US death toll in Iraq has officially reached 3000. The situation is now a full fledged civil war where two factions are trying to cleanse the country of one another. Bodies are appearing in dumpsters, car bombs and suicide bombings are almost hourly, it is hard to imagine how things could get any worse. Of course, it is worse because we have spent of 350 billion dollars on the war while 38 million people cannot afford to eat on a regular basis, our education system is in shambles, Social Security is a joke, and 40 million people are without health insurance. Hopefully, this new development in Iraq will bring people's attention back to severity of the situation.
WASHINGTON - American deaths in the Iraq war reached the sobering milestone of 3,000 on Sunday even as the Bush administration sought to overhaul its strategy for an unpopular conflict that shows little sign of abating.
The latest death came during one of the most violent periods during which the Pentagon says hate and revenge killings between Iraq's sects are now a bigger security problem than ever.
The death of a Texas soldier, announced Sunday by the Pentagon, raised the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq to at least 3,000, according to an Associated Press count, since the war began in March 2003... Full Article.
I rarely post about marxist theory, especially as of late, but after passing through several blogs where the idea of 'Socialism in One Country' has been debated, I'd like to devote this entry to what it means.
Background Info...
It is October 1917 and the bolsheviks, through revolts by various soviets (worker councils), have seized power and establish the world's first socialist state. Now it is March 1921 and the New Economic Policy is passed through the course of the 10th Soviet Congress. The NEP would also usher in the "War Communism" policies intended to end the armed civil war in the Soviet Union. The NEP would essentially, restore State Capitalism in the USSR. The descision was not easy to come by, and after very slow economic progress, and Lenin's death; the bolshevik party would split on what to do next. By the end of 1924, after the utter failure of Communist Revolutions in the industrialized parts of Europe (ie Germany) from 1917 until 1924, Stalin and later Bakhurin decided that industrialization of the Soviet Union was paramount and that the Soviet Union must concentrate on building socialism in one country.
the Definition
Socialism in One Country was not a call for the USSR to be Republican Socialist, but rather, a bold plan to industrialize the Soviet Union by giving the power to people. This was the opposite of what advocates of the "permanent revolution" were calling for; continuation of State Capitalism until global revolution occurs, despite the fact that Lenin only intended the NEP to be an emergency measure. By no means, was socialism in one country, a "Nationalist" plan. Anyone else who had been elected to General Sectretary of the Party, would have to concentrate on a similiar plan because the Soviet Union was, at that time, a backwards agarian based economy with little industry. Before the Soviet Union could provide aid and arms to other revolutions it had to attain the basic infarstructure to do so. After the Soviet Union had been industrialized, it would aid revolutions and spread socialism as evident in how the Soviet Union provided aid and arms to Chinese Communist Party after WWII and then later provided engineers and monetary aid in the first five year plan.
China would be in a similiar position. After Kruschev took control of the CPSU through basically, a revisionist coup; China was left to stand alone as the last power that was advancing towards communism. Thus it was left with no choice but to industrialize immediatley before aiding other revolutions, which it would (Vietnam, North Korea). Today, Maoists like myself believe that socialism in one country can be achieved and are major internationalists (the two major Maoist groups are the Maoist Internationalist Movement and the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement). Essentially, we don't take the defeatist approach that supporters of the permanent revolution take; every communist revolution should revert to state-capitalism until worldwide revolution. We think that every communist revolution should both, take a great leap towards socialism as well as try to aid other revolutions. Feel free to disagree. I look forward to comments and disagreement from Dave, RE, and others who I have talked to about this topic.
Background Info...
It is October 1917 and the bolsheviks, through revolts by various soviets (worker councils), have seized power and establish the world's first socialist state. Now it is March 1921 and the New Economic Policy is passed through the course of the 10th Soviet Congress. The NEP would also usher in the "War Communism" policies intended to end the armed civil war in the Soviet Union. The NEP would essentially, restore State Capitalism in the USSR. The descision was not easy to come by, and after very slow economic progress, and Lenin's death; the bolshevik party would split on what to do next. By the end of 1924, after the utter failure of Communist Revolutions in the industrialized parts of Europe (ie Germany) from 1917 until 1924, Stalin and later Bakhurin decided that industrialization of the Soviet Union was paramount and that the Soviet Union must concentrate on building socialism in one country.
the Definition
Socialism in One Country was not a call for the USSR to be Republican Socialist, but rather, a bold plan to industrialize the Soviet Union by giving the power to people. This was the opposite of what advocates of the "permanent revolution" were calling for; continuation of State Capitalism until global revolution occurs, despite the fact that Lenin only intended the NEP to be an emergency measure. By no means, was socialism in one country, a "Nationalist" plan. Anyone else who had been elected to General Sectretary of the Party, would have to concentrate on a similiar plan because the Soviet Union was, at that time, a backwards agarian based economy with little industry. Before the Soviet Union could provide aid and arms to other revolutions it had to attain the basic infarstructure to do so. After the Soviet Union had been industrialized, it would aid revolutions and spread socialism as evident in how the Soviet Union provided aid and arms to Chinese Communist Party after WWII and then later provided engineers and monetary aid in the first five year plan.
China would be in a similiar position. After Kruschev took control of the CPSU through basically, a revisionist coup; China was left to stand alone as the last power that was advancing towards communism. Thus it was left with no choice but to industrialize immediatley before aiding other revolutions, which it would (Vietnam, North Korea). Today, Maoists like myself believe that socialism in one country can be achieved and are major internationalists (the two major Maoist groups are the Maoist Internationalist Movement and the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement). Essentially, we don't take the defeatist approach that supporters of the permanent revolution take; every communist revolution should revert to state-capitalism until worldwide revolution. We think that every communist revolution should both, take a great leap towards socialism as well as try to aid other revolutions. Feel free to disagree. I look forward to comments and disagreement from Dave, RE, and others who I have talked to about this topic.
Today in 1893, Mao Tse tung was born in a small village called Shaoshan in the Xiangtan County of China. Today is also Boxing Day, a public holiday in the UK where you chill with your friends. Boxing Day is most likely named Boxing day because it was the day people would give "Christmas Boxes" to those who worked for them.
Mao's Birthday is the more important topic, especially since even today Cold Warrior Propaganda is spewed at the sound of his name. People claim that 100 or 200 million people died as a result of Mao and other crap like that. The numbers of course, are completely pulled out of the ass of people who are well established capitalists, who came up with these figures at perhaps the peak of the Cold War, in very pro-western surroundings.
Also, its quite ironic that you never here about the fact that by 1970 (under Mao), China for the first time in history, was able to aquedately feed its population. You also never here that under Chiang Kai-Shek, there was a famine and people starved every year. Mao's achievements are completely ignored. I heard that it was Mao's birthday on a NPR radio broadcast that was talking about everything that happened today in history, and Mao's contributions were completely ignored. For example, Under Mao, literacy jumped from around 10% to 80% as a result of the democratization of education in the rural countryside. Life expectancy more than doubled as it went from 32 to 70 as a result of the newly introduced barefoot doctors who gave universal healthcare to the people. Maoism also liberated woman with his "woman hold up half the sky" programs like the Marriage Act of 1950 which ended arranged marriage. Maoism also ended the barbaric fuedal confucianist ideas of men being superior to woman and being their near slaves! Maoism industrialized China and turned it into a World Power from a fuedal agarian based economy in about 2 decades. In sum, there is more to the propaganda than meets the eye, and on a lighter note, I hope any and all readers had a good holiday season and a great new year.
Mao's Birthday is the more important topic, especially since even today Cold Warrior Propaganda is spewed at the sound of his name. People claim that 100 or 200 million people died as a result of Mao and other crap like that. The numbers of course, are completely pulled out of the ass of people who are well established capitalists, who came up with these figures at perhaps the peak of the Cold War, in very pro-western surroundings.
Also, its quite ironic that you never here about the fact that by 1970 (under Mao), China for the first time in history, was able to aquedately feed its population. You also never here that under Chiang Kai-Shek, there was a famine and people starved every year. Mao's achievements are completely ignored. I heard that it was Mao's birthday on a NPR radio broadcast that was talking about everything that happened today in history, and Mao's contributions were completely ignored. For example, Under Mao, literacy jumped from around 10% to 80% as a result of the democratization of education in the rural countryside. Life expectancy more than doubled as it went from 32 to 70 as a result of the newly introduced barefoot doctors who gave universal healthcare to the people. Maoism also liberated woman with his "woman hold up half the sky" programs like the Marriage Act of 1950 which ended arranged marriage. Maoism also ended the barbaric fuedal confucianist ideas of men being superior to woman and being their near slaves! Maoism industrialized China and turned it into a World Power from a fuedal agarian based economy in about 2 decades. In sum, there is more to the propaganda than meets the eye, and on a lighter note, I hope any and all readers had a good holiday season and a great new year.
Well, By now we've all heard the great news as its been about a week since his death. Today I stumbled across this old Chilean song so I thought I'd post it in memory of the piece of shit:
Victor Jara of Chile
Lived like a shooting star
He fought for the people of Chile
With his songs and his guitar
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong
Victor Jara was a peasant
He worked from a few years old
He sat upon his father's plow
And watched the earth unfold
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong
Now when the neighbors had a wedding
Or one of their children died
His mother sang all night for them
With Victor by her side
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong
He grew up to be a fighter
Against the people's wrongs
He listened to their grief and joy
And turned them into songs
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong
He sang about the copper miners
And those who worked the land
He sang about the factory workers
And they knew he was their man
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong
He campaigned for Allende
Working night and day
He sang "Take hold of your brothers hand
You know the future begins today"
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong
Then the generals seized Chile
They arrested Victor then
They caged him in a stadium
With five-thousand frightened men
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong
Victor stood in the stadium
His voice was brave and strong
And he sang for his fellow prisoners
Till the guards cut short his song
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong
They broke the bones in both his hands
They beat him on the head
They tore him with electric shocks
And then they shot him dead
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong
I want to create a small archive of Revolutionary Movies. If anyone had any please comment on this entry, or e-mail me, a link to YouTube or Google Video would be great. Here are a few of my own.
** Breaking With Old Ideas takes Roughly 30 seconds to Buffer.
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This Film is a moving story about the bourgieousie decadence, and the gritty poverty of Cuba before the Revolution, and the terrible lifestyles of people which drove them to revolt and fight for liberation. I can't find the movie in full length, only the trailer which can be found here. The movie can be found on sale here for $16. I highly reccomend it.
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Capitalism and Kids Stuff is a great movie about the inefficiency of capitalism and its complete upsurdity. I have found it in full length divided in 5 parts, I also reccomend this film, as it breaks down the problems of capitalism in a simple easy to understand talk.
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| One of the most controversial dramatic films produced in China during the cultural revolution, "Breaking" is about the struggle to Democratize education in the countryside. Made during Mao Tse Tung's infamous Cultural Revolution. The movie brings a perspective on the Chinese Revolution that is not often heard, about how the Chinese Revolution changed life for the masses. The film in full length is provided above. | |
** Breaking With Old Ideas takes Roughly 30 seconds to Buffer.
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This Film is a moving story about the bourgieousie decadence, and the gritty poverty of Cuba before the Revolution, and the terrible lifestyles of people which drove them to revolt and fight for liberation. I can't find the movie in full length, only the trailer which can be found here. The movie can be found on sale here for $16. I highly reccomend it.
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Capitalism and Kids Stuff is a great movie about the inefficiency of capitalism and its complete upsurdity. I have found it in full length divided in 5 parts, I also reccomend this film, as it breaks down the problems of capitalism in a simple easy to understand talk.
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| This is Eisenstein's classic silent film, Battleship Potemkin, which is about a revolt on a battleship during the Russian Revolution of 1905. It was reccomended to me and I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but it looks great. The movie can be found in full length above. | |
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56.3% of Russians Lament the Fall of the USSR
15 Comments Published by LeftyHenry on Sunday at 10:00 PM.
56% of Russians lament the fall of the Soviet Union. Just thought this was an interesting article. It brings up an interesting topic. The Neo-Left movement in both China and Russia who long for the garunteed employment, free healthcare, education, and social benefits of "Sovietism", is growing, and is especially popular among the youth who want to see an end to imperialist capitalism that is present day Russia, and elevate it back to the industrial superpower it was before the fall. Now as the Republics who made up the USSR increasingly turn to ultra-nationalism, and in Russia, Corporatism and pseudo-fascism, this study shows exactly the state that Russia and the East in general are in.
MOSCOW, December 7.—The disintegration of the Soviet Union 15 years ago has revived controversial political debate with wounds still open in sectors that supported the maintenance of the conglomerate of nations.
The Bieloviezhski agreement, signed on December 8, 1991 by the then president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin; of Ukraine, Leonid Kravbchuk; and Belorus, Stanislav Shushkevich, erased the Soviet Union from the world map, where it had figured since 1922.
The birth of the Community of Independent States (CIS) was announced for December 21, 1991, but to date evaluations of that period are contradictory.
The current debate, with nuances, is taking place between those who consider the crumbling of the Union inevitable and, on the other side, those who interpret those acts as doing irreparable damage and leading to the destruction of a powerful multinational state, according to Prensa Latina.
With a majority of the population who laments the debacle of the early 90s, Russian society remains polarized in terms of the role played by Mikhail Gorbachev, ex-president of the Soviet Union, and Yeltsin in that convulsive process, qualified by the left as a conspiracy.
Interviewed on the subject of commemorating that date, Viacheslav Kebich, head of the Belarus government at that time, said that the Russian delegation held the baton as the initiator of the disintegrative treaty.
Fifteen years later, 56.3% of Russians lament the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to a survey by the Bashkirov and Partners consultancy.
Among citizens of Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus that sentiment brings together 69 out of every 100 persons interviewed by the Euroasian Monitor agency.
Translated by Granma International
This is a bit of a unusual post because it's about something I did personally rather than a current event or Marxist theory which I usually like to talk about, but nonetheless, I think its' worthy of a post, especially since I haven't updated in a week, and activism is always good to discuss. On wednesday, I attended a rally in support of action against NYPD police brutality and the most recent case of this, the murder of Sean Bell.
The Rally was held in the afternoon and lasted for several hours. I attended the rally with the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigades, The Revolutionary Communist Party's Youth Wing, and was pleasantly suprised. First, the rally had a massive turnout. Although the New York Times wrote the next day that only a hundred or so people showed up, I can vouch that there were at least one or two thousand people, and that their estimate was bull. Second, it was great to go out and be active, as the last protest I attended was the World Can't Wait's October 5th Day of Action. I attended a small rally at Union square with a maximum of two or three hundred people. I feel that one of the most effective ways to make people aware of our ideals, as socialists, is too attend these protests and speak out, and so I'm always glad to participate in rallies like this one. Third, I was especially pleased and excited by the amount of communist, socialist, and anarchist youth that were present at the rally, and the amount of people that expressed interest in the flyers we handed out and the papers we sold. It is great to see that there are so many people are unsatisfied with capitalism and the system in place. Here is a photo gallery from the rally.
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Also, in a completely unrelated story, I thought I'd post this. The Richest 1% own 40% of the world's wealth and the poorest 50% own less than 1%. Just more reason why capitalism has too go.
The Rally was held in the afternoon and lasted for several hours. I attended the rally with the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigades, The Revolutionary Communist Party's Youth Wing, and was pleasantly suprised. First, the rally had a massive turnout. Although the New York Times wrote the next day that only a hundred or so people showed up, I can vouch that there were at least one or two thousand people, and that their estimate was bull. Second, it was great to go out and be active, as the last protest I attended was the World Can't Wait's October 5th Day of Action. I attended a small rally at Union square with a maximum of two or three hundred people. I feel that one of the most effective ways to make people aware of our ideals, as socialists, is too attend these protests and speak out, and so I'm always glad to participate in rallies like this one. Third, I was especially pleased and excited by the amount of communist, socialist, and anarchist youth that were present at the rally, and the amount of people that expressed interest in the flyers we handed out and the papers we sold. It is great to see that there are so many people are unsatisfied with capitalism and the system in place. Here is a photo gallery from the rally.
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Also, in a completely unrelated story, I thought I'd post this. The Richest 1% own 40% of the world's wealth and the poorest 50% own less than 1%. Just more reason why capitalism has too go.
It's official. Hugo Chavez has been re-elected by a wide margin. Polls both sympathetic and run by opposition parties showed Chavez winning the election. With 78% of the votes counted, Manuel Rosales 38% of the votes while Chavez took 61% according to Bloomberg News. Weither or not Chavez won 10,000,000 votes as he predicted he would is unknown, however what is known is that this is the best outcome we leftists could hope for. Chavez's bolivarian revolution has successfully combatted the high poverty rates in Venezula bringing it down from 40 to 30% of the population. Chavez has also created universal and free college education, and increased funding for various social programs. Under Chavez, Venezula has seen the abandonment of many major factories by bourgieousie, and the takeover of those abandoned factories by workers creating co-operative management in which workers are empowered. These actions completely debunk the capitalist notion that, "workers are stupid" and that "workers can't run businesses and a state."
I am enthusiastic about Chavez's win. Although he is not the great labor leader I used to think he was as he doesn't denounce private property, Chavez's anti-imperialist stance and assistance to the last socialist state on earth -- Cuba, make up for that. Plus, Chavez has for a while now, claimed that if he won; he would institute a "new phase" of the bolivarian revolution. In which hopefully, we'll see nationalization of industry and more of the co-operatives we have already seen.
Also, Chavez's victory solidifies the Latin American, "Axis of Evil", which consists of mild leftist, and leftist presidents like Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and now maybe Daniel Ortega and Rafael Correa of Nicargua and Ecuador. This left leaning trend can only mean good things for an extremely impoverished and oppressed Latin America.
Sean Bell, the latest victim of police brutality, was buried today here in New York. In case you haven't heard what happened yet, Sean Bell, was leaving his bachelor party with two friends hours before his wedding. A cop, who apparently suspected he was going to get a gun after talking/fooling around with the club's bouncer, followed him. Sean Bell and his friends got in his car and as he was maneuvering out of his parking spot, accidently bumped the cop then proceeded to fire into the car, reload, and keep on firing until 50 shots had wounded Sean's two companions and killed Sean. 
This is just one of many examples of how police abuse their power. This is not the first time the NYPD has taken actions like this and it won't be the last. This is a classic example of the elements of stereotypical rascism, corruption, and incompetance that police all over America and even the world, have come to represent. It is also a classic example of how the police are just as bad as the "thugs" they are supposed to take down in that they don't think when they take actions like this. What's worse is that cops who take these type of actions often face little or no consequences because the prosecutor claims that police judgement shouldn't be challenged and the jury eat it up. It is these reasons that communists, anarchists, and socialists hate the pigs. I personally see pigs as the 'protectors of capitalism' and they are really only necessary to supress all out class war/struggle. I am not saying that cops are all bad, and granted they do solve rape and murder crimes, but they're oppressive nature far outways their crime solving one and disgusting actions like this prove it. Crime solving should be left up to communities, because the risk we take with oppressive pigs and their brutal ways are just as bad as the crimes themselves.
This is just one of many examples of how police abuse their power. This is not the first time the NYPD has taken actions like this and it won't be the last. This is a classic example of the elements of stereotypical rascism, corruption, and incompetance that police all over America and even the world, have come to represent. It is also a classic example of how the police are just as bad as the "thugs" they are supposed to take down in that they don't think when they take actions like this. What's worse is that cops who take these type of actions often face little or no consequences because the prosecutor claims that police judgement shouldn't be challenged and the jury eat it up. It is these reasons that communists, anarchists, and socialists hate the pigs. I personally see pigs as the 'protectors of capitalism' and they are really only necessary to supress all out class war/struggle. I am not saying that cops are all bad, and granted they do solve rape and murder crimes, but they're oppressive nature far outways their crime solving one and disgusting actions like this prove it. Crime solving should be left up to communities, because the risk we take with oppressive pigs and their brutal ways are just as bad as the crimes themselves.
