Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tsetung Thought: Part Three

Greetings,

My apologies for not posting in awhile. Maintaining an online presence through this blog has been difficult in the past several months due to circumstances that has been taking place. Maybe in the future this will be rectified, but I make no promises.

Anyways, I have returned to the issue of the Chinese Revolution, Mao Tse-Tung Thought in the context of Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought. As part of my research into the issue of Mao Tse-Tung Thought, I have read Enver Hoxha’s highly recommended book Imperialism and the Revolution, as it presents the issue of Maoism in the historical context of fighting against revisionism of all hues, particularly Krushchovite and Titoite revisionism. Even before reading Hoxha’s Imperialism and the Revolution, I had set out to collect as much material on the subject as I could find, especially sources from 1976-1979. In essence, I found myself examining the issues that were confronting the Communist Marxist-Leninist Movement at a critical time soon following Mao’s death and the events in China, in which the Chinese Social-Imperialists and Revisionists usurped political power in China. One of the other sources I am currently reading, is the response and comments of the RCP, USA to Hoxha’s book, entitled “Beat Back the Dogmato-Revisionist Attack on Mao Tsetung Thought” by J.Werner. Another source I am currently reading is Bob Avakian’s speech Conquer The World? The International Proletariat Must and Will. I am particulalry looking at the RCP’s publications on these questions because I want to familiarize myself with their arguments and counter-points.

As such, Enver Hoxha’s main focus in Imperialism and The Revolution, is to explain the context of the then present period in which the International Communist Marxist-Leninist Movement found itself among the contradictions of imperialism and the social-imperialists. The section in which Hoxha actually addresses Mao Tsetung is a small section, compared to the others, but within this context of fighting revisionism as part and parcel to waging the class struggle.

I’ve only just started to read the Werner article and Werner hardly addresses the context of which Hoxha is talking about, in fact he dismisses it out of hand as distortions, which he won’t address. Instead, he focuses on Hoxha’s third section entitled “Mao Tsetung Thought - An Anti-Marxist Theory”.

In any case, Hoxha and Werner both bring up the year 1935 and the individual Wang Ming. In fact when Hoxha brings up Wang Ming, it is only to quote Mao Tsetung in criticizing Stalin. So the question that comes to the fore is what was taking place in 1935? In China? In the Soviet Union? What was the international situation? Secondly what was the issue that was being dealt with? Who was Wang Ming and what was his role? No doubt, I know it from Werner’s, and the RCP’s, and even Mao Tsetung’s point of view, but neither do they sufficiently answer the question. Because I’ve not heard of Wang Ming, nor do i know what the issue was regarding this critical time period of the Chinese Revolution in 1935, nor any information of the stand of the Comintern, I will be researching more into these questions.

After doing some research on Wang Ming, I have found that the online journal Revolutionary Democracy carries some excellent articles regarding the Chinese Revolution, the Comintern and Georgi Dimitroff. Also among some sources I will be investigating are the reports that were submitted and published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International, during this time period. I am still in pursuit of some sources, but it has been very interesting exploring and investigating the events taking place. As a result of the 1979 arguments, I now find myself examining events and questions that were taking place leading up to 1935 and beyond.

So far this is the direction I am going, and will provide other thoughts and insight to these questions in a later post - hopefully.

Yours,
S R

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Resources:
Imperialism and The Revolution, Enver Hoxha, 1979

Revolutionary Democracy, Georgi Dimitrov and the Chinese Revolution
http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv2n2/dimitrov.htm

Revolutionary Democracy,Georgi Dimitrov and the United National Front in China 1936-1944
http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv5n2/dimitrov.htm

Speech on the Chinese Question by Georgi Dimitrov
http://marxists.anu.edu.au/reference/archive/dimitrov/works/1937/china1.htm

CONQUER THE WORLD? The International Proletariat Must and Will by Bob Avakian
http://revcom.us/bob_avakian/conquerworld/

The Communist, Number 5, Beat Back the Dogmato-Revisionist Attack on Mao Tsetung Thought, by J. Werner, RCP Publications, 1979

Lesson from the Great October Socialist Revolution

My apologies this isn’t much of a post coming from me. Since I am away from the computer, I thought this was important to share. Bear in mind, although the article is from the standpoint of Indian context and conditions (of which I remain very ignorant of, but still learning about), it speaks volumes for the Communists abroad and in other countries on the necessity of their role and tasks in taking up organizing work for the fraternal unity of nations and peoples in their respective countries.

This article is from the Communist Ghadar Party of India.

Fraternally yours,

Joshua

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Lesson from the Great October Socialist Revolution:
The Working Class must prepare to become the Ruling Class in order to ensure peace, prosperity and progress!

Ninety years ago, the workers and peasants of Russia became the masters of their country by carrying out a revolution which became known throughout the world as the Great October Socialist Revolution. This world historic act heralded sweeping changes in Russia and the whole world.

The imperialist powers of the world – US, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and others – were at that time embroiled in the First World War for the redivision of the world. The treacherous leaders of workers in different imperialist countries justified the imperialist war. They asked the workers to line up behind the bourgeoisie of their own countries, against the workers of other lands. The working class and the people of the imperialist countries and their colonies were made to pay with their blood for this war.

With the slogan “bread, land and peace”, Russia’s workers and peasants overthrew the Tsar, the rule of the capitalists and landowners, and established their own rule. The Bolshevik Party led by Lenin gave the call “war against war”. It led the workers, peasants and soldiers in converting the imperialist war into a revolutionary civil war ending with the victorious socialist revolution. The Russia ruled by workers and peasants withdrew from the imperialist war.

Capitalists and imperialists worldwide spewed venom at Russia’s workers and at the communists who organized and guided them in the struggle. They hurled all their forces to try to defeat the revolution and overthrow socialism. The workers and oppressed of the whole world applauded the victory of the workers and peasants of Russia. They intensified the struggle against “their own bourgeoisie” for the victory of the revolution in their own countries, and supported this same struggle all over the world.

The workers and peasants rule in Russia began to reorient the economy from the old one geared to fattening the pockets of capitalists and imperialists, to the new one geared to fulfilling the needs of the producers of wealth, the workers and peasants. The colonies groaning in the prison house called Russia were granted full freedom and a voluntary union of consenting nations and peoples was created, called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). All the constituent nations and peoples of the USSR enjoyed the full right to self-determination.

Within a relatively short time the Soviet Union took giant strides in all fields of social endeavor. The incomparable superiority of the socialist system over the capitalist system was brought forth in stark relief before the whole world.

Poverty, unemployment, ill health, and illiteracy were eradicated in a very short period of time. The workers and peasants’ state ensured the emancipation of women, by enabling them to work and participate as equals with men in political and social life. The Soviet Union became the first country in the world that granted women the right to vote. Maternity leave was made a right – again for the first time in the world.

The State took on the responsibility of bringing up children, including providing them education, as well as care for the aged and the infirm. Free education and health care were provided to all. All the languages of the peoples were encouraged to be developed.

The Soviet Union became a beacon of peace, progress, prosperity, and enlightenment, for people the world over. The 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union remains todate the most advanced constitution world over in terms of affirming human, democratic and national rights.

The strength and superiority of socialism, of the rule of workers and peasants, was revealed before the people of the whole world during the Second World War. When Hitler’s hordes invaded the Soviet Union, the people united as one to resist and eventually defeat this onslaught. Despite suffering the greatest human and material losses of the War, the Soviet Union made a decisive contribution to the liberation of Europe, and the world, from Nazi fascism.

The world’s first socialist state is no more. Sixteen years ago, the open rule of capital was formally reestablished in Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union. The capitalists and imperialists of the whole world rejoiced at the downfall of socialism in the Soviet Union. Today, Russia is an imperialist country, where workers and peasants are savagely exploited, and unemployment, prostitution, drugs and other evils of capitalism are flourishing.

We communists have been studying why and how capitalism returned to the Soviet Union and other countries. We must ensure that when the working class comes to power in India, we remember each and every one of the lessons learnt from this study of the successes and subsequent downfall of the Soviet Union. The class struggle must continue, and mechanisms put in place to ensure that political power remains in the hands of workers and peasants.

The degeneration of socialism in the Soviet Union began in the fifties of the twentieth century, with Nikita Khrushchev coming to the head of the Bolshevik Party after the death of JV Stalin. Khrushchev refused to address a number of problems in the fields of political theory, philosophy and political economy, which emerged at that time. Instead he supervised the transformation of the socialist Soviet Union into a social imperialist country – a country that was socialist in words, but capitalist and imperialist in deeds.

It attacked Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, and contended and colluded with the US for world domination. The Soviet Union, increasingly, was no longer the source of inspiration it had once been to the workers and oppressed of the world. The economy was reoriented towards militarization and achieving global imperialist aims of a new emerging bourgeoisie. Within the Soviet Union, Great Russian chauvinism was encouraged and national oppression of various nations and peoples was restored.

All this was carried out in the name of communism and the working class, which was systematically marginalized from the political system and process. The militarized and crisis-ridden economy could not satisfy the needs of the populace. At the same time, the new bourgeoisie which had emerged over the years was impatient to get rid of the shell of socialism which was hampering its growth. In these conditions, the bourgeoisie rode on the discontent of the working masses to dismantle this shell, and restore capitalism.

Ever since the victory of the workers of Russia 90 years ago, the principal aim of capitalists and imperialists around the world has been to destroy socialism and to prevent the triumph of proletarian revolutions. With the destruction of socialism in the Soviet Union and some other countries, world imperialism regained the initiative. Revolution went into retreat.

However, the fundamental contradiction of the epoch remains between capitalism, the old system, and socialism the new. The contradictions between capital and labour, between imperialism and the peoples, as well as the inter-imperialist contradictions are all sharpening.

The workers and oppressed peoples and nations of the world are waging fierce struggles against globalization, liberalization and privatization, against imperialism, fascism and imperialist war. It is a matter of time before the tide of revolution changes from ebb into flow. Communists must prepare the conditions so that when the tide turns in the favour of revolution, the working class comes to power.

In the period since the end of the Cold War, the question of democratic renewal has come to the fore in India as well as in other capitalist countries. It has become clear that the system of rule in a majority of countries including India, the parliamentary system of representative democracy, keeps the working class and broad masses of people out of power. The working class and people are showing everywhere that they are not satisfied with a political system that marginalizes them.

Replacing this representative democracy by direct democracy, in tune with the conditions of India is the challenge facing the workers and peasants of India. Blocking this transition are the bourgeoisie and imperialism, as well as political parties that represent their interests. Building the alternative, direct democracy, is the task that communists and workers and peasants of India have taken up. This struggle for democratic renewal, for replacing representative democracy with direct democracy, is the form in which the contradiction between capitalism and socialism is being played out at this time.

As we mark the 90th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the challenge facing India’s working class and communists is clear. The rule of the bourgeoisie needs to be replaced by the rule of workers and peasants. Only then will India march on the road of peace, prosperity and progress for her people! The struggle for democratic renewal — the struggle of the working class led by the Communist party to replace representative democracy with direct democracy — is opening the way to the establishment of the rule of workers and peasants on Indian soil.

http://www.cgpi.org/pages/latest/0710030-Great_October_Socialist%20Revolution.aspx

. . .

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted. Lately things have been busy in my life, certain changes taking place. I am curently working on a literary visual project which is important to me. I am also in a new relationship with a most amazing woman!  Blogging has taken a backseat for now. However with that said, the situation in the U.S. is getting much grimmer for U.S. imperialism and monopoly capitalism. 

More recently, there has been quite alot of movement for the Louisiana Jena Six, (six African Americans who stood up against segregation and racism in their school and community and who are being targeted by the state and government for their resistance), and the movement to Return and to Rebuild New Orleans, in which the International Tribunal on Katrina and Rita shows the failure of the US state in actually providing assistance to the people of New Orleans and exposes the criminal activities of the US state and government against the people. For more information on this please visit www.usmlo.org:

Justice After Katrina
http://usmlo.org/arch2007/2007-09/VR070919.htm#oa

Katrina “Shoot to Kill” Orders Gave Green Light for Jena
http://usmlo.org/arch2007/2007-09/VR070921.htm#1

Katrina, Jena, Iraq Show Necessity
http://usmlo.org/arch2007/2007-09/VR070930.htm#01

In addition to this, is the ongoing activities of the U.S. imperialists to militarize the society. Part of this is the role of the police, of which the NYPD, is trying to establish as a standard for all police throughout the country. Here is the report and analysis of this:

NYPD Report on “Homegrown Terrorism”

http://www.usmlo.org/arch2007/2007-09/VR070925.htm#03

The NYPD report in .pdf format:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf

Another part of the militarization of society is the military excercises of NORTHCOM [Northern Command] and NORAD known as Vigilant Shield 2008. Here is the article: http://www.usmlo.org/arch2007/2007-09/VR070925.htm#02

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In the world of art, I am currently impressed by the work of Matthew Woodson, whose work can be found here: www.ghostco.org His illustrations are awesome!

Also check this little vid out:

The life and struggle of Shahid Bhagat Singh continue to inspire our youth!

The Communist Ghadar Party of India has an excellent article on the life of Shadid Bhagat Singh. S R

No matter, if your Government tries and succeeds in winning over the leaders of the upper strata of the Indian society through petty concessions and compromises and thereby causes a temporary demoralization in the main body of the forces. The war shall continue. It may assume different shapes at different times. It may become open, hidden, purely agitational, or fierce life and death struggle. The choice of the course, whether bloody or comparatively peaceful, rests with you. Choose whichever you like. But that war shall be incessantly waged with new vigour, greater audacity and unflinching determination till the Socialist Republic is established. Till the present social order is completely replaced by a new social order, based on social prosperity and thus every sort of exploitation ends and humanity is ushered into the era of genuine and permanent peace. The days of capitalist and imperialist exploitation are numbered. The war neither began with us nor is it going to end with our lives. It is the inevitable consequence of the historic events and the existing environments.

These words were among the last penned by Shahid Bhagat Singh before he walked to the gallows, confident that the people of India would continue, and finally win “the war.”

This letter was addressed to the Governor General in India, the tip of the spear of British colonialism in the country.

Bhagat Singh had been sentenced to death for killing a British officer as revenge for the brutal assault on Lala Lajpat Rai, that led to the old freedom fighter’s death. Along with his comrades – brothers as he called them – Sukhdev and Rajguru, he was to be hanged for treason against a King he had never accepted.

As the world celebrates the hundredth birth anniversary of this great martyr, these words still hold a message - and a challenge for the youth of today.

India gained independence from the British Empire in 1947, but the dreams of Bhagat Singh and his feisty comrades, as seen by the words of this letter, have remained unrealised.

At the young age of 24, on the cusp of martyrdom, he was letting the British know that he understood the power games they were playing with the Indian elite. He understood that the Indian National Congress led by Mahatma Gandhi was compromising the vision of freedom that ordinary Indians held through deals with the British.

Deals through which the Congress “led” the independence struggle only to borrow the former coloniser’s Westminster model of “democracy” and embrace the capitalist laws that were behind the country’s plunder for two centuries that Britain ruled over us.

Three questions come to mind on reading this crucial letter.

How did a young Bhagat Singh, understand the present and foresee the future in a manner that appears nothing short of clairvoyance?

The answer lies in the science of Marxism-Leninism, which he had ardently studied, discussed and debated.

He had sacrificed his life, and was facing death for striving for a revolution that was nowhere in the immediate horizon. Wouldn’t it be natural for him to, at least now, question the success of the revolution he dearly believed in? What if he had been wrong all along? How could he continue to call the revolution “inevitable”?

Once again the answer lies in Marxism Leninism. The science had taught Bhagat Singh that the revolution, and the victory of socialism over capitalism, could not be stopped.

Nor had he failed in his mission. Far from it – every little detail of the period prior to his death had been carefully planned and skillfully executed.

He and his comrades in the Hindustan Republican Socialist Association had shaken the British empire to a stage that they had to pass the Arms Act – meant to curb the spread of weapons among the revolutionaries – through an ordinance.

With the whole of India closely following the trial in the British officer’s murder, Bhagat Singh and his comrades used the open court as a forum to speak to Indians, and ignite a revolutionary spirit in them. When the British got wise to the aims of the revolutionaries, they were forced to drop the charade of “law and justice”, and hurriedly convicted and sentenced them while banning them from court.

The revolutionaries were thus able to expose the tall claims of justice that the British claimed to uphold.

A final question remains though. What about Bhagat Singh’s firm conviction that “the days of capitalist and imperialist exploitation are limited?” It has been over seven decades and both capitalism and imperialism appear to be going strong. Could the Shahid have been wrong in this assessment?

Not at all. In fact, Leninism teaches us that imperialism is the last stage of capitalism, it is capitalism that is rotting. And over the decades since Bhagat Singh wrote this letter, the moribund features of imperialism has only become further accentuated. All the illussions promoted by the ideologues of capitalism of a world without wars, of capitalism acquiring a “human face”, of capitalism without the plunder of nations and peoples, have been proven to be just that — illussions to somehow safeguard the imperialist system from the revolution.

It follows that a system that has reached stagnancy must go. And like Bhagat Singh, it is the youth who have to once again take the initiative.

Long Live the Revolution!
http://www.cgpi.org/pages/latest/0709017-bhagatsingh.aspx

The Question of Building a Political Party in the United States

The issue of building a Marxist-Leninist Party in the United States is a critical and important one. Defending principles and upholding principles is a vital matter of state and the issue of the Party is crucial to this end. The question of what kind of society do we want is very much related to what kind of Party are we to have?  Furthermore it points to what organization is needed to uphold and defend rights and principles and why present organization of society is incapable of organizing to meet and defend such rights and principles.

As things stand right now, in my view, there is no genuine Marxist-Leninist Party in the U.S., no genuine Vanguard Party of the Proletariat and no genuine Mass Communist Party to lead, defend and assist the working class and people to become an independent sovereign and political force, with the aim and goal of building new arrangements of society that will defend their interests - to build socialism and communism. As contradictions in society are accentuating more and more along class lines and the wrecking of society is being consciously organized by the bourgeoisie and ruling class, the necessity for such a Party exists. 

Recently, a comrade shared with me an article they were especially interested on The Question of Building a New Type of Party by Baburam Bhattarai of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). This must of course be seen in the context of the CPN(M) document of Problems and Propsects of Revolution in Nepal This exchange of ideas can be read in the comments to my Dear Memnoch post.

Although, overall, I still need to examine Bhattarai’s documents and statements and investigate it more and thoroughly before coming to any conclusion, I simply do not agree with his introducing the notions of how the Party in the Soviet Union under Stalin could be seen as an end to itself and overlooking the aims and goals - and the aspirations of the working class and people towards constructing and building socialism and communism. This is how Bhattari presents the issue:

“…As an objective necessity to lead the war and construct socialism (which is by its very nature planned and centralized) in the period of worldwide fierce revolutionary upheavals prior to and just after the Second World War, this over centralized and militarized structure of the Party became a need and an inevitability, and it was indisputably established throughout the world through the Comintern. However, as Mao was to evaluate later, due to some metaphysical weaknesses inherent in Stalin the Party was seen as a monolithic and uniform object rather than as a unity of opposites and a basket of contradictions, and in the absence of a mechanism and process to continuously proletarize the Party with the participation and supervision of the class and the masses a new bureaucratic capitalist class was born and raised within the Party… [QBNTP, Bhattarai]

From what I can observe, Bhattarai targets the word “monolithic” and “uniform” in relation to the concept of the Party.  Never does he decsribe the role of the Party and it was in these terms and context that the concept of the Party of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin can be seen as monolithic, solid and uniform on the basis of upholding political principles - a solid foundation for assisting the working class to rise to power and for addressing problems and contradictions as they arise in social life, but never as something that is eternal, forever and an end to itself, without an aim or a goal.  Without upholding and defending principles, the fight against bureaucracy, against revisionism and opportunism, will weaken the role of the Party in defending and assisting the working class.  By strengthening the Party on principles and to actively defend and assist the working class and people to become a political and sovereign force, it will draw the working class and people to further proletarianize the Party.

In response to this document on the issue of Party Building by Bhattarai, I am presenting the document What Kind of Party that was presented by Comrade Lal Singh on behalf of the Central Committe of the Communist Ghadar Party of India to the Second National Consultative Conference held on Dec 29-30, 1993, and was realeased for discussion in DISCUSSION: Quarterly Review of Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought.  Although the document is within the context of India’s circumstances and situations during this period of the early 1990s, the basic concept of the role of a Communist Party and furthermore What Kind of Party is needed for the development of the working class and people in their fight for sovierein political empowerment is vitally important for comrades in the U.S. to think about. 

What Kind of Party?

(Document adopted at the Second National Consultative Conference of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, held on December 29-30, 1993.)

Preface

We are standing at a very particular time in history, a time when the world bourgeoisie and reaction are launching their greatest offensive against the livelihood of the people and against the progress of society. There is a great offensive against Communism and many parties have turned their backs on the ideology and vision crucial for the working class to emancipate itself. This is a period of the retreat of revolution, the ebb of revolution, a period when the forces of counter-revolution are on the offensive.  

The Second National Consultative Conference was organised by the Communist Ghadar Party of India (CGPI) as part of the struggle to preserve the progressive forces and expand their ranks, to extend the space where the doctrine of communism can flourish and to prepare for the time when the working class and people will launch their own offensive against the world bourgeoisie.

The bourgeoisie in India has launched an unprecedented attack on the livelihood and rights of the people. It is blocking the path for the progress of society. At the same time it is caught up in a profound crisis, especially in the political sphere. To say that this crisis is because of the refusal of the working class and people to go along with the political system as it exists in the country today will be to state the obvious. It cannot be denied that the present economic and political system just does not work. It does not provide for the people. The system cannot benefit society and is only exacerbating the contradictions inherent to it. It is also doing the same internationally.

It will be another truism to say that the reason why the people of India suffer such problems as poverty, communal and other forms of violence, state terrorism, national strife and every kind of diversion, is because they do not have power. Hence the most important question which presents itself is how to provide the people with power. This is the key question of modern democracy and it is a challenge to the communists, to the working class and all those who are genuinely concerned about the plight of the people in India to provide a solution to this problem. Such a question cannot be answered without the clearest possible enunciation of the theme, What Kind of Party? 

Addressing the problem of how people can come to power poses a number of burning questions. There is the question of dealing with the existing parliamentary system, especially the role of the political parties; there is the question of the political process and the question of empowerment of the people. In reality, these problems are organically linked with one another and its is within this context that the questionwhat kind of party is needed to ensure the empowerment of the peoplehas emerged as the most important problem requiring immediate theoretical and practical answers.  

The CGPI has organised itself as a political party of the working class. However, the reality is that the vanguard of the Indian working class is split into many parties and groups. This is the single most important subjective factor holding back the revolution. To build the unity of the working class, and to restore the unity of its vanguard communist party, is the need of the hour. The discussion on unity can no longer be delayed because, even in such critical times, various factions of the fractured communist movement are sending entirely different and contradictory messages to the class. The time has come to elaborate these matters in full view of the class and answer the question, What Kind of Party? Once such a question is elaborated, all those in whose interest it is to build such a party will join together while those who persist on the path of disunity will part company. 

It is for this reason that for Party estimates that the work initiated by this conference is one of the most important tasks of the present period. No party can carry on the basis of an outmoded programme or obsolete tactics. The communists of today must have the resilience to deal with the present problems of the movement and of society, as was done by the communists before within their own conditions.  

In the course of elaborating the question What Kind of Party? the CGPI will work for the restoration of communist unity as the main means of strengthening the working class movement, while at the same time uniting with all the political forces for the empowerment of the people.

Read the full document:

What Kind of Party?
http://www.cgpi.org/pages/documents/wkp.aspx

Bush Executive Orders: Impunity Cannot Crush Resistance

A repost from the Buffalo Forum! 

Bush Executive Orders: Impunity Cannot Crush Resistance

President George W. Bush has issued yet another executive order aimed at resistance in the U.S., particularly against all who oppose the Iraq war. Titled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq,” it directly serves to criminalize the anti-war movement, its organizations, those that support them, as well as individuals. It gives the executive the sole power to decide who is guilty. Those branded by the government will have all assets taken, including funds, membership lists, equipment, buildings, and so forth. As with previous executive orders and terrorism laws like the USA PATRIOT Act, the language of the order is so broad it could apply to anyone. Indeed, the language is “any person determined” by the executive, to pose “a significant risk of committing” acts of violence that threaten the “peace or stability of Iraq,” or economic reconstruction or political reform of Iraq. The order also targets those who “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act.” The desperation of the government to stop resistance is such that one could simply know someone planning an action the government deems might have violence — which is pretty much any demonstration — to be targeted (see article below “New Executive Order Can Be Used Against Protests” for more specifics). Resistance is a right that cannot be crushed with such orders. It is the government impunity such orders unleash that is criminal.

The significance of this particular order is that it is geared toward those opposing the Iraq war and that it so broadly sanctions impunity. It could for example, be used not only against the movement but against rival factions within the ruling class, such as at the upcoming Democratic convention. It is also coming at a time when Bush has systematically put in place other executive orders and directives allowing the president to usurp the power to declare a national emergency and then take over all governance. One such order states directly that “The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government” in an emergency, declared again, by the president alone. As well Congress, far from rejecting these orders, adds to them. Last year’s Defense Authorization Act, for example, allows the president to use the military inside the country for law enforcement against Americans and to take over the National Guard of all 50 states without the approval of the governors, both illegal at that time.

These fascist arrangements must all be rejected as part of the struggle for rights.

http://buffaloforum.org/2007/08/impunity-cannot-crush-resistance.html

FYI:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070717-3.html

Reject the SPP, Tool of U.S. Annexation and War!

Reposting article from Voice of Revolution! 

 

One Humanity, One Struggle

Reject the Security and Prosperity Partnership, Tool of U.S. Annexation and War!

The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), is a tool of U.S. annexation and war. It was created by executive dictate, with the U.S. bringing together the heads of state of Canada and Mexico and making certain they agreed on the SPP. There have been no laws passed, not even debate on the SPP by the legislative branches of government in any of the three countries. The U.S. decides, the executives of Canada and Mexico agree, then all three announce the decisions. The legislature and courts play no role, despite the fact that the decisions commonly are contrary to existing law and standards.

The content of the SPP is openly being directed by the top U.S. monopolies, which lead the National American Competitiveness Council (NACC). These include oil giant Chevron, GM, Ford, Lockheed Martin, GE, Merck pharmaceutical and WalMart. The NACC prepares reports and recommendations, which are implemented by President George W. Bush and imposed on Canada and Mexico, completely against the peoples of all three countries.

The meetings are held in secret with a huge military and police presence to protect these elected officials from the people. The next summit is taking place August 21-22 in Quebec and numerous actions are planned. And already, the SPP is showing its true colors — with the U.S. Army dictating that a planned public forum by activists, at a public community center located several miles from the summit, cannot take place. Instead, the U.S. military decided the community center would serve as its command center, in Canada. Thus the character of the SPP as a tool of U.S. annexation, war and repression is clear. We say U.S. Military and Police Forces Out of Canada! And Stay Out of Mexico!

The aim of the SPP is to create a North America of the Monopolies. The hope is to provide the U.S. with a stable and secure “homeland,” that includes all of Canada and Mexico. This will include integration and use of Canadian and Mexican military and police forces into the U.S. Northern Command, (NORTHCOM), all for use against the peoples at home and abroad.

It should surprise no one that right as the summit is being prepared, the head of NORTHCOM, Air Force General Victor “Gene” Renuart, is claiming, with no evidence of any kind, that al-Qaida is again building “cells” in the U.S. and that the military needs to triple its “response teams.” These teams are to be used inside the U.S. against the people. And President Bush recently issued an executive order allowing such use of the military in an “emergency.” The military already has a team of 3500 troops and Renuart wants two more of similar size.

NORTHCOM also issued a report called “NORAD, USNORTHCOM Plan for ‘Borderless Threats’ with Vision 2020.” As the title implies, the plan does not recognize borders but only U.S. dictate, claiming today’s world is “not a world of borders, but it’s a world of borderless threats, a world of cyber threats, a world of natural disasters on a fairly large scale that can cause substantial damage to our citizens and to their property.” The report also emphasizes that “the commands will partner with civilian agencies, the military Reserve components and the National Guard even more than they have in the past.” (NORAD is the military arrangement that already puts Canadian armed forces under U.S. command.)

The SPP, NORTHCOM and the concrete arrangements they have put in place indicate that the U.S. ruling circles are finalizing their arrangements for war and fascism, and that both require annexation. Additional indicators are recent executive orders by Bush that make the president the government, without Congress and the courts. One executive order puts the president in charge of government in the event of an “emergency”— one the president can declare at any time, claiming “terrorism,” or “natural emergency” or a health-related “pandemic-flu,” and so forth. He also issued an order that essentially targets anyone and any organization that opposes the “war on terrorism,” and war in Iraq, giving the government the ability to confiscate all resources.

The SPP is also designed to control and regulate the workers and natural resources of all three countries for the benefit of the top U.S. monopolies. Immigration is being used as a means to impose common identification cards on all, and to regulate who does and does not work and where. And while the government is giving every appearance that is trying to “close” the borders, in fact, as General Renuart indicates, the aim is to essentially eliminate the borders running east to west and create a single North American perimeter along the oceans.

The border fencing mainly serves militarization and provides an excuse for the U.S. military to get into Mexico, something it so far has not succeeded in doing. It did already manage to build portions of the fence on Mexican territory.

The disinformation and hateful laws and actions in the U.S. against immigrants have as a main aim whipping up antagonisms in the hopes of getting U.S. workers to side with their imperialist masters. It is also being utilized to integrate U.S. forces under the military, including state and local police and governments, as well as those of Mexico and Canada. This integration includes development of detention camps for tens of thousands, for use against immigrants now, against all who resist in the days to come.

The workers of all three countries are striving for fraternal relations of unity and cooperation. They despise these efforts to pit the peoples against each other, as the May Day actions and many others have shown. This drive of the working class for unity and cooperation, with the vibrant struggle to create Another World, is the biggest problem for the monopolies. The monopolies are using immigration and threats of “terrorism,” to try and neutralize unity and cooperation and split the workers into warring factions. We say no! Let all together carry forward the fight for political empowerment and work to strengthen our ties, people to people, organization to organization! We are One Humanity with One Struggle for a new world!

http://usmlo.org/arch2007/2007-08/VR070807.htm#01

Society Must Care for Mental Health Sufferers

Society Must Care for Mental Health Sufferers,
Not Make their Behaviour a Law and Order Question 

Follow-Up on the role of society and mental health sufferers.  Another article from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) continues to discuss the role of societyin assisting mental health sufferers.

Here is an excerpt:

 ”…How the Act will operate in practice, especially given the problem of resources and the lack of recognition of society’s responsibility, remains to be seen. However, it is certain that the fight is ongoing against bad legislation that will in practice do damage to communities and individuals. What is required is for society to take up care and responsibility for mental health sufferers, and for government to legislate to guarantee the resources for the appropriate social bodies to be able to fulfil this responsibility. The outlook underlying the government’s legislation is that there is a class of people separate from so-called normality. Social control is therefore necessary, the argument goes, over those with a “mental disorder” or “illness”. The role of mental health professionals in this scenario is to be agents of this social control and provide the rest of society with protection against those with disorders or illnesses. In this scenario, again society is let off the hook. The fact that society is the conditioning factor for the stresses that lead to mental health suffering for the vulnerable and sensitive is left out of account. With the loss of coherence that this denial brings about, degrees of stress and outright physical illness as a result are the norm, not the exception.

It cannot be accepted that an individual’s behaviour or departure from the prevailing ideological and cultural norms as decreed by those in power should be made the target of punitive legislation. Instead of being stigmatised and tragic cases promoted to justify the prohibition of basic freedoms, mental health sufferers, as with everyone with special needs of various degrees and kinds, should be affirmed as human beings and be given every support, including the right of self-determination. As a whole, the people must ensure that a human-centred society prevails and organise to bring such a society into being, in unity with all those that are oppressed by the present anti-social political and economic system…”

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wdie-07/d07-038.htm

The Historical Crib, the Split Mind and the Will-To-Be

Below, I am posting the excellent article from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) on the situation of mental health and those who suffer from it.  SR

The Historical Crib, the Split Mind and the Will-To-Be

A discussion meeting was held in Yeovil on June 23, 2007, on the topic of Schizophrenia and “The Necessity for Change” Analysis. The “historical crib” and “the will-to-be” are two important concepts which can help explain the current situation for mental health suffers and other people, and contribute to empowerment.

            The discussion took the form of an exchange of experiences and views between the participants as peers, taking advantage of this opportunity which was inspirational and affirming. The discussion was followed by a piano recital.

            We reprint below the presentation “The Historical Crib, the Split Mind and the Will-To-Be”, given by Rachel Nettleship to open the meeting.

* * *

The word schizophrenia translates to English meaning “split mind”. All those who are said to suffer from schizophrenia are said to have a “split mind”. This means they have two distinct trains of thought occurring at the same time where other people have just one. The second train of thought cuts across the first with insulting language, or negative thoughts or provides a running commentary. In terms of consciousness, this can be seen as anti-conscious thought attacking conscious thought. In this sense it is a more stated example of what is going on in society and what all human beings are faced with when in the historical crib. The historical crib can be defined as the cocoon we are born into in that it holds us in a stagnant pool of misinformation and indoctrinates us with the view that things are as they are and can never be changed. It is the struggle against this cocoon that is seen by the status quo as negative behaviour. The initial step in the struggle against this imposed status quo can be viewed as the will-to-be. For those who have been labelled with the diagnosis of schizophrenia the will-to-be is intensified as they are struggling against a huge onslaught of negative voices that seems to be out of their control. Therefore their will-to-be and self-expression is heeded by the ruling class in an even more negative manner than other people. This striving to be free of their mental suffering is the same struggle we all face to be free of the historical crib. In this sense someone said to be suffering from schizophrenia has equal potential to see things outside of the historical crib and by facing the fact that there is a struggle against this anti-conscious thought, brings to their attention that there is another consciousness or way of being striving to be free.

            The development of human consciousness can be summarised as follows:

1.      Consciousness that there is something that gives the individual easy answers, i.e. the historical crib.

2.      Consciousness that this historical crib, which has been the guardian of being, is now coming into conflict with another force – the will-to-be.

3.      Consciousness that the historical crib is going to fail the individual one day.

4.      Consciousness that the final estrangement with the historical crib is only a matter of time.

            The will-to-be demands a crisis of itself in that it needs to struggle and question the historical crib, to finally release itself from false history and the inhuman ideas and values of the imposed society. For anyone this crisis is seen as negative behaviour not in keeping with social and traditional norms, but for someone said to be suffering from schizophrenia this battle is far more arduous. When schizophrenia goes into crisis it is in the form of a psychotic episode. This is viewed by the status quo as negative behaviour that the person is “extreme” or “ill” and not seen as a crisis brought about by the struggle to be free of the voices, commentary or negative thoughts they are afflicted with. This psychotic episode should be seen as the brain’s way of striving to escape anti-conscious acceptance. Those suffering schizophrenia quite rightly do not want to accept the status quo and like anyone go into crisis. When this occurs those of us labelled with schizophrenia are often hospitalised or overly medicated. What needs to happen is to turn the brain’s rebellion into a rebellion against the fundamentals of their own problems, and the fundamentals of society’s problems with the support of the people and the society.

            It is thought that the causes of schizophrenia are two-thirds genetic and one-third environmental. However, the majority of new cases appear within families with no history of the disease. This suggests that the causes can be sourced to our society and the contradictions it inflicts. If someone is to develop a “split mind”, then under the historical crib must be conflict. Capitalism creates a split mind as it seeks to destroy what is true with anti-conscious acceptance of its rules and norms. Someone who is striving to be free of this dogma may be more vulnerable to a “split mind”. In essence capitalism and the historical crib creates split mind thinking by perpetuating lies and deceit, creating paranoia and distortion of what is real. This is reflected in what is described as paranoid schizophrenia where a person may feel they are being watched or that they are being followed by MI5. It is simply a reflection of the chaos created under an imposed history that does not reflect the people’s reality. This is not to say that there are not fundamental causes to the condition of psychosis, but these are generally the product of the imposed system which perpetuates inhumane treatments like abuse and traumatic experiences. These experiences can be the fundamental issue on which the brain develops psychosis.

            What does the historical crib say about those who are mental health sufferers?

            The historical crib tells those with said “mental illness” that they are the problem in themselves, that they are aggressive and violent, and that they as the problem must be dealt with. The mental health system categorises mental health sufferers into their own label or diagnosis; the media sensationalises the idea that those with said schizophrenia are a danger to society. The drug companies say they need medication and the government says they must be sectioned and locked away. In the historic crib we are told that nothing can change, that this is what is and if we don’t accept it we are “extreme” or “ill”. So-called schizophrenics are told that their suffering is for life. These myths are where there is necessity for change. As regards to being violent, in fact proportionately not only do mental health sufferers commit less violent crime than the rest of the population, but they are more likely to be the victim of crime. As regards to mental health problems being for life, people who are said to suffer schizophrenia as all peoples have always striven to understand their problems and want to actively participate in finding out what can be done, and pro-actively find a way out of their crisis.

            The mental health system and society must treat those suffering from said “schizophrenia” as equals and enable the full participation of these individuals in standing up against their problems and involving and drawing on their own wisdom and experience in creating the subjective conditions for their emancipation from an oppressive illness and oppressive society. In so doing they join the workers, women, national minorities, youth, disabled and other mental health sufferers in ending their marginalisation and becoming part of the movement to end the oppression of all, and indeed ending the “split mind” syndrome that the historical crib imposes. Like the infliction of the negative thoughts that plague those with said schizophrenia the historical crib can only survive because of its built-in confusion and insincerity, but this also forms the basis of its eventual destruction. In this way both the historical crib and the illnesses and inflictions it creates are doomed to fail. What’s left is total consciousness and the realisation that history, like human beings, is a living phenomenon and not some dead force “out there” as it was in the historical crib. History and humanity now becomes something that reflects the various forces of society at work. In this way there is a way out of both personal crisis and the crisis of society, which bear close relationship. Those of us who suffer psychosis or have been diagnosed with such a label as schizophrenia have not only to struggle against the average lies of the historical crib but overcome the barrier of such a label as schizophrenia to believe that we are equal members of society and we can and must change things. Only by becoming part of the struggle for progress in the society can we progress in terms of our own problems. We are inextricably linked to every other person who suffers oppression, and in actively participating in the struggle for a new world we are actively participating in fighting our own barriers too. We must fight for and assert our rights for a social and supportive health service which supports us fully in our road to recovery of our own history, our own mind and our true consciousness.

            Those with so-called schizophrenia are a part of us and reflect our struggles against the confusion and lies, and abuses of the current society. Only by recognising the rights of all to gain freedom from oppression can we create a world where such problems can not only be dealt with but there fundamental causes stopped. Those of us in the condition of psychosis or said schizophrenia must empower ourselves to fully participate in the struggle for a just society in which along with workers, women, national minorities, the disabled and the youth we are at the forefront.

Source: http://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wdie-07/d07-034.htm