**Once Again On The Massachusetts 54th Regiment In The American Civil War- All Honor To Its Memory

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Regiment.

DVD Review

The Massachusetts 54th, staring the heroic black fighters of the volunteer Massachusetts 54th Regiment, narrated by Morgan Freeman, PBS American Experience Series, 2005

I have reviewed a number of materials, mainly film documentaries, about the heroic all black ranks (and white-officered) 54th Massachusetts Regiment who proved their valor in front of Fort Wagner down in South Carolina in 1863 (and did hard fight service thereafter until they marched into heart of Confederacy Charleston in 1865 singing, fittingly, John Brown’s Body). Every time I do such a review I like to preface my remarks with this comment which places the now “discovered” regiment in proper historical perspective, and says as much about official history as anything. As a student in the 1960s I passed the now famous Saint Gaudens relief sculpture of the Colonel Robert Gould Shaw-led 54th every day (then in bad condition, by the way) and yet never knew about that regiment, its history and its importance in the struggle to end slavery until later, much later when I emerged myself in the history of black struggles. Moreover, no history course, and I was a fanatic about history even then, mentioned the tremendous efforts, probably decisive efforts, that arming black soldiers to fight in their own emancipation struggle provided for the Union side. So much for history being written by the victors, at least on this issue.

Fortunately, now young budding historians and blacks looking to their roots have several sources to choice from on this regiment. The commercial film Glory, starring Denzel Washington, set a certain dramatic tension, especially around racism, the struggle for equal pay, the question of black officers, and the capacity of blacks to fight “like white men.” I think this PBS effort, as a documentary, however covers the bases better as a historical inquiry into the subject. Here is why. The various issues just mentioned are laid out, including the incipient racism faced by blacks in Boston even before Governor Andrews authorized the creation of the regiment. Moreover, as an added benefit the producers have brought in not only the normal “talking heads” scholars that one expects of a PBS effort but also descendants of some of the surviving 54th soldiers to tell grandpa’s story (or what he told them). Of course the plethora of photographs and other visuals keep this one hour production moving right along, as does the always calm narration by Morgan Freeman as he lays out the story line.

Note: Much is made in this documentary of the question, as it was at the time of the Civil War, of whether blacks, so seemingly servile and simple, could be trained to fight, arms in hand. Of course 200,000 strong black arms and their infusion at the decisive point when Union efforts were flagging put paid to that notion. That certainly was the importance of Fort Wagner as a test of black valor, although that effort was a defeat. The South never forgave or forgot that armed black mass in front of them. But that notion of blacks was wrong as those Southerners later found out. If the cause is right, or even if the cause is wrong, there will be men and women ready to fight, and fight valiantly, under their chosen banner. Those who do not understand this have poor military sense. The real question for us is whether we have enough fighters on the “side of the angels” when the cause is righteous.

Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Tupac Shakur’s "Papa'z Song"

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

*******

Markin comment:

Sometimes the truth comes out a little raggedy and not in our Marxist high-flown style but it is the truth, or a close approximation of it nevertheless.

*********

Papa'z Song lyrics-Tupac Shakur

(feat. Wycked)

Daddy's home...

[2Pac]
Heh, so?
You say that like that means somethin to me
You've been gone a mighty long motherfuckin time
for you to be comin home talkin that "daddy's home" shit (nigga)
We been gettin along fine just without you
Me, my brother, and my mother
So if you don't mind, you can step the FUCK off, POPS.. fuck you!

[2Pac]
Had to play catch by myself, what a sorry sight
A pitiful plight, so I pray for a starry night
Please send me a pops before puberty
the things I wouldn't do to see a piece of family unity
Moms always work, I barely see her
I'm startin to get worried without a pops I'll grow to be her
It's a wonder they don't understand kids today
so when I pray, I pray I'll never grow to be that way
And I hope that he answers me
I heard God don't like ugly well take a look at my family
A different father every weekend
Before we get to meet him they break up before the week ends
I'm gettin sick of all the friendships
As soon as we kick it he done split and the whole shit ends quick
How can I be a man if there's no role model?
Strivin to save my soul I stay cold drinkin a forty bottle
I'm so sorry...

[Chorus]
I'm so sorry
for all this time (I'm so sorry)
for all this time
for all this time (don't lie)
I'm so sorry
for all this time (so, sorry)
for all this time
for all this time, so sorry baby!

[Wycked]
Moms had to entertain many men
Didn't wanna do it but it's time to pay the rent again
I'm gettin a bit older and I'm startin to be a bother
Moms can't stand me cause I'm lookin like my father
Should I stay or run away, tell me the answer
Moms ignores me and avoids me like cancer
Grow up rough and it's hard to understand stuff
Moms was tough cause his poppa wasn't man enough
Couldn't stand up to his own responsibilities
Instead of takin care of me, he'd rather live lavishly
That's why I'll never be a father;
unless you got the time it's a crime don't even bother
(That's when I started hatin the phony smiles
Said I was an only child)
Look at mama's lonely smile
It's hard for a son to see his mother cry
She only loves you, but has to fuck with these other guys
I'm so sorry...

[Chorus]
I'm so sorry
for all this time
for all this time
for all this time
I'm so sorry
for all this time
for all this time (so sorry)
for all this time, so sorry baby!

[2Pac]
Man child in the promised land couldn't afford many heroes
Moms was the only one there my pops was a no-show
And ohh -I guess ya didn't know
that I would grow to be so strong
Lookin kinda pale, was it the ale oh pops was wrong
Where was the money that you said, you would send me
talked on the phone and you sounded so friendly
Ask about school and my welfare
but it's clear, you ain't sincere hey who the hell cares
You think I'm blind but this time I see you comin, Jack
You grabbed your coat, left us broke, now ain't no runnin back
Ask about my moms like you loved her from the start
Left her in the dark, she fell apart from a broken heart
So don't even start with that "wanna be your father" shit
Don't even bother with your dollars I don't need it
I'll bury moms like you left me all alone G
Now that that I finally found you, stay the Fuck away from me
You're so sorry..

[Chorus]
I'm so sorry (so sorry)
for all this time (so, so sorry)
for all this time (I'm so so sorry)
for all this time (fuck that!)
I'm so sorry
for all this time (no)
for all this time (so sorry)
for all this time, so sorry baby!

[Tupac - impersonating his father]
I never meant to leave but I was wanted
Crossed too many people every house I'd touch was haunted
Had to watch the strangers every brother was in danger
If I was to keep you breathin, had to be out of range-a
Had to move, one to lost my name and pick the number
Made me watch my back I had no happy home to run to
Maybe it's my fault for being a father livin fast
But livin slow, mean half the dough, and you won't get no ass
Hindsight shows me it was wrong all along
I wanted to make some dough so you would grow to be so strong
It took a little longer than I thought
I slipped, got caught, and sent to jail by the courts
Now I'm doin time and I wish you'd understand
all I ever wanted was for you to be a man
and grow to be the type you was meant to be
Keep the war fightin by the writings that you sent to me
I'm so sorry...

[Chorus w/ variations til end]

Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Tupac Shakur’s "Panther Power"

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

*******

Markin comment:

Sometimes the truth comes out a little raggedy and not in our Marxist high-flown style but it is the truth, or a close approximation of it nevertheless.

**********

Panther Power lyrics-Tupac Shakur

[Tupac]
As real as it seems the American Dream
Ain't nothing but another calculated schemes
To get us locked up shot up back in chains
To deny us of the future rob our names
Kept my history of mystery but now I see
The American Dream wasn't meant for me
Cause lady liberty is a hypocrite she lied to me
Promised me freedom, education, equality
Never gave me nothing but slavery
And now look at how dangerous you made me
Calling me a mad man cause I'm strong and bold
With this dump full of knowledge of the lies you told
Promise me emancipation indispute nation
All you gave my people was our patience
Fathers of our country never cared for me
They kept my answer shackled up in slavery
And Uncle Sam never did a dam thing for me
Except lie about the facts in my history
So now I'm sitting hear mad cause I'm unemployed
But the government's glad cause they enjoyed
When my people are down so they can screw us around
Time to change the government now panther power

[Chorus]
Panther power
Panther power
Panther power

[Tyson]
Coming straight that resides within
Go toe to toe with a panther and you just can't win
Suffered fame bats suppressed the rest
The rich get richer and the poor can't last
The American Dream was an American nightmare
You kept my people down and refuse to fight fair
The Klu Klux Klan tried to keep us out
Besides drew they know no blacks allowed
With intimidation and segregation was a way for our freedom
But now were impatient
Blacks the other skin: dead or sell outs
Freedom, equality, then I'll yell out
"Don't you ever be ashamed of what you are
It's ya panther power that makes you a star"
Panther power

[Chorus]
Panther power
Panther power
Panther power

[Tupac]
My Mother never let me forget my history
Hoping I was set free chains never put on me
Wanted to be more than just free
Had to know the true facts about my history
I couldn't settle for being a statistic
Couldn't survive in this capitalistic
Government cause it was meant to hold us back
Using ignorant, drugs, to sneak attack
In my community think of unity
But when I charged them, tried to claim immunity
I strike America like a case of hard disease
Panther power is running through my arteries
Try to stop oh boy you'll be clawed to death
Cause I'll be fighting for my freedom with my dying breath
Do you remember that is what I'm asking you?
You think you living free don't let me laugh at you
Open your eyes realize that you have been locked in chains
Said you wasn't civilized and stole your name
Cause some time has passed seem you all forget
There ain't no liberty to you and me we all ain't free yet
Panter power

[Chorus]
Panther power
Panther power
Panther power

[Tupac]
As real as it seems the American Dream
Ain't nothing but another calculated schemes
To get us locked up shot up back in chains
To deny us of the future rob our names
Kept my history of mystery but now I see
The American Dream wasn't meant for me
Cause lady liberty is a hypocrite she lied to me
Promised me freedom, education, equality
Never gave me nothing but slavery
And now look at how dangerous you made me
Calling me a mad man cause I'm strong and bold
With this dump full of knowledge of the lies you told
Promise me emancipation indispute nation
All you gave my people was our patience
Fathers of our country never cared for me
They kept my answer shackled up in slavery
And Uncle Sam never did a dam thing for me
Except lie about the facts in my history
So now I'm sitting hear mad cause I'm unemployed
But the government's glad cause they enjoyed
When my people are down so they can screw us around
Time to change the government now panther power

[Chorus]

Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Tupac Shakur’s "Let Knowledge Drop"

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

*******

Markin comment:

Sometimes the truth comes out a little raggedy and not in our Marxist high-flown style but it is the truth, or a close approximation of it nevertheless.

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

Let Knowledge Drop lyrics

* [Tupac]

Let knowledge drop
Why should I be forced to play dumb?
I know where I came from so I'm going to claim some
But rocking to the top where the cream of the crop
Suckers calling the cops but they can come and get dropped
Stop think of the past the brothers that die for
Sucker to try for never to cry more
Tricks to hold his back but we'll see at the end
He's a fake not a friend
So he's thinking of when he can backstab grab or go your hole
Now I know the reason we must excel
Cause if we don't we'll end up in the cell
Move on be strong with unityCause that's the only way to build communities
Lies are told but yo lives must move on
And never stop open your mind to this rhyme and let it drop[Chorus]
Drop that [3x]
Let knowledge drop[Rock
]Yo I'm running so I refuse to stop
Get sweated by them sell out cops
And I wink cause I pin the opposition
I'm on a mission to preach and teach to reachSo listen up to the flavor
I gave you now dropping it
We folks know ballers know no stopping it
Dropping knowledge like the ay bomb dilly as napalm
I got you scared all you got to do is stay calm
For the simple fact that I'm black and educated
Proud of who am I and you hated
So all I have tried for this many have die for this
You see it and you hear it and you loving it
Now you buying this always keep your head look to the mountain top
Aiyyo rock and let knowledge drop
[Chorus]Drop that [3x]
Let knowledge drop[Tupac]
People rush when I hype this because you can write this
You constantly bite this
Thought that you could get me but you sweating me too close
Caught with the dope dose
Now suckers get toast wondering who you tossed
Cause you feeling the full force
Like what you hearing so your checking with the source
Tupac brother with the rhymes to rock on
Dizzy gets busy by putting beats to drop on
Amateurs get damaged if you try to attack me
Suckers get jealous cause the girls get at me
I'm not conceited but defeated I won't be
As long as there's dope beats I'll never be lonely stop
And let me breathe a minute
Aiyyo Dizzy what's up put the base back in it
[Chorus]Let knowledge drop [3x]
[Rock]By any means neccessary it's kind of scary
Knowledge of the hands of adversaries
Makes them the larger leader kind of guerilla control
I was waiting for a prayer GOD gave me a goal
I refuse to be busting like a sucker for I'm fighting like a titan
And run you down like a truck
I'll take a chance I go as far as rock can see
Not mediocrity thinking security you got deal with me
Knowledge appealed to me
Pay back's a mutha if you steal from me
The bass pumps as the speakers pop the house jump
And knowledge drops[Chorus]
Drop that [3x]
Let knowledge dropStrictly strictly yea dope [till end]

Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Tupac Shakur’s "Hold On Be Strong"

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

*******

Markin comment:

Sometimes the truth comes out a little raggedy and not in our Marxism high-flown style but it is the truth, or a close approximation of it nevertheless.

**********

Hold On Be Strong lyrics-Tupac Shakur

Hold on... [lighter flicks up]
Yeah it's gonna be alright, don't trip baby [inhales]
It'll get better... [coughing]

Ay do this Thug style main, Thug style
When this whole beat drop we just gon' run it to em bet
It's all good, uhh

I never had much, ran with a bad bunch
Little skinny kid sneakin weed in my bag lunch
And all through Junior High, we was just gettin by
And drivebys robbed my homies of their young lives
I never did cry, and even though I had
pain in my heart, I was hopeless from the start
They couldn't tell me nothin, they all tried to help to help me
The marijuana had my mind gone it wasn't healthy
I travelled places, caught cases, what a ill year
I felt the pain and the rain but I'm still here
Never did like the police, let the whole world know
Now I gets no peace, cause they chasin me down
And facin me now, what do I do?
These thangs that a Thug goes through
And still I rise so keep ya head up, and make ya mind strong
It's a struggle every day but you gotta hold on

[Chorus: repeat 4X]

Hold on, be strong, hold on
Be strong, hold on
When it's on it's on

There's, never a good day, cause in my hood they
let they AK's pump strays where the kids play
And every Halloween, check out the murder scene
Can't help but duplicate the violence seen on the screen
My homies dyin 'fore they get to see they birthdays
These is the worst days, sometimes it hurts to pray
And even God turned his back on the ghetto youth
I know that ain't the truth, sometimes I look for proof
I wonder if heaven got a ghetto, and if it does
Does it matter if you blood or you cuz
Remember how it was, the picnics and the parties in the projects
Small time drinkin gettin high with them armies
Just another knucklehead kid from the gutter
I'm dealin with the madness, raised by a single mother
I'm tryin to tell you when it's on
You gotta keep your head to the sky and be strong, most of all hold on

[Chorus]

[Interlude:]

Hold on, be strong
I know them ain't tears comin down your face
When it's on it's on but
Wipe your eyes
Hold on, be strong
In this world
When it's on it's on but
Only the strong survive y'know
Hold on, be strong
Hmm, I know it's hard out there
When it's on it's on but
Welfare
Hold on, be strong
AIDS, earthquakes
Cause when it's on it's on but
Muggings, carjackings
Hold on, and be strong
Yeah we got problems
Cause when it's on it's on but
But believe me when I tell you
Hold on, and be strong
Things always get better
Cause when it's on it's on but
God don't like ugly
Hold on, and be strong
And God don't like no quitters
Cause when it's on it's on but
You know what Billie Holiday said bay-bee
Hold on, and be strong
God bless the child that can hold his own
Cause when it's on it's on but
Y'know?
Hold on, and be strong
You got to stand strong
Cause when it's on it's on but
And when these bustas try to knock you out your place
Hold on, and be strong
You stand there to they face
Cause when it's on it's on but
Tell em hold on, and be strong
Hold on, and be strong
The game don't stop
Cause when it's on it's on but
Hmmm
Hold on, and be strong
This here is black main
Cause when it's on it's on but
If you don't never leave nothin, learn one thing
Hold on, and be strong
It don't stop, til the casket drop
Hold on
Thug, for Life... feel me?
All my homeboys and my homegirls, stay strong
When things get bad, especially come the first and the fifteenth
Stay strong, and stay ballin, hold on
I'll catch y'all at the next life, we in traffic

Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Tupac Shakur’s "Ghetto Star"

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

*******

Markin comment:

Sometimes the truth comes out a little raggedy and not in our Marxism high-flown style but it is the truth, or a close approximation of it nevertheless.

**********

Ghetto Star lyrics-Tupac Shakur

For all my low life thug niggas,
For all my niggas in the hood,
Livin the life of a ghetto star,
Ha ha ha Makavelli,

Just holla my name
And witness game official
Niggas is so shame
They stare stiff like scared bitches
While I remain inside a paradox
Gone my block
Though gun shots is promised to me when will I stop
I hit the weed
And hope to god I can fly high
Witness my enemies
Die when I ride by
Ita's shit to try
Send they bodies to they parents up north
With they faces they wrists and they nuts cut off
Fuck em all what I scream as I dream

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By- Tupac Shakur's "Dear Mama"

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

*******

Markin comment:

Sometimes the truth comes out a little raggedy and not in our Marxism high-flown style but it is the truth, or a close approximation of it nevertheless

*********

Dear Mama lyrics-Tupac Shakur

You are appreciated

[Verse One: 2Pac]

When I was young me and my mama had beef
Seventeen years old kicked out on the streets
Though back at the time, I never thought I'd see her face
Ain't a woman alive that could take my mama's place
Suspended from school; and scared to go home, I was a fool
with the big boys, breakin all the rules
I shed tears with my baby sister
Over the years we was poorer than the other little kids
And even though we had different daddy's, the same drama
When things went wrong we'd blame mama
I reminice on the stress I caused, it was hell
Huggin on my mama from a jail cell
And who'd think in elementary?
Heeey! I see the penitentiary, one day
And runnin from the police, that's right
Mama catch me, put a whoopin to my backside
And even as a crack fiend, mama
You always was a black queen, mama
I finally understand
for a woman it ain't easy tryin to raise a man
You always was committed
A poor single mother on welfare, tell me how ya did it
There's no way I can pay you back
But the plan is to show you that I understand
You are appreciated

[Chorus: Reggie Green & "Sweet Franklin" w/ 2Pac]

Lady...
Don't cha know we love ya? Sweet lady
Dear mama
Place no one above ya, sweet lady
You are appreciated
Don't cha know we love ya?

[second and third chorus, "And dear mama" instead of "Dear mama"]

[Verse Two: 2Pac]

Now ain't nobody tell us it was fair
No love from my daddy cause the coward wasn't there
He passed away and I didn't cry, cause my anger
wouldn't let me feel for a stranger
They say I'm wrong and I'm heartless, but all along
I was lookin for a father he was gone
I hung around with the Thugs, and even though they sold drugs
They showed a young brother love
I moved out and started really hangin
I needed money of my own so I started slangin
I ain't guilty cause, even though I sell rocks
It feels good puttin money in your mailbox
I love payin rent when the rent's due
I hope ya got the diamond necklace that I sent to you
Cause when I was low you was there for me
And never left me alone because you cared for me
And I could see you comin home after work late
You're in the kitchen tryin to fix us a hot plate
Ya just workin with the scraps you was given
And mama made miracles every Thanksgivin
But now the road got rough, you're alone
You're tryin to raise two bad kids on your own
And there's no way I can pay you back
But my plan is to show you that I understand
You are appreciated

[Chorus]

[Verse Three: 2Pac]

Pour out some liquor and I reminsce, cause through the drama
I can always depend on my mama
And when it seems that I'm hopeless
You say the words that can get me back in focus
When I was sick as a little kid
To keep me happy there's no limit to the things you did
And all my childhood memories
Are full of all the sweet things you did for me
And even though I act craaazy
I gotta thank the Lord that you made me
There are no words that can express how I feel
You never kept a secret, always stayed real
And I appreciate, how you raised me
And all the extra love that you gave me
I wish I could take the pain away
If you can make it through the night there's a brighter day
Everything will be alright if ya hold on
It's a struggle everyday, gotta roll on
And there's no way I can pay you back
But my plan is to show you that I understand
You are appreciated

[Chorus]

Sweet lady
And dear mama

Dear mama
Lady [3X]

*From The Blogosphere-From The HistoMat Blog-Selma James on the Black Jacobins

It took an earthquake whose destructive power was enhanced by dire poverty to rekindle interest in Haiti. Many who want to know who Haitians are seem to have turned to CLR James’ classic text, The Black Jacobins, a history of the revolution the slaves made.

Seizing on the revolution in France, they took their freedom and got revolutionary Paris to ratify it. But as the revolution’s power in France waned, to prevent slavery’s return they had to defeat the armies of Spain and Britain as well as France’s Napoleon and, amazingly, they did. In 1804 the independent republic of Haiti was born.

Black Jacobins was published in 1938 as a contribution to the movement for colonial emancipation — for Africa first of all, when few considered this possible. By 1963 it had been out of print for years but the exploding anti-imperialist and anti-racist movements had created a new market for it. Later books updating information on Haiti’s revolution have not challenged its classic status. It’s worth asking why.

First, James takes sides uncompromisingly with the slaves. While he has all the time in the world for anti-racist whites who loved Toussaint and the revolution, his point of reference is the struggle of those who were wresting themselves back from being the possession of others. The book recounts their courage, imagination and determination. But James doesn’t glamorise: ‘The slaves destroyed tirelessly. . . . And if they destroyed much it was because they had suffered much. They knew that as long as these plantations stood their lot would be to labour on them until they dropped. The only thing was to destroy them.’

Nor does he shield us from the terrorism and sadism of the masters. But the catalogue of tortures does more than torture the reader; it deepens our appreciation of the former slaves’ power to endure and overcome. Despite death and destruction, the slaves are never helpless victims. This may explain why strugglers from the Caribbean and even South Africa told the author that at low points in their movements Black Jacobins had helped sustain them. This quality is what makes the book thrilling and inspiring — we are learning from the Haitians’ determination to be free what being human is about.

Second, Toussaint L’Ouverture possessed all the skills of leadership that the revolution needed. An uneducated, middle-aged West Indian when it began, he was soon able to handle sophisticated European diplomats and politicians who foolishly thought they could manipulate him because he was black and had been a slave.

James liked to say that while the official claim is that Lincoln freed the slaves, it was in fact the slaves who had freed Lincoln — from his limitations and the conservative restraints of office. Here James says that ‘. . . Toussaint did not make the revolution. It was the revolution that made Toussaint.’ Then he adds: ‘And even that is not the whole truth.’

In other words, while the movement chooses, creates and develops its leadership, historians are unlikely to pin that process down, whatever they surmise from events. What we can be sure of, however, is that the great leader is never a ‘self-made man,’ but a product of his individual talents and skills (and weaknesses) shaped by the movement he leads in the course of great upheavals. The Haitian Jacobins created Toussaint and he led them to where they had the will and determination to go.

This is still groundbreaking today, considering that there are parties and organisations, large and small, which claim that their leadership is crucial for a revolution’s success. There are also those who believe leadership is unnecessary and it would hold the movement back. In Haiti the slaves made the revolution, and Toussaint, one of them, played a vital role in their winning.

Third, James tells us who many of these revolutionary slaves were. They were not proletarians,

‘But working and living together in gangs of hundreds on the huge sugar-factories which covered the North Plain, they were closer to a modern proletariat than any group of workers in existence at the time, and the rising was, therefore, a thoroughly prepared and organised mass movement.’

This is relevant to the problem of development which the book poses: what are non-industrial people to do after the revolution? The movement has struggled with this question for generations. Toussaint relied on the plantation system of the former masters who claimed to personify ‘civilisation’ and ‘culture’; they ultimately captured and killed him. The ex-slaves would not have it. They wanted their own plots of land, and the end of the plantation – an early form of forced collectivisation.

Lenin finally (1923) proposed that the State encourage co-operatives which, independent of the party, would dominate the economy. Gandhi insisted that Indians must hold on to the cotton industry and its village way of life against all odds. Nyerere proposed ujamaa or African socialism for Tanzanians, and with the momentum of the independence movement, people made extraordinary strides (an untold story). China has more to tell us; and some Indigenous Latin Americans are gaining the power to say what they propose.

We know that Haiti went further than the movements elsewhere: it was decades before others abolished slavery. Haiti, so far ahead, was vulnerable to the imperial powers which it had infuriated by its revolutionary impertinence.

Now, despite often racist reporting of events there, we are learning how the present Black Jacobins have been organising and how their struggle has continued. President Aristide, whom they elected by 92% of the vote, was twice taken from them by an alliance of the US and the local elite. They demand his return. The least we can do is support that demand.

*Victory To The South African Public Workers- Break With The ANC- For A Workers Government

Click on the headline to link to a site thta has information about the South Africa public workers strike, August 18, 2010.

Markin comment:

As the news indicates the very trade union conscious South African workers are at it again. Victory to the South African Public Workers! That said, South Africa over the past couple of decades is prima facie evidence, if only in the negative, of Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution. The gist of that theory noted that in the age of modern imperialism, and we are certainly deep, knee-deep, in that era, the working class would have to lead the bourgeois democratic struggle in the less advanced countries (in the original specific case, Tsarist Russia) in the process of creating workers states, and then on to our communist future.

Of course the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917 confirmed the wisdom of that theory as the Russian bourgeoisie proved to be just barely to the left of the benighted Czar and the working class took power. Equally true, however, is the fact that in now countless other situations in less advanced countries, including South Africa, the counter-posed Stalinist (or some other reformist variety) theory of two-stage revolution has been the norm. That “theory” has posited, in one form or another, that first the democratic stage has to be completed, organized around the demands of all those who can be gathered around democratic demands (bloc of four classes, popular front, etc.) and led by, in effect, and in the end to the benefit of the local bourgeoisie.

Well, in South Africa the bourgeois “gravy-train” African National Congress (ANC) has over the past couple of decades gotten just what they wanted, or most of the what they wanted, a black- run government that truly benefits the white, mainly, capitalist class and a little something for themselves. And the masses. Oh, I forgot to tell you that other part of that two-stage theory of revolution. What about the second part, when does that happen? Ya, you guessed it, never. And that, my friends, is why today’s headline reads as it does. It is time, way beyond time, for the working class, the rural poor, and the various ethnic and racial groups that make up South Africa, along with whatever whites are really to fight, to break with the ANC and fight for a workers government. And from the look of things, pronto. Break with the ANC! Fight for a workers government!

*From The Blogosphere-The Latest From The "Further Left Forum" Blog

Click on the title to link to the blog mentioned in the headline.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010


Israel Destroys
Bedouin Village
By Brian Ennis
July 27, 2010

1300 police officers and security personnel guarded the area as bulldozers demolished a Bedouin village near Rahat.

Israeli security personnel and from the Israel Land Administration arrived at the Bedouin village of al-Arakib, near Rahat, Tuesday morning. The village is unrecognized by the state of Israel.

When the Israelis arrived they found large bonfires had been lit by the locals in protest.

They destroyed a total of forty-five structures. The residents watched as their lives were destroyed and some left-wing activists clashed with the authorities.

Dr. Awad Abu Farikh, a spokesman and resident of the village, was quoted as saying that, "Today we got a close glimpse of the government's true face. We were stunned to witness the violent force being used. The black-clad special unit forces are the true face of Lieberman's democracy. This operation is the first step in the uprooting of many villages. We shall return to our villages, build our homes and not leave this place."

A spokesman for the Israel Land Administration said that anything that is rebuilt will be taken down.

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "National Jericho Movement" Website- Free All Class-War Prisoners!

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline.

Oppression Breeds Resistance, Resistance Breeds Repression
by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action L.A./People Against Racist Terror

The night before the verdict came in at the trial of BART officer Johannes Mehserle for the murder of a young Black father, Oscar Grant III, the LAPD raided the home of Wolverine Shakur, a/k/a T.A.C.O. (Taking All Capitalists Out), founder of the Black Riders Liberation Party. Under the authority of the parole officer supervising T.A.C.O., they lined up and handcuffed five members and an associate of the BRLP who were present at the time. They detained a 10-year-old child and ransacked the home, taking personal possessions, a laptop computer and cell phone, and Black Riders literature. T.A.C.O. was taken into custody for alleged parole violations and taken to the hole at the Men's Central Jail in L.A., with the intention of transferring him back into state prison.

The alleged parole violations T.A.C.O. is accused of amount to violations of his civil, constitutional and human rights of free speech and freedom of association. They make it a crime for him to have Black Rider literature and Black comrades. Like the original charges, they are politically motivated and unjustified. T.A.C.O. is once again a political prisoner because of his advocacy of African Inter-communalism and self-defense. The parole officer has admitted that he was violating T.A.C.O. under instructions from higher-ups, and that T.A.C.O. was specifically charged with “sending the Black Riders to the Oscar Grant trial.” The Black Riders did indeed smash the media blockade of the Mehserle trial in Los Angeles, turning out in large numbers to post up outside the court in support of Oscar's family and to organize community people at the courthouse. They did attract immediate media and public attention with their strong, disciplined presence.

The LAPD had already announced that they had a “secret tactical plan” to handle the possibility of any “disruptions” in response to the verdict on Mehserle for the murder of Oscar Grant. They saw the Black Riders as a threat to the plans to let Mehserle get away with murder and to contain or deflect people's righteous anger. Part of the plan was the staged arrest of the so-called Grim Sleeper serial killer suspect timed for the day the verdict would come in, to distract attention and paint the LAPD as saviors of the community. The pre-emptive arrest of T.A.C.O. was designed to disrupt the Black Riders' organizing around the case, which was channeling people's anger into revolutionary consciousness. But the arrest failed to accomplish that goal.

The Black Riders continue organizing both independently and within the L.A. Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant, which they helped develop. The BRLP, which had smashed at court the day before, came back strong the next day despite T.A.C.O.'s incarceration, when the verdict came down after shenanigans delayed it. Several Black Riders spoke at the community protest in Leimert Park, where a couple of hundred people came out for the rally that had been called in advance for 5:00 PM when the verdict came down, despite the pigs' efforts to disorient the Riders and the community. Everyone there stood with the Riders and understood the transparent tactics of the pigs in violating T.A.C.O.'s parole.

There is a long history of illegitimate, repressive tactics by the LAPD to try to squelch community resistance to police violence and abuse of power. Back in the day, the pigs launched their war on the original Black Panther Party for Self-Defense with the COINTELPRO assassination of Alprentice Bunchy Carter and John Huggins at UCLA. The LAPD were stymied in their attempt to assassinate other BPP members by the military planning of Geronimo ji Jaga. A strong base of community support came out into the streets when the LAPD attempted to kill the L.A. Panthers on 41st and Central, as the Chicago pigs had executed Fred Hampton and Mark Clark days before.

After Geronimo and the Panthers were taken down by COINTELPRO, the police infiltrated the Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA) organized by former Black Panther Michael Zinzun around the police killing of sister Eulia Love over an unpaid gas bill. One Black pig provocateur who was planted inside CAPA in an attempt to spy on the community and disrupt or discredit resistance was later rewarded with a promotion to the FBI. The LAPD was hit with a court injunction preventing such political espionage, and forced to pay million-dollar damages to Zinzun and others.

Police illegality and criminality continued after the LAPD “red squad” was ordered to disband and destroy its illegally obtained espionage files. One officer involved secretly moved the files to his own garage and then turned them over to Western Goals, a private right wing, pro-fascist “think tank” connected to the John Birch Society and the white supremacist movement. Still later, police agents infiltrated communist forces organizing in the projects, entering into illicit sexual relationships with people organizing against a May Day police killing in order to carry out their political espionage and dirty tricks.

When that was exposed through lawsuits, the police espionage and infiltration was then transferred to new anti-gang and anti-terrorist task forces, or to units steeped in criminality and violence like the CRASH units operating out of Rampart, Seventy-seventh, and other divisions. CRASH officers were involved in frame-ups, “bad” shootings justified with drop guns, coerced confessions, drug thefts and even bank robbery. Yet thanks to the same Judge Perry who presided over the Mehserle trial for killing Oscar Grant, the only cop who went to prison was the one who blew the whistle, turning state's evidence after he got caught.

But for a dozen years now, the Black Riders Liberation Party, and especially its founder, General T.A.C.O., have been the concerted target of police repression, frame-ups, assaults and COINTELPRO type tactics in Los Angeles and elsewhere in CA. The LAPD hates the Black Riders because of the Riders' love for the people, expressed in such concrete survival programs as the Watch-a-Pig program and their gang truce efforts. They once took T.A.C.O. into custody on traffic warrants, and threatened to kill him while he was hogtied and handcuffed. LAPD, along with LA and San Bernardino sheriff's deputies and federal agents with armored personnel carriers, battering rams, helicopters and assault weapons, staged a raid on the home of BRLP members in San Bernardino. They sealed off four square blocks in hopes of provoking an incident in which they could shoot and kill members of the Black Riders. They pointed guns at little children and their care-givers.

Finally, failing to ever infiltrate or deviate members of the BRLP, they sent an undercover police agent, posing as a outside Middle Eastern sympathizer who could provide weapons. They succeeded, through a process of entrapment and frame-up, in bringing charges of conspiracy to possess (non-existent) weapons against T.A.C.O. and two other members, known as the Black Rider Three. Even more so than in the Oscar Grant murder trial, there was a complete media white out of that case, even though it was brought as a Homeland Security/USA PATRIOT style indictment with outlandish claims that the BRLP was planning attacks on police stations (never brought as a criminal charge). It was as a result of a plea bargain on that case, through which T.A.C.O. obtained the release of his comrades, that T.A.C.O. was on parole. Thus he was subject to the arbitrary jurisdiction of a P.O. who enabled the LAPD to stage their raid. But like their previous attempts at repression, this too will fail. As Chairman Mao said, “To be attacked by the enemy is a good thing.” The pigs' tactics are a mark of their vulnerability, not their power, and a sign of the fear they have of the Power of the People!

The Black Riders Liberation Party has raised the slogan of “Free General T.A.C.O. or the sky's the limit,” and is calling for an Inter-Communal Solidarity Committee, to organize in defense of T.A.C.O. and all political prisoners. Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror (ARA-LA/PART) is committed to joining and helping build such an effort. We recognize that people of European descent who oppose racism and hate oppression and exploitation must fight as allies with African and other liberation forces against the common enemy of humanity, capitalist colonialism and imperialism. We urge all people who are tired of this wretched system to join such an effort.

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "Free The San Francisco Eight Committee" Website

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

Markin comment:

As I have written before- Enough Is Enough- Drop The Charges Against Francisco Torres


**********

Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Waiting for more discovery in last SF8 case

Numerous supporters of the San Francisco 8 came to the San Francisco courthouse at the beginning of the month (July 1) even though the only issue to be decided was the scheduling of future court dates. This was an important show of support for Francisco Torres, the last of the SF 8 still facing charges, since the prosecution may have hoped that the summer doldrums and long gaps between court appearances would erode solidarity.

The judge set September 17 for the next status appearance and for establishing the briefing schedule for the motion to dismiss the remaining charges.

Defense attorney Chuck Bourdon explained that the FBI has still not provided all the evidence in the discovery process, claiming that they are still looking for it. In the meantime it only becomes more apparent that the long delays in the thirty-nine-year old case are prejudicial to the cause of justice.

So mark your calendars: September 17 at 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco.

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "Black Panther Alumni" Website- Free All Class-War Prisoners!

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

Markin comment: Free Sundiata Now!

****

This is sick. Sundiata is 73. Come back when you're 83 and maybe????!!!! He's one of the best of our freedom fighters (which the government calls "domestic terrorists."). For more info on our righteous brother, go to http://www.sundiataacoli.org/ where you can find his address as well. Send him some love.

July 14, 2010
Greetings All,

Received a letter today from the Board advising that the 3-Member Panel gave me a 10 year "hit." The basis for the hit will be explained in the Notice of Decision which will be forwarded to me upon its completion. I'll forward copies of the Decision to the Attys and SAFC when I receive it.

Stay strong, I will too.



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "Black Agenda Report" Website

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

Tea Partyers, Fox News, "Negativity" Against the President? Are These Really Black America's Most Pressing Problems?
Wed, 07/21/2010 - 10:36 — Bruce A. Dixon

Black Misleadership Class | Tea Party | Republicans | Obamarama | Democrats

From the established civil rights organizations like the NAACP to legions of elected Democrats and preachers and even people like our good friends at Color of Change, the main activity these days is an endless circling of wagons around the president, defending him against the flood of racist bile that spews daily from the likes of Fox News, the Tea Partyers and naysaying Republicans. But is that really where so much of our energy and creativity should be going? Aren't there other urgent matters more deserving of the attention of black America's political leadership, our pastors and spokespeople and self-described activists? Matters like black mass incarceration, record unemployment, and the sinking of vast resources into multiple wars abroad?



Tea Partyers, Fox News, "Negativity" Against the President? Are These Really Black America's Most Pressing Problems?

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

On July 19, an item popped up on the email listserv of SNCC veterans and supporters.

Like anything on these kinds of mailing lists, it was the opinion of whoever posted it, no more and no less. But it pretty much summed up the current strategic thinking of a lot of what passes for African American political leadership, our black intelligensia and a lot of self-identified activists. It was bright red and in bold typeface several times normal size, and before going out to the triple digit number of subscribers to the SNCC list, it had obviously been forwarded to hundreds more. It went like this, (only much larger):

We call on ALL who support President Obama to take action. On August 4th, the President's birthday, we ask those who support him to wear any campaign item from the Presidential election as a demonstration of our ongoing support. Bring out your old campaign paraphernalia.

If you don't have caps, buttons or tee shirts, wear a red, white, and blue tri-color ribbon or clothing on August 4th. If nothing else, this simple demonstration of support for our President will provide a counteraction to the negativity that spews forth daily. We can do this. YES WE CAN. YES WE WILL.

Mark Your Calendar for August 4th! Pass the word on...

As far as most of the black leadership class --- most of our pastors, politicians, professors and such tell it, those are our marching orders. On the president's birthday, we're all supposed to break out those old Obama stickers, shirts and hats, and like the citizens of Oz in The Wiz, we'll flaunt red, white and blue on the president's birthday. Thus we will show our united opposition to the flood of racist invective against the president. We will demonstrate that we are Thus black America will demonstrate that we are the president's millions strong shield against the torrents of “negativity” that issue forth daily from the likes of Fox News and the tea party. That'll show 'em.

Am I the only one who thinks this is just plain dumb? Are the number one problems of black America really the insults and negativity directed at the president by a bunch of crazy people who are not even in power? Are these the times of Shakespeare's Richard III, when the only political yardstick that mattered was whether and how much you did or didn't love the king? Why should Fox News, the tea party, and insults and negativity directed at the president even rank among black America's top ten or twenty problems? And if black America is called upon to make some kind of united political statement in this season of unprecedented joblessness, homelessness, family debt, privatizations and mass incarceration, is flying the red, white and blue to support the president really the most useful thing we can do?

Does “negativity” against the president keep him from addressing mass black incarceration, unemployment, crushing family and student debt, homelessness & ending US imperial wars abroad?

The short answer is no. A longer answer is that we have other matters which are real problems with far greater effect upon the lives of millions of families than the torrent of “negativity” directed at the president.

At the top of any list of black America's real problems is the nation's policy of black mass incarceration, described most thoroughly and eloquently by Michelle Alexander, and a recurring topic in BAR and its predecessors since 2005. The carceral state has been government's main channel of interaction with young blacks for a generation now, despite the fact that their rates of drug use are statistically indistinguishable from those of white youth. African Americans have been locked up and criminalized in such vast numbers that the integrity of millions of our families have been undermined, and the economic futures of entire communities devastated. We are an eighth the nation's population and just under half its prisoners. Why don't our leaders tell us how to make a united political statement about that?

This is the kind of real problem millions of black Americans expected the Obama administration to address.

Does “negativity” against the president keep his administration from addressing black mass incarceration? Of course it doesn't.

Congressional Democrats or the White House could propose tomorrow to sunset all the two strikes, three strikes and mandatory sentencing legislation. It's just a matter of leadership. But instead of calling all Americans together to re-assess the nation's policy of mass incarceration, we have a president and a class of black political misleaders who would just rather not go there.

What about unemployment? Is “negativity” from Fox News, Republicans and the cartoonish tea party the roadblock to creating those millions green jobs that are just over the horizon. Again, the answer is no.

Unemployment is at a six decade high, and the gap between black and white employment is also at a similar high and widening daily. President Roosevelt and the Democratic congresses of the 1930s simply signed checks to put millions of Americans to work. They created public wealth by building bridges and dams, digging new subway lines in cities like Chicago, and constructing thousands of state of the art new schools. The Roosevelt administration even put teaches in local school districts directly on the federal payroll to keep the schools open, the communities viable and the quality of life acceptable.

Does this “negativity” against the president keep him signing the checks to put millions of Americans into new, green, wealth creating jobs? Again, the answer is no.

What keeps the Obama administration from going there is its blind loyalty to Wall Street bankers and their bipartisan neoliberal trickle-down ideology. The economic vision of Barack Obama and congressional Democratis is far closer to Ronald Reagan than to Franklin Roosevelt, even though Republicans have been out of power in Congress since the end of 2006.

Does “negativity” against the president keep him from cutting the military budget?

Does it prevent him from closing a few hundred of America's thousand or so overseas military bases, and ending our direct and proxy wars in places from Iraq and Afghanistan to Colombia, Somalia and Yemen? We know the history and we know the answer.

Early in his campaign Obama pledged withdrawal of one brigade a month from Iraq, and vowed to erase what he called “the mindset” that produced America's unjust wars. By the time he wrapped up the nomination, he had endorsed Bush-Cheney's phony “surge” in Iraq, forgotten his withdrawal pledges, and promised to double the troops in Afghanistan. In his first 36 hours as president, Obama launched drones and cruise missiles against civilians and children in Afghanistan, and soon afterward, in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, as had his predecessor. Did the tea party make him do that? Was it the relentless negativity of Fox News? Was it those naysaying Republicans?

From doubling down on Bush's original Wall Street bailout, to stepping up the Bush-Cheney policies of kidnapping, torture and secret imprisonment, to reversing his opposition to offshore drilling once he secured the Democratic nomination and more, not one of the Obama administration's failures to redeem the promises black America imagined it heard can be laid at the feet of Republicans, Fox News or the tea party. Not one.

In a real sense, the lunatic tea party, cartoonish Republicans, and the outrageous lies of Fox News provide our lazy class of black misleaders in the administration and Congress, and the class of politicians, preachers, professors, business people, self-described activists and wannabes around them a fine distraction from what they can and ought to be doing. The energy and creativity devoted to endlessly circling the wagons around the president sucks the air from every room in the house of black politics. It excuses inaction on matters like black mass incarceration and unemployment, runaway privatizations, and the ever-expanding national security state. It keeps our black misleadership class from having to openly oppose the wars and bailouts that suck up the resources which should be creating jobs and opportunities at home. It's almost God's gift to the administration.

The president doesn't need our protection. He's got the secret service, the armed forces, the CIA and FBI and agencies we don't even know the names of. Our families, our communities and our permanent interests, not the career of one man or the racist insults directed against him, ought to be our chief concern.

What would it look like if the folks on the SNCC listserv, and if our black misleadership class and their acolytes today truly possessed the spirit SNCC had half a century ago? Where would a spirit well grounded in the realities of black America, a spirit impatient with injustice, a spirit reaching through the present for a better world tomorrow lead us? Not to reanimating the tired corpse of the 2008 presidential campaign. Just as SNCC fifty years ago reached well outside and beyond what the wise old political heads believed possible, a spirit of creative struggle would take aim at targets the old political heads of today think are impossible.

If the spirit of SNCC fifty years ago where alive today, it might tell us we ought to wear black and green ribbons, black for the 1.2 million African Americans in prison, and green for those millions of green jobs that are somewhere just over the rainbow.
And we wouldn't be wearing them for just a day. This would not be about the president or his birthday, which matters little to most black families. We could wear them till the administration created 8 million new green jobs, the number vice president Biden admitted have been lost in what he called the Great Recession. We could wear them till the number of African Americans in prison had been reduced by at least half. That wouldn't be a perfect world, but who's asking for perfection. We'd just be asking for progress. Halving the black prison population would not be a perfect world either. It would only bring us down to the level of the Latino prison population, and Latinos are severely over-incarcerated too. But it would be undeniable progress. Is that too much to reach for?

So we won't be wearing red white and blue on the 4th of August. Bet on that. But what about those black and green ribbons? There's an idea....

Bruce Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report and based in Atlanta, and will not be wearing red white and blue any time soon. He's a member of the state committee of the GA Green Party and can be reached at bruce.dixon(at) blackagendareport, or by clicking his name anywhere it appears in red on this site.

*From "The Rag Blog"-Class-War Prisoner Marilyn Buck Freed

Click on the headline to link to a The Rag Blog entry about the release of class war Marilyn Buck from prison


Markin comment:

On a day when I have to post an entry about the outrageous increase of sentence for people's attorney Lynne Stewart in New York at least I can report that we have one of own back, class war prisoner Marilyn Buck. Be well, Marilyn Buck.


**********

VERSE / Mariann G. Wizard : The Real Dragon (for Marilyn Buck)

People who come out of prison can build up the country.
Misfortune is a test of people’s fidelity.
Those who protest at injustice are people of true merit.
When the prison-doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out.

-- Ho Chi Minh, Prison Diary


The Real Dragon
for Marilyn Buck


I dreamed you came out ~
Young dragon, hit by unspeakable change
So long ago;
Fallout from bombs you never saw,
Hidden away in darkness, growing, glowing,
With a heart of fire.

I dreamed you came out ~
And swam across the ocean
And hatched your eggs at last
In the abandoned chambers of dreams
And named them Peace,
And Justice,
And Honor,
Joy and Brother;
Sister and Love;
Flower and Power;
And a hundred hundred more
Offspring without number
From your nuclear womb,
Your hero’s heart.
Others there were, too ~
Children of your siblings,
Who learned of you in the nest,
And longed to see your face,
And bask in your radiant shadow.

I dreamed you came out ~
Our dragon ~
And swam the mighty ocean
To this strange future
We never dreamed.

You walked down streets familiar with destruction
And where your feet touched down,
Mighty forests grew.
Your eyes brought forth health clinics;
Your talons, schools;
And your teeth were stained with the blood of lies.

I dreamed you came out ~
And all that had been sent against you
Poured off your silky-armored strength
Like that small silver rain,
And all the past was prelude
And all men heard your roar:

Marilynilla!
Free, free, free at last!

Then, picking up the pieces,
You’ll dance down Fifth Avenue,
Among your retinue
With music everywhere,
And a thousand tongues
Raised in praise.
You’ll stroll through Central Park,
Munching on the new green leaves,
And smile at Liberty,
And She’ll smile back.


-- Mariann G. Wizard
11/2002

From 'The Rag Blog- Jonah Raskin : 'Mockingbird' is Muddleheaded and Superficial- A Very Different View

Click on the headline to link to a The Rag Blog entry reviewing Harper Lee's To Kill A Mocking Bird on its 50th anniversary- Jonah Raskin : 'Mockingbird' is Muddleheaded and Superficial Different View.

Markin comment:

I, and most leftists, especially those about six of us still left from the 1960s, can appreciate the critique by Mr. Raskin. However, he has the advantage of 50 years of improving political consciousness on the question of race in America, formally anyway. At the time the book , and later the movie, had a powerful effect, if for no other reason that they were (and are) good literature and cinema. Beyond that, as literary critic and great Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky noted, one cannot reasonably go. The other stuff, the political fight for black liberation in "real time" stuff, was (and is) up to us-forward in the black liberation struggle.

Note: Needless to say any two pages of Richard Wright's Black Boy or Native Son or any of James Baldwin's work, especially The Fire Next Time has more truth about the racial core of American society than all of Lee's book. But that is a different non-literary question.

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-Paul Robeson's "Let My People Go"

Click on the title to link a "YouTube" film clip of singer/communist activist Paul Robeson performing "Let My People Go."

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

*************
Let My People Go-Lyrics

When Israel was in Egypt’s land,
Let My people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let My people go!

Refrain:

Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt’s land;
Tell old Pharaoh
To let My people go!

No more shall they in bondage toil,
Let My people go!
Let them come out with Egypt’s spoil,
Let My people go!

Oh, let us all from bondage flee,
Let My people go!
And let us all in Christ be free,
Let My people go!

You need not always weep and mourn,
Let My people go!
And wear these slav’ry chains forlorn,
Let My people go!

Your foes shall not before you stand,
Let My people go!
And you’ll possess fair Canaan’s land,
Let My people go!

*From "On Point" Radio-“To Kill a Mockingbird” at 50- In Honor Of Harper Lee

Click on the headline to link to an NPR "On Point" Radio entry-'“To Kill a Mockingbird” at 50"'- In Honor Of Harper Lee.

*The Latest From The National Jericho Movement- Free All Class War Prisoners!

Click on the headline to link to the latest from the "National Jericho Movement" Website- Free All Class War Prisoners!

*From The Archives Of "Women And Revolution"-Sex, Race And Class In The "American Century"

Markin comment:

The following is an article from the Spring 1987 issue of "Women and Revolution" that may have some historical interest for old "new leftists", perhaps, and well as for younger militants interested in various cultural and social questions that intersect the class struggle. Or for those just interested in a Marxist position on a series of social questions that are thrust upon us by the vagaries of bourgeois society. I will be posting more such articles from the back issues of "Women and Revolution" during Women's History Month and periodically throughout the year.

Markin comment:

I have posted this entry as a snapshot in time from this period (1980s)presented by a revolutionary whose real working class experiences in the 1960s are probably a little bit different from those of most of us who became serious leftists at that time.

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Down With U.S. Imperialism!

Sex, Race and Class in the "American Century"

On 22 November 1986 the Spartacist League held a forum in San Francisco called "Fight Reagan Reaction with Class Struggle!" We print below an edited transcript of the speech given by comrade George Crawford, an SL Central Committee member.
Tonight we're going to be talking about domestic reaction within the United States now—Reagan's war or, very importantly, the ruling class's war, against what is known as the Vietnam syndrome, which came from the U.S. defeat on the battlefield at the hands of the heroic Vietnamese workers and peasants. Now, this is also an international phenomenon, there's America's military attacks on Libya, on Grenada, many evidences of this. But inside the United States you have what you could call a moral rearmament, which is an enforced social reaction coming from the government in league with and using what is known as the Moral Majority forces, religious fundamentalists. It's stepping up, becoming greater every day.

Everybody is constantly amazed that there's no opposition to this incredible crusade against every kind of democratic right; that the Democratic Party basically tries to out-Moral Majority the Moral Majority. And the point that I want to make in the talk is that this is not simply the Republican Party or Reagan. This is a war against the population by an entire ruling class, because something is seriously wrong from their viewpoint with America. Very important for them that, one, workers work for what they're paid and, two, most importantly, volunteer to die en masse when necessary. And if a ruling class does not have that, it's in trouble. And it doesn't have that now, it's a long shot from there.

The 1950s: The Bomb and the Red Purges


I want to go back and describe a little bit about the '50s. The U.S. won World War II and it came out of World War II as the strongest and the overwhelming imperialist. The other imperialists economically were destroyed through the process of World War II. But the Soviet Union also won World War II, and not only that, within a very few years it had the atom bomb. And so the U.S., you might say at the very pinnacle of what it had declared its century, looked over its shoulder and there was the Soviet Union with the atom bomb. The atom bomb was very important to the U.S., by the way, and was used. It's a matter of record that the atom bomb was used not for victory over Japan but to send a message to the Soviet Union for after the war. It was a calculated decision, to the point of even keeping Stalin totally in the dark; they did not want him to know what was going on in terms of the development and the dropping of the bomb.

So the U.S. lost its trump card within a very short time after World War II. Not only that, the U.S. had another problem. The original organizers of the AFL-CIO were in the main some kind of communists. They belonged to the Communist Party, they belonged to the Trotskyist party, they maybe were Musteites; but they were still there. And so in the late '40s, these people were neutralized. Either they were physically thrown
out of the unions, or they were isolated, or they were beaten up.

I remember when I went to work in '64, this was in a rubber plant in L.A., and it was about '69 when I started becoming political; and within about three years I met two guys, and I'd worked with the guys or around them for about eight years, and I had no idea that these people used to be political. Turned out that they were all, not members of the CP because there were no members of the CP left, they were supporters of the CP. One guy had three generations of union members which meant there were union members in his family before 1900. And the other one was a guy that, well, finally he told me that he had a full set of Capital locked away in his basement, which nobody else knew about. But then over a period of time he had convinced himself that communism's okay and all that, and Marx was right and all that, but the real question is the Catholics. And no one in the plant knew that these people were in the least bit leftist. They had not gone to a union meeting since the meeting in 1949 when they took the communist organizers out in the parking lot and beat them up.

Now, the '50s were pretty rough. One of the things in the '50s is that the population actually believed that this was the American Century, and that communism was, indeed, irrelevant—except as an external international phenomenon which was the enemy. But inside the U.S. there was a belief—and I'm not sure it was in all layers of the population, certainly less in terms of blacks—that U.S. imperialism is going to have things its way. And, after all, it had absolutely no competition from any other imperialist power in the '50s. U.S. Steel could produce at less than full capacity and simply dictate world steel prices, and pay incredible dividends (which paid off about 20 years later in plants that can't compete).

There was no pill, of course. You know, this "Just say no"? Boy, we grew up with this "Just say no." You know, it brings one to rage. And for the most part you unfortunately had to say no. Was it because you wanted to be a good citizen or a good Catholic? No, it was fear! Because 15 percent of your graduating class of women were pregnant in high school and they didn't graduate. And you had two choices: in L.A. either you sent your girlfriend or went with her to Tijuana, and since you couldn't speak Spanish you stood out in the avenue with a $20 bill and you ended up with a woman dying or horribly mutilated with infection because the only person that stops is a cab driver. So that wasn't an option. Or you went to one of these incredible homes where the women put their babies up for adoption. And of course the third thing was marriage. So your life's over. At 18, forget it. That's it. The woman doesn't graduate from school, maybe you graduate from school. If you're lucky you've got an old man working in a unionized job and gets you a job, if you're not lucky it's gas station mechanic forever. There's a good film about this called Fat City, a John Huston film.

And so you did not get an enormous amount of questioning about options, what do I want to do in life, what will I do next year in life? It was there, you just did it—or it did it to you. And left politics, or politics per se was not even an alternative. And I'm sure where I grew up was a bit worse, because it was one generation away from the South, a Southern working-class area, but there was no option, one could not conceive of thinking about becoming a revolutionary politician. I mean, the political debate that was going on was whether the Democrats sold out Eastern Europe and China, and if you were a Republican you said yes and if you were a Democrat you said no and that's as far as it went. And that's what the ruling class liked a lot. Because the workers did not create a hell of a lot of trouble. They were economically combative, that is true, but the politics one would say were at an all-time low.

The Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War

What happened to change all this? First of all, you had the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement was very, very powerful because here is a fundamental democratic right that should exist by the very underpinnings—and formal underpinnings, and agreed by all, in the Constitution—of our society. Yet it was impossible and did not happen and the civil rights movement was a failure. Right now they try to pass off what a success it was. At the time we all knew it was a failure, and that what was happening was simply tokenism, and what was happening was that the real leaders of the civil rights movement were being butchered and murdered by the state.

And the second thing of course that happened was the Vietnam War. I want to tell one story about the Vietnam War. We were talking about the Vietnam syndrome and I think this story makes it actually clear. In 1969 I was just beginning to become involved in organized politics and just by chance dropped by Newsreel, a kind of New Leftist group, and they were involved in military organizing on the West Coast. Now, the main and only training camp for the Marines on the West Coast is called Camp Pendleton, it's a critical camp. It's got some of the greatest real estate in the western United States. To get into Camp Pendleton you literally have to go to Oceanside. Well, that's Marine property, basically—it isn't, but it is.

And so there was a demonstration by an organization called the Movement for a Democratic Military. Now the organizer was a black sergeant, supporter of the Black Panther Party. There was a bus with Black Panther Party members going from L.A. to Oceanside for the rally. So I decided to go down with various people to this rally. And I got down there, and there's this little amphitheater right on the ocean, like in a hundred little seaside towns, and you've got an audience of about 500 Vietnam vets or about-to-be Vietnam vets because they're sitting there waiting for demobe orders home. Black and white, overwhelmingly from the South, Marines, sitting in there listening to all the antiwar speakers, including the Black Panthers! And the Black Panthers had a position that the Viet Cong should win the war—long live the revolution of the Viet Cong. And so around the edges of the amphitheater, of course, you've got the other Marines singing the Marine anthem and burning the Viet Cong flag. They had that Green Beret guy that was against the war and various other people, a woman and a doctor and all that, and they spoke for a while. After about an hour and a half, we were approached by military Movement guys who said, "You really ought to leave about now because something's going to happen soon." And so as we were leaving on the only road out of Oceanside, I looked back and fights were starting and the streets of Oceanside became one big melee that night.
Now, first of all, one does not want to say that this is revolutionary integrationism because there was no consciousness of class, there was no place for this to go because there was no mass party. We were too small. But in a little, not insignificant way, class war was beginning a little bit that night in Oceanside. And for the bourgeoisie and everybody who has an interest in capitalism, including the labor bureaucracy, this is the height of their horrors. They can't stand this. This must be reversed no matter what.
And so actually as a postscript to what happened in Oceanside, the Movement for a Democratic Military tried to sustain their organization, and they had a little storefront in Oceanside, and every night or every other night, they got shotgun blasts into their storefront for about six months. And then the cops ran a massive provocateur operation on them, and then some months later there was a massive indictment of antiwar guys and the indictments were held in Arizona. They pulled them all out to Arizona and they resurrected some anti-IWW laws that hadn't been used since the early 20th century.

The other thing is that for the first time the soldiers in the war watched TV almost every night and so they got to hear the total crap that was being put forth on American TV news about how "we are winning the war," and they knew it was all lies, total lies. So in a sense what you had was a snapshot, like a very bright flash bulb, on the real nature of this class society, stripping away all the hypocrisy.

"Ethnic Purity" Carter Paved Way for Reagan

After that the bourgeoisie knew they were in trouble. And so a wing of the bourgeoisie adopted a defeatist position on the war. Now when the SL said that at the time, everybody laughed at us because they were all in the popular front with this wing of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie wanted to get out of this war, they wanted to get out of an impossible situation before it got worse. (They actually did that, they were able to co-opt the antiwar movement in the U.S. Along the way they had to dump Nixon because he wasn't the guy that was going to reinstill faith in anything, it was quite clear.) But what you had was a generation of people that looked at life and figured, what do I really want to do with my life? Sex was one of the answers, there were a lot of answers. But the point of it is that since then the initial reaction to Washington and the government regardless of the power is "Bullshit! What are they trying to do to us now?" And that exists today.

Now, I remember after Watergate reading in the New York Review of Books about how liberals were very upset about Watergate, and they were very pissed off at Nixon. And liberals said: the major problem with Watergate is that it damaged the imperial presidency, possibly beyond repair; and we as liberals know that all progress for the common man must come through the United States imperial presidency. And so this moral rearmament became urgent for them. So you get Jimmy Carter, the born-again, "ethnic purity" Democrat, and that was his purpose.

First of all, you should remember that Jimmy Carter wasn't just an ass. One time in his life he was a nuclear sub officer. So he had to have something going for him that was not obvious. Jimmy Carter, in his anti-Communist crusade, the "human rights" crusade, installed the boycott of the Olympics. It was under Carter that we got the establishment for the first time of religious fundamentalists in Washington; it was under Carter that leftists in Greensboro were slaughtered, an action that was organized by the FBI, like many if not most of these Klan executions in the South are. But he blew it pretty good—the killer rabbit and everything. Some nuclear sub officer!

So what we got was Reagan and Meese. The first thing they did is they got PATCO, the air controllers. Now, these people are so educated and are so white-collar that they were the tip of the top layer of the labor aristocracy. They come out of the service, they're at the top. And so these guys decided their work was impossible—which everybody knows it is—and they needed more money and they needed better working conditions. So they went on strike.

Now, the money demands were irrelevant. There are not that many of these guys. Any other administration would simply pay them off. But rather than pay them off, Reagan fired them all, got two union leaders, put leg irons on them and paraded them across the country, making sure there were lots of photographs. And if he can do this, and does want to do this, and is so proud of doing this to those guys, what the hell is he going to do to the rest of us? That was the message.

Then there was the MOVE bombing, just total fire-bombing, genocide of blacks, children, simply because MOVE didn't fit in, simply because they were different. They were no threat to anybody, everybody knows that. It was genocide, straightforward. State-enforced social reaction targeting everybody they suspect of not being in sympathy with a white, Christian fundamentalist, English-speaking America where deviants will not be tolerated.

Now, Rambo. This is Reagan's hero, this is the Reagan administration's movie. What is Rambo? First of all the guy's kind of short, second of all he was a draft dodger, third of all he's an ex-porn star. And this is the guy that kills 5,000 Vietnamese in 45 minutes? It's incredible, nobody believes it, it's just a simple lie. It has no power at all. And the viciousness of this enforced reaction with Reagan is because nobody believes. So the only way forward for Reagan is terror against the American population.

Reagan's Soldiers:
Religion in the Service of Reaction

Now, I want to talk for a few minutes about the nature of Reagan's soldiers, the cutting edge of Reaganism in terms of the active domestic policy, and that's the religious right, the Moral Majority, whatever you want to call them. These people have always been around. First of all, these people are not the Jehovah's Witnesses, who are very sincere in their religious beliefs and suffer for it. These people are not the Amish in Pennsylvania. These people are not particularly religious. I'm not saying that they're enlightened or advanced. What they are demagogues, and they use religion.

These people are also always used, historically. And who are they always historically used by? They're used by the Southern upper class. There was a movie some time ago called Advise and Consent. And always you have the Senator who gets down there and it's the Sam Ervin type and he's got this drawl and he's just the country boy and all, except he's got a Phi Beta Kappa key from Harvard, he's got the Oxford scholarship, his family goes back three hundred years in the South, one of the old slave-owning families. And he's the master. He's the master not simply in that sense for blacks but also for the Southern poor whites, who he calls "Southern white trash," which is the layer you're talking about in terms of these revivalists and such in the South.

These fundamentalist leaders have always served their master. And what these guys are all about is money. Now there was a line from Prizzi's Honor. Some woman has ripped off the Mafia for money, you know, it's not too smart. Jack Nicholson is going with that woman and so he's got trouble now. And he looks at her and he says: You know, Italians like money more than they like their sons, and they like their sons an awful lot. Well, these guys like money more than the racism, and they like the racism an awful lot.

The people that take these guys really seriously are sort of like the types you would see going out on Saturday night to a professional wrestling match and taking it really seriously. I'm sure they must have more people but what I'm trying to say is they are not on their own a significant percentage of our society in terms of power or anything else. Maybe in Alabama, yes, but only if a Huey Long was in office, you see. That's their relationship, always. So they are powerful because of the Reagan government but most of all they are powerful because they serve a need that the entire bourgeoisie has right now, which is this terror on the American people to restore in the population unquestioning loyalty in preparation for the anti-Soviet war drive. That's what purpose they serve.
You could say, well, this doesn't make any sense at all, why is it critical to go after sex videos for this question? Isn't this creating problems? You're going after people, they're not leftists, they just want to be left alone. Why isn't there something like a Brave New World where you've got those pleasure pills and all that sort of stuff, and then you've got total totalitarian society? Because class society doesn't work like that, because it's class; because reaction takes particular historical forms. In Germany, there was Hitler; in this country it takes the form of the Ku Klux Klan.

And so what these people's ideology represents is classical—the ideology of the Ku Klux Klan in this country. If you're talking about fascism and how the bourgeoisie needs fascism at a certain point and turns around and uses these dogs, that's what's going on now. Not in the sense that these people have taken power, no. Not in the sense that the Reagan government is fascist, no. But in the sense of using these people and using this ideology, that is certainly going on.

I want to talk a little bit about their ideology. (I want to use Gore Vidal because Gore Vidal really hates Christianity. As he says, his secret hero is Herod, Herod and the Apostate Julian, the last pagan.) Of course, they pick and choose from the Bible what they want, even though they'll tell you that every word in the Bible is god. Except they fight over which Bible. For example, as the Jews will tell you, the Bible bars shellfish, the Bible bars pork, etc. Well, somehow those things are not effected. They're not effected because Paul sold out on those issues in order to get a hearing from the Romans.
But to them what the Bible is, very important, is a justification for their racism. The whole thing about the descendants of Ham is used by these people. In secular terms, when you hear the cry of "law and order" or "cut welfare" or "the death penalty" those are simply code words for "get blacks." And as for Jews, "these are the people that killed Christ, these are the Christ-killers." And it will never change.

And sex, well, the main teacher for them is Paul, that's the main guy that they swear by. As a comrade said last night, the Catholics call him Saint Paul and for those who have met him personally they call him Paul. The twice-born, the third-born, the people who talk in tongues, who have visions nightly; no priests, they do it—personally.

So, anyway, Paul had a position on sex: forget it. His position was that sex under any circumstances regardless was a sin. It was a departure from purity. You should go out in the desert and wait for God to come to this earth. And God was going to come in six months. God didn't come in six months. Well, God was going to come in nine months. God didn't come in nine months. And he's having trouble with his people, right? Certain things are happening and they're getting upset. And he finally said: it's better to marry than burn. And he wasn't talking about the fires of hell when he's talking about burn. So he will let you marry, but that's as far as it goes.

Now, the position on women for the entire Judaic-Christian tradition is one of the most backward positions there is. It's that women exist simply as a repository of the sacred sperm, that a woman is commanded to serve and obey her husband as he is in turn commanded to serve and obey his temporal, Bible-quoting master. And Constantine, when he was having trouble with the Roman Empire, figured out that Christianity was the best thing that he had. So he made it the state religion. It wasn't actually that big, it certainly was no threat. But it was used, it was the greatest thing for state reinforcement of ideology. Been that way ever since.

Gore Vidal talks about homosexuality in the Bible. And it turns out there's quite a bit of homosexuality in the Bible. Vidal talks about the stuff with David and Jonathan, and it's quite clear. David's always talking about his love for Jonathan. And Vidal talks about Ruth and Naomi. He says, it's quite clear about their emotions toward one another, that this would be the basis for joint ownership of a pottery shop in Laguna Beach.
But then you get to Leviticus. And Leviticus on homosexuality is something like, if one man lie with another man, thereby he be put to death. Real hardcore stuff, from then on.

And Paul of course was dealing with Leviticus. Why does Paul hate sex so much? Aside from maybe he was a little peculiar and he had his problems, why does he hate sex so much? What is the political reason? Well, what Paul was competing against was the Roman gods, the pagan religions. And the greatest god of the pagan religions was the Goddess of Fertility. And, of course, when they went to a Sunday ceremony, they got it on. And they really got it on. The hardest teachings of the Bible against homosexuality and against sex in general come right after what is known as the Babylonian captivity, where the Jews were forced to live in the city of Babylon for a period of time. And it turns out that Babylon was the Paris of the B.C. world. It's sort of like in the First World War, once the farm boys see gay Paree, that's it, boy, ain't never goin' back to the farm. Well, once the Jews got to Babylon they really didn't want to go back to that desert. Not only did they have as much sex in ways that they could never conceive of (human sex, not goats) but indoor plumbing, everything, it was a very advanced city. And the Jewish ruling class had a problem, they somehow had to get the Jews back into the desert. And so you get all these moral strictures on sex. In other words, what was going on in sixth century Palestine was very similar to what they're trying to pull off today. Sex is bad; go out and get killed or live in the damned desert. So, the Bible is a historical document.

"Moral Rearmament" Is Enforced Social Conformity

What are the issues that are coming up today? First of all, women. For what the bourgeoisie is talking about socially, it's essential that women get out of the factory, certainly that women get out of the trade unions. They don't want women to have class consciousness, that's a no-no. They want to get them out of the productive process, back into the home. They want to eliminate their rights. They want to eliminate day care. They want to eliminate abortion. And they're simply doing that by abortion-clinic bombing and terror. What they'd like to do is eliminate the pill, but only the Pope thinks he can pull that off. Their key slogan for women is: Defeat ERA and Save the Family.
There is a study that's just come out that said: For 20 years, the federal government before the Reagan administration had systematically destroyed the family; we have and are going to reverse every one of those policies. What were those policies? The biggest one was welfare. So we're going to save the family by cutting off welfare. Now, figure 20 years back from where Reagan got in office. What do you get? The beginning of the civil rights movement. It's not an accident.

Sex. The Supreme Court has made sodomy illegal, i.e., you will go to jail for sodomy. The point is the way the ruling is formulated: it's illegal because it is against historical Christian-Judaical principle. Well, where does that stop? They can say blacks are unequal because of historical Christian-Judaical principle. (And the head of the Supreme Court turns out to be a racist vigilante.) There's no limit to this. It's a total elimination of separation of church and state. Our position on sex is: government out of the bedrooms, let people figure it out themselves.

AIDS. The first thing you've got to understand is that these people think that AIDS is the greatest thing that's ever happened. As long as it doesn't get in a massive way into the heterosexual population, it's like god speaking. The more homosexuals die, the better it is. So, of course, they do not fund AIDS projects. And, of course, Dianne Feinstein is not going to release needles to drug addicts so AIDS would not be spread many, many times over by using dirty needles. This should be an enormous scandal.
I saw this liberal program on AIDS the other night. I was listening for one of these liberal doctors to get up and say, "We need money. We need massive funding." And they wanted to say it, it's quite clear, but for some reason they didn't say it. But they said everything else. They got the hottest researcher around (he's from Scotland, actually) and he said: AIDS as a virus is very difficult medically, what needs to be done now is massive experimenting; we can sit around, we could talk about it forever, but what needs to be done is trial and error in an international sense. And in the next scene they talk about the technical problems, and the man who narrated says: the problem that scores of researchers are running into across the country— "Scores" of researchers are working on the vaccine for AIDS across the country, that's it! And we're talking about a screaming national health emergency. But the government is coming from a totally different direction on this AIDS question. They want to politically exploit it, it's good for them.

Death penalty. The death penalty simply means: kill blacks. The death penalty was temporarily ruled unconstitutional in 72, largely as a result of the U.S. bourgeoisie trying to clean up its act in terms of how it was seen internationally. By the way, this country is one of the few countries that actually has the death penalty; most of the European countries don't. The interesting thing about the death penalty is that it's a forbidden topic for debate now. We just had a major election in California over [State Supreme Court chief justice] Rose Bird, over the death penalty. Her right-wing attacker's every other word is: she doesn't believe in the death penalty. I saw a number of her commercials; she didn't have the guts to get up and say: I oppose the death penalty. I think it's barbaric, inhuman. And the majority of the world, and the state, and the ruling class of the world agree with me. No, politics has gone so far to the right that she didn't even say that. She said: well, um, I oppose the judiciary being political. You try to figure out what that means.

In fact, the entire election was absurd. All these justices say they're friends of labor. Not one of those guys mentioned unions throughout the entire campaign. Reagan's Central America policy is very unpopular with the population. Why didn't [Democratic Senator] Cranston run his campaign on opposition to Central America? It's because he's got Reagan's position on Central America. He didn't want to make Central America an issue. That's what we're talking about, bipartisan support to the war drive. Also, bipartisan support to this social crusade against you.

The drug witchhunt. The ruling class has declared a war on drugs. Total hypocrisy. The ruling class has pushed and made money from drugs I don't know since when. The British used drugs as one of their ways to conquer China; Hong Kong was founded on the profits of the opium trade. And who ran drugs all through the Vietnam War and before that out of the Golden Triangle? It was the CIA. Who provided the planes? It was CIA airplanes. When they talk about landing in those paddy fields, what do you think they were loading? It wasn't all orphans.

And in the cities. As just one example, you have the movie The French Connection, the biggest bust in heroin that's ever happened in New York City. They had the trial years later, not one speck of that heroin was left. They couldn't find it, it was all gone. It'd all been sold. It's obvious and has been documented—it's the cops. The cops either hold the pushers up for their cut and then the pushers charge that much more; or they just take the entire thing and sell it themselves. So what you get between the pushers and the cops is combat for profit. And that's the vice squad.

So this war on drugs is simply a tool to build the police department, to eliminate democratic rights so the police can go anywhere to terrorize black kids. And not only that. The conditions of capitalism in the ghettos are so severe with generational unemployment, with no possibility of getting out for these kids, no possibility of jobs, so why not take drugs? A black mother in the ghetto knows that there's a struggle every day, second by second, to save her child from that damned pusher. So what you get is the black hustlers like Jesse Jackson that come up and say to this black woman, "Yeah, you've got to support your cops, that's the answer." It's a rotten shell game.

Now, we're opposed to laws against what they call "crimes without victims." Basically it's a matter of personal rights. We feel that if somebody wants to take drugs, that's his own right. What kind of sex people want, that's their own right. We're against the state intervening in any of these questions. Now, it doesn't mean that we don't give a damn about a generation of ghetto kids that become addicts. But how do you fight that? How you fight that is by struggling against the ruling class and the conditions they impose by which the kids become addicts.

Now, in the black movement, there's always been two wings. One, the Jesse Jacksons and George Washington Carvers, the Uncle Toms, who say what you've got to do is, don't ask for anything from the white man, improve yourself in the eyes of the white man, and if you're good and good long enough, then you'll get something. And basically what it does, it accepts the terms of the racism of the oppressor. Jesse Jackson's recent statement is that drugs kill more than Klan ropes—does he want a united front with the KKK against drugs? Or what about a united front with the local racist politician against drugs? And then you've got Farrakhan who pushes the same stuff, except in his case, even worse—anti-Semitism, hustling black shampoo.

And then you have the wing of Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois which fights against the conditions, and fights against the racists, and fights for equality. Our position is for revolutionary integrationism, black liberation through socialist revolution.
In California there was an "English-only" proposition on the ballot. Now, this is simply vengeance. Everybody who's had any contact with immigrants knows that the first thing they want to do and have to do is learn English. And by and large they always do learn English. It's critical for them obviously in terms of making money. What this stuff is of going after English-only and destroying bilingual education is to eliminate the possibility of immigrants learning English, to eliminate the possibility of them Irving a decent life in the United States so they don't come here.

Now, of course, one must understand that there are two classes of immigrants. There's the people who come from right-wing reaction, the states which are overwhelmingly supported by the U.S. government, like the Haitians. They don't get in. And then there are the exploiters, the people like [South Vietnam's Marshal] Ky, the protégé’s of the U.S., the U.S. stooges. Not only do they get in, but they get everything.

Dictatorship of the Property Party

Everybody talks about the two-party system in the United States. There's not a two-party system, there's a one-party system. And that party is the property party. The people that belong to that party are less than one percent of the population of the United States, and they own the United States. And they own the government; they run the Republican and the Democratic parties.

The only difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is how they do things, not what they do, and not where they're going. Basically when you become a politician in the Republican or Democratic parties, you get a job. And you don't go to your constituents and get a job. No, you go to the businessman, at whatever level, and get hired, get his endorsement. You're a hireling of the bourgeoisie. Capitalist politicians are generally not the top people around. These are the people who are not good enough to make a great career in the professions, law or things like that. So, you know, you've got a big mouth and you're not particularly successful, not real smart and you don't mind being a prostitute and saying whatever somebody tells you, you become a politician. The property party is what really makes the difference, that's what calls the shots in this country. The class nature of this country is that the people who own this country are the people who run this country. It is their dictatorship.

There is a major economic crisis, it's a crisis that capitalism's had since its inception. What you've got in this country is a question of overproduction in every major field. Protectionism is coming up over the question of U.S. cars, or whatever, and this is reactionary and we're opposed to it.

And you've got overproduction internationally, in steel, in cars, in computer chips. What happens when you get overproduction that exceeds the market's ability to buy? These things are not sold. You get bankruptcies. Economies go under. Now, what happens if you're the U.S. bourgeoisie, you can't sell your stuff, and you've become a weak country economically, but because of a quirk of history you have the strongest military forces, aside from the Soviet Union, in the world? Do you just sit there and say, well, we're not going to sell anything this year, so I think this country is simply going to go down the drain and I'm going to lose everything I got? No, you use your cards. You use your ace, and your ace is your military card. It's the only card the U.S. has right now. So you go into various countries or various areas of the world and you seize those markets. What that is is war. And capitalism has never resolved an overproduction crisis yet through any other agency except war.

Why do we always talk about the anti-Soviet war drive? Why can't there be coexistence, why can't they just disarm? Why can't they recruit some Democrats, maybe they'll get along? They can't get along for two reasons. One, the very fact of the existence of the Soviet Union as a workers state, however degenerated, threatens capitalism. But, two, you've got to sell your goods. And one-sixth of the world's humanity, if you can open it up for private property, that's an enormous market. That would give capitalism a new lease.

In the Communist Manifesto Marx says that the history of man is the question of class struggle, and that where one class cannot triumph over another in a clear way, sooner or later it leads to the ruination of both classes. So what we are facing is barbarism. The only alternative to that is the international proletariat taking power, and the critical aspect is not the lack of a working class or the lack of militancy or anything like that. We've seen plenty of that, we've seen strikes historically and even in the recent period. The question is leadership. And that's the Spartacist League."