redFlags

Someone said boo?

The Revolutionary Communist Party has decreed on a "matter of basic orientation." The unsigned author(s) don't mention the object of their scorn by name, but they call the Nine Letters to Our Comrades nothing but "completely dishonest and unprincipled attacks, including crude distortions of our views, aims, and methods." The distortions and purported lies are not discussed, noted in particular or corrected. Off limits and not up for consideration. Decided. Think about that. Read the Nine Letters, then the RCP's initial public response and hear the elastic snap.

Nor is any shadow of a doubt left up to wonder about the motives of Mike Ely or the other comrades involved, myself included:

...there are some people who have sunk to the point where they can do nothing more than act as “parasitic critics” in relation to our revolutionary role and work—having themselves nothing positive to offer in terms of achieving a radical alternative to the monstrous system we live under, having no defining or unifying mission other than seeking to sabotage our efforts to bring such a radical alternative into being.

Peculiar, considering the sharp use of weasel words, is the total refusal to even say what this is all about. As if saying the words gave them power, which is dialectically speaking, exactly what silence does. It imparts fear and wonder when you can regulate what can and can't be said. Which you can't, by the way, beyond those who will put up with it in demonstration of their fealty to the mantle of revolution, rhetorically claimed.

Anyway, Bob, I'll see your reality and raise you a check. Lyrics on the link.

Nine Letters to Our Comrades: Getting Beyond Avakian's New Synthesis

Mike Ely, a life-long communist and former editor of the RCP's press, has released a major polemic on Avakian's supposed "New Synthesis" and the failures of the RCP to become a leading party of revolution in the USA. I'll hold off on my own commentary by way of introduction... but discussion has already taken off on Ely's new Kasama website. For anyone working to build a revolutionary movement in the United States, this is among the most thoughtful, engaged analyses you will find on such efforts over the last few decades. It is no "so long to all that" – rather, it is a call to begin the "audacious task". 

Download – Nine Letters to Our Comrades: Getting Beyond Avakian's New Synthesis (PDF)

The Shock Doctrine

Imperialism, local reaction and the duty of communists

The following polemic was passed on to me recently by a sometimes contributor to this blog and veteran of the North American anti-imperialist and communist movements. Included are an abridged version of a recent report  from the Communist Party of Iran (MLM) and a critical response. They raise the important question of what are the tasks of Iranian communists in the event of a US invasion and occupation of Iran. The CPI(MLM) argues that the "primary contradiction" and focus of struggle must be with the reactionary Islamic Republic, the critical response argues that it should be with US imperialism.

The implications of the discussion are all around us.

Labor Day: Which side are you on?

Labor Day in my neck of the woods is the biggest carnival in America. About a million people have gathered in Central Brooklyn for the West Indian Day Parade, known to West Indians as the Labor Day Parade. This year, it's the only one NYC gets because the Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO has canceled the usual flag-waving exercise for the first time in a century (from what I heard). So... it's worth remembering today that "labor", conceived of and enforced as the skilled, pensioned and professionalized workers of the core industries is just one section of the international working class. Our struggle is a freedom struggle, as sloppy and hopeful as that's bound to be. Today is carnival in Brooklyn, May Day is our international workers day. Video by Rebel Diaz.

Politics in an age of fantasy

Stephen Duncombe writes in the premier issue of Turbulence, a new theoretical journal-cum-newspaper that:

The problem, as I see it, comes down to reality. Progressives believe in it, Bush’s people believe in creating it. The left and right have switched roles – the right taking on the mantle of radicalism and progressives waving the flag of conservatism. The political progeny of the protestors who proclaimed, “Take your desires for reality” in May of 1968, were now counseling the reversal: take reality for your desires. Republicans were the ones proclaiming, “I have a dream.”

I have to say I know what he's talking about. From defending the evaporating, fetid gains of the welfare state or the ongoing acceptance by people who should know better of the Clintonian urge to do the Bushie thing right, large sectors of the "left" have become more conservative than those they ostensibly oppose. The fault of this, if where it lies is so simple, may reside less in a lack of the urge to dream than in the inculcated, now naturalized habits of American anti-communism – those who refuse to even say the world socialism shouldn't be shocked when the movements they lead and participate in settle for a refracted politics of fear and permanent, if glorious, resistance. After all, isn't "yelling from the mountaintop" just another word for vanguardism? Or, is it only a dread vanguard when there's the expectation that people will listen, be transformed and themselves take responsibility for others?

I only ask these questions because it seems like the stalemate in the movement of movements has settled into a discomforting middle age. One quick note: Turbulence makes it's entire issues immediately available as a PDF. In other words, they write so that people read! Here's to hoping more publications see the wisdom in this. Click on the cover to get the entire issue as a PDF formatted for letter-size paper.

We must name the system

This dramatic reading of Paul Potter's rightly famous speech is part of a wonderful series of public performances called the Port Huron Project re-enacting the signal flares of the American New Left. It's striking how contemporary they sound, and why, really, 1968 neither failed nor won. It is in more ways than one would wish the terrain of the battle we are still fighting. It's easier than you think to engage in free speech. You just have to do it. Read an interview with project creator Mark Tribe.

RNC St. Paul: Anarchists are getting ready!

Bhutan: Red Army in the Dragon Kingdom

Participants in the CCOMPOSA political association of South Asian Maoists, the Communist Party of Bhutan (MLM) have openly declared the imminent launch of insurgency with the immediate goal of abolishing the monarchy and the establishment of a republic. I am not familiar with the author of this article, nor much beyond superficialities regarding life in Bhutan. This article is posted because it is so far unique, and that it appears to confirm the prognosis that South Asia is indeed becoming a storm center of world revolution. [Kantipur is not a Maoist publication. All links are provided for informational purposes.]

By Deepak Adhikari
Kantipur Online

Another Maoist insurgency is going to rock yet another country in South Asia, if the statements made by the leaders of the Communist Party of Bhutan Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (CPM MLM) are anything to go by.      

"Preliminary preparations for an insurgency are over. We are going to launch it soon," says Vikalpa, nom-de-plume of CPB MLM General Secretary.
Bhutan is holding its parliamentary elections in March and April 2007. But, prior to the election date, CPB MLM plans to launch its 'People's War' in the Himalayan kingdom.

The goal: Abolition of monarchy and establishment of a republic.

Sison arrested: Emergency Action Alert

RELEASE JOSE
MARIA SISON!
Picket the Dutch
Consulate in NYC
Wednesday
August 29th, 4pm
11 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan
Trains: B/D/F/V/N/R to Rockefeller Place

Readings: JoseMariaSison.org | Biography | writings & speeches | Philippine Society & Revolution |  An interview with Jose Maria Sison | Intl. Herald Tribune article on arrest and protest in the Netherlands |  National Democratic Front (Philippines) | BAYAN USA statement

Finkelstein case: Urgent need to right wrongs at DePaul University

The following is an open letter from Prof. Bill Martin, a tenured professor of philosophy at DePaul University, site of the recent fight over Norman Finkelstein's tenure  and the very ability of intellectuals to engage in work that runs counter to the dominant politic.

"Two things that are very simple to understand need to be said up front. First, you cannot deny tenure to a professor because she or he takes a political stand that you do not like, agree with, or that is going to incur the disapprobation and wrath of some group. Yes, frankly, I think a professor who is an outright racist or misogynist or anti-gay bigot ought to be removed from the university (though even here there have to be procedures, and judgments cannot be based on whims, innuendo, or the self-promoting agendas of powerful persons or groups), but that is not what is going on here. Second, you cannot deny tenure to a professor simply for a rhetorical style that you do not like. A person cannot be denied tenure simply because you find his or her rhetoric 'inflammatory.'”

Support needed for SF mural on popular struggles against borders & fences

By Martin Travers
artist living in Holland, and creator of the original image

I am a firm believer in the right to self determination of all peoples all over this wonderful world we all inhabit. To stand by the right to that self determination by Palestinian people or any other people is by no means supporting terrorism or senseless violence or racism, to say that is in itself an injustice. My painting which was recreated on the mural in question is about that right, breaking through the wall that separates the Israelis from Palestinians and the Palestinians from each other is symbolic of the breaking of the walls that fence in the marginalised and the “unwanted” people everywhere because to see them is to be reminded of where and how Europe, north America and Israel got its wealth.

Akil Bomani's Authoring a Culture

Okay, so I confess that as a New Yorker, the fact that "Burningman" was an over-priced participatory arts orgy in the Nevada desert didn't quite register with my hard head. Every year, around this time, I get a surge of traffic from folks looking for information or reports on the Burningman festival. Haha! Bet you didn't see this one coming! I was just a man on fire... Adopting the Burningman pen name was only a play on the translation of my family name. In any case, I thought I'd post a link for ya'll burners to a scientific essay about the art of revolution. What does that mean?

Read it!

CPN(M) report on developments in Nepal & Prachanda Q&A;

[The text below is from the Maoist Information Bulletin, produced by the CPN(M), Central Committee. The CPN(M) is listed as a "terrorist" organization by the U.S. State Department, American citizens should be advised. redFlags provides this link for informational purposes. On the link, there is also the entire text of a recent interview between Prachanda and Kantipur Online ]

"On several occasions we have brought out our assessment that the domestic situation in Nepal is favorable and ripe to capture central state power in the near future, but as all the genuine communist parties engaged in revolutionary practice know, the international situation is quite unfavorable to accomplish new democratic revolution and sustain it. It is obvious that we should try to mobilize justice-loving people all over the world in general and the peoples of south Asia in particular to garner support in favor of revolution, improving on the domestic situation in the same spirit. For this we should dare to abandon the course once selected and have the courage to climb the unexplored mountain."

IntifadaNYC: Racist campaign claims Khalil Gibran principal

The resignation of Debbie Almontaser as principal of the proposed Arab language school in Brooklyn has caused a great deal of controversy. The DOE replaced her with Danielle Salzberg. There's so much stuff flying it is hard to keep track of it all. An interesting interview by Amy Goodman posted on Democracy Now can be found here. Also this piece written by Almontaser, not long after 9/11.

By Steve Quester
UFT chapter leader
P.S. 372/418K The Children’s School
from Education Notes Online

Imagine...
A veteran Latina educator, with a years-long record of service supporting Latino/a youth and building bridges between Latino/a and non-Latino/a communities, is slated to be principal of a new middle school with a focus on Hispano-Caribbean studies and Spanish language. She endures months of vitriolic attacks from right-wing hate websites and blogs, and from the Murdoch news organizations. Finally, the Murdoch media uncover that she’s on the board of an organization that shares an office with a Latina girls’ empowerment organization. The organization has produced a T-shirt with the image of Che Guevara and the words “Hasta la victoria siempre.” The Murdoch media point out (rightly) that the “victoria” to which Che referred was the violent overthrow of all capitalist governments, including the U.S. The media demand that the educator condemn the T-shirt, but instead she says that the girls’ intention was to point to the victory of tolerance and coexistence over anti-Latino/a bias in New York. The media howl. The educator quickly apologizes, admitting that she did not take into account the effect that the image of Che has on Cuban-American refugees of Castro’s oppression.

After the apology, the United Federation of Teachers president [hypothetically Randi Weingarten —JB], who had been supportive of the new middle school and its principal, is quoted condemning the educator’s initial defense of the T-shirt...

Notes on XXIst Century Socialism

[Thus far my favorite critical piece on events in Venezuela. For a surprisingly robust, open and religious(!) exploration of the same theme, check out this speech by the outgoing Defense Minister... a long time friend of Hugo. — JB]

by Bromma
from threewayfight

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, recently announced the arrival of XXIst Century Socialism. This declaration, although greeted with great enthusiasm, left a residue of confusion. Since Chavez didn't discuss XXIst Century Socialism during his recent Presidential campaign, and since there are virtually no public theoretical documents defining this new Socialist era, its precise features are not always clear.

Fortunately, Chavez has appointed a committee, well stocked with international supporters, to come up with appropriate explanatory documents. In the meantime, we can best understand the contours of XXIst Century Socialism by examining it as it actually functions in the real world. Practice is the true test of theory; after several years of Chavez's leadership, we can readily detect the broad outlines of this innovative Socialism.

There appear to be several critical new features of the new XXIst Century Socialist breakthrough. We will review some of the most important:

First of all, XXIst Century Socialism does not require a revolution. This comes as a great relief to Socialists around the world, and will surely encourage many new Socialists to step forward.

Up on the Mountain, Down on the Ground

By R. John
special to redFlags

Here's what I want to understand more deeply: this question of the "everyday" – the place, importance, meaning and political relevance of that “everyday” locus of human existence. What emerges from that vantage point for viewing and evaluating human existence? How important is specificity and how do we know that importance?

I remember during the civil rights struggle when white racists insisted that “outsiders” didn’t “understand” Mississippi, and had no right to denounce its long evolved local “ways.” Their slogan was seen on handcrafted signs as marchers came. “We live here, you suck,” one read. “States rights” after all defended jim crow (and before it slavery) under the banner of local rights (and even “self-determination”!)

 

I think it is the larger material coherence of society, that makes politics possible. You don’t have to know all the many particularities of each county or township, or else a Red Army couldn’t march through on a Long March liberating people, or enter Tibet with profound insights into the transformations needed there.

   

I start here: Some things can only be known well by direct experience. All knowledge has its roots in experience (however removed the specific practice and practitioners may be from those synthesizing that knowledge). But intimate contact with everyday life (and especially a close personal focus on the everyday in life) does not at all automatically or directly breed insight to the problems and solutions of that life.

Declaration to Reaffirm the Significance and Relevance of the Anti-Revisionist Struggle and the GPCR

This international declaration, signed by several significant international communist parties including the Communist Party of India (Maoist), was originally issued on May 1, 2007. I am here including it to give communists in the USA a sense of how some of these discussions are playing out... Unfortunately, there is no organized national grouping in the USA that currently sees the need to keep these in circulation.

We, the undersigned Marxist-Leninist, Mao Zedong Thought and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations, hereby issue this declaration to reaffirm the significance and relevance of the struggle against modern revisionism starting in 1956 in opposition to the revisionist content of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in February 1956 leading to the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 and continuing after the bourgeoisie seized power in China in 1976. We do so after one year of activities celebrating the 50th anniversary of the anti-revisionist struggle and renewing our commitment to pursue this struggle.

Dare to Struggle: A report from the SDS National Convention

By: Max Uhlenbeck
www.ideasforaction.org

It seemed only right that longtime civil rights veteran Grace Lee Boggs  was asked to open up the 2nd annual national convention for the newly reformed Students for a Democratic Society [SDS], which took place in Detroit over this past weekend.

Grace Lee Boggs, although rarely receiving the same kind of attention as some of her male counterparts in the movement, is truly a living testament to what a life-long commitment to revolutionary organizing looks like. Many of the 150 students in attendance seemed aware that they were witnessing something special, as they battled through some tough audio difficulties to listen to Grace's talk.

Grace painted an eloquent historical backdrop for the convention, as she described the rebellions that shook Detroit in the summer of 1967, nearly 40 years ago to the day. She talked about how although the media had called described the uprising as 'unruly riots', but that to many militant black workers it signified the start of something much more hopeful, "a time when anything seemed possible".

A hundred-year argument in 5 minutes

My buddy LeftSpot found this gem from Reds on YouTube. It highlights an argument between two old friends, Jack Reed and Emma Goldman during the hard times of War Communism in the early Soviet Union.

"It's just the beginning, EG. It's not happening the way we thought it would. It's not happening the way we wanted it to. But it's happening..."