Archive for the ‘mass line’ Category
Posted by amanezca on December 4, 2012
“El templo de la perspectiva” de Tom Greenall y Jordan Hodgson. Es una representación artística de la historia de nuestro planeta y nuestro lugar en ello (en un pilar de capas) construido como monumento visual. Una exploración secular del significado, contexto y reverencia.
[Gracias a Doxus Turquino por la traducción al español. Also available in English: Communist foreshocks: Words, ritual and symbols]
Mike Ely
18 de marzo, 2012
“La política es tan simbólica como analítica…”
“La audiencia que necesitamos es descubierta a través de medios sociales y culturales, no simplemente atraída con palabras.”
“Como señalara Lenin: el oprimido que se levanta demanda saber cómo vivir, y cómo morir (no sólo qué creer).”
“La gente necesita expresiones ínter-humanas vivas; expresiones sobre la concepción del mundo y la moralidad que sean más que simples catálogos sobre visión del mundo y moralidad.”
Siempre me he sentido frustrado con el presupuesto que podemos atraer gentes hacia la política revolucionaria principalmente “explicándolo” todo —como si, de repente, las personas adquirieran consciencia, militancia, y determinación en la lucha por una nueva sociedad, en gran parte porque se les diga una serie de explicaciones respaldadas por elaboradas estructuras de análisis. Yo he llamado este problema “el fetiche de la palabra”. Un nombre más formal (si necesitáramos otra etiqueta) pudiera ser racionalismo.
Entretanto vemos, tanto en la sociedad como en política a nuestro alrededor, sugerencias de que las “explicaciones,” incluso detalladas y correctas, no son suficientes —y vemos con frecuencia gentes quienes son atraídas a políticas bastante irracionales a través de poderosos medios simbólicos.
Podemos trazar el surgimiento y caída de la fantástica, extravagante, política de Louis Farrakhan —la cual combina el completamente engañoso misticismo con visceral llamado al auto respeto, superación personal, orgullo y mordaz enajenación política.
O podemos ver a grandes secciones del pueblo emergiendo a la vida política durante esta Primavera Árabe, liberándose de décadas de represión y, en su mayor parte, atraídos en primera instancia por la profunda resonancia de “¡Allahu Akbar!” y la ingenua esperanza en la justicia de la ley Shariah.
¿De dónde viene ese poder?
Seguir leyendo este artículo >>
Posted in >> analysis of news, >> communist politics, Black Panthers, communism, Kasama translations, mass line, Mike Ely, organizing, philosophy, theory | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on October 24, 2012
How will we find and connect with those looking for revolutionary politics? Who are they? And what draws them toward communism? (photo: JB Connors)
By Mike Ely
Intro (October 2012)
We need a communist beginning — including both new regroupment among communists and a process of fusion with a potentially partisan section of the people.
And for that, we need the kinds of discussions that have been going on: of where to begin and what to do when we get there.
What is communist political work? What does it look like? How is it different from other familiar forms of trade unionist or left activism?
Whenever such moments have arisen, in the history of modern politics, there has been a view that we go to the workers, and assist them in the struggles they are already waging, and that out of that we would help sum up the lessons of that struggle (which, presumably, will lead to revolutionary conclusions). The arguments for this are often unarticulated and assumed. But when they come out there are often common themes:
- That struggle at the point of production inherently and naturally raises questions about exploitation and surplus value,
- That communist ideas are inherently present (in embryo) whenever people rise in struggle,
- That people themselves can spontaneously develop the ideas they need for self-liberation, or that they will relatively easily recognize those ideas when offered them in an accessible popular format.
And in contrast to this, is a set of contrary ideas:
- That political struggle (over social power, racism, equality, war, macro-policy in society) is a better arena for the development of revolutionary consciousness than the economic struggle of workers in the workplace.
- That there are a significant body of ideas that must be made available to oppressed people “from without” — i.e. from outside their own experiences and struggles, meaning: from the study of history, politics, military affairs, economics, and from the world experience of communist movements.
- That economic struggle is often an important and necessary arena of working class class struggle. And that upsurges (like the 1960s farmworkers, or the 1970s coalminers, or the more recent breakouts of immigrant meatpackers) are an important site for communist work and solidarity. But that economic struggle is not automatically the arena best suited for developing class consciousness (i.e. the consciousness of the need for a new society and the potential working class role in that). In great upsurges of the past (say 1905 in Russia), the political struggle (over power) has often given rise to political consciousness, while mass economic struggle around collective self-interest has often been a way of drawing in the unawakened and intermediate sections of the workers.
- That there needs to be all-round communist work, which is not limited to organizing existing struggles or making such struggles larger and more militant. That all-round work includes participating in key struggles of the people, but also leading — by putting forward specific programmatic (and tactical) approaches based on a revolutionary perspective. And it involves the work of developing historical summations, lively media projects, news analysis from revolutionary point of view, art, theoretical explorations, schools of cadre, durable structures of revolutionary organization, cores of trained accountable leaders and much more.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, labor, Lenin, mass line, Mike Ely, New Com. Movement, organizing, Soviet history, working class | 8 Comments »
Posted by eric ribellarsi on October 13, 2012
A panel of revolutionary speakers gathered on August 12 at the Everything for Everyone Festival. The engagement was marked both by unities and diversity.
The talks confronted a key issue facing communist regroupment and action: How do we build a revolutionary movement today in the belly of this beast?
Let’s engage this discussion — and deepen our common purpose.
The audio of each talk is presented here in YouTube and MP3 format — in the order that they spoke at the E4E plenum.
The speakers are:
- Mike Ely, Kasama Project
- Geoff Mc, formerly with Bring the Ruckus
- Shemon Salam, Fire Next Time, formerly w/ Unity and Struggle
- Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
- Sopiko Japaridze, Take Back the Block, Atlanta
- Question and answer session
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Posted in communism, Kali Akuno, Marxist theory, mass line, methodology, Mike Ely, racism, white privilege theory | 17 Comments »
Posted by Mike Ely on August 19, 2012
“The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only:
1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality.
2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.”
“In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”
Red Flag suggested we revisit this together — to help us imagine a communist movement for this century. It is the second chapter of the Communist Manifesto — the founding document of modern communism — written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in 1848.
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Posted in communism, Fredrick Engels, Karl Marx, Marxist theory, mass line | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on July 23, 2012
“We can’t train communists in an invented greenhouse. You can declare (in a small bubble) that certain ideas are wrong, and don’t deserve discussion. But the moment communists leave that bubble they need to be prepared to confront and answer those ideas (which are quite influential broadly in society).
“How do you prepare radicals to argue for our ideas? By declaring them obviously true? By refusing to debate opposing ideas? No.
“We also can’t build alliances from behind high self-righteous walls.
“The only way to train and prepare people to (themselves) present our arguments, and understand the views of others, is to go through these things in depth — and to draw many people into such debates.”
by Mike Ely
In some ways, this is an odd discussion, but a necessary one.
Mark (who disagrees with me on many points) wrote:
“Mike’s contribution on the need for debate and discussion in the communist movement is one of the best things to come out of this thread. It’s actually this problem which has been holding back the development of a mass movement, the development of thinking cadre who are able to operate outside of the ‘communist bubble’ so to speak, and can actually engage with these debates amongst the masses, where these ideas are held by millions of people.
“The idea that we can build a mass communist movement without debate all these issues is not a perspective which is actually engaged with reality. A movement of millions will be a hive of debate and activity, or it will not be a real movement. We need to develop forms of organisation which can contain debate and differences without the sectarian fracturing which has left our movement small and divided, and develop ways of debate whereby people seek to use debate to come to the truth of the matter, not simply as a way to impose their view, and cadre capable of carrying out these debates amongst themselves and in the wider movement. If we can’t do that then there will be no progress.
Encouraged by this comment, let me share the reason Kasama posts essays we don’t agree with, and that we then together debate those views.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely | 5 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on July 22, 2012
Caption by RI: “The Panthers led some of the most exemplary serve-the-people programs done by revolutionary communists in North America in the last half century. Their work amongst the masses were built into schools of communism for the masses. But the lack of distinction between the tasks of Party organization and the mass organization also left their leadership exposed to infiltration, assassination, and disruption, bringing the organization down as quickly as it went up. How we resolve the contradiction between minimizing exposure to the enemy and maximizing exposure amongst the people?”
The following essay was written for the communist group Revolutionary Initiative / Initiative Révolutionnaire (Canada). Kasama re-publishes it here to contribute to critical discussion over issues this essay addresses.
There have been earlier discussions here on Kasama regarding the mass line. Some previous Kasama discussions on “who are the advanced” can be found here.
by Amil K.
Introduction
The question of what are the tasks of proletarian revolutionaries amongst the masses remains a major point of difference1 between and an obstacle to the unification of the two revolutionary communist organizations in Canada, the Revolutionary Communist Party and our own organization, Revolutionary Initiative. This article is intended to explain the answer to this question not only to advance the unity-struggle-transformation process between Canada’s two revolutionary communist organizations, but also as a general discussion that all revolutionaries should be having.
How RI understands mass work of proletarian revolutionaries can be broken down into three questions:
First, what is the correct form of revolutionary leadership by proletarian revolutionaries among the masses? Based on the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, we uphold the mass line method of leadership; but we do not take it for granted that upholding the mass line theory leads to its implementation in practice. A related question to the mass line in particular and mass work in general is who we understand the advanced masses to be – a question that, as is argued below, follows from our understanding of the contradictions of Canadian society. We cannot define our mass work unless we know what sections of the masses we prioritize in our work.
Based on the answer we give to these questions, we then proceed to answer a second major question: How should proletarian revolutionaries relate to the masses in the current phase of revolutionary struggle, which is a phase of regroupement of proletarian revolutionaries in Canada? Or in other words, what should be the relationship between the Party and the masses broadly?
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Posted in >> analysis of news, mass line, Revolutionary Initiative (Canada) | 6 Comments »
Posted by Mike Ely on June 11, 2012
We have eyes, but can we see?
“What happens when ordinary people push their way down that road of peaceful, structural change in a determined (even desperate) way and run into grim, immovable obstacles?
“And what does it take to force those obstacles out of the way? And what does it take for a determined people to grasp those means?
“If the framework of the old state (parliament, spectrum of respectable parties, current Army, Golden Dawn police) prove to be those obstacles — then what changes do we all make (conceptually) in the strategies we pursue, and even in the vision of that radical society we are demanding/creating?”
Kasama is participating in a team of revolutionary journalists leaving for Greece. Please help this happen by donating funds.
Often an observer can see and not understand. Sometimes an observer can understand but not describe. Other times a reporter can describe, but the words are not shared. Here are some of my own thoughts as I try to understand developments and possibilities and competing programs in Greece.
by Mike Ely
- How do we understand events in Greece?
- What does revolution look like now?
- How do people prepare and accelerate movements for radical change?
- What is the difference between “ordinary times” and revolutionary moments?
- What forges and trains a popular movement of self-emancipators?
Let me start here: I don’t believe in peaceful transitions to radical liberated societies. I just don’t think they happen. And yet i think those transitions that will happen — in our common future — will look different from anything we have seen (or expected).
I know large numbers of people hope for easy solutions — satisfying reforms, peaceful transition to new more just arrangements, liberation as concession (that doesn’t necessarily eject a whole political apparatus and norms from power). Who can blame them? But the reality is that oppression is entrenched and tenacious. It bribes, corrupts and organized its defenders. It has build powerful apparatus of lies and extreme violence. It has internal allies and international benefactors.
And so, you don’t uproot oppression except with great force, determination and consciousness. No one stumbles into significant change (let alone lasting liberation) easily.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Greece, Kasama, KOE, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely, revolution, Socialism, vanguard party | 9 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on May 26, 2012
This essay first appeared as a comment within a longer discussion of a document “Some Points on Mass Line” — circulated by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
Part 2 of this essay is available on Kasama.
by Mike Ely
Althusser urges us to make two reads: first is an initial (rather naive) read, where we let a document wash over us and interact with our own existing thoughts. The second is a much more patient reading in depth, where we notice voids in the text, where we read it in relation to other ideas, in context… and so on.
A second-style read of this the FRSO document uncovers (for me) that the document gets the role and origins of consciousness basically wrong — in a way that affects the whole presentation here of mass line. It is a view of mass line that smuggles in a strategic view — that is often accepted without being openly articulated — a view that insists that revolutionary and socialist political consciousness emerges (relatively easily and automatically and sequentially ) from the growth and experience of large and progressive mass movements. In other words, that the main task of conscious people is to build “mass movements” — in the hope (or confidence) that the emergence of those movements will push people and society toward radical change.
I am under a time constraint right now, so forgive me if i am telegraphic.
Our common starting point is (or should be) that the people are the motive force in making world history.
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Posted in mass line, Mike Ely | 4 Comments »
Posted by Mike Ely on May 13, 2012
Several people have asked for a written text of this talk. We have added below the notes from which Mike spoke. It is not a transcript of the talk… it is the prepared text, and so is somewhat different from the spoken talk itself.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Kasama, mass line, Mike Ely, New Com. Movement, Occupy Wall Street | 16 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on May 13, 2012
The 9 letters to Our Comrades was an opening shot of Kasama’s project. These essays sketch a fundamental critique of the Revolutionary Communist Party’s turn toward cultism.
In another sense, it also represent a critique of a more general set of problems within the organized left. It is a critique of failure to deeply engage reality, and a corrupting sense of grandiosity.
Now these 9 essays are available in both main e-book formats.
Click here for the new e-book versions
Previously available forms:
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Posted in >> analysis of news, 9 Letters, Kasama, Kasama videos, Maoism, mass line, methodology, Mike Ely, New Com. Movement, podcasts, RCPUSA, theory, truth and class truth | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike E on March 22, 2012
“Our self-presentation (as a movement, and even as individual people) is part of the symbolism by which our cause is judged. Because people are wise enough not to judge political forces simply by what they say they are about!”
“We should act as if people can listen and transform, and as if we too have things to learn from the each other, and from the oppressed, but even from opponents). This should be like breathing for us.”
“No one minds protest movements stamped by anger — they are trying to pressure for change. But no one wants movements taking power that are governed by anger — because power requires vision and thought, it has to do more than just negate, it also has to construct.”
“In a American society that lives in a permanent infantile present, we should stand out in our long-sighted view — our sense of history and our focus on the future — our patient urging that people look at horizons for what is needed and arising.
“We should come across as intelligent, thoughtful, reasonable in a prepared kind of way — yet that should be marshaled toward shockingly militant and scathing criticism toward everything that surrounds (and oppresses) the people.”
by Mike Ely
Chegitz writes in our parallel discussion around “Communist foreshocks: Words, ritual and symbols“:
“I don’t think Mike is arguing for abandoning rationality, skepticism, the scientific method, but how do we avoid the extremes, and be three dimensional humans.”
Yes, I am making a distinction here between rationalism (which is a form of subjective idealism we should avoid) and rationality — which involves structures of logical thinking and deduction that we should embrace and develop in non-mechanistic ways.
The idea that politics is merely analysis, exposure and telling is a problem I have called “the fetish of the word.” (Some other left political currents have a problem with “the fetish of the movement” — but that is a separate story!)
Politics is not just a “head trip” — and it does not arrive in a linear way “from one to many.” At the same time (to be dialectical) all three parts mentioned here (analysis, exposure and telling) are quite important — we need them, and we need to do more of them. They form central activities of revolutionary work.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, 9 Letters, Kasama, mass line, Mike Ely | 6 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 18, 2012
"Temple to Perspective" by Tom Greenall and Jordan Hodgson. This is an artistic depiction of earth's history, and our place in it (in a pillar of layers) proposed as a visual monument. (Note the human at bottom for scale). A secular exploration of meaning, context and awe.
“Politics is symbolic as well as analytical….
“The audiences we need are gathered by cultural and social means, not just won over by words.
“As Lenin once noted the oppressed and awakening were demanding to know how to live and how to die (and not just what to believe).
“People need living inter-human expressions of world view and morality that are more than tracts on worldview and morality. Successful radical politics need words that are evocative and penetrating — not just precise.”
by Mike Ely:
I have always been frustrated by the assumption that we can draw people toward revolutionary politics mainly by “explaining” everything — as if people become conscious, militant, and determined in the fight for a new society largely by being told a series of exposures backed by elaborate structures of analysis. I have called this problem “the fetish of the word.” Its more formal name (if we need another label) could be rationalism.
And meanwhile we can see both in society and politics all around us, suggestions that “explanations,” however detailed and correct, are not enough — and people are often attracted to politics that are quite anti-rational through powerful symbolic means.
We can trace the rise and fall of Louis Farrakhan’s bizarre and fantastical politics that combines completely delusional mysticism with a gut level appeal for self-respect, self-advancement, pride and biting political alienation.
Or we can see large sections of people breaking into political life in during this Arab spring, being freed for from decades of repression and yet far too often grasping first for deep resonance of “Allahu Akbar!” and naive hope in the justices of Shariah law.
Where does that power come from?
Secular rationalism often assumes (sometimes with a stark singlemindedness) that “incorrect ideas” come from a mix of ignorance and the outside indoctrination by “alien” classes — and so assumes that the antidote is simply hammer the right ideas into the uninformed– a method I call “fire your ideas, hire mine.” It has an element of truth — we do need to be evangelical about communism. But it is often very onesided. In other words, this rationalism has views of people, ideas, culture, and change that are somewhat flat — and its failures confirm this.
I believe in spreading revolutionary exposure and ideas. I think revolutionary theory will play a powerful role in regrouping a new revolutionary movement. I’ve often resented as unfair the familiar stereotype of the communist militant “just peddling newspapers at the sidelines.” After all, I have written, designed, edited, sold, promoted, and nurtured radical newspapers all my life. And I think we should (now!) be develop biting, attractive, irresistible centers of news, opinion, analysis, satire, humor, and theory.
But… but… despite all that, I do think, at the same time, we should create and use our new revolutionary media without naively reproducing the assumptions and practice of previous rationalism.
Here is something that has often been missing: Politics is symbolic as well as analytical. Political attraction is also visceral and cultural. It involves a verbal “winning over.” It requires us to be fearless about representing our beliefs.
But, looked at all sidedly, the audiences we need will gathered by a number of cultural and social attractions, not just “won over” by words.
As Lenin once brilliantly described the oppressed and awakening were coming, demanding to know “how to live and how to die,” and not just what to believe. To be able to carry through a real process of base-building, we have to learn from our audience (i.e. “from the people”) as well, not just the other way around. That is the process Mao called the mass line.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Black Panthers, communism, mass line, Mike Ely | 15 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on January 30, 2012
The road is tortuous, the future is bright
“One of the inflexible tasks of any communist organization (and any communist leadership) is to help train everyone (both the communists at all levels, but also the supporters of the movement) to evaluate choices by these criteria: Where does it lead? Who does it serve?
“And one of the difficult tasks in moments of struggle is to apply those criteria consciously, in the midst of great pulls, demagoguery and confusion.”
by Mike Ely
Pham Binh writes in the nearby discussion of Unsettled questions:
“It’s not true that ‘line is key.’ Lines can change. Control from below and the ability to adapt are key. Unfortunately there is no vaccine against political/organization degeneration.”
This discussion reminds me that we have to work to develop a common language. The word “line” is being referenced here in some very different ways. To even engage possible differences (over what is “key”), we have to start by explaining what we each mean by the word “line.”
Here, if I am guessing correctly, Pham Binh is using the word “line,” as it is often used in many corners of the left: Line is a word used to describe political positions. As in: “What’s your line on the war?” or “What is their line on Puerto Rican independence?” And in that usage, it is reasonable to say that specific policies can come and go, and are therefore not decisive in preventing betrayal or defeat.
By contrast the Maoist concept of line, answer the questions “where are we heading, what do we serve?” And the phrase “line is key” is an assertion that in complex struggle, the key question is to evaluate things in terms of where it leads, and what goals it will advance. And in that sense, I would suggest that vigilant attention to overall line (i.e. direction and goals) is key to preventing defeat, reversal, betrayal and getting lost.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, communism, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely | 125 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on January 25, 2012
by Mike Ely
Chegitz writes:
“…no form of organization is immune from degenerating into something awful.”
And he gives the example of the collapse of the Socialist Party (which he has been part of) — which was constructed along different (more loose and anarchic) lines than the mini-parties we have otherwise been discussing.
I think Chegitz’s point is true, and its implications are worth exploring.
And this includes forms like the commune or soviet forms of governance by representative mass democracy — which solve some problems, but exist in the context of dynamics that inevitably create new and ongoing problems. And it is true for the vanguard party, both in the forms we are familiar with, but also in future forms of core organization that we might imagine or build.
Pointing out the organizational problems with previous mini-parties (and their peculiar versions of democratic centralism) also does not mean there is are necessarily organizational solutions to those problems.
If you have evidence of a form of organization producing troubling dynamics — the solution may involve some other form of organization, but let’s not assume that changes of form provide some simple, definitive corrective.
There may be better forms (political procedures, habits, structures) — better for our purposes, better for our particular moment or our current stage of development — but the solution (to becoming exhausted, uncreative, marginalized, ossified, cultish, even corrupt) isn’t necessarily (or simply) to imagine some pre-figured and presumably immune alternative form(s).
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Posted in >> analysis of news, communism, Maoism, mass line, Mike Ely, vanguard party | 15 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on December 2, 2011
the road to dawn
Can you explain our final goals in a contemporary way?
What would you say?
Write yours below — — in the length of a tweet.
Let’s compare and contrast.
* * * * * * * *
by Mike Ely
We can now often present communism to a generation relatively disentangled from the cold war — and even from direct, immediate reference to previous “real existing socialism.” We can reclaim communism’s global, visionary, communal and experimental-utopian qualities. We have that opportunity. And we have that necessity. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in communism, Kasama, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely, Socialism | 75 Comments »
Posted by Mike Ely on November 11, 2011
by Mike Ely
CWM writes:
“I can appreciate the desire to limit the critique of the RCP to what Mike calls “questions of line” (i.e., their ideas).”
There is a debate here about “the high plane of two line struggle” — something I have argued strongly for. I want to take a second to clarify this term “questions of line.”
I understand why CWM equates line simply with “their ideas” — but that is not exactly how I would look at it.
What road are we on?
Sometimes, on the left, people say “what is your line on this? What is your line on that?”
This is not what I mean by line. To me (and to Maoists generally) line is a matter of examining “where does this lead?” It is like a surveyor’s tool that projects forward.
It is an approach to methods, policies, theoretical “packages” — that asks the questions: where does this lead? who does it serve? what will come from taking this road?
You have to consciously fight to get things considered and decided on that basis. And only by posing and deciding things on that basis can a communist program come forward, and gain support broadly among key sections of the people.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Kasama, Maoism, mass line, Mike Ely | 14 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on November 8, 2011
by Mike Ely
Louise Thundercloud writes:
“I heard Ralph Nader praise “the brave founding fathers , who settled this land”. I thought I would throw up listening, but I have run into that kind of stuff in many cases in this movement.”
Many people have been trained to think of the settler/slaveowners of the early U.S. as “their” founding fathers. And Louise is deeply correct that this is mistaken, and has ongoing implications for politics. History is not just about the past, but about the present.
This country was founded in genocide and slavery. It was built and maintained by some of the most vicious exploitation imaginable — obviously of kidnapped Africans but also of impoverished immigrants from Asia and Europe who were herded into mines, and mills.
And it is not just that the “founding fathers” were slave traders, capitalists, and slave owners (and therefore not “ours”) — but (more controversial even) their very political system, constitution and even their concepts of property, authority, law, and morality were all deeply marked by this exploitative, expansionist and genocidal nature.
They are not “our” founding fathers — but the founders of the empire we now confront, and within which we seek to act as an increasingly conscious and determined force of negation.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, communism, Kasama, Maoism, mass line, Mike Ely | 9 Comments »
Posted by redflags on September 26, 2011
Pr
otests have sustained through the first week on New York City’s financial district. NYPD have increased their pressure, using mass arrests and pepper spray on non-violent protesters. State violence appears to have increased the resolve of the encampment.
Click here for live stream from occupied Wall Street
Click here for photo stream on Flickr
With mainstream media ignoring (or belittling) the protests, you can be the media. Click here for downloadable flyers to put up at your school, workplace, local train station or wherever.
Posted in >> communist politics, >> International, anarchism, art, civil liberties, communism, corporations, economics, financial crisis, mass line, occupy wall street, occupywallstreet, organizing, police, politics, poverty, Protest, social networking, Socialism, USA, working class, youth | 2 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on September 25, 2011
A powerful current in Nepal has wanted a new society and a new form of state power. photo: Jed Brandt
by Mike Ely
CWM raises some important questions when he asks:
“Do you know if there are attempts to strengthen democratic mechanisms within the UCPN (so that the leadership can’t dismiss the wishes of the base in the future)? Also, if a split were to occur, is there reason to suppose that the new formation would be more democratic than the UCPN is now?”
“In comment 25, Eric mentioned mechanisms through which UCPN members can hypothetically influence party decisions, but these mechanisms seemed to require meetings in urban centers, which would presumably be quite inaccessible for people in remote areas. Does this mean that people in remote rural regions (people like Uday) just passively take orders or are there mechanisms through which they can influence the party? Also, Eric claims that Prachanda transgressed the majority position in the UCPN when he began disarming the PLA, which makes me wonder what mechanisms allowed him to disregard the will of the majority and if his apparent lack of accountability played out in the remote areas in the same way as it did in the urban centers.”
I suspect (from our many discussions) that CWM’s assumption is that the Nepal’s Maoist party and revolutionary movement has some inherently anti-democratic structure, and that this (the very existence of a vanguard party) is somehow inherently the problem that needs to be excavated and dealt with. And (typically of such assumptions) it coexists with very little investigation into the actual power relations and decision-making within this living movement.
The situation is quite the opposite: Never in the history of Nepal has there been a force so dedicated to empowering to the people as this Maoist party. The history of Nepal has literally been divided into a “before” and “after” by the emergence of this movement. In a society where power was previously viewed as divine and the people were viewed as voiceless subjects to a king and his regents — the emergence of an armed force rooted among the poorest and most despised, and dedicated to their interests, is a democratic shift of incalculable magnitude.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, mass line, Mike Ely, Nepal, UCP Nepal (Maoist) | 30 Comments »
Posted by Mike Ely on September 7, 2011
When the old wheel no longer serves your purpose....
The following is an essay by the Freedom Road collective in Tennessee. They describe themselves this way:
“The Tennessee District of Freedom Road is an all young people collective of rank-and-file, former student, and labor activists. “
Posing these important questions is itself a contribution to us all.
This first appeared on the FRSO/OSCL site. Thanks to Harry Sims for suggesting that we post this.
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“…we’re afraid that we find ourselves doing this kind of thing out of the powerful forces of habit and history instead of a shared and unified vision for how we make revolution out of—prepare yourself for scare quotes—’reform’ work we’re doing together.”
“I’m doing a lot of thinking and asking questions about the mass work, how we do it, what we’re doing even, and that really fundamental and existential question: why do we do this at all? Why fight?”
“We don’t just need a communist commitment to mass work, but a communist method of mass work—and we’re not convinced that we have that yet.
“We’ve heard people talk about mass work before in ways that are already figured out; ‘we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.’ Of course, the reason the wheel never needed to be reinvented is because it worked; it moved us from here to there.”
“How is what we’re doing going to get us from here to there, to revolution?”
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Why We Fight:
Three Ideas on Why Revolutionaries Should Do Mass Work & a Salvo on How
Written by Comrade Tennessee
I’ve been having a kind of existential crisis about my mass work recently—a real, deep crisis, like getting beat up over and over again by a question you can’t shake.
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