Marx, Lenin, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Some reflections on the fate of great human beings who spent their lives in the service of humanity and the working class inspired by Lenin's masterpiece "State and Revolution."
In that work Lenin remarks that the great leaders of oppressed humanity are reviled and hated by the rulers of the day but after their deaths attempts are made "to convert them into harmless icons." Martin Luther King was reviled in his day as a trouble maker because of his civil rights work and as a traitor because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. Now he has schools named after him and his birthday is a national holiday. His fiery rhetoric against racism and imperialism forgotten. Malcolm X has suffered a similar fate. Once hated by the establishment and mass media he now has streets and housing projects named in his honor and his image graces postage stamps. His ideas virtually forgotten.
We have also seen the arch "terrorist" and communist agent Nelson Mandela rechristened as the grandfatherly "Madiba" an advocate of nonviolence-- his call for the oppressed to arm themselves and fight for their liberation lost among the platitudes of the world figures who rushed to his funeral to heap praises on the man they tried for so many years to undermine and destroy.
Just so was the fate of Karl Marx according to Lenin. Many left wing politicians and labor leaders of Lenin's day praised Marxism and even called themselves Marxist-- along with university professors and public intellectuals (then as now their name is Legion)-- but their real purpose was "to omit, obscure or distort the revolutionary side of this theory, its revolutionary soul." Lenin has suffered the same fate.
On this holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. let us do more than honor his memory but also recall the real revolutionary nature of his thought which aimed at the overthrow of the system that has produced racism, war, and oppression and now threatens the very existence of civilized life, if not life itself, on our planet.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Did Warren Slander Sanders?
Well, it was Ms. Warren who, falling behind Sanders in the Iowa polls, started this internecine fight with the Sanders forces. Many commentators have, since the campaign began, pointed out that Sanders’s base is broader and more varied than Warren’s which is in fact rooted amongst the better educated and affluent Democrats and Sanders’s people pointed this out and opined that Sanders would attract a larger vote in the general election. Warren then claimed she had been “trashed!”
It is strange to think that saying someone is popular with highly educated and affluent people is “trashing” them. Warren then, knowing how incendiary sexism is, accused Sanders as having said to her in a private conversation that he didn’t think a women could win the presidency. A claim completely impossible to verify, completely out of character with Sanders’s public positions, completely inconsistent with his history as an independent socialist, and denied by Sanders himself. Warren may be deliberately slandering Sanders in an attempt to improve her poll numbers at his expense, or is misremembering or misunderstanding, this past conversation. She is adamant and refuses to accept the possibility of her being in error. In any case, this brouhaha is something she has deliberately brought about and risks weakening the progressive forces and inadvertently increasing the possibility of a Trump victory in November. It puts her bona fides as a genuine, rather than an opportunistic, progressive at risk and indicates that it is she who has trashed Bernie Sanders, not vice versa.
It is strange to think that saying someone is popular with highly educated and affluent people is “trashing” them. Warren then, knowing how incendiary sexism is, accused Sanders as having said to her in a private conversation that he didn’t think a women could win the presidency. A claim completely impossible to verify, completely out of character with Sanders’s public positions, completely inconsistent with his history as an independent socialist, and denied by Sanders himself. Warren may be deliberately slandering Sanders in an attempt to improve her poll numbers at his expense, or is misremembering or misunderstanding, this past conversation. She is adamant and refuses to accept the possibility of her being in error. In any case, this brouhaha is something she has deliberately brought about and risks weakening the progressive forces and inadvertently increasing the possibility of a Trump victory in November. It puts her bona fides as a genuine, rather than an opportunistic, progressive at risk and indicates that it is she who has trashed Bernie Sanders, not vice versa.
Friday, December 27, 2019
Bernie versus Biden
Going into 2020 it's Bernie vs Biden and if Warren really wants to further the progressive cause she should consider backing Bernie as a Sanders/Warren ticket would do the trick, ensure her future presidency, and guarantee 16 years of progressive leadership to build the foundations for a major socialist movement in the USA. However "Our Revolution" and "Capitalist Bones" are cognitively dissident so Warren would have to tone down her ruling class rhetoric in praise of a system responsible for two world wars and the uncountable millions of deaths through exploitation, colonial and neo-colonial oppression, US military aggression worldwide and which is the foundation upon which all Nazi, fascist and neo-fascist regimes and military dictatorships are founded.
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
NY State, Gov. Cuomo, and the Right to be Married
Well, the issue is even deeper. Trump judges often have strange racist and anti-humanist views and many no doubt would refuse to officiate at a gay wedding. Cuomo blocked all this class of judges not just those appointed by Trump, but by Obama, Bush, etc. The state must protect the rights of all its citizens and prohibit and punish racism and discrimination which deny equal civil rights to all. The state should revoke the rights of everyone currently empowered to perform legally recognized marriages and require a special license granted by the state to be obtained by individuals who wish to conduct weddings and only recognise marriages conducted by properly licensed individuals who must have obtained a license by signing an application containing a pledge or affirmation to conduct weddings without any discrimination against any group of people who are subject to the laws of the state -- this includes gay couples, mixed race couples, undocumented couples, etc. The new law should become effective six months after enactment to enable all those currently allowed to perform weddings to submit their applications and become certified by the state. Religious bigots and others can still perform whatever ceremonies they wish but no marriages will be legally recognized unless performed by a certificated state sanctioned officiant. Anyone who refuses to conduct a marriage sanctioned by the state will have his license revoked and will no longer be able to perform legal marriages. [Enforcing Bill of Rights Socialism: the right to be married]
Monday, November 25, 2019
Elections in Hong Kong
"On Monday, Mrs. Lam said in a statement that the government respected the results of the election. “Many have pointed out that the results reflect the public’s dissatisfaction with the social situation and deep-seated problems,” she said, adding that the government would “listen to the views of the public with an open mind and seriously reflect on them.”
This is an opportunity for the two sides to work out compromises that will work for both. The election shows Hong Kong already has a democratic way to possibly solve the contradictions between the protest movement and the government and hopefully both the violent demonstrations and the police responses will be toned down. The leaders in Beijing should draw the correct conclusions from this vote and not over react nor should extremists in the protest movement try to provoke continued violence and appeal to hostile external enemies for support. The US especially should stay clear of this clearly internal affair of the Chinese people.
This is an opportunity for the two sides to work out compromises that will work for both. The election shows Hong Kong already has a democratic way to possibly solve the contradictions between the protest movement and the government and hopefully both the violent demonstrations and the police responses will be toned down. The leaders in Beijing should draw the correct conclusions from this vote and not over react nor should extremists in the protest movement try to provoke continued violence and appeal to hostile external enemies for support. The US especially should stay clear of this clearly internal affair of the Chinese people.
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Warren Retreats from Medicare for All
Ms. Capitalist Bones makes her first retreat. "Her latest proposal, then, is smoke and mirrors, a red herring—any cliche you like." She now wants the public option and will later work for a single payer system. This keeps the private insurance industry rolling along. Don't get me wrong, Ms. CB is still the most progressive Democrat (Bernie is an Independent Socialist and not part of the Democratic Party although he votes with the DP in Congress as an ally against the RP) but not as progressive as Bernie.
It is not a personal failing of Ms. CB that she is backtracking on Medicare for All but rather the logic of the capitalist system that the DP represents and she wants to work within that system and Bernie's Medicare for All smells too socialistic for the powers controlling the DNC. By taking this pro-capitalist position Ms. CB reduces official opposition to her and refocuses stronger opposition against Bernie.
The same capitalist logic that destroyed Obama as a progressive (he is de facto opposed to both Ms. CB and Bernie) will also kill off most of the progressive programs that Ms. CB now advocates once she gets into office, that's why it is so important for class conscious workers and others who remain convinced in the viability of socialism to redouble their efforts to get Bernie the nomination and not fall for the right-wing labor leaders and their supporters who back Ms. CB and who also know which side of the bread their butter is on (not the socialist side). Bernie may lose and we get stuck with Ms. CB but until then, it should be Bernie or Bust.
Saturday, November 02, 2019
Trump versus Congress & Pentagon re Aid to Lebanon's Army
The package is known as foreign military financing, which is major aid that is usually managed by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, part of the Defense Department." Talk about interfering in other people's countries! Here we give millions to a foreign army to carry out policies against domestic opposition groups the US doesn't like and to keep a government we approve of in power. Here the DNC, MSM, and CIA scream like stuck pigs because they think Russia put up Facebook pages against Killary! Imagine Putin funding the Mexican army to the tune of a hundred million dollars, or that of Venezuela. The US would go ape over that, yet it is business as usual for the US to do just that and even has a special government agency to do it. The ridiculous hypocrisy and childish outrage over alleged Russian meddling in our rigged election system via misleading Facebook pages or revealing the truth about Killary's campaign via unsecured emails is a sick joke compared to the actual deeds of US imperialism (arming and supporting rebel groups in Syria prolonging a destructive and failed attempt at regime change, plus wars and killings around the world on a mass scale) and people on the Left who fall for this garbage should be ashamed of themselves for playing the role of useful idiots for our monopoly capitalist ruling class.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Is Warren Progressive?
You can't have "capitalism in your bones" and be a progressive at the same time. Only the politically unsophisticated and naive leftists believe Warren will do anything but further the interests of the neoliberal international order and make cosmetic changes to the methods of domestic capitalist exploitation in order to win back the youth from their disillusionment with capitalism and flirtations with "socialism." This article is another attempt to further Warren's chances at the nomination as the whole of corporate America is dead set against a Bernie Sanders victory.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
US Creates Chaos in Middle East
Well, if the Russians can sort out the mess US imperialism has left behind in Syria more power to them. This NY Times article shows the US is still stuck in the "cold war mode" as seeing world events in a US vs Russia context rather than one of a multi-polarity of conflicting interests. Two quotes: "In the short term, Mr. Trump’s withdrawal is a win for Russia because it expands the territory under Mr. Assad’s control." Syria is not a part of Russia and it is a win for the Syrian Arab Republic when more of its territory is restored to its government. It is a win for Assad and benefits Russia indirectly as it is an ally of Syria. The clear win for Russia is that it appears as, and is, a stabilizing influence in the region while US imperialism has sown only disruption and chaos. "To be sure, even if developments in Syria and Ukraine present Mr. Putin with tactical and propaganda victories, his aggressive foreign policy of recent years means that Russia’s image will likely remain tarnished in much of the world for a long time to come." This quote is purely the result of the imagination of the reporter as, in fact, the majority of the world's people see the US as having the most aggressive foreign policy and don't consider the Russians tarnished at all for the reactive and defensive foreign policy they have engaged in as a result of US provocations. It's only the US and its NATO allies, and not even all of them, plus a few reactionary Third World dictatorships and client states that echo this anti-Russian line and even many of these want better relations with Russia as its actions seem more rational than those of the US (as this visit of Putin to Saudi Arabia indicates).
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