Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the country’s siege on Gaza.
At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured when troops intercepted the convoy of ships dubbed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, Israeli radio reported.
The flotilla was attacked in international waters, 65km off the Gaza coast.
Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, confirmed that the attack took place in international waters, saying: “This happened in waters outside of Israeli territory, but we have the right to defend ourselves.”
Footage from the flotilla’s lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, showed armed Israeli soldiers boarding the ship and helicopters flying overhead.
Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal, on board the Mavi Marmara, said Israeli troops had used live ammunition during the operation.
The history of the Makhnovists in the Russian Revolution is an important point of reference among anarchists, especially among the current known as Platformists, but it has received very little critical attention from either academic scholars or other revolutionary trends. The following article from the journal of the International Socialist Organization presents a detailed critique of both the myth-making around Makhno and the strategic conclusions anarchists have drawn from the semi-mythologized history they have created.
Makhno calls for the forms of Bolshevism—revolutionary discipline, vanguard party—without the content, the self-emancipation of the working class. He saw the degeneration in Russia primarily as a problem of ideas—“statism” and authoritarianism—instead of material conditions—poverty and isolation. Thus, he concludes that, “had anarchists been closely connected in organizational terms and had they in their actions abided strictly by a well-defined discipline, they would never have suffered such a rout.” But the strength required to fundamentally transform society and set it on new foundations cannot exist only among the enlightened few who “get it.” Instead, it is found in the collective energy and self-activity of the working class.
The Makhno Myth
By JASON YANOWITZ
STARTING IN the 1970s, a new consensus emerged among serious scholars of the Russian Revolution. Instead of seeing the rise of Stalinism as the predetermined outcome of Leninism or workers’ power, “revisionist” historians looked instead to the devastating effects of civil war and international isolation. They discovered that the early years of the workers’ state were far more complicated and rich than the standard right-wing inevitable-march-to-totalitarianism version. In its broad outlines, their work confirmed that material conditions, rather than Bolshevik original sin, transformed a mass, popular revolution into its opposite, Stalinism.1
Nepal Avoids Political Crisis With Broad Deal to Extend Parliament
By Kiran Chapagain and Jim Yardley
KATMANDU, Nepal — Nepal averted political chaos on Friday when the leading political parties reached a last-minute agreement that prevented the dissolution of Parliament and provided another year for the Himalayan nation to complete its peace process.
Faced with a midnight deadline, Nepal’s Maoists reached a broadly worded deal with leaders of two other major political parties in which the Maoists agreed to extend the term of Parliament, the Constituent Assembly. In exchange, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal agreed to resign at an unspecified time in the future to “pave the way” for a new government.
Members of the assembly took up the measure before midnight and passed it around 1 a.m., after leaders had signaled their approval. The Maoists had been demanding the resignation of the prime minister before Friday’s deadline as a precondition for extending the assembly. But Mr. Nepal had refused and other parties had insisted on certain commitments by the Maoists.
John Holloway, the author of Change the World Without Taking Power has written a new book called Crack Capitalism. The theory is that taking power is not needed, and a new world emerges from the self-determined micro-spaces of the old.
How do we create a different world? Crack capitalism: create cracks, moments or spaces of rebellion in which we assert a different type of doing. That is what we are doing already, every day, everywhere.
John Holloway’s acclaimed book, Change the World Without Taking Power, sparked a world-wide debate about the most effective methods of going beyond capitalism. Now Holloway takes the debate farther, arguing that hope lies in the fact that capitalism is already badly cracked, full of ruptures in the logic of social cohesion. Can these cracks really break the system? Holloway suggests that the force of the cracks lies in their common drive against capitalist labour and towards a
different type of activity, doing what we consider necessary or desirable. The question of revolution is not how to destroy
capitalism, but how to stop creating it and do something sensible instead.
A pocket of liquid is pierced in an uncontrolled way. How do you reverse this? What does “clean it up” actually mean?
Capitalism is a system with zero foresight. Capitalist profit routinely “externalizes” the cost of eco-destruction — removing it from its accumulation and accounting.
As is well known, the Church has been endlessly forgiving (and protective) when thousands of its priests molested children. They were repeatedly shifted from parish to parish, housed temporarily in special facilities, given desk duty, or simply allowed to die within the priesthood. So it is startling, shocking even, when the church decides to excommunicate a member of its religious orders.
When hearing such a strange “man bites dog” story — the mind wonders, the curiosity races. Who is the unforgivable monster who this so-tolerable church simply could not forgive?
And then the facts come out: In this case, the harsh and swift punishment was for a nun, not a predator priest or a bishop. The head of a catholic hospital. And her crime was not sexual abuse or cover-up of child molestation. It was that she approved an emergency abortion for a middle aged woman suffering from dangerous pulmonary hypertension.
Clear moral choice reveals much: No punishment of predatory male priests over decades around the world. Swift (automatic!) punishment for female nun who approves emergency medical abortion in a Catholic hospital.
More cleanup happens on the airwaves than on the beaches. In public appearances after the Gulf spill, the faces of capitalism are carefully crafted by an army of damage-control specialists.
But in an unguarded moment, the CEO of BP was overheard (on his wireless mic) ordering his foot-soldiers to simply remove reporters from an oil soaked beach. The mask slips. And one of the “masters of the universe” reveals his actual calculating mentality and habits of command. (Article from Raw Story, video from FireDogLake.com.)
BP CEO caught on tape ordering media to get away from oil-coated beach
Gulf fishing ban extended to area roughly the size of Greece
Walking along a Louisiana beach yesterday, the chief operating officer of British Petroleum was caught on tape ordering subordinates multiple times to “get ‘em out of here,” apparently referencing media personnel who were swarming the scene prior to a press conference.
The clip has since raised the public’s level of ire against the company, at a time when all BP’s recent press coverage seems to paint a picture darker than oil.
Being a leader means someone that can lead and be led, that can teach as well as learn, and that can speak for others as well as listen. Leaders are chosen (and set aside or replaced) by the people themselves.
The Mass Line: What It Is
and How to Use It
by Patrick Ryan
“The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that movement.” – The Communist Manifesto
While organizing people on the bus, I met a Black janitor who was very supportive of our work to fight for better buses and lowered fares, but thought that “immigrants” caused the bus fares to cost more. Instead of agreeing with him, I pointed out the salaries of the administration of the transit agency, and how they had given themselves raises all while cutting bus routes and upping fares and that disproportionately affected immigrant people. Read the rest of this entry »
The US is not very involved in this particular situation, or they have a lower role. They are not a deciding factor. We have had ten or more discussions with representatives of the US when they called us during the strike. They questioned UML and NC about how long Madhav Kumar Nepal would stay in power. They see his unpopularity as something that will aggravate this crisis. The EU has been even more proactive, with Madhav Kumar Nepal even replying and telling them to mind their own business. Both these forces do not support the Maoists. But they think Madhav Kumar Nepal should resign because his unpopularity is undermining stability.
Nepal: Interview with Maoist Leader CP Gajurel
by Kaveri Rajaraman
Chandra Prakash Gajurel is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).
Q: Let me start with the most pressing question of the day. Now that the strike has been called off, and it looks like the May 28, 2010 deadline for writing the constitution will not be met, what are the expectations and conditions under which the party will extend the tenure of the Constituent Assembly, and what is the party strategy if its conditions are not met? What will happen after May 28th?
A: The political environment around May 28th will decide our strategy. Right now NC, UML and India are continuing to hope that we will change our minds at the eleventh hour. Even if we deny this now, they are hoping for our last minute acceptance of the extension of the CA’s tenure without our conditions being fulfilled. But I can say this: no, we will not. Read the rest of this entry »
Coverage of Nepal by the U.S. corporate media dropped off after the the May General Strike was called off. As the May 28 Constituent Assembly expiration approaches however, their attention is returning. We present their materials here not as reliable accounts of events but rather to understand how the Nepali Revolution is being presented.
Nepal leaders still at odds as crisis looms
By Binaj Gurubacharya
KATMANDU, Nepal — Nepalese government and opposition leaders failed Wednesday to resolve disagreements that could leave the Himalayan nation without a functioning legislature by the weekend and heading for political chaos, a ruling coalition official said.
The two-year term of the Constituent Assembly, which was elected in 2008, expires on Friday. The assembly was meant to draft a new constitution to help guide Nepal out of years of civil war and upheaval, but has achieved little due to political bickering.
When the assembly’s term expires, so does Nepal’s interim constitution. The main opposition party of former Maoist rebels say the current government would lose it legitimacy which could leave the country in chaos.
The government has proposed extending the assembly’s term by one year but the Maoists, who control the most seats in the assembly, have refused to support the proposal unless the government resigns and allows their party to lead a new coalition administration.
In a last-ditch effort to forge an agreement, top government party leaders, including Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, met in the capital, Katmandu, on Wednesday with opposition chiefs, including Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Read the rest of this entry »
If you propose a new strategy you have to show HOW it will actually make revolution, not just come up with any old strategy and assert that we must all accept it because it is “new.”
Mike Ely:
In fact, the Nepali Maoists are not obligated to show you or me anything. And we don’t need to accept their new strategies (as some new orthodoxy).
It is a strange misunderstanding to assume that our support requires us to have an elaborated verdict on their strategies. That is an argument for abandoning internationalism — because (if we are materialists, not fundamentalists) those kinds of verdicts often take years to unravel.
The future is unwritten. It is infantile (and worse) to insist that the Nepali path must be proven or its outcome must be certain before our own revolutionary responsibilities kick in. There is in fact a global two line struggle over this.
Nepal’s revolution is a real-world class struggle. It faces real dangers, real intrigues, real problems. And it deserves our attention and support.
Ultimately, a movement for public education will have to confront not just the neoliberal agenda, but the overall role of schooling in a capitalist society. If students leave school only to enter an economy where the vast majority of jobs are alienating, unfulfilling, and disempowering, how can we expect to have an education system that prepares them to be creative, critical thinkers?
Obama’s neoliberal agenda for education
By Gillian Russom
Writing in March 2008, the editors of a Rethinking Schools book on charter schools held out hope that the end of the Bush administration would mean new possibilities for a progressive education agenda:
This country is on the cusp of a new political dialogue. The conservative stranglehold on political debate is ending, opening up new opportunities for progressives to regain the initiative. How this opening will affect public education in general and charter schools in particular is not yet clear, but it ushers in new possibilities not imaginable a decade ago.1 Read the rest of this entry »
Thanks to Jeff Weinberger we have been debating ANSWER’s callfor demonstrations for a punitivegovernment nationalization — “Seize BP.”
“In the collision between “corporate power” and the “imperial state” — I feel it would be of no benefit to us to appear to be partisans of the imperial state… Seeming to be eager for government takeovers is one of the ways that defacto support for Obama sneaks its way into the politics of those who (in words) claim not to support this government.“
“The supreme court recently ruled that for purposes of political donations corporations should be considered the equivalent of an “individual” and their contributions should be considered the equivalent of an “individual’s” constitutional right to free speech. Well if corporations are individuals, why can’t we demand that they are executed for capital crimes?
“Why can’t we demand that BP (and Halliburton, or Blackwater) be (metaphorically) brought down to the public square and executed for its crimes against humanity — its officers jailed, its possessions dispersed and sold off, its records made public, its existence simply ended.”
by Mike Ely
How do communists and revolutionaries approach the formulation of demands for broad coalitions and mass movements — demands and struggles that by their nature have potential support far far beyond the ranks of the consciously revolutionary?
How do we play a constructive role — helping to bring people together in struggle, creating conditions for raising political consciusness, and helping more and more people get a sense of the nature of this system, and the implications of rather different political strategies?
The more interesting story, though, is about Democrats. We hear endlessly about Blue Dog Democrats. But the Pew poll shows a surprisingly progressive Democratic base. Democrats are almost equally split in their appraisal of capitalism and socialism. Forty-seven percent see capitalism as positive but 53% do not. And 44% of Democrats define socialism as positive, linking their negativity about capitalism to a positive affirmation of socialism.
Capitalism: Big Surprises in Recent Polls
by Charles Derber
According to the conventional wisdom, the US is a center-Right country. But a new poll by Pew casts doubt on that idea. It shows widespread skepticism about capitalism and hints that support for socialist alternatives is emerging as a majoritarian force in America’s new generation.Carried out in late April and published May 4, 2010, the Pew poll, arguably by the most respected polling company in the country, asked over 1500 randomly selected Americans to describe their reactions to terms such as “capitalism,” “socialism,” “progressive,” “libertarian” and “militia.” The most striking findings concern “capitalism” and “socialism.” We cannot be sure what people mean by these terms, so the results have to be interpreted cautiously and in the context of more specific attitudes on concrete issues, as discussed later.
This was originally posted on aljazeera.net.
from 
from 
