Archive for March, 2008
Posted by Mike E on March 31, 2008
This is part of a larger piece called “The Anti-Empire Report“
by William Blum
The latest protests in Tibet and crackdown by Chinese authorities have brought up the usual sermonizing in the West about Chinese government oppression and illegitimate control of the Tibetans. Although I have little love for the Chinese leaders — I think they run a cruel system — some proper historical perspective is called for here.
Many Tibetans regard themselves as autonomous or independent, but the fact remains that the Beijing government has claimed Tibet as part of China for more than two centuries. The United States made its position clear in 1943:
The Government of the United States has borne in mind the fact that the Chinese Government has long claimed suzerainty over Tibet and that the Chinese constitution lists Tibet among areas constituting the territory of the Republic of China. This Government has at no time raised a question regarding either of these claims.[1]
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Posted in China, Tibet, William Blum | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on March 31, 2008
The following is an example of the kinds of anti-revolutionary reporting and speculation done by forces worried about the Maoist advances both as a result of their peoples war and now during the electoral campaign to create a new Nepal without the monarchy. We post this as an example of “reconnaissance of the enemy” — studying how counterrevolutionary forces are seeing (and portraying) the revolutionary forces and this intense moment of political collision. (From the Global Position journal)
Bhuwan Thapaliya – 3/30/2008
In Nepal they say it is impossible to have a “Mao-less day”, a day without Maoists intimidation. News headlines in Nepal seldom stray far from Maoists atrocities, verbal abuses, intimidation and their violent physical attacks against the leaders of other parties. And unfortunately for Nepal , Maoist’s intimidation scramble in most places of Nepal is alarming other political parties before the most coveted Constituent Assembly election scheduled for April 10th where the Maoists too are taking part.
Can things only get worse for the Nepalese? The real question, though, is what difference it would actually make to the Maoists.
They are still as reckless as they were then. And despite the omnipotent growl from over the border, mainly India , U.S.A, European Union and the U.N, the Maoists seem set to save their falling grace by snatching in their favor a respectable election results at any cost via the tactic of their people’s war- through intimidation.
At first sight, Maoists transformation looks credible, at least compared with years and years of its war against the state, which crammed enormous resources of Nepal and encoded a permanent recipe of fear in the Nepalese psyche. But if you take a second look, then the picture becomes fuzzier still. Judging by the Maoists recent acts it is going to be fuzzier in the future too.
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Posted in communism, Communist Party, election, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marxist theory, Nepal, peoples war, Prachanda, UCP Nepal (Maoist), UCP Nepal (Maoist) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on March 31, 2008
Kasama is posting reports from a variety of different political forces — concerning the April 10 contest for the Constituent Assembly in Nepal. Without sharing the viewpoint or conclusions of these authors, we feel it is valuable to critically study the analysis and opinion offered. This article was originally published as “Nepal: The constituent assembly election and the revolutionary left” by the Economic and Political Weekly in India, then reprinted in Links, a left journal based in Australia.
By Mahesh Maskey and Mary Deschene
As the elections to the constituent assembly draw near (April 10), the question in Nepal seems not to be whether there will be a democratic republic, but rather what kind of democratic republic it will be. “Bourgeois democrats” would want to preserve the country’s capitalistic character, while the “revolutionary left” will make every effort to give it a transitional character to bring socialism on to the nation’s agenda. “The reformist left” will vacillate between the two courses but predominantly forge alliances with the “bourgeois democrats”.
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Posted in communism, Communist Party, Mahesh Maskey, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Nepal, peoples war, Prachanda, revolution | 2 Comments »
Posted by John Steele on March 30, 2008
By John Steele
What about Alain Badiou, the contemporary philosopher? Like Zizek, he has attracted much attention among people looking for new avenues both intellectually and politically. A friend in Latin American studies has told me his name is everywhere in Latin American intellectual circles.
Badiou’s background is within Marxism and Maoism. He was a student of the French communist philosopher Louis Althusser in the early sixties, an activist within the French uprisings of May 1968, and a Maoist activist and theorist in the 1970s. He has concluded, beginning in the 1980s and for a nest of reasons both political and philosophical, that this tradition of political practice (that is, basically, the international communist movement as it had emerged that far), has reached a point of “saturation,” as he terms it, and that a new beginning – a new truth-process, as he calls it – is necessary. He has gone on since then to outline a new approach in some very basic fields of philosophy.
In a February 2006 interview at University of Washington, he summed up:
“Since the mid-80s, more and more, there has been something like a saturation of revolutionary politics in its conventional framework: class struggle, party, dictatorship of the proletariat, and so on. So we have to find something like a fidelity to the fidelity. Not a simple fidelity…. Today we have an experimental sequence from the point of view of political practice. We have to accept the multiplicity of experiences. We lack a unified field — not only in something like the Third International, but also in concepts there is no unified field. So you have to accept something like local experiments; we have to do collective work about all that. We have to find — with help of philosophical concepts, economic concepts, historical concepts — the new synthesis.”
So, does he have worth for us, for our moment, our project, our need to “reconceive as we regroup”? Speaking for myself here, I believe we have, very much, something to learn from him.
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Posted in Alain Badiou, communism, France, John Steele, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, methodology, philosophy, revolution, theory | 18 Comments »
Posted by John Steele on March 30, 2008
Wikipedia has a valuable short bio of Alain Badiou, and links to a great many resources.
Videos of Badiou
- (French) “Autour des Logiques des Mondes” at The American University of Paris
- Art as a Place for Politics (Video – Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 11/16, 2006)
- Truth Procedure in Politics (Video – Abreu Gallery, New York, 11/18, 2006)
- Truth Procedure in Art (Video – Tilton Gallery, New York, 11/17, 2006)
- Jacques Lacan’s Seminar On Anxiety (Video – The Drawing Center, New York, 03/07, 2006)
Dozens of videos of Badiou lectures are available on youtube.
Posted in Alain Badiou, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marxist theory, methodology, philosophy, revolution, theory | 6 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 30, 2008
Here is a complete list of 74 parties contending in the April 10 elections for Nepal’s Constituent Assembly [background]. From Boletín informativo do Comite Galego de Solidariedade co Nepal , via the Maoist Revolution e-list.
S. Number | Name of Political Party | Head of Party | Symbol | Contact No.
1 Nepal Communist Party (UML) Madhav Kumar Nepal General Secretary Sun 4602303
2 Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala President Tree 4414607 / 4373170
3 Rastriya Jansakti Party Surya Bahadur Thapa President Umbrella 4411273
4 Rastriya Prajatantra Party Pashupati Samsher J. B. R. President Plough 4414037 / 4412340
5 Janamorcha Nepal Amik Sherchan President Pentagon Star 5527522
6 Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) Puspa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) President Sickle & Hammer inside a circle 9841529869
7 Nepal Workers & Peasant Party Narayan Man Bijukche President Madal 6610933
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Posted in communism, election, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marxist theory, Nepal, peoples war, Prachanda, UCP Nepal (Maoist) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on March 29, 2008
This is an interview with G.N. Saibaba, the Deputy Secretary of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), an All Indian Federation of Revolutionary People’s Organisations. He is 40 years old and was born in Andhra Pradesh, a state in southern India. The new Norwegian party Rødt [Red!] conducted this interview in early December when Saibaba was in Norway for the memorial service for Tron Øgrim. The interview was conducted in English. Thanks to the Fire on the Mountain blog for posting it.
Red!: If someone said to you that the Maoist movement in India is a marginal movement that is mainly operating in very backward, lowly populated areas, and it has been doing so for over thirty-five years without getting anywhere, what would be your answer?
Saibaba:The Maoist movement in India is not confined to the backward areas. It’s a vast movement, and includes the “developed” areas. Maoists work both in the countryside and the cities. The government says that the Maoists are active in 15 out of 28 states. And these include the major states. The Union Home Ministry says that 167 districts out total 600 districts in the country are covered by Maoists. This is a little less than 1/3 of India.
The Maoists in India follow the New Democratic Revolutionary method proved successful in China under the leadership of Mao. This method follows that the revolutionary movement must put priority on working in the areas where the state is weak. The Maoists work in the backward regions to smash the local reactionaries’ power and establish people’s power. They build revolutionary mass bases in these backward areas. This doesn’t mean that they don’t also work in the cities. In fact, in the Congress of the CPI (Maoist) held in January/February 2007, they decided to increase their work in the urban areas. They have produced a new document concerning work in the urban areas that analyses the work done in the last thirty years. This document sets out a strategy for developing the work in the urban areas.
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Posted in communism, CPI(Maoist), India, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, Naxalite, peoples war, revolution | 5 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 29, 2008
These are notes from a presentation by G.N. Saibaba on the history and current lines of different trends among communists in India. Saibaba is the Deputy Secretary of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), an All Indian Federation of Revolutionary People’s Organisations. Thanks to the Fire on the Mountain blog for making these notes available. Feel free to comment or expand on these notes.
1. The communist movement in India today
There are three different main streams in the revolutionary movement:
a. CPI (Maoist) – follows the line of People’s War steadfastly and surging forward.
b. CPI (ML) Naxalbari, CT, PCC (ML) and others like CPCRML who are close to the Maoist party in terms of line to a greater or lesser extent.
Also Red Flag – Communist Revolutionary Platform, CPI (ML) Central Team, and CPM (ML) New Democracy — these are all small, but they have a small mass base. They partake in mass struggles but do not conduct armed struggle at present. They are right deviationist in the understanding of the Maoists.
CPI (ML) Liberation is now fast turning revisionist, a fairly large party mainly in Bihar.
There are no left deviationist groups remaining in India. There used to be some Lin Piao groups, they hardly exist anymore.c. Communist League of India (ML) split from the CPI (ML) originally in the 1970s. They believe that India is a capitalist country. They split into five different groups. They are small and work in urban pockets.
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Posted in CPI(Maoist), India, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marxist theory, methodology, Naxalite, peoples war, revolution | 9 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 29, 2008
By Nasreen Jazayeri [1]
The following article was commissioned by A World To Win magazine [and newsservice] The article appears on the website of the Sarbardaran (the Maoists of Iran) . It does not have a date on it.
Islamic political parties or groups that are in opposition to the ruling cliques in the Middle Eastern countries have played a major role on the political stage for at least three decades. These Islamic forces, claiming to oppose and fight (or wage jihad) against Western imperialist powers and their neo-colonial client states in the Middle East, have been able, at times, and to a significant degree, to influence sections of the social base of new-democratic and socialist revolution – the workers, peasants and semi-proletarians. But neither their ideology nor their programme represent the interests of the masses to the slightest degree.
To bring out this truth has been a continuous and pressing challenge for the revolutionary communist forces in the Middle East in their task to arouse and organise the masses to fight for the goal of overthrowing the reactionary states and ousting imperialism. Over two decades of experience in both Iran and Afghanistan have demonstrated in a crystal clear manner that Islam is not a liberating ideology and that the political and economic programmes of the Islamic forces do not represent any rupture with the ugly oppressive societies of the Middle East, which are semi-feudal, semi-colonial constructs of imperialism in alliance with local reactionary big capitalist-feudal classes. However, as Mao said, “Where the broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish of itself.”
Already for too long the Islamic forces have distorted the struggles of the oppressed masses in the Middle East, wasted their sacrifices and tried to dissipate their tremendous energy with religious ideological shackles and reactionary political programmes. In this way, the Islamic forces have contributed to delaying revolutions in this part of the world, thereby providing great service to world imperialism.
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Posted in anti-semitism, capitalism, islam, Nasreen Jazayeri, war on terror | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike E on March 28, 2008
By Mike Ely
Tellnolies writes:
“When every white supremacist in the country crawls out from under their rocks to smear Obama will we go to the Black community and say he doesn’t deserve their support because he voted for CAFA? When every dirty trick is used to suppress the Black vote across the country are we going to stand outside polling stations with toilets urging people to cast their votes there? Not if we don’t want to earn the special place in peoples hearts that has been previously reserved for the Spartacist League.”
Lemme start with some questions: Can’t we oppose the racist outpouring (that has already started) without supporting the imperialist politician it is aimed at? Can’t we acknowledge that “an important debate has been triggered by the election process (and underlying contradictions)” without needing to support the politician who was forced into the center of it?
I tried in my post “Obama: Truth and Denial in Modern Amerikkka” to oppose the attack on Rev. Wright and the correct side of his ideas…. without feeling any need to uphold Obama (who is/was clearly a target of that attack).
It is one thing to say, as Tellnolies does, “We should have no illusions about what he will do in office…” But how do we make that real? How do we know we are not having (or promoting) illusions? As we forcefully dig into the questions of where racism comes from and how it ends — do we really need to urge people to vote? Do we really need to go vote ourselves — and give legitimacy to all this represents
To put it another way: I believe that quite a bit of illusion has been represented here on various threads concerning Obama.
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Posted in African American, anti-racist action, Barack Obama, candidate quotes, election, Marxist theory, Mike Ely, politics, Soujourner Truth, theory, war on drugs, war on terror | 9 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 27, 2008
The following piece appeared in Counterpunch on February 29. Matt Gonzalez is a former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and is running on Nader’s ticket this year as a vice presidential candidate — which gives a sense of the electoral and reform-minded framework this criticism of Obama (and the Democratic party more generally) is coming from. However, at the same time, it gives an interesting sense of what (and who) Obama has actually represented, in political life, up until now.
by Matt Gonzalez
Part of me shares the enthusiasm for Barack Obama. After all, how could someone calling themself a progressive not sense the importance of what it means to have an African-American so close to the presidency? But as his campaign has unfolded, and I heard that we are not red states or blue states for the 6th or 7th time, I realized I knew virtually nothing about him.
Like most, I know he gave a stirring speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. I know he defeated Alan Keyes in the Illinois Senate race; although it wasn’t much of a contest (Keyes was living in Maryland when he announced). Recently, I started looking into Obama’s voting record, and I’m afraid to say I’m not just uninspired: I’m downright fearful. Here’s why:
This is a candidate who says he’s going to usher in change; that he is a different kind of politician who has the skills to get things done. He reminds us again and again that he had the foresight to oppose the war in Iraq. And he seems to have a genuine interest in lifting up the poor. But his record suggests that he is incapable of ushering in any kind of change I’d like to see. It is one of accommodation and concession to the very political powers that we need to reign in and oppose if we are to make truly lasting advances.
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Posted in Barack Obama, candidate quotes, capitalism, Democratic Party, election, Matt Gonzalez | 5 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 27, 2008
Maz calls attention to the following essay written by “A Circle of Revolutionaries in Canada.” It was originally posted on the Maoist Revolution List. It adds to the earlier discussion we have already over Maoism vs. Jihadism.
I thought the following passage (which is the closing of this essay) have general importance (including to the discussion of Obama happening on our other threads.)
To go off on a little tangent, and at the risk of sounding trite, we’d like to recall a scene from the film Million Dollar Baby, in part about a woman boxer’s (Maggie, played by Hillary Swank) rise through the ranks and her relationship with her trainer (Frankie, played by Clint Eastwood). In one scene, Maggie is getting beat in the late rounds of one of her first bouts. Sitting between rounds, she asks Frankie why she’s losing. Frankie responds pithily: Cause she’s a better fighter than you, that’s why….Now, what are you gonna do about it? Maggie then proceeds to get up and knock out the other fighter. Of course, Maggie knew that her old skills weren’t working, and that she was going to have to adjust her game and get real better real fast if she was going to win that fight. We live in a time when even the possibility of universal emancipation is being questioned, where we’re being outmaneouvered by various political tendencies, and where we’re currently very weak, and other forces are very strong. The suggestion is even made that we should get behind whatever is out there now, or become legitimate targets ourselves. In short, it’s a nasty fight, and we’re behind on points. Now, what are we gonna do about it?
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Posted in Afghanistan, communism, fundamentalism, Iran, Iraq, Iraq war, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marxist theory, Palestine, peoples war, war on terror | 19 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 27, 2008
This piece (published in Nation), its arguments and assumptions is worth a close study and sharp debate for many reasons — including that they articulate views and assumptions that are widely expressed among a certain kind of left progressive. And it represents a set of views that revolutionaries need to understand and be prepared to engage.
Progressives for Obama
written by Tom Hayden, Bill Fletcher Jr., Danny Glover & Barbara Ehrenreich
Published on March 26 by Progressive Democrats of America
All American progressives should unite for Barack Obama. We descend from the proud tradition of independent social movements that have made America a more just and democratic country. We believe that the movement today supporting Barack Obama continues this great tradition of grassroots participation, drawing millions of people out of apathy and into participation in the decisions that affect all our lives. We believe that Barack Obama’s very biography reflects the positive potential of the globalization process that also contains such grave threats to our democracy when shaped only by the narrow interests of private corporations in an unregulated global marketplace. We should instead be globalizing the values of equality, a living wage and environmental sustainability in the new world order, not hoping our deepest concerns will be protected by trickle-down economics or charitable billionaires. By its very existence, the Obama campaign will stimulate a vision of globalization from below.
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Posted in Barack Obama, candidate quotes, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, immigration, labor, war on terror | 19 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 26, 2008
Thanks to Tahawus for suggesting this post.
The Politician and the Preacher
by Mumia Abu-Jamal [written 3/15/08]
The recent quasi-controversy over the comments made by the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, retired pastor of the United Church of Christ, to which Sen. Barack Obama (D.IL), both belongs and attends, has shown us how limited, and how narrow, is this new politics peddled by the freshman Senator from Chicago.
Although first popularized via the web, the Reverend’s comments caused Sen. Obama to say he was “appalled” by them, and he has repudiated such remarks as “offensive.”
Just what were these comments? As far as I’ve heard, they were that Sen. Hilary Clinton (D.NY) has had a political advantage because she’s white; that she was raised in a family of means (especially when contrasted with Obama’s upbringing); and she was never called a n*gger.
Sounds objectively true to me.
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Posted in African American, anti-racist action, Barack Obama, candidate quotes, election, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoners | 13 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 25, 2008
The following thread contains an unfolding discussion about revolutionary politics and the electoral moment.
Suggestion: click to where that discussion TAKES OFF.
Obama: Truth and Denial in Modern Amerikkka
by Mike Ely
Let’s start with some truths:
How rare it is to turn on TV and see someone state the simple truth that the U.S. is a racist country run by rich white men. It has been remarkable to hear the suddenly-famous Rev. Jeremiah Wright describe how leaders in the U.S. have no sense of the lives of the oppressed, especially African American people. To hear passionate denunciation of the import of drugs with high-level complicity, of the Three-Strikes law and of the prison warehousing of young Black men. It was startling to hear someone say that we can’t understand 9/11 and the reaction of the world without looking deeply at U.S. mass murder at Hiroshima, Nagasaki and a hundred places since. It was a rare moment where very basic truths were powerfully expressed in public view, on TV, in a way that saturates national discussion for a week.
But it all comes with enforced denial:
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Posted in African American, anti-racist action, Barack Obama, candidate quotes, Democratic Party, election, Mike Ely, racism, slavery | Tagged: Jeremiah Wright | 45 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 25, 2008
by Jaroslav
Start by downloading two radio shows from Revolution Radio now: the first one and the current one
Why?
People need inspiration. Revolution isn’t just about economic statistics, it’s about rage & love & despair & hope. “Anger is a gift,” as Zack de la Rocha whispered.1
Revolution Radio dispels three myths, not by essay but by presenting evidence:
- There is a wealth of revolutionary music out there already;
- Music from around the world is not just ‘world music’ i.e. recordings of some old folks singing feudal love ballads;
- Revolutionary music comes in various genres.
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Posted in internet radio, music, podcast | 5 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 24, 2008
A memory from the Wall of the Communards
by Mike Ely
It was a rainy morning. But it was the only day I had in the city and I wanted to pay my respects.
My walk took me slowly up the streets of Belleville, the old working class district on the eastern edge of Paris. The neighborhood was still poor. Sidewalks and cafes were full of Arab and African immigrants. The cops appeared only in groups, heavily armed.
And so it was not hard to go back to 1871 in my mind, and imagine the fighting, up those narrow streets. The skies had been lit by flames and heavy with smoke as the Communards retreated before troops, block by block, in fierce fighting, until the last of revolutionary fighters were cornered in Pere Lachaise cemetery.
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Posted in anarchism, communism, France, Internationale, Karl Marx, Mike Ely, Paris Commune, revolution | Tagged: 1871, howard zinn, La Commune, Paris, Pere Lachais | 7 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 24, 2008
Kasama received the following commentary from Linda D, a revolutionary artist living in Mexico.
I have just started to read through the 9 Letters and the polemics therein by the Kasama Project.
I salute you for bringing these questions to light and for allowing those of us on the “outside” to try and get a handle on a meaningful debate.
I further applaud you for fomenting debate–“debate” in my opinion is something the RCP only pays lip service to. Interestingly enough I was guided to your thoughtful and in-depth writings via the RCP. Was curious what was “new” in their “new synthesis.”
I am a former member of the RU and RCP, and while a member dared to question aspects of their political line (in particular around mass line, cult of the personality, meaningful internationalism, art and culture, homosexuality, and their own insular/siege mentality), but was either dismissed as “intermediate”, relegated to worker-bee status, or labeled a “renegade”, “agnostic,” ad nauseum.
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Posted in 9 Letters, Bob Avakian, communism, Linda D, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, RCPUSA, UCP Nepal (Maoist) | 2 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 24, 2008
Our post yesterday reported that Toufic El Rassi’s graphic novel “Arab in America” is now published (and someone told me it is available in bookstores like Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon). Since then I have received a few panels from the book to share.
Click on these thumbnails to see the drawings themselves.
Posted in antiwar, Israel, Palestine, racism, Toufic El Rassi, war on terror | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on March 23, 2008
by Mike Ely
One of the most common myths of conservative thinking is that there really are no white racists left. This is done by defining a “white racist” as someone who pathologically hates Black people on sight, uses the word n*gger with fearless insistence, and upholds crude arguments of racial segregation and Black inferiority. By those standards, there are (of course) few white racists left — since even the people most viciously and aggressively hostile to Black advancement and equality no longer publicly use those arguments.
But in fact, white racist arguments are actually insisted upon throughout the public discussion. And millions of people will aggressively parrot those arguments back, when confronted with outrage over Black people’s continuing oppression. And, actually and ironically, a pivotal argument of modern white racism is that white racism no longer exists!
It goes like this: legal obstacles to Black equality were abolished with the destruction of Jim Crow (poll taxes, formal segregation, etc.) And so one the legal playing field was leveled, the only obstacles Black people face are self-imposed (by a culture of victimization, by a cultural lack of willingness to succeed, and by, it is often left unsaid, other forms of innate or cultural inferiority.)
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Posted in African American, anti-racist action, Barack Obama, Mike Ely, racism | 15 Comments »
This is part of a larger piece called “The Anti-Empire Report“
