surely—be eliminated not only by the general development of capitalism, but also by the present war...[3]
At any rate, the history of the Russian revolution, like the history of the Paris Commune of 1871, teaches us the incontrovertible lesson that militarism can never and under no circumstances be defeated and destroyed, except by a victorious struggle of one section of the national army against the other section. It is not sufficient simply to denounce, revile and“repudiate” militarism, to criticise and prove that it is harmful; it is foolish peacefully to refuse to perform military service. The task is to keep the revolutionary consciousness of the proletariat tense and train its best elements, not only in a general way, hut concretely, so that when popular ferment reaches the highest pitch, they will put themselves at the head of the revolutionary army.
The day-to-day experience of any capitalist country teaches us the same lesson. Every “minor” crisis that such a country experiences discloses to us in miniature the elements, the rudiments, of the battles that will inevitably take place on a large scale during a big crisis. What else, for instance, is a strike if not a minor crisis of capitalist society? Was not the Prussian Minister for Internal Affairs, Herr von Puttkammer, right when he coined the famous phrase: “In every strike there lurks the hydra of revolution”? Does not the calling out of troops during strikes in all, even the most peaceful, the most “democratic”—save the mark—capitalist countries show how things will shape out in a really big crisis?
But to return to the history of the Russian revolution.
I have tried to show you how the workers’ strikes stirred up the whole country and the broadest, most backward strata of the exploited, how the peasant movement began, and how it was accompanied by mutiny in the armed forces.
The movement reached its zenith in the autumn of 1905. On August 19 (6), the tsar issued a manifesto on the introduction of popular representation. The so-called Bulygin Duma was to be created oil the basis of a suffrage embracing a ridiculously small number of voters, and this peculiar “parliament” was to have no legislative powers whatever, only advisory, consultative powers!

The bourgeoisie, the liberals, the opportunists were ready to grasp with both hands this “gift” of the frightened tsar. Like all reformists, our reformists of 1905 could not understand that historic situations arise when reforms, and particularly promises of reforms, pursue only one aim: to allay the unrest of the people, force the revolutionary class to cease, or at least slacken, its struggle.
The Russian revolutionary Social-Democracy was well aware of the real nature of this grant of an illusory constitution in August 1905. That is why, without a moment’s hesitation, it issued the slogans: “Down with the advisory Duma! Boycott the Duma! Down with the tsarist government! Continue the revolutionary struggle to overthrow it! Not the tsar, but a provisional revolutionary government must convene Russia’s first real, popular representative assembly!”
History proved that the revolutionary Social-Democrats were right, for the Bulygin Duma was never convened. It was swept away by the revolutionary storm before it could be convened. And this storm forced the tsar to promulgate a new electoral law, which provided for a considerable increase in the number of voters, and to recognise the legislative character of the Duma.[4]
October and December 1905 marked the highest point in the rising tide of the Russian revolution. All the well-springs of the people’s revolutionary strength flowed in a wider stream than ever before. The number of strikers—which in January 1905, as I have already told you, was 440,000—reached over half a million in October 1905 (in a single month!). To this number, which applies only to factory workers, must be added several hundred thousand railway workers, postal and telegraph employees, etc.
The general railway strike stopped all rail traffic and paralysed the power of the government in the most effective manner. The doors of the universities were flung wide open, and the lecture halls, which in peace time were used solely to befuddle youthful minds with pedantic professorial wisdom and to turn the students into docile servants of the bourgeoisie and tsarism, now became the scene of public meetings at which thousands of workers, artisans and office workers openly and freely discussed political issues.

Freedom of the press was won. The censorship was simply ignored. No publisher dared send the obligatory censor copy to the authorities, and the authorities did not dare take any measure against this. For the first time in Russian history, revolutionary newspapers appeared freely in St. Petersburg and other towns. In St. Petersburg alone, three Social-Democratic daily papers were published, with circulations ranging from 50,000 to 100,000.
The proletariat, marched at the head of the movement. It set out to win the eight-hour day by revolutionary action. “An Eight-Hour Day and Arms!” was the fighting slogan of the St. Petersburg proletariat. That the fate of the revolution could, and would, be decided only by armed struggle was becoming obvious to an ever-increasing mass of workers.
In the fire of battle, a peculiar mass organisation was formed, the famous Soviets of Workers’ Deputies, comprising delegates from all factories. In several cities these Soviets of Workers’ Deputiesbegan more and more to play the part of a provisional revolutionary government, the part of organs and leaders of the uprising. Attempts were made to organise Soviets of Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Deputies and to combine them with the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies.
For a time several cities in Russia became something in the nature of small local “republics”. The government authorities were deposed and the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies actually functioned as the new government. Unfortunately, these periods were all too brief, the“victories” were too weak, too isolated.
The peasant movement in the autumn of 1905 reached still greater dimensions. Over one-third of all the uyezds were affected by the so-called “peasant disorders” and regular peasant uprisings. The peasants burned down no less than two thousand estates and distributed among themselves the food stocks of which the predatory nobility had robbed the people.

Unfortunately, this work was not thorough enough! Unfortunately, the peasants destroyed only one-fifteenth of the total number of landed estates, only one-fifteenth part of what they should havedestroyed in order to wipe the shame of large feudal landownership from the face of the Russian earth. Unfortunately, the peasants were too scattered, too isolated from each other in their actions; they were not organised enough, not aggressive enough, and therein lies one of the fundamental reasons for the defeat of the revolution.
A movement for national liberation flared up among the oppressed peoples of Russia. Over one-half, almost three-fifths (to be exact, 57 per cent) of the population of Russia is subject to national oppression; they are not even free to use their native language, they are forcibly Russified. The Moslems, for instance, who number tens of millions, were quick to organise a Moslem League—this was a time of rapid growth of all manner of organisations.
The following instance will give the audience, particularly the youth, an example of how at that time the movement for national liberation in Russia rose in conjunction with the labour movement.
In December 1905, Polish children in hundreds of schools burned all Russian books, pictures and portraits of the tsar, and attacked and drove out the Russian teachers and their Russian schoolfellows, shouting: “Get out! Go back to Russia!” The Polish secondary school pupils put forward, among others, the following demands: (1) all secondary schools must be under the control of a Soviet of Workers’Deputies; (2) joint pupils’ and workers’ meetings to be held in school premises; (3) secondary school pupils to be allowed to wear red blouses as a token of adherence to the future proletarian republic.
The higher the tide of the movement rose, the more vigorously and decisively did the reaction arm itself to fight the revolution. The Russian Revolution of 1905 confirmed the truth of what Karl Kautsky wrote in 1902 in his book Social Revolution (he was still, incidentally, a revolutionary Marxist and not, as at present, a champion of social-patriotism and opportunism). This is what he wrote:
“...The impending revolution ... will be less like a spontaneous uprising against the government and more like a protracted civil war.”
That is how it was, and undoubtedly that is how it will be in the coming European revolution!
Tsarism vented its hatred particularly upon the Jews. On the one hand, the Jews furnished a particularly high percentage (compared with the total Jewish population) of leaders of the revolutionary movement. And now, too, it should be noted to the credit of the Jews, they furnish a relatively high percentage of internationalists, compared with other nations. On the other hand, tsarism adroitly exploited the basest anti-Jewish prejudices of the most ignorant strata of the population in order to organise, if not to lead directly, pogroms—over 4,000 were killed and more than 10,000 mutilated in 100 towns. These atrocious massacres of peaceful Jews, their wives and children roused disgust throughout the civilised world. I have in mind, of course, the disgust of the truly democratic elements of the civilised world, and these are exclusively the socialist workers, the proletarians.
Even in the freest, even in the republican countries of Western Europe, the bourgeoisie manages very well to combine its hypocritical phrases about“Russian atrocities” with the most shameless financial transactions, particularly with financial support of tsarism and imperialist exploitation of Russia through export of capital, etc.
The climax of the 1905 Revolution came in the December uprising in Moscow. For nine days a small number of rebels, of organised and armed workers—there were not more than eight thousand—fought against the tsar’s government, which dared not trust the Moscow garrison. In fact, it had to keep it locked up, and was able to quell the rebellion only by bringing in the Semenovsky Regiment from St. Petersburg.
The bourgeoisie likes to describe the Moscow uprising as something artificial, and to treat it with ridicule. For instance, in German so-called “scientific” literature, Herr Professor Max Weber, in his lengthy survey of Russia’s political development, refers to the Moscow uprising as a “putsch”. “The Lenin group,” says this “highly learned” Herr Professor, “and a section of the Socialist-Revolutionaries had long prepared for this senseless uprising.”

To properly assess this piece of professorial wisdom of the cowardly bourgeoisie, one need only recall the strike statistics. In January 1905, only 123,000 were involved in purely political strikes, in October the figure was 330,000, and in December the maximum was reached370,000 taking part in purely political strikes in a single month! Let us recall, too, the progress of the revolution, the peasant and soldier uprisings, and we shall see that the bourgeois“scientific” view of the December uprising is not only absurd. It is a subterfuge resorted to by the representatives of the cowardly bourgeoisie, which sees in the proletariat its most dangerous class enemy.
In reality, the inexorable trend of the Russian revolution was towards an armed, decisive battle between the tsarist government and the vanguard of the class-conscious proletariat.
I have already pointed out, in my previous remarks, wherein lay the weakness of the Russian revolution that led to its temporary defeat.
The suppression of the December uprising marked the beginning of the ebb of the revolution. But in this period, too, extremely interesting moments are to be observed. Suffice it to recall that twice the foremost militant elements of the working class tried to check the retreat of the revolution and to prepare a new offensive.
But my time has nearly expired, and I do not want to abuse the patience of my audience. I think, however, that I have outlined the most important aspects of the revolution—its class character, its driving forces and its methods of struggle—as fully as so big a subject can be dealt with in a brief lecture.[5]
A few brief remarks concerning the world significance of the Russian revolution.
Geographically, economically and historically, Russia belongs not only to Europe, but also to Asia. That is why the Russian revolution succeeded not only in finally awakening Europe’s biggest and most backward country and in creating a revolutionary people led by a revolutionary proletariat.

It achieved more than that. The Russian revolution engendered a movement throughout the whole of Asia. The revolutions in Turkey, Persia and China prove that the mighty uprising of 1905 left a deep imprint, and that its influence, expressed in the forward movement of hundreds and hundreds of millions, is ineradicable.
In an indirect way, the Russian revolution influenced also the countries of the West. One must not forget that news of the tsar’s constitutional manifesto, on reaching Vienna on October 30, 1905, played a decisive part in the final victory of universal suffrage in Austria.
A telegram bearing the news was placed on the speaker’s rostrum at the Congress of the Austrian Social-Democratic Party just as Comrade Ellenbogen—at that time he was not yet a social-patriot, but a comrade—was delivering his report on the political strike. The discussion was immediately adjourned. “Our place is in the streets!”—was the cry that resounded through the hall where the delegates of the Austrian Social-Democracy were assembled. And the following days witnessed the biggest street demonstrations in Vienna and barricades in Prague. The battle for universal suffrage in Austria was won.
We very often meet West-Europeans who talk of the Russian revolution as if events, the course and methods of struggle in that backward country have very little resemblance to West-European patterns, and, therefore, can hardly have any practical significance.
Nothing could be more erroneous.
The forms and occasions for the impending battles in the coming European revolution will doubtlessly differ in many respects from the forms of the Russian revolution.
Nevertheless, the Russian revolution—precisely because of its proletarian character, in that particular sense of which I have spoken—is the prologue to the coming European revolution. Undoubtedly, this coming revolution can only be a proletarian revolution, and in an oven more profound sense of the word: a proletarian, socialist revolution also in its content. This coming revolution will show to an even greater degree, on the one hand, that only stern battles, only civil wars, can free humanity from the yoke of capital, and, on the other hand, that only class-conscious proletarians can and will give leadership to the vast majority of the exploited.

We must not be deceived by the present grave-like stillness in Europe. Europe is pregnant with revolution. The monstrous horrors of the imperialist war, the suffering caused by the high cost of living everywhere engender a revolutionary mood; and the ruling classes, the bourgeoisie, and its servitors, the governments, are more and more moving into a blind alley from which they can never extricate themselves without tremendous upheavals.
Just as in Russia in 1905, a popular uprising against the tsarist government began under the leadership of the proletariat with the aim of achieving a democratic republic, so, in Europe, the coming years, precisely because of this predatory war, will lead to popular uprisings under the leadership of the proletariat against the power of finance capital, against the big banks, against the capitalists; and these upheavals cannot end otherwise than with the expropriation of the bourgeoisie, with the victory of socialism.
We of the older generation may not live to see the decisive battles of this coming revolution. But I can, I believe, express the confident hope that the youth which is working so splendidly in the socialist movement of Switzerland, and of the whole world, will be fortunate enough not only to fight, but also to win, in the coming proletarian revolution.


Notes


[1]In the manuscript this paragraph is crossed out.—Ed.

[2]In the manuscript the four preceding paragraphs are crossed out.—Ed.

[3]In the manuscript the three preceding paragraphs are crossed out.—Ed.

[4]In the manuscript the four preceding paragraphs are crossed out.—Ed.

[5]In the manuscript this sentence is crossed out.—Ed.

[6]The Lecture on the l905 Revolution was delivered in German on January 9 (22), 1917 at a meeting of young workers in the Zurich People’s House. Lenin began working on the lecture in the closing days of 1916. He referred to the lecture in a letter to V. A. Karpinsky dated December 7 (20), asking for literature on the subject.

Bradley Manning supporters buoyed by incompetent over-prosecution

legal400By the Bradley Manning Support Network. July 12, 2013
The U.S. government concluded its five-week case against PFC Bradley Manning the first week of July after providing a surprising lack of evidence that the Army soldier had “aided the enemy” by passing military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. In response, Manning’s defense filed four motions to direct a verdict of not guilty on most of the greater offenses he’s charged with, including “aiding the enemy,” violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and stealing government property.
All four motions are filed under Rule for Court Martial 917 (d), which says a not-guilty verdict shall be granted in the “absence of some evidence which, together with all reasonable inferences and applicable presumptions, could reasonably tend to establish every essential element of an offense charged.” Each motion carefully lays out the ways in which the government’s own witnesses failed to confirm the prosecution’s arguments set forth in opening arguments.

“Aiding the Enemy”, Article 104

Bradley Manning faces life in prison for this charge alone. For a time, the death penalty was a possibility. Manning has been charged in this case with “Aiding the Enemy” for providing information to WikiLeaks. However, in a final pre-trial hearing this January, military Judge Denise Lind quarried the prosecutors, “Would you have pressed the same charges if Manning had given the documents not to WikiLeaks but directly to the New York Times?” Their reply: “Yes Ma’am.” In this motion, Mr. Coombs explains:
The Government has failed to adduce evidence which, together with all reasonable inferences and applicable presumptions, shows that PFC Manning had “actual knowledge” that by giving information to WikiLeaks, he was giving information to an enemy of the United States. (Sec. 3)
According to the Court’s instructions:
“Knowingly” requires actual knowledge by the accused that by giving the intelligence to the 3rd party or intermediary or in some other indirect war, that he was actually giving intelligence to the enemy through this indirect means. This offense requires that the accused had a general evil intent in that the accused had to know he was dealing, directly or indirectly, with an enemy of the United States. “Knowingly” means to act voluntarily or deliberately. A person cannot violate article 104 by committing an act inadvertently, accidentally, or negligently that has the effect of aiding the enemy.
The Government’s evidence fails to show in any way that by giving information to WikiLeaks, PFC Manning had actual knowledge that he was giving information to the enemy. (Sec. 4)
The Government has introduced no evidence to suggest that PFC Manning was somehow independently aware that the enemy uses WikiLeaks… PFC Manning’s computer revealed no searches for the enemy, anything related to terrorism, or anything remotely anti-American. (Sec. 5)
Coombs then breaks down the arguments against the U.S. Army’s Counterintelligence Center report, which Harvard Law professor and widely cited scholar Yochai Benkler called “speculative” and “mediocre,” which he said featured prominent and glaring falsehoods, and which he said appeared to have been largely culled from open-source, publicly available information.
The Government also attempts to show that PFC Manning had actual knowledge that the enemy uses WikiLeaks by evidence and testimony related to the Army Counter-Intelligence Center (ACIC) report. (Sec. 6)
First, the title of the report is “WikiLeaks.org—An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, or Terrorist Groups?” The question mark obviously denotes that the question is something that the U.S. government does not have an answer to. If the government had actual knowledge that the enemy uses WikiLeaks, the title of the report would [not have] a question mark. If the U.S. government does not have actual knowledge of the enemy’s use of the WikiLeaks website, then neither can PFC Manning. (Sec. 7)
Finally, Coombs notes that in online chats with Adrian Lamo, Manning explicitly disavowed interested in providing another state with the documents, and instead wanted them available for the public good.
PFC Manning’s state of mind and professed motive for releasing the charged documents to WikiLeaks belies any argument that PFC Manning had actual knowledge that by giving information to WikiLeaks, he was giving information to the enemy. Indeed, PFC Manning refused to sell the information to another country, even though he could have financially benefited by doing so, because he did not want an enemy of the United States to “take advantage of the information.” Id. The chat logs show that since PFC Manning did not intend to aid the enemy, he also did not knowingly give intelligence information to the enemy. (Sec. 10)

Computer fraud charges, Wget doesn’t exceed authorized access

The government says that Bradley Manning used the automated downloading program Wget to retrieve hundreds of thousands of State Department cables from the Net-Centric Diplomacy database, and that use of Wget alone constitutes exceeding his authorized access to data, a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Coombs explains that Manning had authorized access to all of the information he accessed, and that the government is attempting to obfuscate that central point by charging him this way.
The Government’s theory is legally deficient
The government has introduced evidence that PFC Manning used the program Wget to download the diplomatic cables. However, PFC Manning’s purported use of this allegedly unauthorized program to download the information specified in Specification 13 of Charge II does not change and cannot change the only fact that matters in the “exceeds authorized access” inquiry: PFC Manning was authorized to access each and every piece of information he accessed. The Government has not introduced any evidence to suggest that PFC Manning was not permitted to view the cables in question. The Government has not introduced any evidence to suggest that PFC Manning was not permitted to download the cables in question. The Government simply asserts that PFC Manning was not permitted to download them using a certain program, Wget. (Sec. 6)
The Government is simply incorrect in asserting that the use of an unauthorized program to download information automatically converts what would otherwise be authorized access to that information into “exceeding authorized access.” Whether or not PFC Manning used Wget to download the information he had access to is irrelevant; under the language of Section 1030, as well as this Court’s ruling and all legal authorities, PFC Manning could not have exceeded his authorized access because he was authorized to obtain the information he obtained. That is, “exceeds authorized access” is not concerned with the manner in which information to which one has access is downloaded; it is rather concerned with whether the accused was authorized to obtain or alter the information that was obtained or altered. (Sec. 8)
Coombs explains why such an interpretation is unprecedented, and therefore quite dangerous.
The ridiculousness of the Government’s theory is highlighted when one really distills what the Government is saying. If PFC Manning had downloaded the cables one-by-one (or with a program like Excel which was in the baseline package for the DCGS-A machines), then PFC Manning would not be facing a ten-year prison sentence under 18 U.S.C. §1030. However, because he is alleged to have used a program not technically approved on his DCGS-A machine, he is facing a ten-year prison sentence. A decade in jail cannot turn on what programs the Army happens to put on its “authorized software” list. While the Defense concedes that releasing the diplomatic cables was a criminal offense—one for which PFC Manning has accepted responsibility—it is not, under any stretch of the imagination, a computer crime within any rational meaning of 18 U.S.C. §1030. (Sec. 11)
There is absolutely no legal precedent for the Government’s argument that the specific program with which information is downloaded can determine whether a person “exceeds authorized access” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. §1030. A survey of the case law reveals that no criminal prosecutions have been maintained based on a theory in the nature of that advanced by the Government here (i.e. that the accessor was permitted to access the information, was permitted to download the information, but was not permitted to download the information using a certain program). (Sec. 13)
Coombs reminds the court that the prosecution could not present the Acceptable Use Policy that Manning signed. In fact, Capt. Thomas Cherepko, who managed Information Assurance in Manning’s unit, admitted that the AUP had been burned.
Critically, the Government has not even presented the AUP signed by PFC Manning or anyone in his brigade. Thus, it is impossible to determine exactly what PFC Manning knew or should have known in terms of limitations on access and/or use. Second, to state the obvious—the AUP refers to the Acceptable Use Policy, not the Acceptable Access Policy. This very fact shows that the policy focuses on use restrictions and not access restrictions. Third, the provision in the sample AUP regarding unauthorized software states, “Id. I will use only authorized hardware and software I will not install or use any personally owned hardware, software, shareware, or public domain software.” The fact that the word “use” appears twice in this sentence clearly shows that this is a “us” restriction and not an “access” restriction. (Sec. 21)
Further more, the fact that Wget wasn’t an officially approved program doesn’t mean much: soldiers were routinely allowed to listen to music, watch movies, play video games, all of which weren’t formally authorized but which superior officers didn’t condemn.
The Government has presented evidence that Wget was not on the approved list of programs for the DCGS-A computer used by PFC Manning in downloading the cables. Thus, it argues that since PFC Manning downloaded the information that he was otherwise entitled to download with “unauthorized software” he thereby exceeded his authorized access within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. §1030. (Sec. 26)
It is clear that soldiers in the S-2 shop were permitted to add executable files to their computers and did so on a regular basis. It is also clear that the chain of command knew about this rampant practice and did nothing about it. In short, soldiers in the T-SCIF were allowed to place executable files on their computer, despite the apparent on paper prohibition against adding “unauthorized software.” In the S-2 shop, executable files were not considered “unauthorized software.” Thus, in using an executable file, Wget, to download the cables, PFC Manning did not use “unauthorized” software. Instead, he used an executable file—a practice that had been sectioned and approved of by the S-2 leadership and the chain of command. (Sec. 30)
The circumvention argument is a complete red herring. The Government’s theory is that the use of “unauthorized software” can convert what is otherwise authorized access into “exceeds authorized access” within the meaning of section 1030. The unauthorized software in this case happens to be Wget. However, the unauthorized software could be anything, including an unapproved (and more recent) version of an approved program. So, for instance, if PFC Manning had downloaded the cables in an unapproved version of Excel, under the Government’s view, he would still have exceeded his authorized access. Nothing turns on how fast or slow the download speed was—the crux of the Government’s argument is the use of unauthorized software. (Sec. 35)
It is worth noting that the Government has adopted multiple theories of “exceeds authorized access” during the course of this proceeding. If the Government cannot even figure out what the objectionable conduct is which constitutes “exceeding authorized access” how can Soldiers be expected to know which actions are considered to be a “computer crime” and which actions are not? In other words, how could PFC Manning have knowingly exceeded authorized access at the time of the alleged offense if the Government did not even identify what conduct it considered criminal until it failed in its first attempt to state an offense? The fact that the Government is clinging to a theory which hinges exclusively on the use of an apparently unauthorized program to ground imprisonment for 10 years shows just how weak this charge is. (Sec. 40)
There is not one case—not one—where any court in this country has premised criminal liability on a theory akin to the one the Government is advancing today. That fact alone speaks volumes…. It would be a sad day indeed if a decade in jail could hinge exclusively on what program an accused used to download information he was otherwise entitled to access and otherwise entitled to download. (Sec. 41)

Stealing government property, OR accessing copies of documents

Prosecutors charged Manning with “stealing,” “purloining,” or “knowingly converting” the Iraq War Logs, the Afghan War Logs, Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs, and the State Department’s diplomatic cables. Coombs contends that the government mischarged Manning by saying that he stole the databases themselves instead of copies of information contained within them. Throughout its cross-examination of government witnesses, the defense repeatedly established that the Army and State Department were never deprived of these databases upon Manning’s disclosures, so they cannot be said to have been “stolen.”
The Government in this case did not charge that PFC Manning stole or converted “information” or “copies”; instead it charged that he stole or converted “databases”. Such a distinction is not, in any way, a semantic one: what PFC Manning is alleged to have stolen directly impacts not only the legal focus of the alleged theft or conversion, but also the valuation prong of 18 USC 641. That is, if PFC Manning is alleged to have stolen information, the value of the information itself (and not the database) must be established. If PFC Manning is alleged to have stolen a copy of a government record, then the value of that copy must be established. Consequently, what PFC Manning’s alleged to have stolen or converted is of crucial significance. (Sec. 7)
If the Government in this case intended to charge theft of the information itself or theft of a copy of a record, instead of theft of the database, such a charge must appear in the Charge Sheet. (Sec. 9)
To sustain a theft conviction under Section 641, the Government has the burden of proving that PFC Manning wrongfully took “property belonging to the United States government with the intent to deprive the owner of the use and benefit temporarily or permanently.” (Sec. 11)
Thus, it is clear that the Government must show that PFC Manning’s alleged actions resulted in a substantial or serious interference with the Governments use of the databases in question in order for PFC Manning to be found guilty of knowing theft or conversion of databases under Section 641. The Government has failed to offer any such evidence since it is clear that PFC Manning did not steal or covert the databases in question. (Sec.. 15)
The Government has not introduced any evidence that the property in question here—the various databases—were ever moved, altered, corrupted, change or taken away from the United States government. (Sec. 16)
The Government obviously has not charged that PFC Manning stole or converted information contained within a database. Nor has it charged that PFC Manning stole or converted copies of digital records kept by the United States Government. Instead, it has charged that he stole or converted the databases themselves. Since the Government has introduced no evidence that PFC Manning stole or converted the databases in question, he must be found not guilty of section 641 offenses. (Sec. 20)
Coombs points out that even if the prosecution had intended to charge that way, or if it wants to alter its charge sheet, it is not permitted to do so.
To the extent that the Government will now argue that it intended to charge PFC Manning with knowing theft or conversion of the information contained within the databases or theft of copies of government records (rather than charging PFC Manning with theft or knowing conversion of the databases themselves), the Defense submits that the Government is not permitted to do this, as it is outside the scope of the Charge Sheet. (Sec. 24)
That the Government intended to charge and prove that PFC Manning stole the databases and not information is apparent by looking at the evidence that the Government has introduced on valuation. The Governments witnesses all discussed in detail in their stipulations of expected testimony how much it costs to establish and maintain the relevant databases and associated infrastructure in various years. This clearly shows that the Government meant to charge theft of the databases—and not the information—and accordingly should be required to prove the charges in the manner charged. (Sec. 25)
Changing the charge from stealing a “database” to stealing “information” or “copies of records” is a fundamental change which alters the very substance and identity of the offense as well as the accused opportunity to defense against the charge. (Sec. 30)
The Government is not able at this late date to change the Charge Sheet to reflect what it perhaps should have charged PFC Manning with. This Court, in other words, cannot make the Charge Sheet fit the evidence. (Sec. 32)
If the Government instead were to rely on a theory that PFC Manning stole “information” (a charge which is outside the Charge Sheet), it still has not introduced competent evidence of the value of the information allegedly stolen or converted. (Sec. 46)
Finally, to meet the threshold of a federal stealing charge instead of a lesser one, the government has to prove that Manning “stole” something valued at more than $1,000. Its own expert cannot attest to the cables’ value, and therefore there’s no available evidence of the documents’ worth.
The Government’s proffered “expert,” Mr. Lewis, candidly admitted that he did not consider himself to be an expert in valuation; had never valued information before; had not even seen the charged documents until last; had spent only a few hours “researching” in preparation for this testimony; and until last week, did not even understand why he would be testifying. (Sec. 49)

Stealing government property, an Outlook email Global Address List

Here the defense separates the charge of “stealing” the USF-I Global Address List (GAL), a collection of email addresses for U.S. soldiers in Iraq that where a part of the networked Outlook email application, apart from the other items in question. The government does not contend that Manning ever sent the GAL to WikiLeaks, it merely charges that he stole it.
The Government has adduced forensic evidence that email addresses containing the term “.mil” were found in the unallocated space in PFC Manning’s personal Macintosh computer. (Sec. 5)
The Government’s own witness testified that the USF-I GAL contained 160,000 email addresses and that the number of email addresses found in the unallocated space of PFC Manning’s computer totaled 24,000. (Sec. 7)
Perhaps the Government intends to argue that PFC Manning stole or converted part of the USF-I GAL or that PFC Manning stole or converted the Division GAL. However, the Government has not charged PFC Manning with stealing or converting part of the USF-I GAL or with stealing or converting the Division GAL—it has charged him with stealing the USF-I GAL itself. (Sec. 8)
The Government has not adduced any evidence that the .mil addresses on the unallocated/deleted space on PFC Manning’s computer were transmitted to anyone, much less anyone not authorized to receive it. In particular, the Government has not present any evidence that the .mil addresses were transmitted by PFC Manning to WikiLeaks. (Sec. 10)
The Government has not adduced any evidence that PFC Manning was not permitted to look at, save, or download the .mil addresses. (Sec. 11)
Viewed in the light most favorable to the Government, the evidence could show that PFC Manning lawfully downloaded .mil addresses from what appears to be the Division GAL and subsequently deleted the document. This would be equivalent to, say, an attorney downloading the AKO addresses of other attorneys in the JAG Corps, doing noting with that information, and then subsequently deleting that information. The Government’s own witness, CW4 Rouillard, testified that this was perfectly acceptable. (Sec. 16)

Dangerous precedent

Bradley Manning has been up front about his actions, taking responsibility for releasing documents as an act of conscience, in a declaration that could put him in jail for up to 20 years.
This wasn’t enough for military prosecutors – under pressure from an administration that has overseen an unprecedented attack on whistleblowers and already deemed Manning guilty – who instead egregiously over-charged Manning in an effort to set an example and instill a chilling effect on potential future leakers.
The lack of evidence supporting this over-prosecution gives Manning’s supporters hope that military judge Col. Denise Lind will follow the law and reject these greater offenses that would otherwise set dangerous precedents for military service members and our democracy.
Its worth noting that even if some or all of these charged are not dismissed outright as a result of these motions, Judge Lind could still find Manning not guilty of these same charges during the normal ruling process.
This overview was prepared by Nathan Fuller and Jeff Paterson for the Bradley Manning Support Network.

Standing by Bradley: My conversations with supporters attending the court martial

Farah Muhsin Al Mousawi
Farah Muhsin Al Mousawi
By Farah Muhsin Al Mousawi, Bradley Manning Support Network. July 11, 2013
One of the many things that I love about being part of the Bradley Manning Support Network is the ability to attend the court martial since it started on June 3rd, 2013. The pleasure of sitting down on the defense side of the room, capturing a glimpse of Bradley’s face and fighting the urge to pass the guards, who usually build a human wall between him and the spectators, to give him a hug and thank him for his bravery. But perhaps what I like more is looking around the courtroom and seeing all the friendly, kind faces of supporters who often travel for miles to be here, standing by Bradley, donning their “truth” t-shirts and engaging in active conversations when court is in recess . . . just as Bradley hoped the world would do.
Over 70 supporters packed the courtroom and overflow trailer on July 8, 2013.
Over 70 supporters packed the courtroom and overflow trailer on July 8, 2013.
My favorite part of my work day is to get to meet and know these supporters and, feeding my personal curiosity as well as doing my job, learn what brought them here and why they want to support Bradley Manning.
Among our supporters are members of the Center on Conscience and War (CCW) who have been attending at least one day per week since the court martial began. They came to a pretrial hearing a few months ago, too. “We want to be there as a show of support for Bradley and his defense team,” said CCW director Maria Santelli. “We want to show the judge that the whole world is watching and that she is accountable. I feel like I’ve just always known about Bradley since his arrest, at least. As an organizer against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since before they began, and as a counselor on the GI Rights since 2008, I tried to keep up on the news related to the wars.”
Each week, Maria comes with CCW Program Assistant Rebecca Joliff and Counseling Coordinator Bill Galvin, as well as summer intern Cymone Copeland. They have been attending diligently, carrying their notepads and writing notes through the court session. They sit down patiently on the defense side of the courtroom. Every now and then, I look at the crowd and I see the CCW crew look at Bradley and smile, admiring his courage and resilience.
When asked why it’s important for CCW members to attend the trial, Maria says, “It’s important that the soldiers at Ft. Meade see us there. Sometimes I think civilians, especially those with a leftward slant, feel like we share little common ground with people in the military. As a counselor on the GI Rights Hotline, I talk to active duty service members every day. We share more in common than either of us knows. I know that there are service members who strongly stand with Bradley.”
“The CCW was founded in 1940, when the first peacetime draft law was enacted in the United States. Conscientious Objectors (COs) who lived through WWI were treated so cruelly and inhumanely that our founders wanted to take the necessary steps, once it was clear that the US would enter WWII, to prevent COs from ever having to endure such terrible treatment again. CCW was at that time known as the National Service Board for Religious Objectors/NSBRO, because only those individuals whose opposition to war was based on religious beliefs could legally be classified as COs. NSBRO ran the Alternative Service Program, placing drafted men in nonviolent ‘work of national importance,’ instead of war. Since then, the law has evolved, and anyone with a moral or ethical objection to war can apply for CO status.
“Today, and since the end of the draft era, CCW provides technical and other support to Conscientious Objectors seeking discharge from the US military. We also assist immigrants to the US who refuse, for reasons of conscience, to take the standard citizenship oath in which one pledges to take up arms for the United States. And we provide support for young men who resist Selective Service Registration for reasons of conscience.”
June 24th marked the fourth week of Bradley Manning’s trial. As I looked around the courtroom, I saw a few new young faces, sitting with anticipation, waiting for the judge to walk in and start the trial.
The new supporters are high-school students from Oxford Academy, Westbook, CT, who after learning about a trip to Ft. Meade to experience what it feels like to be at this trial decided to sign their names up and join this effort, which was put together by two passionate school teachers: Ben Taylor, History and Economics teacher, and Josh Katz, head of the Math department.
I had the pleasure to sit down with the students and their teacher and ask them a few questions.
“So, what brought you here?” I asked. “Well, we are all interested in this trial and what is happening to Bradley manning” said Edward, a sharp 17 year old Senior originally from England. Edward and his schoolmates are attending summer school at Oxford Academy and when they heard about a trip to come to Fort Meade and attend two days of the historic trial, they signed up right away to join this trip.”
“I followed the trial from the beginning and have been aware of Bradley Manning since 2010 and the controversy that took place after, if he is a true whistleblower or he joined the military to intentionally wreak havoc. It is important to observe the ethical response of the US military overseas, the case of killing innocent civilians with no repercussion. This is a concern to me because I do have friends who joined the military and I feel like I need to understand if we are going to fight for freedom and democracy. We ought to understand what we are doing and what we are fighting for.” Edward added, “The media is often polarized in America, even if they openly reported the trial, the media is still biased and because of that I needed to come and get a better understanding of this case.”
William, who is 18 and also a bright senior student at Oxford Academy, and whose mother escaped the violence in Lebanon during the civil war during the 1980s, he had another interesting reason as to why he wanted to be on this trip.
“With the way the image of the military is presented, of how honorable it is and how the military service is glorified, I wanted to be that person, I wanted to be part of it. And the reason why I don’t want to do it anymore is because I don’t want to fight for something I don’t believe in, especially when the wars that are fought now are not for the right reason.” William added, “I wanted to be here because I wanted to observe and learn. I wanted to figure out the truth of what has been told about Bradley because it is hard to believe the news. I want to be here to support him.”
Eli, an eloquent 14-year-old freshmen said, “The idea of glorifying gender roles is an old one. Back in the ‘50s, if you went to a toy store you find that boys had plastic guns and fake military stuff, and girls had their dolls. Culture today still segregates between boys and girls and continues to glorify the military.”
I also spoke to Ben Taylor and Josh Katz, the two teachers who came up with the idea of bringing few of their students to attend the trial.
Ben Taylor, who is a History and Economics teacher, said, “This is a very significant event, regardless of the side you agree with, it is important to be here and show up. Last fall we had a course on current events, and though current issues around the world are integrated into other courses one way or another, both Josh Katz and I felt that we needed to bring in a more current issue and make it present for the students to be more engaged and informed. So, we had three topics our students research and give presentations on, one was about the Pentagon Papers, the second was on whistleblowers and the third was on Bradley Manning. After that we decided we needed to do something maybe for the summer and that’s when we came up with the idea of making this trip and bringing at least five students who are interested in the subject.”
Josh Katz, who is the math teacher and the head of the Math department said, “Sitting in the office and I was thinking how could I be a teacher but also help people participate in the world? Its not enough to have a current events course, students have be involved in the world.
“The image of somebody going to school with other events are happening in the same country, writing a paper about that event, all this makes me feel as if it is happening in a foreign country.
“As a math teacher, I try to bring in other topics related to social issues but also connected to math in one way or another. For instance, I talk about the relation between math and democracy or math and cryptology, and while doing that it is hard not to delve into the issue of ethics in relations to these important topics. And while the educational system seems to teach our students what they want them to learn, at our school we try and give them the liberty to make up their minds and construct their own knowledge.”
The following weeks of the court martial, we witnessed a large presence of supporters from all over the country. During the last week of the prosecution’s argument, more than 50 supporters filled the courtroom and the overflow trailer. And during the first day of the defense’s argument, nearly 80 supporters filled the courtroom and the overflow trailer.
As an organizer with the Bradley Manning Support Network, people often ask me, “How can we support Bradley? What can we do to help?” And there are so many ways I could answer these questions, and though the first response I could think of is, “Do you have a magic wand that can set him free?” I know that is impossible! However, I encourage people to come and attend the court martial if they can. The presence of the supporters have been helpful in such way that we are able to tell the court, and the world, that what Bradley did was the right thing and it is time for the government to do the same thing, too by setting him free!
Yesterday, the defense rested its case and Bradley Manning confirmed that he did not wish to testify. The government said it intends to present a rebuttal case next week. (To read more updates from the trial, please visit: http://www.bradleymanning.org/category/news/courtroom-notes-news)
As we anticipate the sentencing phase will culminate in August, we will be demonstrating in front of Maj. Gen. Buchanan’s office demanding him to do the right thing by freeing Bradley Manning, as Maj. Gen Buchanan is the Convening Authority who oversees the proceedings at Ft. Meade. If you wish to continue to show support for Bradley, please consider joining us at this last chance to protest during Bradley’s trial.
For more details on this event, please visit: https://orders.bradleymanning.org/support_events/protest-in-front-of-maj-general-buchanans-office
Students from Oxford Academy
Students from Oxford Academy