tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-319819492024-03-05T21:04:43.623-05:00The CahokianWelcome to The Cahokian...
A thousand years ago Cahokia — across the Mississippi from what is now St. Louis — was one of the biggest cities in the world. Now it's an empty green spot next to the highway. I'm a middle-aged gay man living in New York City, center of the world, future footnote on somebody's future map. Welcome to the new world.ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comBlogger1072125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-37022059135451804282020-11-02T11:23:00.005-05:002020-11-02T11:23:23.234-05:00Election Eve 2020: You can't vote away fascism<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSCza04wkkNDiJ4gVEWOfCT3uNo2fLIG4P1mK0Y6trRKdhg3uo_IKjHJLz6yUGJPwHdwKwXqZXMWcXalIaJhOwFK866fPWxa-UMIiyG965A7GdjTM-0VcDBLMzTigv9G7_WZ13/s978/PRP-BR-arma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSCza04wkkNDiJ4gVEWOfCT3uNo2fLIG4P1mK0Y6trRKdhg3uo_IKjHJLz6yUGJPwHdwKwXqZXMWcXalIaJhOwFK866fPWxa-UMIiyG965A7GdjTM-0VcDBLMzTigv9G7_WZ13/w261-h400/PRP-BR-arma.jpg" width="261" /></a></i></div><i><br />I wrote a post in 2016 about my intention to abstain from the election which brought Trump to power. Inadvertently it wound up being the last post here for a while. For the record, I am abstaining again in 2020. Here's my facebook post of today explaining why.</i><br /><p></p><div><div class="" dir="auto"><div class="ecm0bbzt hv4rvrfc e5nlhep0 dati1w0a" data-ad-comet-preview="message" data-ad-preview="message" id="jsc_c_dw"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg"><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql oi732d6d ik7dh3pa fgxwclzu a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Solidarity with all the other non-voters and abstentionists resisting the corrupt self-perpetuating rituals of the white supremacist, capitalist political system that have been foisted upon us. It's a lie that 2020's sham elections are the only or even best path of change or progress. This mobilization of intimidation, corruption, shame and fear is terrorism against the people. This thoroughly antidemocratic charade filling us with dread and fear exists to protect the guardians of capital from any real challenge to their self-proclaimed right to administer society for their own benefit. Let us recall the words of Audre Lorde, “For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time. I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices.” It is past time for that genuine change. The system proves to us every day all it has to offer is violent repression, indifference to human life, rigged laws, injustice, and the unceasing admonitions to fear any solutions not rubber stamped by its own bloody enforced order. The horror we are experiencing didn't start with Trump and it won't end with whichever murderous criminals win Tuesday's contest.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Personally I don't judge individuals who choose to participate in the electoral charade, though I think your merry-go-round ride in search of a brass ring is self-evidently futile, but I judge harshly political forces who set aside the obvious truths that lesser evilism and the lie of "harm reduction" can halt the system's slide to open fascism and organize people into pretending that participating in this charade is some act of resistance. While I wish fervently for Trump's fall, it is my solemn duty to warn that Biden's potential rise does not actually defeat Trumpism or the broader resurgence of white supremacist forces in this country. The racist police forces currently inflicting terror on the residents of American cities are by and large ordered and administered by the Democrats who have frantically been attempting to blunt the revolution in consciousness about racism that swept the country this year on the joyous flames of urban uprisings and rebellions.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">The elections are important only because our enemies tell us they are. They're not. In truth the vast majority of common people have veto power over this nightmare, but the people in power want you to forget that. Direct action has always gotten the goods, and will again. It doesn't have to be this way. All power to the people!</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/lessvotingmorerevolution?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZUKiGbppJGPSK7ZXrNnbLk2kHWlFS6IaRUWsWNMqIedYs4vwBlhhAkgt0chqca3S23UWJz8hBhls9CDV-tNIjHw-wXBoX3RzWTWgQGA0TeOP64b7Gfa_w8uP4zqjze1omE&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#LessVotingMoreRevolution</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/anotherworldispossible?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZUKiGbppJGPSK7ZXrNnbLk2kHWlFS6IaRUWsWNMqIedYs4vwBlhhAkgt0chqca3S23UWJz8hBhls9CDV-tNIjHw-wXBoX3RzWTWgQGA0TeOP64b7Gfa_w8uP4zqjze1omE&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#AnotherWorldIsPossible</a></span></div></div></span></div></div></div></div></div>ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-33524144850444034982020-09-10T20:17:00.009-04:002020-09-10T20:17:56.768-04:00My Book Is Out!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY2ov-AkZwlw-gayVZpwFKxov_Guv0LanCANGjZJp9fCyU7spQXIMy6_eFek5-lSKvhk09cbh-9_BRdNkiZAqlBX1QW_8IJLLqNij54vrvAGcSi3a8860h9jX-38cKLsfoOCmF/s369/Screen+Shot+2020-08-31+at+8.48.20+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="367" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY2ov-AkZwlw-gayVZpwFKxov_Guv0LanCANGjZJp9fCyU7spQXIMy6_eFek5-lSKvhk09cbh-9_BRdNkiZAqlBX1QW_8IJLLqNij54vrvAGcSi3a8860h9jX-38cKLsfoOCmF/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-08-31+at+8.48.20+AM.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>My book is out! You can order <i><b>Like Ho Chi Minh! Like Che Guevara! The Revolutionary Left in Ethiopia, 1969-1979</b></i>, direct from the publisher in Paris. Cheap cover price, cheap, fast shipping. Support the new <a href="https://foreignlanguages.press/" target="_blank">Foreign Languages Press</a>! Here's the <a href="http://flpress.storenvy.com/products/30859318-like-ho-chi-minh-like-che-guevara" target="_blank">direct order link</a>.</p><p>A reminder that going forward most of my Ethiopia posting will be at my research blog, <a href="https://abyotawi.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><b>Abyot–The Lost Revolution</b></a>.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-57617761098894284322019-11-08T08:41:00.000-05:002019-11-08T08:41:17.539-05:00New Writing on Ethiopia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZWLr3ZE2pz-wCs4_PdjzNC4R4OG92EkOlw5VjqzDbt1xyoDYOXl3uu0gbeI4GH_Gq-mQF9qTzEIOAaKK3sjV_ST0QY7SLjr5G21FnasC7rGc7B3bMwiEN2cTRb9s6H2CPFydN/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-11-07+at+10.53.36+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="1600" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZWLr3ZE2pz-wCs4_PdjzNC4R4OG92EkOlw5VjqzDbt1xyoDYOXl3uu0gbeI4GH_Gq-mQF9qTzEIOAaKK3sjV_ST0QY7SLjr5G21FnasC7rGc7B3bMwiEN2cTRb9s6H2CPFydN/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-11-07+at+10.53.36+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
The really impressive independent communist website <a href="https://cosmonaut.blog/" target="_blank">“Cosmonaut”</a> commissioned an article by me on the Ethiopian Revolution. It’s framed as a discussion of internationalist solidarity. It’s based on the themes of my book manuscript, which I am currently shopping to publishers.<br />
<br />
Here’s how it begins:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-weight: 400;">“Way back in 1848, the young Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels admonished in their </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Manifesto of the Communist Party</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><b>“Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.” </b><span style="font-weight: 400;">This
basic prescription for political solidarity flows obviously and
organically from the understanding of global political economy that they
(and their ideological heirs) spent decades investigating, defining,
and fighting for on street barricades. Marx and Engels diagnosed that
the vast majority of the world’s population shared a mutual interest by
virtue of its exploitation and oppression at the hands of a global class
system, here in corrupt decay, there in bloody infancy. They suggested a
liberatory class struggle as a path of resistance that was conveniently
locked inside that global political and economic system and enabled by
its own contradictions. To reject, indeed to overturn, that global
system of exploitation and oppression of the vast majority of humanity
by a tiny controlling minority of kings, political elites, and captains
of industry, Marx and Engels prescribed not only moral outrage, but an
understanding they called “scientific” of how those oppressed and
exploited people could employ their vast majority in numbers and their
strategic social relationship to the means of production to win the
class struggle, and with it a better future for humankind based on
cooperation and the communal good.”</span></blockquote>
<br />
Read the full piece <a href="https://cosmonaut.blog/2019/11/07/which-side-are-you-on-the-challenge-of-the-1974-ethiopian-revolution/" target="_blank">on Cosmonaut,</a> and don’t forget my <a href="http://abyotawi.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ethiopian Research Project blog here.</a> ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-65056348633603058872019-11-04T12:37:00.000-05:002019-11-04T12:37:03.893-05:00Echoes of a Past Life: Less Voting, More Revolution<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYFo98SQzsrmk-7lkUVbueE2qRGa2B8vgcF2XcRI5Aouryprtp_v2ydrcEX-PvOzVMGklfeV6avCCPxV4vDA6FrId9XJO0puFfHtek-u4oZkEMGZ5bqJXK_Dum0FyrP_39MB_j/s1600/PRP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="379" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYFo98SQzsrmk-7lkUVbueE2qRGa2B8vgcF2XcRI5Aouryprtp_v2ydrcEX-PvOzVMGklfeV6avCCPxV4vDA6FrId9XJO0puFfHtek-u4oZkEMGZ5bqJXK_Dum0FyrP_39MB_j/s400/PRP.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Election boycott poster from the PRP-BR, Portugal 1975.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<i>I wrote this piece in advance of the 2018 mid-term elections which would see the Democratic Party return to power in the House of Representatives. It appeared on <b>Counterpunch</b>, <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/17/less-voting-more-revolution/" target="_blank">August 17, 2018</a>.</i><br />
<br />
Let me say that I hope you, like me, share a vision of a better
world. You’re looking around at the unleashed white supremacy, the
rampant misogyny, the war machines churning death and destruction
unchecked, and a growing culture of nihilistic hatred, and you know it
doesn’t have to be this way. You believe in a world free of oppression
based on sex, gender, sexual identity, or ability; free of racism and
privilege; perhaps even one free of exploitation, with a radical
redistribution of the world’s wealth and resources based on collective
betterment and the preservation of the planet.<br />
You’ve probably read your Marx and Engels, some Lenin and Luxemburg,
and possibly even picked out your choice of diverging paths from the
likes of Mao or Trotsky or Goldman. And like me, you’re looking at the
tiny left, hearing the loud voices of our enemies, and are deeply
worried about the future. You’re tired of watching the police exercise
their complete impunity by murdering young people of color in real-time
video, and anxious about the kind of society for which a handful of
demagogues and too many of our neighbors are clamoring. Like me, your
anxiety is through the roof.<br />
It’s also possible that you’re looking at the phenomenal growth of
the ideologically mercurial Democratic Socialists of America and the
rise of a handful of charismatic young reform politicians running on
Democratic Party tickets and wondering if maybe you should set aside
what you’ve studied, and listen to the voices of those warning against
purity and perfection in the face of unprecedented danger. Everybody’s
talking about socialism now so maybe this defensive posture of
incrementalism with a dose of electoral optimism holds a path forward to
hope? I mean, something’s gotta give… maybe the voices urging us to get
out the vote in the next, surely most important, election of our lives
are right?<br />
<br />
I’m here to tell you no, if you really consider yourself a socialist
and want the lasting realization of that better world, then tell those
voices to shut the fuck up.<strong> </strong><br />
<br />
If you grew up in the USA like I did, you grew up learning that we
live in a representative democracy. You were taught that your vote was
your sacred voice as a citizen, and your path to contributing to our
nation’s bright and shiny future. You know that’s all a big fat lie,
right? There is nothing representative nor democratic about the United
States of America.<br />
<br />
You won’t have to dive too deeply back into your stack of Marxist
classics to be reminded that what we actually live in is a dictatorship:
the dictatorship of the bourgeois class over the rest of us. Turns out
that a dictatorship doesn’t require jackboots and concentration camps to
be real, though my money certainly isn’t on writing off those
particular trappings from some of our potential futures.<br />
The truth is that the system we live in, administered by the
capitalist class for its own benefit, is designed to preserve itself and
prevent its displacement. There is zero chance, let me repeat, <em>zero chance</em>,
that the capitalist class and its representatives will ever be voted
out of power. There’s a vast racket in place to ensure this; one that is
actually backed up by the threat of brute force. Polite people don’t
really like to contemplate that, but it’s there, waiting. You can see
this racket in place in trivial ways like when the DNC tries to isolate
the Sanders wing of its own party, and you can see it in less trivial
ways like when the CIA jumps in to overthrow elected politicians like
Chile’s socialist president Salvador Allende back in the 1970s,
murdering thousands in the process.<br />
<br />
Oh sure, sometimes the capitalist class gives up a little when the
peasants are revolting and the torches and pitchforks get close, witness
our fading social benefits won during the ever-more distant class
struggles of the first half of the twentieth-century. But <em>they </em>know that as long as we play by the rules <em>they </em>make, they don’t have too much to worry about. Their game is rigged, and our voices are coopted.<br />
<br />
There’s a deeper truth there you may have missed: when it comes to
changing the world for the better, their game isn’t that important. It
isn’t actually necessary. It isn’t actually the arena for social change.
And it certainly isn’t anywhere on the path to socialism. What they
call “politics” is not actually where politics are. Try and figure out
what the Democratic Party actually stands for: compare notes on its
printed platform and the actions of its elected office-holders when they
have voting majorities and when they don’t. You’ll walk away hoping
they stand for the same thing you do but in the end you’ll realize they
don’t care about anything but getting elected. And money. They care
about money a lot, just like the Republicans do. In case it’s not clear,
a Democratic Party electoral victory is a victory for a wing of the
capitalist class and the self-perpetuation of the system, not a victory
for the rest of us. Your participation in their campaigns might make you
feel like you’re doing something — anything — but what you’re actually
doing is perpetuating the lie.<br />
<br />
It doesn’t matter if the charming and enthusiastic young reform
candidates throw around a few socialist buzzwords during their
campaigns, and occasionally talk movingly about the dramatic
inequalities and injustices in our society. It won’t be socialism that’s
winning at that ballot box, it will be the Democratic Party. You might
wanna dig a little deeper into what they mean by socialism anyway, cause
if they’re just talking taxing rich people and adding snowplows and
health insurance, you’re being sold a bill of goods. Go ahead, ask them
about imperialism and war. I’ll just sit and wait.<br />
The Democratic Party’s claim to be the natural home for “the Blacks
and the Gays” is pretty much akin to an abusive spouse telling his wife
how much she really needs him in between the beatings. For a handy
microcosm, check out hipster New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio, his
photogenic and earnest family of color, and his real-world willingness
to let the NYPD run parallel systems for white and Black New Yorkers.
Hint: the NYPD gets to murder and brutalize Black and brown New Yorkers
impeded only by faint complaint while white New Yorkers get luxury
housing and bike lanes. Get out of that abusive relationship, and get
out of it right now.<br />
<br />
That political party you’re voting for is not just people
metaphorically representing what you hope are progressive ideas, they
are a bunch of people who actually want to administer the apparatus of
the capitalist state. That means the people who make it into government
become the little Eichmanns who press the buttons behind all the
machineries of war, repression, mass incarceration, border exclusion,
and police militarization: all the lying bureaucracies of your choice.
What kind of socialist wants to be responsible for any of THAT?<br />
<br />
The 2016 elections were a national spectacle that went on for more
than two years of insufferable media coverage bringing extraordinary
displays of unrestrained assholism from the candidates of all involved
parties straight into our living rooms and smart phones. And yet,
millions and millions of Americans didn’t bother to vote. Before you
suck your teeth at your fellow citizens failing to fulfill their duties,
consider for a moment that those millions were the smart ones and those
of you who were terrified into pulling the levers for your choice of
despicable human beings vying for a seat in one of several slave-built
whitewashed DC mansions, were the victims of a horrifying mass blackmail
operation designed to rob you of your humanity and independent will.<br />
<br />
Those millions of non-voters have seen the game and refused to play.
Certainly political apathy is a factor among that massive plurality; but
when offered a choice from among differently colored casks of putrid
sewage for your evening beverage, I’m not sure apathy isn’t called for.<br />
<br />
I don’t know if she considered herself any kind of Marxist, but the
late queer poet and theorist Audre Lorde famously said, “For the
master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow
us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable
us to bring about genuine change.”She came to this realization from a
deep place of exclusion: as a woman of color and a queer feminist she
saw how fundamentally screwed up the world was, and how revolutionary
any approach to fixing it needed to be. If you check that stack of books
you’ll see that Lenin was trying to tell you something pretty similar
when he described the capitalist state and how revolutionaries must win
socialism. And that vision of a completely new world, egalitarian and
socialist, remains our only real hope for surviving the shithole that
capitalist-run human society is digging for itself.<br />
<br />
Time is a wasting. In the early twentieth-century there were waves of
electoral success for various open and explicitly socialist movements
right here in the United States. They led nowhere. Today there are a
tiny handful of openly socialist elected politicians, most of whom
realized that they wouldn’t actually even get elected if they ran on an
openly socialist ticket. I don’t know about you, but watching parts of
the country consumed by fires as others submerge under polluted waters
I’m pretty sure we don’t have time to wait for thousands more sewer
socialists to be elected to rediscover that such politicians only reach
an accommodation with capitalism not a confrontation with it. That
genuine change that Audre Lorde hoped for demands our attention.<br />
<br />
Voting for Democrats — with their proven record of subjugating social
movements for their electoral advantage — or joining an organization
like DSA that fails to understand the fundamental nature of the
capitalist state and its apparatuses, these don’t actually get us closer
to socialism. I’d ask every activist who self identifies as a socialist
and wants to go out campaigning for candidates like Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and Cynthia Nixon how they actually expect that story to
end. When they convince a skeptic into voting for an over-promising
sweet-talking politician who turns out to be the scorpion to the voters’
frog, who benefits from that predictable reveal? Not the reputation of
socialism. Socialism will not arrive if we forget that it exists only as
a fundamental challenge to existing class society. Might want to go
back to that stack of books on that one.<br />
<br />
Well, goddamn it, we have to do something, you say. And indeed we do.<br />
<br />
While I’m not about to pretend I have easy answers, I’m also not
trying to be a downer; actually quite the contrary. How about we
actually advocate for socialist revolution? Once upon a time the red
flag inspired millions of strangers to see each other as <em>comrades </em>in
the struggle, daring to fight together for that better world. We should
reclaim that spirit of solidarity, empathy, sister- and brotherhood,
militantly standing up for each other as oppressed and exploited people
collectively and openly fighting for our own free future.<br />
<br />
That stuff in the books hasn’t been disproved, we shouldn’t be
doubting ourselves. We do need better organizations than we have, this
is undeniable and it’s a messy process. We need to work on making sure
our vision of socialism this time round is inclusive and intersectional
and committed to forms and processes of real mass democracy, the likes
of which we can barely imagine today. And we need to be upfront about
opposing the exploits of the imperialist empire in whose belly we live.<br />
But we don’t need the Democrats. And we don’t need to waste our time
on their pointless and fake elections. Maybe down the road when we are
strong we can run our own anti-candidates to expose the electoral
charade from within. But right now we should join the nonvoters and do
everything in our power to explain how utterly crucial it is for the
people ourselves to take direct action to preserve our future from
capitalist barbarism.<br />
<br />
That corrupt and pointless electoral game of capitalist America
belongs in the trash. We should not let our enemies, our masters, tell
us what tools are appropriate for extracting ourselves from the disaster
they have foisted upon us.<br />
<br />
There’s a lot of work to be done: We must reclaim the love, and the
rage, that once made socialism a spectre of fear for the capitalists and
a ray of hope for the world’s peoples. The stakes are high. This isn’t
about politicians’ empty promises and platforms, it’s about taking a
stand and saving our humanity from the genocidal forces being stoked
daily. We must reclaim the will — and the power of our class — to win
not elections, but a free and socialist world. It’s past time. Free your
mind from the Democrats, your ass will follow.<br />
<br />
#<strong>LessVotingMoreRevolution.</strong>ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-66351845525177492202019-03-23T10:20:00.004-04:002019-03-23T10:20:57.494-04:00A short updatePlease visit the updated version of my post on the <a href="https://thecahokian.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-if-they-gave-international-march.html" target="_blank">1984 International March for Lesbian and Gay Freedom</a> to see some amazing footage of the event! Link in the update at the bottom of the post.<br />
<br />
P.S. I’m still here!<br />
<br />
<br />ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-35802909767292826652018-02-08T09:28:00.002-05:002018-02-08T09:28:51.801-05:00Free Ahed Tamimi!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBL7-OlZ55kqd5P0XsTIE1jgtDT9GkjUkeaGEgYRzMoFsW82QjlqgNiEStUvuah4FGcV9vAH9qwVONf2hVAVJth8CMvzmQpu_pxWgnBmwuuEgv03P3IiAQlbPrNk9frkzK3tzA/s1600/free_Ahed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBL7-OlZ55kqd5P0XsTIE1jgtDT9GkjUkeaGEgYRzMoFsW82QjlqgNiEStUvuah4FGcV9vAH9qwVONf2hVAVJth8CMvzmQpu_pxWgnBmwuuEgv03P3IiAQlbPrNk9frkzK3tzA/s320/free_Ahed.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
testing blogspot's malfunctioning with this excellent Latuff cartoon.ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-8301528443991734802017-08-09T15:41:00.002-04:002017-08-09T15:41:51.626-04:00The North Korea Crisis Is Made in USA<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXv4AeP3s-A-Fa2vSO2oPZI6ALTLIdQSylLhfZfjIrXLIxnjYYcMHi9eUEFqkyrGT9WwrTbQ9wCxqbTi8fiegOOPrB3YQZdYZkIkO_ISfI6LNxvIfn31ONXr2wNYqZfAA9IlEZ/s1600/1950-53.%252B%252522Pyongyang%252Bafter%252BUS%252Bbombing%252522.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="1000" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXv4AeP3s-A-Fa2vSO2oPZI6ALTLIdQSylLhfZfjIrXLIxnjYYcMHi9eUEFqkyrGT9WwrTbQ9wCxqbTi8fiegOOPrB3YQZdYZkIkO_ISfI6LNxvIfn31ONXr2wNYqZfAA9IlEZ/s400/1950-53.%252B%252522Pyongyang%252Bafter%252BUS%252Bbombing%252522.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pyongyang, North Korea, after firebombing by the United States in the early 1950s</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Those memes equating Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un might make people feel better, but this crisis is strictly Made In USA.<br />
<br />
Sure, I have misgivings about the nature of the regime in North Korea,
but it must be said that most of what passes for news about the DPRK in
the US is transparent and frankly racist nonsense. My general policy is,
to quote somebody famous, no investigation no right to speak, which
means when confronted by dubious propaganda about North Korea meant to
desensitize Americans to the genocidal and aggressive foreign policy of
our own government, I choose my words carefully. What most of us need to
know about the DPRK is that it is a tiny and relatively poor country
that has been deliberately isolated from the world economy for over
sixty years. It spent forty years as a brutally enslaved colony of
Japan, and half the country has been occupied by American troops ever
since. The US and its allies murdered millions of people as they
flattened it in a war, actually a thinly disguised war against China,
that they couldn't actually win, which is testimony to the resilience of
the Korean people. Whether the government in North Korea is something
North Koreans like is frankly beside the point. The bottom line must be
that Americans don't get to choose how other countries are governed. Now
is not really the time to be debating the nature of a society under
Washington's lethal sights: now is the time to understand where the real
enemies of peace and humanity lie.<br />
<br />
The truth is that the US
government doesn't care about what kind of government exists in North
Korea (and tbh, though Trump's rhetoric is raw and frightening, it's not
substantively different than threats made by every single US president
since Truman). They don't care about the people in North Korea.
Certainly a government that constantly renews blank checks to Saudi
Arabia and apartheid Israel, and was the last major international ally
of racist white minority ruled South Africa, couldn't be too worried
about the people of North Korea. A country that threatens to incinerate
an entire population is actually concerned about that population? You
BELIEVE that?<br />
<br />
This is the thing we must all be clear on: there
is no equation between Trump and Kim; there is no equation of "threat"
between the tiny DPRK and the massively armed USA. I read a statistic
that said DPRK's military budget was less than that of the NYPD. The
only actual threat is the one made by the United States. What has
actually happened is that the DPRK has "threatened" to defend itself
from aggression. The DPRK's posture is entirely provoked by the
existential threat that the US's military machine, right on its borders,
poses to its right of self-determination. I don't like nukes, but I
will not condemn a nation for choosing a desperate option to stop a
global bully.<br />
<br />
Remember what happened to "crazy" Saddam Hussein,
or more importantly, his country after US invasion. To "crazy" Gaddafi
or more importantly, his country after US bombing. When you call Kim
Jong Un "crazy," you're participating in a racist charade. Tell me the
name of another North Korean person why don't you?<br />
<br />
There is a
country where people are in prison camps, even slave labor camps. There
is a country where people are forced to eat garbage, where unemployment
is chronic. There is a country where people are killed with total
impunity by law enforcement. There is a country where dissent is
demonized by the political castes, where dissenters are blacklisted from
employment. There is a country which threatens its neighbors, that
attacks sovereign nations unprovoked, that sends its armies across the
world in blood-orgies of murder. There is a country that steals from
others. There is a country whose elections are farces. There is a
country where family and financial connections ensure political and
social influence. There is a country where warlike mobs can be pushed to
bloodlust through chants and manipulation. There is a country whose
residents routinely fantasize about how they should "take out" anybody
they choose on the world stage. That country is not North Korea, it's
the USA.<br />
<br />
Let's recognize the real threat and deal with it. We're
running out of time. No, Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump are not equal in
any way, and your oh-so-funny Kim Jong Un memes are the equivalent of
making ching-chong faces; to call them racist is to be making an
understatement. <br />
It is without contest. The main threat to humanity is the one in Washington.<br />
<br />
--- <br />
<br />
<i>(Crossposted from my personal Facebook. I have had plenty to say in
the months since the election, none of which involves me changing my
mind about my abstention, but for various reasons have
decided to cut back on blogging here. But this seemed like a good
milestone to add here for the record. I'm not abandoning this blog, I
actually refer to it myself a lot, but especially until I finish my book
project I can't commit here to return to a regular schedule. Comments always welcome. See you next time!)</i> ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-35735453013520391892016-11-08T11:47:00.004-05:002016-11-08T11:47:43.288-05:00Election Day<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="js_9">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4lZpIwmu88-W4Gx8YWuP363GFcOa3wws4LXSdqyLaMXsnVIARTNr9_3TF1DrlpnobyDDSqf2H3V3S3Y6XiTTwNUz97SrG3N-Nc_ZChBn6mf1fZ0l1Hl0gNVi7gFvRyTByUmwz/s1600/sun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4lZpIwmu88-W4Gx8YWuP363GFcOa3wws4LXSdqyLaMXsnVIARTNr9_3TF1DrlpnobyDDSqf2H3V3S3Y6XiTTwNUz97SrG3N-Nc_ZChBn6mf1fZ0l1Hl0gNVi7gFvRyTByUmwz/s400/sun.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I
am deeply aware that people fought and died for their right to vote.
Democracy is, or rather, would be, a good thing, and surely it is
righteous for people to demand not to be excluded from what passes for
political process. Democracy is theoretically a mechanism whereby
collectivity resolves into taking action in an act of shared commitment
and responsibility. Problem is, I don't think that's what's actually
happening right now.<br />
<br />
My head has spent the last year split in two
places, one watching this extended dumpster fire of an election, and
two immersed in doing research on the probably esoteric (outside
Ethiopia that is) subject of the Ethiopian revolution. There in 1974, a
group of dedicated communist revolutionaries started an underground
newsletter called "Democracy," that became one of the most well-read
political papers in the country. The "Democracy" these folks argued for
(and died for, by the thousands) was first demanded of the emperor Haile
Selassie, and later, after the military snatched power from a popular
uprising, became a rallying cry for pushing aside the military in favor
of a popular people's government. So I've had quite a few occasions to
think about what democracy might mean.<br />
<br />
Listen, this, this USA,
this is not a real democracy. This is a parody of democracy: it is not
those abstaining from voting today who are spitting in the face of the
freedom riders of the 1960s, it is the entire political system that is
doing so. An elaborate and deeply embarrassing spectacle that wasted
millions of dollars (ie, made a bunch of entertainment companies rich)
just left people with the "choice" between a bloated fascist
businessman, a deeply unprincipled and dishonest career politician
responsible for the deaths of untold thousands who happens to be a
woman, and a handful of quixotic alternatives who, with the one notable
exception of Mimi Soltysik of the Socialist Party — who isn't even on
most printed ballots — specialize in peddling low-frequency bullshit.
(And to be clear I include there everyone from the problematic Greens
and PSL, to the reprehensible SEP, SWP, libertarians and WWP).<br />
<br />
It
should be obvious, and yet strangely is not, to most, that this is in
fact a dictatorship, the dictatorship of rich property owners we
Marxists like to call the bourgeoisie. A government by and for rich
people that has diabolically convinced millions that every few years
being forced to rubberstamp choices presented to you from column A or
column B, when mostly people want and need something else entirely, is
actually what "democracy" looks like. It's not. And if you think
dictatorship is a harsh word, take off your blinders and look at the
role of police in this country and the role of the American military in
the world, and see that "they" don't really give a shit what you think.
Ruling though repression, fear and circuses, the <i>class</i> that owns this
country needs us a lot more than we need them.<br />
<br />
It's like a
sickness what this country does to people. Like you, I have been
indoctrinated for most of my almost 58 years that voting is a sacred
responsibility. I have previously voted for Democrats, previously voted
third parties, and occasionally abstained. The one thing I have learned
is that I will never again close my ears to the evil promises of
politicians in favor of the few morsels I want to actually hear. And yet
with everything I know and I have studied, I still find myself wracked
with guilty obligation. And so I have tried to figure out what I would
do today.<br />
<br />
Watching the intense fear that has been whipped up by
both Democrats and Republicans fills me with both disgust and sadness. I
can't blame or condemn most people for exercising what feels like the
only thing they can do to stave off the obvious dangers ahead, though I
urge folks to hit the books for the truth how that "I voted" sticker is
zero defense against an actual fascist onslaught. I am, it must be said,
pretty disappointed not in regular people with good hearts taking a
stand against the vile and noxious Trump, but in leftists willing to
overlook the vile and noxious Clinton, but that's a more complicated
story.<br />
<br />
I wish that the left was strong enough to run what I
believe is actually correct, a campaign of revolutionary abstentionism. I
think it would be an excellent step along the way to presenting a
transcendent vision of liberation that revolutionaries need to find a
way to re-popularize if we are ever to move out of the realm of
symbolism. Symbolism is right now the only thing a micro-movement for
revolutionary abstention can offer. One day the withholding of our
participation in this game will be a weapon; it's not that yet.<br />
<br />
It seems to be a beautiful day outside. I'm ever so privileged to be
unemployed today and not quite at the bottom of my bank account. That
same beautiful blue sky extends west to the Dakotas, and east across
oceans and seas to Syria; distances far beyond sight and hearing yet not
beyond knowledge.<br />
I know where my polling place is. But I'm going to walk the other way.</div>
ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-53640736432553958082016-11-04T20:46:00.001-04:002016-11-04T20:46:07.891-04:00I’m Not With Her<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2_y6lzpSa7NIKshFUTEzssAMdTByCoOKBnPqIj8puw36Ia3MeCc_v40m0FlNhalEu8ZD52KS-e8pMW29wa1UZcarNsv8HvkWuTMsvxNR6uuVPPbjl2K4eOVpxxzEldejaY00t/s1600/with_him.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2_y6lzpSa7NIKshFUTEzssAMdTByCoOKBnPqIj8puw36Ia3MeCc_v40m0FlNhalEu8ZD52KS-e8pMW29wa1UZcarNsv8HvkWuTMsvxNR6uuVPPbjl2K4eOVpxxzEldejaY00t/s400/with_him.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">“I’m With Him”?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg" target="_blank">little history lesson</a>, for those who think voting for the "lesser
evil" is a successful strategy. A lesson for those who are terrified of
Trump. The SPD noted here were the German social democrats, sort of the
left liberals of their time:<br />
<br />
<b>"[In 1932] The SPD regarded
Hindenburg as the only man who could defeat Hitler and keep the Nazi
Party from winning the elections (and they said so throughout the
campaign)..... In the runoff election of April 1932, Hindenburg<span class="text_exposed_show">
defeated Hitler for the presidency....Finally, the 85-year-old
Hindenburg agreed to make Hitler chancellor, and on the morning of 30
January 1933, Hindenburg swore him in as chancellor at the presidential
palace."</span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
Sure, history never repeats itself.<br />
<br />
<br />
#LessVotingMoreRevolution #RevoltDontVote </div>
ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-23248644197854686302016-09-05T09:25:00.001-04:002016-09-05T09:25:51.858-04:00Echoes of a past life: New Moon<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LagKNqs5KzE" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
New Moon New York was an open Pagan circle in New York City in the early 1990s. This footage has surfaced, bringing back some memories, a surprising memory hole, and a bit of personal embarassment. This video includes footage of several events, only one of which I attended, the probable “Lughnassadh” ritual that begins about at the 11 min. mark, held in either NYC's Central Park or Inwood Park. Yours truly may be seen at heard about 16:35, bearing that fuzzy red wheel. Yeah, we took ourselves pretty seriously, but we also had lots of fun. As silly as this looks to me 20+ years later, I learned a lot about myself and the world in that period. I'm pretty glad I graduated from this sort of Cosplay/LARP scene, now in my mid-50s I'm sort of mortified by the trappings of that chapter of my spirituality. That said, that moment of spirituality healed me of some fundamental life hurt and I wouldn't want to erase that chapter of my life even if it seems so curiously foreign to me now.<br />
<br />
But these were good people. I note with sadness several faces no longer among the living, not least the legendary Alexei Kondratiev and his partner Len. I see my dear magical partner C, and my incredibly handsome but deeply conflicted and closeted boyfriend W, nicknamed by C “Mr. Outdoors.” It's good to remember my friends from New Moon. I'm surprised at how little of this event I remember, it all seems just out of reach. Which is okay, it was a really long time ago and I have moved far far away from that moment in my life.<br />
<br />
And now, back to life as a 21st-century communist.<br />
<br />
<br />ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-40371898036877158072016-06-10T14:26:00.001-04:002016-06-10T14:26:54.151-04:00Apartheid Love Triangle<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilsHLiZA0O4ufe1xHopZM6zzXHI_FhHev-eVjOKXgWPrm_U2K2YVyVXz-BYcNM96rP1BO2fR4RHvx1Ntf3KUnGuuhbMpDEi2UmexxzoL9obVlxRqAcMiqbNbGwa0_8BMxiIJ6o/s1600/Clinton-Netanyahu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilsHLiZA0O4ufe1xHopZM6zzXHI_FhHev-eVjOKXgWPrm_U2K2YVyVXz-BYcNM96rP1BO2fR4RHvx1Ntf3KUnGuuhbMpDEi2UmexxzoL9obVlxRqAcMiqbNbGwa0_8BMxiIJ6o/s320/Clinton-Netanyahu.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePw7aSMlcKFjZWvbiL4tL-a-qq4rEtngusLkVQ6TrNDyKzEP7hyphenhyphenSEVBDRS_-cPoa3_nj3TehmQ0k6KbGU-uGQg_XSAhoIsC9AlDJ6Lxc-4P4hMZbqdOKxsmFuKE4KEcZaNzwS/s1600/warren-netanyahu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePw7aSMlcKFjZWvbiL4tL-a-qq4rEtngusLkVQ6TrNDyKzEP7hyphenhyphenSEVBDRS_-cPoa3_nj3TehmQ0k6KbGU-uGQg_XSAhoIsC9AlDJ6Lxc-4P4hMZbqdOKxsmFuKE4KEcZaNzwS/s320/warren-netanyahu.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1E8mW6CWpmYEdyHnRHxln2h9Zh45MGYcfCpnJdLZqvKRfCcoxz-Mi5WzejKhtSzPTMf4KtJK8eMFFwBaZ-S-ZNtpDzQH4FuVGDGBbQhp57b65LFaX_YT2rb976w01BvwnjPbX/s1600/21WARREN-web-master675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1E8mW6CWpmYEdyHnRHxln2h9Zh45MGYcfCpnJdLZqvKRfCcoxz-Mi5WzejKhtSzPTMf4KtJK8eMFFwBaZ-S-ZNtpDzQH4FuVGDGBbQhp57b65LFaX_YT2rb976w01BvwnjPbX/s320/21WARREN-web-master675.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Hillary Clinton + Elizabeth Warren + Benyamin Netanyahu: Apartheid Love Triangle. God, I can't wait for the US elections to be over.<br />
<br />
<br />
#LessVotingMoreRevolution<br />
<br />
<br />ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-56363259105717705092016-05-27T14:45:00.002-04:002016-05-27T14:45:36.572-04:00Best Election Graphic of 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaJ5UyMtKXX7gmMbfwFvzFaTF8udQdGc4-kH1hhDIzF1XCTdgzsTfNkBn76-0Zk3RT0e_MWkwUuTqPZ3qC7w7f4SCW4-MkbH8FVZmh9rt8Y1wgv371CdcZ0skGx_KF7QtcPp0W/s1600/elections-2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaJ5UyMtKXX7gmMbfwFvzFaTF8udQdGc4-kH1hhDIzF1XCTdgzsTfNkBn76-0Zk3RT0e_MWkwUuTqPZ3qC7w7f4SCW4-MkbH8FVZmh9rt8Y1wgv371CdcZ0skGx_KF7QtcPp0W/s400/elections-2016.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
I can't claim any credit for it, source unknown. But I love everything about this, right down to the <b>"I Voted" </b>sticker on the dumpster. Children are the future, indeed.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, if you really wanna vote in 2016, check out <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Rev2016/" target="_blank">#REV16</a>, the campaign of Mimi Soltysik and Angela Walker, on the Socialist Party USA ticket, but running far to the left of SPUSA's usual politics.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-57585921180682210942016-05-05T22:14:00.001-04:002016-05-05T22:15:50.412-04:00The Parable of the Buffet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3_mIfoHzR6fpHwWQyt874G00_S0ggdt2DlXzVJ293PMmP31xcMDvuG9Qvm1lUIq4fz86RG0I97T3cHcIWKrfimDCwClYiZcUV6d_Qn3SwxkUn7DVUZJZRKz_97VS-DZyXGpb/s1600/3tureens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3_mIfoHzR6fpHwWQyt874G00_S0ggdt2DlXzVJ293PMmP31xcMDvuG9Qvm1lUIq4fz86RG0I97T3cHcIWKrfimDCwClYiZcUV6d_Qn3SwxkUn7DVUZJZRKz_97VS-DZyXGpb/s400/3tureens.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>I wrote this a year ago for my friends on Facebook as the election season started. I didn’t anticipate how the election season would actually unfold, and I certainly didn’t anticipate the Bernie Sanders phenomenon. But now that the primaries are within sight of an end, with the contest of Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump (!) a near certainty leaving the Sanders episode as an apparent blip at best (or an apparently successful episode of sheepdogging as many of us have been saying), it seems completely relevant once again. It may be that one day elections are a vehicle for the left: Right now, they’re a resistance-crushing, soul-deadening curse, a societal prophylactic against actual social change. Bon appetit! </i><br />
<br />
A parable; trigger warning, obscenity:<br />
<br />
You’re very hungry. You find a lovely buffet.<br />
<br />
At the buffet are three tureens. To your horror, as you lift the lid off th<span class="text_exposed_show">e
first, you discover a miasma of small pieces of broken glass and animal
feces. A little perturbed, you slam the lid back down. You move on to
the second tureen. When you lift the lid, the stench is remarkable, and a
melange of unmistakably human turds and jaggedly sharp glass shards
reveals itself. You're a little freaked out but you move to the third
tureen. There, you find a gourmet preparation of your most favorite
dish, and while you realize you will have to move away from the buffet
to enjoy it, you devour it with relish.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
The next time you are hungry you return to this buffet. However, you
notice there are only two tureens. You remove the first lid, and once
again find the vile stew of animal shit and broken glass. You remove the
second lid, and once again your senses are assaulted by the display of
jagged glass and human waste. You're very upset and disappointed. A
person's gotta eat!<br />
<br />
What do you do? You might complain to the
chef. You might call the health department. You might overturn the
buffet and its filthy tureens in outrage. You might even try specially
ordering that delicious third dish, but you are now quite concerned
about the state of the buffet's kitchen. You will probably go home and
cook your own dinner. But I'm pretty sure the absolute last thing you
would ever consider doing is eating from the tureen of human turds while
explaining that at least it wasn't cat shit. And you certainly wouldn't
listen to anyone who tried to convince you that eating shit wasn't
really that bad.<br />
<br />
<a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/lessvotingmorerevolution?source=feed_text&story_id=10204948220317761"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">LessVotingMoreRevolution</span></a> <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/readyforhillary?source=feed_text&story_id=10204948220317761"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">ReadyForHillary</span></a> <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/chuygarciabilldeblasiobarackobamajeanquan?source=feed_text&story_id=10204948220317761"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">ChuyGarciaBillDeBlasioBarackObamaJeanQuan</span></a></div>
ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-89916736985627763132016-04-20T10:38:00.001-04:002016-04-20T10:38:20.131-04:00“It it’s red, white & blue, it’s not real socialism”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiho9ECbm200j0_jOqBkJsb3khr4Ov39hEPoXp1QtnU5zjq_g_8GEchNj7W9vM_OvIFwhFcTtCdXNni2kIIP9QurxpkZFU_5-yVE0wQklSZfzsQ4LslC9GGiJKMj2lxnsAPMQY/s1600/AntiSanders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiho9ECbm200j0_jOqBkJsb3khr4Ov39hEPoXp1QtnU5zjq_g_8GEchNj7W9vM_OvIFwhFcTtCdXNni2kIIP9QurxpkZFU_5-yVE0wQklSZfzsQ4LslC9GGiJKMj2lxnsAPMQY/s400/AntiSanders.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Bernie took a drubbing in the NY state primary yesterday, despite the mobilization of much of the NYC left. I am in the strange position of thinking it's great that so many regular folks are open to some of the things Sanders is saying, while actually horrified that so many leftists have set aside their principles and historical legacy to dive in to the Democratic Party. I think long term that nothing good can come of Sanders’ redefining of socialism and revolution to mean something akin to the right wing’s corrupted definition. Anyway, hopefully this meme gets at the difference between Bernie Sanders’ professed socialism and the real socialism of someone like Eugene Debs, who was unequivocal in his opposition to capitalism itself. Nobody on the left should be waving those stars and stripes. Point that fucking bloodsoaked imperialist banner somewhere else.ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-71169475588106663422016-04-19T10:05:00.000-04:002016-04-19T11:47:04.529-04:00Mao Badges<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkdAce6npbWgaWouC8kchTohwkNVqsEwBXUQT6Y6u8kE7HJQPO_f2mjIH7twRddwsppRThzjzivurFYT5qgum-RyQpJ5TzGemDU_kQGxaptyxAYkc-59vX6icj8zE8zF3eMWSv/s1600/Mao_pins_1940s-50s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkdAce6npbWgaWouC8kchTohwkNVqsEwBXUQT6Y6u8kE7HJQPO_f2mjIH7twRddwsppRThzjzivurFYT5qgum-RyQpJ5TzGemDU_kQGxaptyxAYkc-59vX6icj8zE8zF3eMWSv/s400/Mao_pins_1940s-50s.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
I bought my first Mao badge when I was a teenager in the early 1970s. Since then I have accumulated a collection of several hundred. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. I'll post up more in a few days. These badges were produced for decades, starting in the 1940s before the whole of China was liberated. The heyday of Mao badges was the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976, when millions of varieties were manufactured for mass consumption: most of these were the red and silver "bicycle reflector" type made of aluminum, none of which I'm actually showing today.<br />
<br />
The first two photos here show photos from badges of the early period, stamped out of steel and enameled. I'm told that these early pins have been heavily counterfeited, which surprises me not one bit, so who knows if this are legit originals, I don't. Notable here is the pin above with the silhouettes of Mao and Stalin, the one below dated 1948, and the one below showing a Chinese volunteer bayonetting a red blob labelled "America," issued in solidarity with the DPRK, clearly a composition like the <a href="http://thecahokian.blogspot.com/search?q=%22take+that%22+stamps" target="_blank">"take that" stamps</a> I have featured here The Cahokian.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Airbd7MqKPOqvJQIJXVYzpQfdwXICWdi0l2x6jTWmz3Ztx52qc1ukE_Gb3geBuJS3neOqd7K-uxDNLI6VKYFGpTubS34Zu9gZ0gRSQpfgDbD8r0xZ745pT9cFx2kzOrMr_Yl/s1600/Mao_pins_1940s-50s_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Airbd7MqKPOqvJQIJXVYzpQfdwXICWdi0l2x6jTWmz3Ztx52qc1ukE_Gb3geBuJS3neOqd7K-uxDNLI6VKYFGpTubS34Zu9gZ0gRSQpfgDbD8r0xZ745pT9cFx2kzOrMr_Yl/s320/Mao_pins_1940s-50s_2.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEienzW6avnK0bUE_ddM4Ckg0mTqwDVDFCqwfcdfaBCvJ5hSVK9gSCYnEttKNBfqWgTv91YmhXUakigqQkvZ4PduzYh0C2UmLx0pPBXvAdbE2IiF3g6ayD_p-iPZdwGr1HNQ-RhU/s1600/Mao_badges_plastic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEienzW6avnK0bUE_ddM4Ckg0mTqwDVDFCqwfcdfaBCvJ5hSVK9gSCYnEttKNBfqWgTv91YmhXUakigqQkvZ4PduzYh0C2UmLx0pPBXvAdbE2IiF3g6ayD_p-iPZdwGr1HNQ-RhU/s320/Mao_badges_plastic.jpg" width="296" /></a></div>
This final batch of badges are all plastic: the heart and two of the white pins are soft, squishy, puffy vinyl. ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-64229564597518029352016-04-17T18:13:00.000-04:002016-04-17T18:17:11.092-04:00Vote Soltysik/Walker! #REV16<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7DUMw66smKsnadwXr95jRhRrV1xKbA2golTzGKcUfUWJuyOvk0lD4n1EZb-exIbireTW8tHRaKYOvu-UI8qRwaEKLJt2uU6LjRj7pCbvQGNfV8hLcol2zjyKbD9IDMVOcusw/s1600/CVwSfxlUYAAfYet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7DUMw66smKsnadwXr95jRhRrV1xKbA2golTzGKcUfUWJuyOvk0lD4n1EZb-exIbireTW8tHRaKYOvu-UI8qRwaEKLJt2uU6LjRj7pCbvQGNfV8hLcol2zjyKbD9IDMVOcusw/s400/CVwSfxlUYAAfYet.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
In my old age I have become convinced that voting is generally a meaningless enterprise, a false form of democracy that amounts to being forced to play a loser's game. As anybody who has read my blog for a few years knows, this is not the position I have always held: indeed my tempered enthusiasm for <a href="http://thecahokian.blogspot.com/search/label/2008%20elections" target="_blank">Obama 2008</a> is quite evident in the earlier pages of this blog. Let's just say I have <a href="http://thecahokian.blogspot.com/search/label/News%20from%20the%20Malabar%20Front" target="_blank">learned my lesson</a>.<br />
<br />
So I'm back to thinking about the symbolism of voting. I have been extremely favorably impressed by the modest electoral campaign of <a href="http://www.rev16.us/" target="_blank">Mimi Soltysik and Angela Walker of the Socialist Party USA</a>. I'm not going to make a thorough analysis right now of their campaign, of the checkered history of the SPUSA, or even of the reasons I believe organizing for fake socialist Bernie Sanders represents a major strategic mistake, <a href="http://battleof.nyc/" target="_blank">betrayal</a> even, but I would like to urge my readers to check out the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Rev2016/" target="_blank">#REV16 campaign</a>. Whether or not they are officially on the New York ballot in the fall, this is the ticket I will be casting my meaningless vote for in November. I am skipping the primary, condemning both Sanders, Clinton and of course the frightening trio on the Republican side.<br />
<br />
Soltysik and Walker seem like really great, dedicated activists, down to earth working class folks, and their campaign is being run on a platform far to the left of the Green Party; and unlike other leftist candidates with the possible exception of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/maryscullyforpresident2016/" target="_blank">Mary Scully</a>, they are running full up against the Sanders social democratic juggernaut. The Party of Socialism and Liberation and the Green Party seem both to be engaged in a soft endorsement of Sanders until his probable defeat in the primaries: #Rev16 is engaged in no such ridiculousness, confronting the issues from a revolutionary point of view up and down the line right now.<br />
<br />
Voting won't bring revolution, but standing up for what you believe in and making a statement sure doesn't hurt. Meanwhile, the fight for socialism is in people talking to each other, organizing, preparing, sharpening our tools. #LessVotingMoreRevolution ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-59330778205655918542016-03-26T11:42:00.001-04:002016-04-07T15:06:40.592-04:00A second blog!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4pkbapmyCmPlt9F83DbNA27QXWH9QsR207PuBZ6_9Jn0kkSt57qbF1aiMGaUFxnrnLgFTGQXpMOPTgjjWV4oyO7xb_dcK6QWV1n116jhFOqSS6wKfAXY3cezJpucclW1om50/s1600/EPRP-demo-addis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4pkbapmyCmPlt9F83DbNA27QXWH9QsR207PuBZ6_9Jn0kkSt57qbF1aiMGaUFxnrnLgFTGQXpMOPTgjjWV4oyO7xb_dcK6QWV1n116jhFOqSS6wKfAXY3cezJpucclW1om50/s400/EPRP-demo-addis.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EPRP demonstration in Ethiopia in 1976.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<i>“What!?” </i>you say, <i>“He can barely keep up with this one!”</i><br />
<br />
Well, it's true, I've become a very lazy blogger. While I'm extraordinarily proud of the year I wrote for this blog once a day, my contributions here have become far and few between. During the period I was writing for the Kasama Project, now ended, I hardly posted here at all. I'm finding my voice again though, so don't give up on me. Meanwhile, however, I have undertaken a new project I'm really excited about.<br />
<br />
My new, second blog, certainly not replacing this one, is called <a href="http://abyotawi.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><b>“Abyot: The Lost Revolution”</b></a> and it is documenting a research project I have undertaken on the Ethiopian revolution of the 1970s. I started this blog over a year ago and didn't really tell anybody about it; but now that I am well into the research project itself, I want to share what I'm learning, and I have begun much more regular postings.<br />
<br />
It's a subject I have been interested in for, no lie, forty years. Here's an excerpt from my new blog's <a href="http://abyotawi.blogspot.com/2014/08/statement-of-intent.html" target="_blank">statement of intent</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In 1976 I was eighteen years old and a university student in Chicago. My
brief tenure in college was marked by my increasing radicalization, as I
became involved with the American revolutionary left. I became a
voracious consumer of worldwide revolutionary literature along with the
classics of Marxist theory. I attended protests and forums, conferences
and demonstrations, and, in those long-ago days, admired the
organization and fortitude of leftist students from around the world
from places like Iran, Ethiopia, Eritrea and elsewhere. I went to
demonstrations where police or right-wingers were menacing and
threatening, and certainly saw the potential of brutality. In my years
as a radical I've witnessed hundreds of arrests and atrocious acts of
police violence. But my life has rarely been in direct danger as a
result of my political activities....<br />
<br />
In 1976 a revolution in Ethiopia was experiencing a crucial shift, and I
watched and studied these events as they happened. Military officers
were consolidating their co-optation of a mass, popular uprising.
Thousands of revolutionary students my very age were out in the streets
fighting for that revolution and attempting to resist the hijacking of
the revolution by the military. The students, along with workers and
peasants, were organized under the red banners of the Ethiopian People's
Revolutionary Party (EPRP), at the time a largely clandestine
Marxist-Leninist formation. Very shortly the EPRP faced a massive,
genocidal government campaign of violence and extermination. Dubbed "The
Red Terror" by the military government, soon thousands of student
revolutionaries my age were rounded up and murdered. The commitment of
these young revolutionaries was inspirational to me, and gave me great
pause to consider the contrasts and contradictions.<br />
<br />
This blog is an investigation project. <br />
<br />
What was the EPRP at the height of its power? What were the forces it
was up against? What was the dynamic of the Ethiopian Revolution? Why
did the EPRP lose?<br />
<br />
I hope to excavate, if not rehabilitate, the historical reputation of
the EPRP during its Marxist-Leninist period through a process of
curation, collection, research and reportage. I will post articles,
artwork and photos, book excerpts, reviews, and if I find them,
reminiscences, about the Ethiopian revolution, primarily in the second
half of the 1970s but extending through the 1980s.</blockquote>
<br />
At the new blog I have also posted a more expanded series of study questions which explains some of the issues I'm trying to understand. That post is entitled <a href="http://abyotawi.blogspot.com/2016/03/8-study-questions-on-ethiopian.html" target="_blank">“8 Study Questions on the Ethiopian Revolution.”</a> And I've posted — and will update, as I go — the <a href="http://abyotawi.blogspot.com/2016/03/ethiopian-revolution-investigation.html" target="_blank">reading list of works</a> I'm consulting for my research. I'm posting cool artwork, photos I find, sharing bits of the research and provocative bits of the story as it unfolds, and I hope to eventually produce more substantial essays about the subject of my studies itself.<br />
<br />
If you're interested in revolutionary history, a story that is really woefully forgotten or misunderstood, hop on over and take a look! <a href="http://abyotawi.blogspot.com/">http://abyotawi.blogspot.com/</a>ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-41762689318104586752016-03-16T11:01:00.000-04:002016-03-16T11:01:25.429-04:00A Crucial Message for Our Times<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzVa8pWzoFafVzShjWPjvub6QNn_O3vUrCziN67QDnSEUY6gDWiRo_Cnb_8Fa9_nZWY5Y900wGIKa40odDojIBsx3kYV6fhiB4ER0qvNivOcqx2caRk7hDPwv-LWY3D3crCZH/s1600/Aydinlik_Luxemburg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzVa8pWzoFafVzShjWPjvub6QNn_O3vUrCziN67QDnSEUY6gDWiRo_Cnb_8Fa9_nZWY5Y900wGIKa40odDojIBsx3kYV6fhiB4ER0qvNivOcqx2caRk7hDPwv-LWY3D3crCZH/s400/Aydinlik_Luxemburg.jpg" width="273" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover of the 1920s Turkish Communist journal Aydinlik picturing Rosa Luxemburg</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The excerpt below is not rare or hard to find. It's been in print for generations, and thanks to the good comrades at the <a href="https://www.marxists.org/index.htm" target="_blank">Marxist Internet Archive</a>, it is freely available on the internet. But this crucial document, <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/index.htm" target="_blank">Rosa Luxemburg</a>'s timely attack on Bernsteinian revisionism <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/index.htm" target="_blank">"Reform or Revolution?"</a> should be required reading for today's generation of socialists, especially those who, in the process of #FeelingTheBern, think they are merely choosing one of many strategies for a better world. Youthful optimism is a beautiful thing. But sometimes it is of dire importance to look back over a hundred years ago. Truly, there's nothing new under the sun. The revolution is nothing without the wisdom of fighters, leaders, comrades, philosophers and theoreticians who have fought these battles before. Their sacrifices are supposed to make our struggle easier.<br />
<br />
Pay attention!<br />
<br />
Below are excerpts from Reform or Revolution, <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/ch08.htm" target="_blank">chapter 8, "Conquest of Political Power,"</a> first published in 1900 and revised in 1908. Luxemburg's entire pamphlet is available on <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/index.htm" target="_blank">MIA</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>"[D]oes the development of democracy render superfluous or
impossible a proletarian revolution, that is, the conquest of political
power by the workers?</b><br />
<br />
<b>Bernstein settles the question by weighing minutely the good and bad
sides of social reform and social revolution. He does it almost in the
same manner in which cinnamon or pepper is weighed out in a consumers’
co-operative store. He sees the legislative course of historic
development as the action of “intelligence,” while the revolutionary
course of historic development is for him the action of “feeling.”
Reformist activity, he recognises as a slow method of historic progress,
revolution as a rapid method of progress. In legislation he sees a
methodical force; in revolution, a spontaneous force.</b><br />
<br />
<b>We have known for a long time that the petty-bourgeoisie reformer finds
“good” and “bad” sides in everything. He nibbles a bit at all grasses.
But the real course of events is little affected by such combination.
The carefully gathered little pile of the “good sides” of all things
possible collapses at the first filip of history. Historically,
legislative reform and the revolutionary method function in accordance
with influences that are much more profound than the consideration of
the advantages or inconveniences of one method or another....</b><br />
<br />
<b>Legislative reform and revolution are not different methods of
historic development that can be picked out at the pleasure from the
counter of history, just as one chooses hot or cold sausages.
Legislative reform and revolution are different <em>factors</em> in the
development of class society. They condition and complement each other,
and are at the same time reciprocally exclusive, as are the north and
south poles, the bourgeoisie and proletariat....</b><br />
<br />
<b>That is why people who pronounce themselves in favour of the method of legislative reform <em>in place and in contradistinction to</em> the conquest of political power and social revolution, do not really choose a more tranquil, calmer and slower road to the <em>same</em> goal, but a <em>different</em>
goal. Instead of taking a stand for the establishment of a new society
they take a stand for surface modifications of the old society. If we
follow the political conceptions of revisionism, we arrive at the same
conclusion that is reached when we follow the economic theories of
revisionism. Our program becomes not the realisation of <em>socialism</em>, but the reform of <em>capitalism</em>;
not the suppression of the wage labour system but the diminution of
exploitation, that is, the suppression of the abuses of capitalism
instead of suppression of capitalism itself....</b><br />
<br />
<b>No law obliges the proletariat to submit itself to the yoke of
capitalism. Poverty, the lack of means of production, obliges the
proletariat to submit itself to the yoke of capitalism. And no law in
the world can give to the proletariat the means of production while it
remains in the framework of bourgeois society, for not laws but economic
development have torn the means of production from the producers’
possession....</b><br />
<br />
<strong>In a word, democracy is indispensable not because it renders
superfluous the conquest of political power by the proletariat but
because it renders this conquest of power both <em>necessary</em> and <em>possible</em>. When Engels, in his preface to the <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/class-struggles-france/" target="_blank"><i>Class Struggles in France</i></a>,
revised the tactics of the modern labour movement and urged the legal
struggle as opposed to the barricades, he did not have in mind – this
comes out of every line of the preface – the question of a definite
conquest of political power, but the contemporary daily struggle. He did
not have in mind the attitude that the proletariat must take toward the
capitalist State at the time of the seizure of power but the attitude
of the proletariat while in the bounds of the capitalist State. Engels
was giving directions to the proletariat <em>oppressed</em>, and not to the proletariat victorious....</strong><br />
<br />
<b>Just as all roads lead to Rome so too do we logically arrive at the
conclusion that the revisionist proposal to slight the final aim of the
socialist movement is really a recommendation to renounce the socialist
movement itself."</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
<b>
</b><br />
<b>
</b><br />
<br />
<b> </b>ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-77309261745902128722016-02-13T12:58:00.000-05:002016-02-13T12:58:14.346-05:00How much is Assata's life worth?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIX6npIrqKoim98uayYfw4zj9egDo5mYrG_-bfI-gmqhR-ji2NNWi2JbtkecN0mFSsC0vkTn7EPHON7vvQTUa47uKWNem64JUwhA3Jc_Jr0__IXROX4kh75VJdIeExslBJXRKQ/s1600/AssataMAtters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIX6npIrqKoim98uayYfw4zj9egDo5mYrG_-bfI-gmqhR-ji2NNWi2JbtkecN0mFSsC0vkTn7EPHON7vvQTUa47uKWNem64JUwhA3Jc_Jr0__IXROX4kh75VJdIeExslBJXRKQ/s400/AssataMAtters.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
<br />
Assata Shakur is a hero of our time. Her autobiography is required reading. "Assata Taught Me" tee-shirts have become ubiquitous in the era of #BlackLivesMatter. And yet, liberal Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is on record voting to extradite Shakur, called here "Joanne Chesimard," from Cuba where she now lives, back to prison in the United States. How do supporters of Sanders justify this? Personally, I hope Assata doesn't ever #FeelTheBern and stays free in socialist Cuba.<br />
<br />
<br />ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-32801514709626987182016-02-05T07:12:00.001-05:002016-02-05T07:12:27.598-05:00Hijack! Bernie Sanders and the Message of Occupy Wall Street <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6JlRxK8vcM960DLj0tffuw2vyqoD59WpM7_QEZNTkNMM7rcckCHwCcxXdwFqoeMEt4CYddbjfL63bsoGggWrCotRqloL444Bmu2MJWwyjYvKS2yj_iyP8XKnxmVR9zecDbjFm/s1600/Occupy-Wall-Street_revolution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6JlRxK8vcM960DLj0tffuw2vyqoD59WpM7_QEZNTkNMM7rcckCHwCcxXdwFqoeMEt4CYddbjfL63bsoGggWrCotRqloL444Bmu2MJWwyjYvKS2yj_iyP8XKnxmVR9zecDbjFm/s400/Occupy-Wall-Street_revolution.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
There is a clear straight line from the rhetoric of Occupy Wall Street to the rhetoric of the Bernie Sanders campaign.<br />
<br />
Back in Occupy, there were three contending forces challenging
economic injustice in this country. There were the End The Fed Paulite
rightwingers, who thankfully in NYC were always a tiny minority; there
were the Money Out of Politics people, usually also in the minority but
generally identifiable as more middle class and more Democratic
Party/mainstream oriented; and then there were the social radicals, the
anarchists, leftists, and community activists. There was certainly
tension in this last group between those who wanted to bring up
big-picture, ideology-rooted solutions and those who wanted to engage in
strictly responsive organizing, but this third group managed to
dominate Occupy as a whole. It certainly did in Occupy Sunset Park in
which I was very active.<br />
<br />
The genius of Occupy Wall Street
included building the kind of united front where these forces could
coexist. Had either the End The Fed people or the Money Out of Politics
people dominated, Occupy would have been truncated, and of negligible
longevity or impact. It was the presence of the social radicals—and I
credit the anarchists above all—who dared to make challenging the
fundamentals of capitalism seem like everyday possibility.<br />
<br />
What
we are seeing in the 2016 elections is the seizure of the message and
the remnants of momentum by the Money Out of Politics people, and this
is not actually a good thing. It was very clear watching Bernie Sanders
in the New Hampshire debate how limited this vision is, and how
un-radical it is. This is actually Sanders' central focus, and far from
containing any kernel of socialism, it is anything but a politically
revolutionary demand. Of all the exploitative, oppressive, and broken
things about capitalism in the USA, the fact that money buys political
influence is the least remarkable. It is either naive magical thinking
or deceptive ideological dishonesty to present money in politics as the
keystone issue of our times, and to channel the obvious and massive
popular discontent into the umbrella of reforming campaign financing and
Wall Street influence represents not the triumph of popular upsurge but
an attempt by a certain ideology to hijack social momentum. Sure, Wall
Street is odious. But it is odious because it is the essence of
capitalism not some discoloration of imaginary American democracy.<br />
<br />
The enthusiasm behind Sanders' campaign is certainly remarkable,
showing many of the signs and symptoms of a real social movement. But
let's be clear: the Sanders campaign is not some kind of spontaneous
popular upsurge, it is a Democratic Party election campaign, and even if
it is often at odds with wings of the Democratic establishment, it is
anything but a real social movement with open-ended revolutionary
potential. Social radicals, who understand how ideology, class, and
leadership function, should not be coddling the illusions consciously
fostered by the Sanders campaign; it will come to regret surrendering to
a wing of the Democratic Party.<br />
<br />
Occupy reminded us that
"another world is possible." The world the Sanders campaign is
advocating looks a lot like this one. The rich ideological heritage of
social revolutionaries identifies capitalism as the problem, and
presents us with the imperative of revolutionary change. Setting aside
competing strategies and visions for the moment, we would do well to
remember all those ideologues and freedom fighters who understood that
it is literally impossible to see mass justice and liberation under
capitalism, even a capitalism slightly tamed by reform. Hope is a
beautiful thing, but to triumph, hope must be informed by an accurate
diagnosis of the problem and a prognosis for a cure.<br />
<br />
Social
radicals who have signed up to organize for Sanders are surrendering the
future for the illusion of popular support. It's called opportunism,
and it also doesn't work. The Democratic Party is stronger than we are,
and they're gonna stay that way unless we make the break that
generations of freedom fighters before us understood.ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-17543767779273709892016-01-15T15:24:00.000-05:002016-01-15T15:24:11.362-05:00Bernie Sanders Killed Rosa Luxemburg<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoK3ozomD1AnrMeThJQfx7Pa18GOClQ-MIjWVRSvVBjMjGI7-3-PB0T7c4d3lZIlwE6o4Wa6lBdgs230mVa2y90Q0IyNceGEQWZ_yoiuHfbW8IVXWG3wRAmoTiKpA0K34cebyJ/s1600/lux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoK3ozomD1AnrMeThJQfx7Pa18GOClQ-MIjWVRSvVBjMjGI7-3-PB0T7c4d3lZIlwE6o4Wa6lBdgs230mVa2y90Q0IyNceGEQWZ_yoiuHfbW8IVXWG3wRAmoTiKpA0K34cebyJ/s320/lux.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Print from Max Beckmann, The Martyrdom of Rosa Luxemburg<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<b><i>Bernie Sanders killed Rosa Luxemburg.</i></b></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Well, no of course he didn't. But his ideological predecessors did. They did it because, like Sanders, they embraced and defended capitalist state power against actual revolution. They, like Sanders, redefined socialism to mean something so much less than the bravest of revolutionary philosophers actually understood. It's a pleasant fantasy to think of Sanders' electoral campaign as some kind of "political revolution," but nothing could be further from the real truth.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
There are no short cuts to actual revolution—unfortunately!—and in the extraordinarily unlikely event that Sanders is elected, he will be custodian of the most massive instruments of repression the world has ever known, and like a previous pleasant fantasy (Obama's "change we can believe in") he will use them. Sanders' modest list of reforms, which will not actually be enacted, do not add up to the actual radical realignment of society we so desperately need. Socialism is not the system of state-administered programs Sanders supporters suggest but the transfer of power from the capitalist class to the working class, and that is something no electoral candidate can deliver.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It is very very frustrating that reality disproves the optimism of many Sanders voters, which is why I am beyond frustrated at leftists who are cynically lying about the possibilities behind his campaign. The truth needs to remain our weapon. Sure, the Republican candidates represent some of the worst of humanity; they're terrifying in obvious ways. But look deeper: the truth is that Sanders, Clinton, or Obama before them are a terribly inadequate line of defense against those forces of reaction, and actually if you look into the totality of their records, they are examples of some pretty horrible humanity themselves. Obama, for instance, who speaks movingly about gun violence while green lighting massive violence against civilians in other countries. Remember it was mostly not horrible Republicans who smashed the Occupy movement in acts of violence, it was Obama and the nation's liberal and Democratic party establishment. Bernie Sanders has sat in government for decades funding the machineries of war and vigorously backing such US allies as apartheid Israel. </div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1919/01/14.htm" target="_blank">Rosa Luxemburg</a> and her collaborators challenged the socialist (social-democratic, more accurately) mainstream of her own time when she loudly condemned German socialists for supporting German imperialism in WW1. In the ruins of Germany's defeat, she dared lead an insurrection, attempting to take advantage of capitalism's disarray. The social democratic mainstream chose instead to defend the German state from that insurrection, and drowned the insurrection in blood. Luxemburg is remembered by today's left as a kind of symbolically humanist alternative to Lenin, who bourgeois history has written off as discredited. Nothing could actually be further from reality, and let us not miss the main point of Luxemburg's lifelong dedication, like Lenin's: the overthrow of capitalism. Because to do this thing is the only way to save humanity from the cannibal brutality of the system that has now survived her murder by almost a century. </div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It is beyond obvious that there is no organized revolutionary force capable of challenging the capitalist status quo in the USA. Indeed even Rosa Luxemburg's insurrection was probably premature and rash. But as long as we blind ourselves to the lessons of history — speaking of American exceptionalism! — the seeds and sprouts that signal the possibility of a better world (Occupy, <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/blm?source=feed_text&story_id=10206853453787407" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl" style="color: #627aad;">#</span><span class="_58cm">BLM</span></a>) will fall, unwatered, on the sterile ground of playing electoral games that by design cannot actually meet our actual needs. Sure, we have to start somewhere, we need a real and legitimate mass movement. But the Bernie Sanders election campaign is not that movement, not even the seed of that movement. That's gotta be painful for some to hear in a season when we could really use some hope. </div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
I'm glad my Facebook feed is filled with memorial postings to Rosa Luxemburg: in 21st-century America that's kind of a miracle. But the best way to honor her memory is to finish her actual work.</div>
<div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
I really don't want to #FeelTheBern.</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
#LessVotingMoreRevolution</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i>(crossposted from my Facebook)</i></div>
</div>
ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-38882905830957546742015-07-31T14:21:00.001-04:002015-07-31T14:21:54.886-04:00Sandra Bland, killed by slave catchers<div class="western">
<i>Here's my latest, crossposted from <a href="http://www.kasamaproject.org/2015/07/a-21st-century-slave-patrol-murdered-sandra-bland/" target="_blank">Kasama</a>.</i></div>
<h1 class="entry-title">
A 21st-century slave patrol murdered Sandra Bland </h1>
<div class="western">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_471" style="width: 231px;">
<a href="http://www.kasamaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sandra_Bland-FB-2014.jpg"><img alt="#SayHerName #SandraBland" class="size-medium wp-image-471" height="400" src="http://www.kasamaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sandra_Bland-FB-2014-225x300.jpg" width="300" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
#SayHerName #SandraBland</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="western">
Let the truth be known: Sandra Bland, an activist in the #BlackLivesMatter movement, was kidnapped and murdered by modern day <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_patrol" target="_blank">slave catchers</a>.
Her “crime” was daring to act like a human being in the face of the
arbitrary and brutal violence of white supremacy and male authority.</div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
Watch the videos of her outrageous kidnapping and
weep for what you know is coming. Watch the video of a brave and
self-assured woman menaced, brutalized, and thrown to the ground, and
rage against the horror documented on 21st-century technology. Look for
the crude attempts by the authorities and their captive media to edit,
to mislead, to lie, to distort, to deflect, to assassinate Sandra
Bland’s character. But don’t be fooled. Sandra Bland did not kill
herself.</div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
For moving her car out of the way of an approaching
Texas pig patrol car, Sandra Bland was assaulted, dragged off to jail
for three days, and murdered in her cell. For insisting on her right to
be upset with being treated like shit in the midst of a random encounter
she was tarred as “uppity” and marked for death. Her voice is clear in
the videos of her kidnapping—both the edited one released by the pigs
and the bystander video showing her flat on the ground—and in the
message she left from prison on a friend’s phone: she was disgusted with
what was happening to her but frustrated at being powerless to stop it.</div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
In her <a href="https://libcom.org/files/assataauto.pdf" target="_blank">autobiography</a>,
liberated Black freedom fighter Assata Shakur presciently warns us
about how white supremacy will seek to absolve itself of responsibility
for the deaths of its captives: <b>“In prisons it is not at all uncommon
to find a prisoner hanged or burned to death in his cell. No matter how
suspicious the circumstances, these deaths are always ruled ‘suicides.’
The are usually Black inmates, considered to be a ‘threat to the
orderly running of the prison.’ They are usually among the most
politically aware and socially conscious inmates in the prison.”</b></div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_472" style="width: 293px;">
<a href="http://www.kasamaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sandra_Bland-Dylann_Roof.jpg"><img alt="Graphic from Sandra Bland's Facebook page showing Dylann Roof at left." class=" wp-image-472" height="232" src="http://www.kasamaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sandra_Bland-Dylann_Roof-300x241.jpg" width="287" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Graphic from Sandra Bland’s Facebook page showing Dylann Roof at left.</div>
</div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
We may never learn how the pigs killed Sandra Bland,
but even if the dubious and suspicious official narrative about suicide
by garbage bag turns out to be other than the time-worn lie it appears
to be, the pigs at the Waller County Jail are still her murderers: <i>Sandra Bland did not do this to herself.</i></div>
<div class="western">
We don’t know that the authorities knew who Sandra
Bland was before they kidnapped her, but her presence in social media
was out front and they certainly figured it out once they had her behind
bars. Her Facebook page bore the slogan <b>“Now legalize being Black in America”</b> with a banner illustration contrasting how racist terrorist <a href="http://www.kasamaproject.org/2015/06/charleston-massacre-who-loaded-dylann-roof/" target="_blank">Dylann Roof</a>
was treated after being arrested (with a cheeseburger) to how a Black
man is treated (bloodied and beaten). In a series of videos, Bland was
outspoken against Police violence, white privilege and racial injustice,
and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sandra.bland.5070/videos/vb.73304051/10100618184266304/?type=2&theater" target="_blank">spoke movingly</a> about a cause she felt strongly about:</div>
<blockquote>
<div class="western">
“<b>I was asked, was I trying to racially unite or
racially incite. Well, honestly I feel that my goal is to racially
unite. Now, in the process of doing that some people will be incited,
i.e., upset, because based on the history of America it is not good when
it comes to Black and white people. But I want us to try and get past
that and that is ultimately impossible until certain people realize that
they were born into a certain kind of privilege.… Black people are
gonna be mad when we see our people gunned down and murdered.”</b></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="western">
It’s a familiar pattern, well known to the
communities preyed upon by the death squads in blue, but now plain for
anyone with eyes to see: A Black person encounters so-called law
enforcement, and winds up dead.</div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
<i>Sandra Bland. Kindra Chapman. </i><i>Sam DuBose. </i><i>Tamir Rice. Freddie Grey. Walter Scott. <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/race-liberation/4499-eric-garner-mike-brown-shut-it-down-shut-it-down" target="_blank">Eric Garner</a>. Michael Brown. Akai Gurley. Charly Keunang. Shantel Davis. <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/east-flatbush-brooklyn-justice-for-kiki" target="_blank">Kimani Gray</a>. Ramarley Graham. Kyam Livingston.</i>
#SayTheirNames and grit your teeth, for these names are only a few of
untold hundreds of innocent Black people murdered by the modern slave
catchers year after year, most with complete legal impunity.</div>
<blockquote>
<div class="western">
“<b>Show me in American history where ‘all’ lives
have mattered. Show me where there have been liberty and justice for
all, like that fucking pledge of allegiance we love to say….if ‘all’
lives mattered would there need to be a hashtag for
#BlackLivesMatter?” —Sandra Bland in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sandra.bland.5070/videos/vb.73304051/10100617026077324/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">#SandySpeaks</a></b></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="western">
Let us be clear, again. So-called law enforcement is
not some tree bearing good and rotten apples: it is a noxious, poisonous
growth that must be uprooted and destroyed. The police are not acting
in an aberrant fashion: they are doing what they were designed to do,
enforcing the structures of white supremacy that maintain the capitalist
order. The rampant lethal violence of these modern day slave patrols
against communities of color is fully sanctioned by the state despite
being documented not only by brave citizen copwatchers but on the
state’s own bodycams and dashcams. The police reform schemes of liberal
politicians like New York City’s mayor DeBlasio and President Obama are
revealed to be nothing other than feel-good window dressing for the same
old repressive business as usual.</div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_470" style="width: 256px;">
<a href="http://www.kasamaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sanda_Bland_FB-page_Illustration.jpg"><img alt="Graphic from Sandra Bland's Facebook page." class=" wp-image-470" height="250" src="http://www.kasamaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sanda_Bland_FB-page_Illustration-300x300.jpg" width="250" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Graphic from Sandra Bland’s Facebook page.</div>
</div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
We are heartened by the growth of the
#BlackLivesMatter movement now confronting racist terror across the
country. It is exciting to see activists from communities of color,
notably led by women like the martyred Sandra Bland, take the lead in
combatting this country’s structural white supremacy, confronting
politicians, ripping down confederate flags, defacing racist monuments,
building networks of support and discussing the implications of the deep
intertwining of racism and capitalism. More than one activist in this
movement has pointed out that the first flag of slavery in this country
was not the confederate stars and bars, but the stars and stripes
itself, and we hope these are steps in a path that brings this movement
to an understanding of the need for revolution, the abolition of white
supremacist institutions and structures, and the destruction of
capitalism itself. This movement will not soon be silent.</div>
<div class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western">
In the <a href="http://madamenoire.com/549162/im-readythis-means-war-sandra-blands-mother-eulogizes-daughter-prepares-to-fight-for-justice/" target="_blank">words of Sandra Bland’s mother</a>, <b>“</b><em><b>Once I put this baby in the ground, I’m ready…This means war.”</b></em></div>
<div class="western">
<em><b><br />
</b></em></div>
<div class="western">
#SayHerName #AvengeSandraBland #SmashSlavePatrols</div>
ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-37052107900192435592015-07-25T12:04:00.000-04:002015-07-25T12:11:34.253-04:00Real enemies, False Friends: Imperialism and homophobia in Africa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU6ptfBWkKC3fIWRJZV0Z5dT2WmveaxqIHyHR6FZ2dBg1pKh2fjR3m6JxJeVg7FAC1yyGDkTUk1mI7lJU8GWHCAmU5p5YwEfv7k3FrmOnFFfBdFIpAiyYBktCFWQf_0hMIUnTG/s1600/Uganda-kuchus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU6ptfBWkKC3fIWRJZV0Z5dT2WmveaxqIHyHR6FZ2dBg1pKh2fjR3m6JxJeVg7FAC1yyGDkTUk1mI7lJU8GWHCAmU5p5YwEfv7k3FrmOnFFfBdFIpAiyYBktCFWQf_0hMIUnTG/s320/Uganda-kuchus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>This article originally appeared on The Kasama Project on 8 February 2014. Reposting here to preserve a broken link. It may also be accessed <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/real-enemies-and-false-friends-imperialism-and-homophobia-in-africa" target="_blank">here</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<h2>
“What Clinton and Obama have done is <i>weaponize</i> gay rights in the service of neocolonialism.”</h2>
<b>By ISH</b><br />
<br />
Gay people in African countries have long confronted existential
challenges. But now old laws that criminalize homosexual behavior are
being supplemented with harsh penalties and new laws designed to push
gay people back into the shadows. This massive wave of repression is
being led by local demagogues and visiting American missionaries. But
underneath it all, decades of neocolonial exploitation and blatant
imperialist hypocrisy have created a perfect storm of terror for gay
Africans.<br />
<blockquote>
<b>We celebrate the fact that Uganda is a no go zone for the gay people. Let them die l</b><b>ike</b><b>
cockroaches and insects with no purpose. We praise the lord that our
leaders are put them in their places;- graveyards, cells, prisons and
out of Uganda. </b><b>Y</b><b>eessssssssssssssssssss this is it, we shall get them.”</b> —a Ugandan supporter of anti-gay legislation, on Facebook</blockquote>
After being stalled for several years and having undergone various
revisions, Uganda's parliament made headlines in December by finally
passing a deeply repressive bill against gays and lesbians. While the
death penalty clause was removed from what was originally referred to as
the "Kill the Gays Bill," it sets penalties including life imprisonment
for “aggravated homosexuality,” and also criminalizes the failure to
turn in known homosexuals for their behavior. According to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/20/uganda-anti-gay-law-life-imprisonment">the Guardian</a>,
“Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda under a colonial-era law
that criminalised sexual acts 'against the order of nature,' but the
Ugandan politician who wrote the new law argued that tough new
legislation was needed because gay people from the west threatened to
destroy Ugandan families and were allegedly 'recruiting' Ugandan
children into gay lifestyles.”<br />
<br />
<a class="easyblog-thumb-preview" href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/Uganda-GEHO.jpg" title="Uganda-GEHO.jpg"><img alt="b2ap3_thumbnail_Uganda-GEHO.jpg" src="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/b2ap3_thumbnail_Uganda-GEHO.jpg" height="165" style="float: left; margin-right: 4px;" title="b2ap3_thumbnail_Uganda-GEHO.jpg" width="250" /></a>Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has so far refused to sign the bill into law, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/01/uganda-president-refuses-sign-anti-gay-law-201411782510127810.html">saying the bill</a>
would not solve the problem of “abnormality.” But regardless of the
status of the bill, Ugandan gay people, referred to as “kuchus,” report a
sharp increase in anti-gay harassment and violence. Activist David Kato
was murdered in 2011, and Andrew Waiswa of the <a href="http://www.geho-uganda.org/">Gender-Equality and Health Organisation of Uganda</a>
(GEHO) was beaten by thugs in December requiring hospitalization.
Waiswa, now recuperating at home, reports that his friends are
threatened daily on the streets. Says Waiswa, <b>“So they want to
kill me for being me and trying to help fellow LGBTq brothers and
sisters??? Now that's madness!! I have survived many attempts and I know
some of us might lose our lives in this battle, but giving up the fight
is not an option....We are born this way!!! We are gay! We are here...
we can't hide anymore, we have nowhere to run...yes we are Ugandan
Kuchus!!”</b><br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>A Worldwide Trend?</b></h3>
Unfortunately, Uganda is not the only country in Africa, or indeed
elsewhere in the world, where gay or queer people are now being
targeted. In January, Nigerian <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/01/18/263651508/nigeria-passes-harsh-anti-gay-law">president Goodluck Jonathan surprised observers</a> by
signing a similarly repressive law that criminalizes gay marriages but
also criminalizes the ability of gays and lesbians to associate or to
form organizations. Immediately following the enactment of this law,
dozens of gay Nigerians were arrested, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/16/world/africa/nigeria-anti-gay-law-arrests/">according to human rights activists</a>. In northern Nigeria where Muslim sharia law coexists with civil Nigerian law, the new law seems to have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/nigeria-gay-trial-protest_n_4645942.html">fueled a wave of popular anti-gay protest</a> demanding harsh penalties for those arrested.<br />
<br />
Nigerian student <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/%20http:/www.huffingtonpost.com/udoka-okafor/a-letter-to-nigerian-pres_b_4450638.html">Udoka Okafor</a> summarizes:<br />
<blockquote>
<b>Openly LGBT persons in Nigeria are simply struggling
to survive a culture that is hostile to them because of their sexual
and gender orientation. The legal system criminalizes them, society
ostracizes them, and politicians spit out negative demagogueries about
them that further indoctrinate people into a culture of hostility
towards LGBT persons.<b>”</b></b></blockquote>
Elsewhere, Gambia's president Yahya Jammeh used the occasion of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/27/us-un-assembly-gays-idUSBRE98Q19K20130927">his September speech</a> to the United Nations in New York to denounce homosexuals and their supporters: <b>"Those
who promote homosexuality want to put an end to human
existence...Homosexuality in all its forms and manifestations which,
though very evil, antihuman as well as anti-Allah, is being promoted as a
human right by some powers.”</b><br />
<br />
A legislator in Liberia is promoting a law that would also criminalize gay marriage: <b>“[Homosexuality]
is a criminal offence. It is un-African...It is a problem in our
society. We consider deviant sexual behaviour criminal behaviour,”</b> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/19/nobel-peace-prize-law-homosexuality">said the legislator</a>, Jewel Howard-Taylor.<br />
<br />
Back in 1995 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Zimbabwe">President Robert Mugabe</a> of Zimbabwe notoriously said, <b>“I
find it extremely outrageous and repugnant to my human conscience that
such immoral and repulsive organizations, like those of homosexuals, who
offend both against the law of nature and the morals of religious
beliefs espoused by our society, should have any advocates in our midst
and elsewhere in the world.”</b> He has kept up this anti-gay
attitude ever since and non-sexual gay behavior was criminalized in
Zimbabwe in 2006. There are many other examples across sub-Saharan
Africa.<br />
<br />
And of course there is the law in Russia, signed by President
Vladimir Putin last summer, that bans “propaganda of nontraditional
sexual relations to minors.” <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/58649/russia-s-anti-gay-law-spelled-out-in-plain-english%20">This law effectively shoves</a>
Russia's gay and lesbian community back into the closet, as any open
activity can now be cited as “gay propaganda” that might expose children
to homosexuality. While homosexuality itself remains decriminalized in
post-Soviet Russia (at least for now), <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/before-sochi-a-disturbing-rise-in-anti-gay-violence-in-russia">activists report</a>
a disturbing increase in violence directed against the Russian gay
community. The Russian anti-gay law has been a focus of world-wide
activists seeking to use the winter Olympics in Sochi to publicize
what's happening there and punish the Olympics' supporters for enabling
repression by calling for protests and a boycott.<br />
Finally, in December of last year, India's supreme court shocked the
world by reinstating a colonial-era law recriminalizing homosexuality.
The 1861 law had been struck down in 2009. In the new year, the supreme
court even rejected complaints by human rights activists and stood firm
on its decision to make homosexuality punishable by up to ten years in
jail.<br />
<h3>
<b>Why Is this Happening?</b><br />
</h3>
Yet things look very different in the United States. While violence
against transgendered people remains at an unprecented high level, and
while a bill against workplace discrimination against LGBT people (<a href="https://www.aclu.org/hiv-aids_lgbt-rights/employment-non-discrimination-act">ENDA</a>)
languishes in congress, the rapid increase in the number of states
legalizing same-sex marriage equality would suggest a rising tide of
acceptance toward gay people here at home. Despite the furious activity
of anti-gay hate groups and the <a href="http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/index2.html">frothings</a>
of fascist teapartiers on the American right, mostly the story in the
US has been one of rapid legal advance for gay civil rights. So why all
this backlash against gay people in so many places around the world?<br />
<br />
Many of the African politicians behind these anti-gay laws claim that
homosexuality represents something un-African being imported into
Africa by criminal European or American gays for nefarious purposes like
child molestation. These politicians say there is no history of
homosexuality in Africa, despite the fact that this is <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/gay-nigerians-targeted-as-un-african-2014125143518184415.html%20">widely disputed by scholars</a>. Ugandan pastor <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2009/12/19/updated-martin-ssempa-responds-rick-warren-ugandas-homosexuality-bill/">Martin Ssempa</a>, one of the architects of the Uganda bill, wrote, <b>“Homosexuality
is illegal, unnatural, ungodly and un-African: In Uganda as most of the
global South, homosexuality is an 'evil and repugnant sexual act' which
simultaneously breaks four established laws [including]</b><b>
the law of our African tribal cultures which have been handed down to
us by our fathers from thousands of years of civilized traditions.”</b><br />
<br />
It is true that a moden gay <i>identity</i> owes much to the
evolution of gay consciousness in European and American culture, but gay
historians and anthropologists have documented same-gender sexuality
and gender-nonconforming behavior all over the world, including in many
traditional African cultures. It's ironic that what these politicians
are actually defending is a legal system and religious morality
established by the <i>British colonial masters</i>, who introduced harsh
anti-gay codes at the point of bayonets to the indigenous populations
of the African regions they conquered in the 19th century.<br />
And it's not as though there are no African gays standing up for
their own rights. There are LGBT organizations across Africa. The very
fact that African gays now have a roster of martyrs like <a href="http://callmekuchu.com/">David Kato</a> of Uganda, or <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/13/gay-rights-icon-roger-jean-claude-mbede-dies-in-cameroon/">Roger Jean-Claude Mbede</a> and <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/17/processing-the-murder-of-eric-ohena-lembembe.html">Eric Lembembe</a>
of Cameroon, disproves this notion that gay people are outsiders. And
who can forget the heroic anti-apartheid activist turned HIV-activist <a href="http://lgbthistorymonth.com/simon-nkoli?tab=biography">Simon Nkoli</a>?<br />
<br />
So what is really happening? Two <i>actual</i> outside forces <i>are </i>involved.<br />
<h3>
<b>The Evangelical Link</b><br />
</h3>
<a href="http://ccrjustice.org/learn-more/faqs/lgbti-uganda-fights-back%3A-case-against-scott-lively">Scott Lively</a> is a right-wing American Christian fundamentalist activist who has devoted his career to attacking LGBT people. The author of <a href="http://www.defendthefamily.com/pfrc/books/pinkswastika/html/the_pinkswastika_4th_edition_-_final.htm">a slanderous book</a>
that claims Nazi Germany was the product of a homosexual conspiracy, he
traveled to Uganda in 2009 to give a series of lectures warning of a
gay menace to Ugandan society. His message is not just one of religious
conservatism, but a call to political action. American evangelical
missionaries have been using allegedly charitable intentions to build
networks throughout Africa. Their ubiquitous presence in local relief
work, including massive involvement in HIV/AIDS charities, has given
them entry to local politics. Their work is not all about mere charity:
it comes with a heavy dose of social conservatism and politically
reactionary ideology. Their AIDS relief work, where they have become a
channel for US government funding, puts AIDS prevention in the context
of conservative religious practice and morality, focusing for instance,
on abstinence and marriage. Remember the abortive and bizarre <a href="http://thecahokian.blogspot.com/2012/03/dont-fall-for-kony-2012-slickest.html">“Kony 2012”</a>
campaign? The people behind that were part of the same community of
zealous missionaries working hard to capture the minds of communities
across central Africa.<br />
<br />
Lively and others like him, apparently on the losing end of the
so-called culture wars in the United States, have found a receptive
audience in countries like Uganda. In the U.S., Lively's organizations
are derided as hate groups. In Uganda, in the midst of a massive
religious revival where antigay attitudes have become commonplace,
Lively's <i>political</i> message has found fertile ground. Martin
Ssempa, already engaged in a campaign against sexual permissiveness in
AIDS prevention, became one of his chief local disciples. An American
journalist visiting Uganda in 2005 <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/apr/28/god-and-the-fight-against-aids/?pagination=false">described Ssempa's message</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
<b>In his sermons, he condemns homosexuality,
pornography, condoms, Islam, Catholics, certain kinds of rock music, and
women’s rights activists, who he says promote lesbianism, abortion, and
the worship of female goddesses. He told me that Satan worshipers hold
meetings under Lake Victoria, where they are promised riches in exchange
for human blood, which they collect by staging car accidents and
kidnappings.<b>”</b></b></blockquote>
<a class="easyblog-thumb-preview" href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/caseagainst_cartoon_Page6.jpg" title="caseagainst_cartoon_Page6.jpg"><img alt="b2ap3_thumbnail_caseagainst_cartoon_Page6.jpg" src="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/b2ap3_thumbnail_caseagainst_cartoon_Page6.jpg" height="286" style="float: left; margin-right: 4px;" title="b2ap3_thumbnail_caseagainst_cartoon_Page6.jpg" width="220" /></a>Scott
Lively and the American evangelicals have become the catalyst for the
transformation of these reactionary ideas into political reality.
Although Lively claims to be against harsh punishment for homosexual
acts, it's clear that his pseudo-historical and pseudo-scientific
diatribes against gay people have sent anti-gay sentiment in Uganda over
the top. It's worth noting —and frightening — that Lively has lately
been making numerous appearances in Russia. (He's also being sued in the
state of Massachusetts for <a href="http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/sexual-minorities-uganda-v.-lively">“crimes against humanity”</a> by a Ugandan LGBT group called <a href="http://www.smug.4t.com/index.html">SMUG</a>, Sexual Minorities of Uganda, backed by the Center for Constitutional Rights).<br />
<br />
While Lively is the most prominent of the reactionary evangelical
leaders implicated in anti-gay legislation, there are religious
organizers across the region influencing popular attitudes and legal
processes. The Catholic Church, the conservative wing of the Anglican
church, numerous protestant denominations, and in the case of some
countries, Islamic fundamentalist movements like Nigeria's Boko Haram,
are all preaching intolerance toward gay people.<br />
<br />
But it's a mistake to simply blame the new wave of anti-gay
repression on mere backward religious ideas. The real issue is power,
and this is revealed as we consider who is actually benefiting from this
repression.<br />
<h3>
<b>The Weaponization of Gay Rights</b><br />
</h3>
There is a second outside force behind the wave of anti-gay reaction
in Africa and elsewhere, and it's actually the more sinister one.
Ironically, this force is dressed in pro-LGBT language and intent. This
force is the U.S. State Department.<br />
<br />
Hillary Clinton, acting as President Obama's secretary of state, <a href="http://thecahokian.blogspot.com/2011/12/gay-rights-are-human-rights-but-theyre.html">made a speech at the UN</a> offices in Geneva in 2011 in which she said, <b>"Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct, but in fact they are one and the same.”</b><b> </b>
The speech was a sweeping condemnation of anti-gay repression
world-wide. Under her leadership, the State Department followed up the
speech with <a href="http://www.gwi-boell.de/en/2011/12/12/obama-administration-promote-lgbt-rights-around-world">broad policy statements</a> that “<b>the United States would use all the tools of American diplomacy to promote LGBT rights around the world.”</b><br />
<br />
American and international LGBT organizations widely welcomed
Clinton's remarks, hoping that the United States would use its
“leverage” to advocate for gay civil rights in places like Uganda. The
American LGBT population largely cheered Clinton and Obama, which was,
of course, part of the idea.<br />
<br />
But here's the problem. The United States is not actually a force for
good in the world, and certainly not a force for good in Africa.<br />
<br />
The real interest of the US in Africa is power; economic and
political power. In the fifty-plus years of the post-colonial era,
African countries have learned well and good what domination by the US
means. In countries like Congo, Rwanda, Liberia, and Angola, the US has
meant decades of genocidal civil strife and the looting of natural
resources. It has meant coup d'etats and rule by viciously corrupt
western puppets. It has meant poverty for the masses of people while a
select few at the top of African countries are blessed with untold
wealth and influence. It has meant crushing national debts and
environmental disaster. It has meant brute force against uprisings or
national attempts to break free of imperialist — of <a href="http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/"><i>neocolonial</i></a> — domination. The United States and its corporations profit from African misfortune.<br />
<br />
What Clinton and Obama did was <i>weaponize</i> gay rights in the service of that neocolonialism.<br />
<a class="easyblog-thumb-preview" href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/africom1.jpg" title="africom1.jpg"><img alt="b2ap3_thumbnail_africom1.jpg" src="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/b2ap3_thumbnail_africom1.jpg" height="157" style="float: left; margin-right: 4px;" title="b2ap3_thumbnail_africom1.jpg" width="278" /></a>It's
no accident that Clinton issued this statement when she did. Obama has
his eye fixed clearly on one of the main battlefields of neoliberal
globalization. American “advisers” and even armies have been dispatched
to central Africa. Drone bases have been set up in west Africa. US
military incursions and drone attacks continue in Somalia. And US
military aid and mercenary assistance (in concert with its junior
partner the Israeli military-industrial complex) is all over east
Africa. The radical-looking governments once supported by the Soviet
Union have mostly disappeared, but Chinese imperialism has replaced
Russia as an economic threat to the US in Africa. The US has used its
crocodile-tears version of “human rights” as a weapon before, but now
some symbolic concern for LGBT rights has been added to the American
armory. Let us be clear: <i>this is not a good thing for the gay, lesbian, transgender, or queer people of Africa</i>.<br />
<br />
US Africa policy is drenched in blood. Sure there's lots of money
going to famine relief, AIDS prevention, and resource exploration. But
each dollar is a strand from a spider's web. And how dare the United
States, prison capital of the world, lecture any other country about
civil repression?<br />
The neocolonial domination of Africa looks different than the
colonial domination of Africa. It requires allowing national governments
the appearance of independence. The corrupt, anti-democratic rulers of
so many African countries understand this well too. What the
weaponization of gay rights allows them is a cheap form of utterly fake
anti-imperialism. It allows them to deflect actual criticism of their
repressive rule by blaming gay people as subversives and pointing to
their own opposition to imperialism by loudly resisting the bullying of
the State Department on gay-related social policy. The real fact that
the US government and multinational corporations are propping up
undemocratic regimes because it's strategically and economically
profitable to do so is consciously obscured. The millions of dollars
that fatten the accounts of local compradors from their collaboration
with imperialism are no longer the focus when these compradors turn
around and announce that they are standing up to unfair pressure from
the most powerful country on the planet.<br />
<br />
Last July, Zimbabwe's <a href="http://tumfweko.com/2013/07/28/was-obama-born-out-of-homosexuality-says-mugabe/">Mugabe commented</a> after Obama's visit to a handful of African countries:<br />
<blockquote>
<b>Then we have this American president, Obama, born of
an African father, who is saying we will not give you aid if you don’t
embrace homosexuality....We ask, was he born out of homosexuality? We
need continuity in our race, and that comes from the woman, and no to
homosexuality....we will cut their heads off.<b>”</b></b></blockquote>
The anti-gay demogogues in Uganda and Nigeria are also clear on this,
finding great utility in the time-honored traditions of scapegoating
and showboating. One can see exactly what has now happened by examining
the Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nigerians-Must-Unite-And-Liberate-Nigeria/181374561994276">“Nigerians Must Unite and Liberate Nigeria.”</a>
A really interesting page, full of anti-imperialist content, it's the
site of daily postings against Nigerian government corruption, ethnic
and religious sectarianism, against corporate destruction of the
Nigerian environment, and plunder of Nigerian resources. But along came
the anti-gay marriage law, and now it is filled with posts and comments <i>praising</i> President Jonathan. <b>“</b><b>We are forever looking forward to the slightest opportunity to commend <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jonathangoodluck">Goodluck Jonathan</a>
the President of our nation, in the hope that he will do better. In
that spirit, my compliments, and in no small measure, go out to
President goodluck jonathan, for having the courage to stand up to
enormous American & European pressure, by signing into law, the
Anti-Gay bill and criminalizing same-sex marriage and public celebration
of gay love in Nigeria. Thumbs up on this one.” </b>And, <b>“Good
News from Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan has signed into law a
wide-ranging bill which not only criminalizes same sex marriage, but all
cohabitation, meetings, gatherings and advocacy by or on behalf of gay
people in the country: The signed bill says the gays, lesbians in
Nigeria will risk a 14-year jail term...Brave President Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan.”</b> Pro-gay commenters were called CIA agents and banned.<br />
<br />
So not only is bigotry triumphant, but the corrupt national
leaderships which actually profit from their relationship with
neocolonialism and the multi-national corporations are let completely
off the hook.<br />
<h3>
<b>Against Homonationalism</b><br />
</h3>
The <a href="http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2014/01/hrc-demands-us-action-on-nigeria.html">reaction of the LGBT establishment</a>
in the US has been predictable, lining up to demand that the US, the
EU and other governments increase their pressure on African governments.
The corporatist LGBT civil rights group Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
even traveled to Davos to present at the World Economic Forum vulture
nest: <b>"When countries like Russia or Nigeria pass laws that
threaten the human rights of LGBT people, world leaders must make it
clear that those actions have consequences,”</b> said HRC head <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/%20http:/www.hrc.org/press-releases/entry/hrc-calls-on-world-economic-forum-members-to-denounce-new-anti-lgbt-nigeria">Chad Griffin</a>.
The HRC basically identifies with imperialism and calls for more misery
to be inflicted on Nigeria. Talk about not doing African gays any
favors. (For more information on how the HRC actually profits from
global exploitation check out these reports: <a href="http://paper-bird.net/2013/11/04/hrc-and-the-vulture-fund-making-third-world-poverty-pay-for-lgbt-rights/">“HRC and the Vulture Fund”</a> and <a href="http://www.autostraddle.com/hrcs-international-expansion-funded-by-the-worst-humans-is-the-worst-203622/">“HRC International Expansion Funded by the Worst Humans.”</a>)<br />
<br />
While the impulse toward solidarity with oppressed lesbian, gay and
transgender people in countries like Uganda and Nigeria is positive,
it's really impossible under the circumstances of US imperialist
hegemony to fail to contextualize what's going on in Africa, and to fail
to understand the hypocrisy of American intent. The liberation of
Africa's gay people may wind up looking different than the civil rights
trajectory in Europe and the United States. This is in no way to excuse
or mitigate the brutal repression being inflicted on gays in Uganda and
Nigeria; indeed it should be firmly and loudly condemned by communists,
as imperialism and the corrupt rule of the compradors should be equally
condemned.<br />
<br />
But the liberation of Africa from neocolonialism, imperialism and
neoliberalism (including the liberation of African gay people) must be
the work of Africans themselves.<br />
<br />
As in the Middle East, where apartheid Israel is using its supposed
acceptance of gays as a propaganda weapon in its war against the
Palestinians, the concept here of “homonationalism” is useful.<br />
<br />
Writing in <a href="http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3560/gay-rights-as-human-rights_pinkwashing-homonationa">Jadaliyya</a>, Maya Mikdashi identifies homonationalism in the context of what Hillary Clinton's aggressive statement really meant: <b>“In
her speech Secretary Clinton was...reproducing this generative
alienation between political and human rights. She emphasized that
LGBTQs everywhere had the same rights to love and have sex with whomever
they choose as partners, and to do so safely. In making this statement,
she reiterated a central tenet of what <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Terrorist-Assemblages/106827812693416">Jasbir Puar </a>names homonationalism: the idea that LGBTQs the world over experience, practice, and are motivated by the same desires... </b><b>Secretary
Clinton suggested that queers everywhere, whether white or black, male
or female or transgendered, soldier or civilian, rich or poor,
Palestinian or Israeli, can be comprehended and interpolated through the
same rights framework. But the content of what she she calls 'gay
rights' is informed by the experiences and histories of (namely white
gay male) queers in the United States, and thus there is an emphasis on
visibility and identity politics and an elision of the class and
political struggles that animate the lives of the majority of the third
world's heterosexual </b><i><b>and </b></i><b>homosexual
populations. Thus detached from its locality, 'gay rights' can travel
internationally not only as a vehicle for normative homo-nationalism,
but as a vehicle for neoliberal ways of producing politics and subjects
more broadly.” </b><br />
<br />
Thus, part of the problem is that the imposition of American will on
African countries is rightfully going to produce backlash, leaving the
actual lesbian, gay, transgender or queer Africans forced into making
false and dangerous choices. And it's fair to suggest that the active
embrace of US bullying by elements in the American gay community who
have embraced the agenda of the Obama State Department might mark a
transition from “homonationalism” to “homoimperialism.”<br />
Mikdashi concludes with a warning, which is really important when
thinking about how to respond to calls for justice against the
oppression which is real and horrifying, coming from people and places
drenched in the bloody hypocrisy of empire:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<b>We cannot </b><b>'</b><b>choose</b><b>'</b><b>
to not be who we have become, but we must recognize how we have been
formed as neoliberal rights seeking and speaking bodies, and how this
formation is linked to a history of depoliticization and alienation. In
other words, we must be both tactical and skeptical when this language
reaches to embrace us, and when we, as activists and as academics, use
it ourselves. We must find ways to critically inhabit this homonational
world and try, always, to act within the uncomfortable and precarious
line between rights and justice.<b>”</b></b></blockquote>
<br />
Lenin <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/%20https:/www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/iii.htm">famously said</a> that communists should be “<i><b>tribune[s] of the people...</b></i><b>able
to react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression, no matter
where it appears, no matter what stratum or class of the people it
affects.”</b> And so we are called to speak out against the rise of
anti-gay repression in Africa, in Russia, in India, and to challenge
the credentials of those who claim they are somehow defending
African-ness by oppressing gay people. But for us, this work begins here
in the US: the State Department, the Clintons, the Obamas, the fascist
hate groups and the ilk of Scott Lively, <b>these mortal enemies are all here right at home</b>.<br />
<br />
As Andrew Waiswa of <a href="http://www.gofundme.com/6suykk">GEHO</a> says, evoking past liberation struggles in Africa, <b>“A luta continua!”</b><br />
<br />
<br />ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-72124897136034558702015-07-25T11:59:00.000-04:002015-07-25T11:59:20.823-04:00IWD: Oppression transformed into revolutionary power<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh402m8b_EKt4hXYYvz2lXHc_Z4nRm9rF-bBqRBC9Ni9-z0ubGY8H0trunaptAemqlr4bJB0YbcUgpRff5dB9WYRMvqIC8FsjAAntxTbc1JJQPdcNhiP6MxNjLqcohTigz4QKIs/s1600/cpi-naxabari-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh402m8b_EKt4hXYYvz2lXHc_Z4nRm9rF-bBqRBC9Ni9-z0ubGY8H0trunaptAemqlr4bJB0YbcUgpRff5dB9WYRMvqIC8FsjAAntxTbc1JJQPdcNhiP6MxNjLqcohTigz4QKIs/s320/cpi-naxabari-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>This article originally appeared on The Kasama Project, 8 March 2014. Reposting here to preserve a broken link. It may also be accessed <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/international-working-women-s-day-oppression-transformed-into-revolutionary-power" target="_blank">here</a>.</i><br />
<br />
Where
does the revolutionary spark come from? How do some people come to
transcend and challenge the crushing oppressions of the world?
International Women's Day (IWD) has something to teach us. If the
political theoreticians of the radical movements of the 19th and early
20th century were mostly men, it was radical women, close to the
grinding brutality and poverty of industrialism's golden age, who
encapsulated the personal rage and determination needed to transform
suffering and oppression into resistance. It was female anarchist Emma
Goldman who said succinctly and straightforwardly, <b>"Ask for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.”</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<a class="easyblog-thumb-preview" href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/women-workers_opt.jpg" title="women-workers_opt.jpg"><img alt="b2ap3_thumbnail_women-workers_opt.jpg" src="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/b2ap3_thumbnail_women-workers_opt.jpg" height="174" style="float: right;" title="b2ap3_thumbnail_women-workers_opt.jpg" width="279" /></a>The
IWD holiday was first carved out as a day for working women to
celebrate their mutual solidarity and empowerment back in 1908, by
striking women workers in Chicago. A few short years later in 1914, the
world socialist movement adopted March 8 as a political holiday to
demand political and social rights for women. The ideals of that
socialist movement were promptly tested as the world plunged into war
and much of the socialist movement betrayed internationalism, but brave
women kept the holiday alive.<br />
<br />
And then by 1917, this simple holiday showed its revolutionary
potential: A women's day demonstration in Russia for peace and bread
(shown above right) turned into a mass strike which quickly became the
February Revolution that overthrew the centuries-old rule of the Tsars.
Revolutionaries had been organizing against the Tsars for decades with
increasing mass success. But it took a demonstration of women workers,
of mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, lovers, making an urgent
heartfelt plea for an end to death and hunger that captured the mass
imagination and changed the once unthinkable into the possible.<br />
<br />
After the October revolution in Russia, International Working Women's
Day, often shortened to just International Women's Day, was added to
the canon of revolutionary holidays celebrated by communists around the
world. It became a moment of recognition for women attempting to create
new realities in socialist countries, and a rallying cry for women
around the world challenging capitalism and imperialism.<br />
<br />
In the modern era the holiday has been often co-opted by the
mainstream bourgeois feminist movement: instead of radical appeals for
social transformation, this depoliticized holiday came to celebrate the
"sisterhood" of reactionary female politicians, or served to elevate
women celebrities. But even cheapened into a feel-good holiday affirming
the humanity and achievement of women, IWD has not lost all its power.
(It's a remarkable statement that after all these years female humanity
still needs to be affirmed.) The deep connection between women's
experience of oppression and their potential to lead revolution remains.<br />
<br />
<a class="easyblog-thumb-preview" href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/1979Iran.jpg" title="1979Iran.jpg"><img alt="b2ap3_thumbnail_1979Iran.jpg" src="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/images/easyblog_images/107/b2ap3_thumbnail_1979Iran.jpg" height="207" style="float: right;" title="b2ap3_thumbnail_1979Iran.jpg" width="250" /></a>In
1979, Iranian women played a major role in the overthrow of the
U.S.-backed Shah. Communist women had joined guerrilla forces and urban
revolutionary groups and been subject to bloody, brutal and violent
repression along with their male comrades.<br />
<br />
The Iranian revolution triumphed when the political opposition was
joined by the mass Islamist movement. After the Shah was overthrown, the
new rulers attempted to impose conservative religious laws on the
general population: On IWD 1979, thousands of Iranian women filled the
streets of Tehran to object (right). Under slogans like <b>"In the Dawn of Freedom There Is no Freedom!" "Women's Liberation Is Society's Liberation!"</b> and <b><a href="http://iranwire.com/en/projects/944">"We didn’t make a revolution to go backwards!”</a></b> they organized marches and sit-ins for six days. While the laws mandating compulsory <i>hijab</i>
were eventually put in place, Iranian women's resistance ensured that,
even under the forms of repression that followed, women were not driven
from the political sphere.<br />
<br />
Today women are a significant part of the revolutionary movement:
whether in the rural regions of India where armed women Maoist rebels
challenge Indian capitalism (photo at top), or in the mass movements of
the squares from Egypt to Wall Street, or in the spheres of theoretical
exploration and debate necessary to take the communist movement to its
next stage, women's voices are a crucial part of grounding the struggle
in the reality of experiencing and challenging oppression.<br />
<br />
<i>Revolutionary</i> sisterhood is indeed powerful. Let's see what it can do next. Happy IWD! <i><b>—ISH</b></i><br />
<br />ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-56201922484999909882015-07-25T11:55:00.000-04:002015-07-25T11:55:01.576-04:00Urban rebel music subverting your earwaves<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRqq8NVT3KVp-hAqm45_yZm5MHQ7Trep2OWvVDSqMgF3-OnBsB8yr0QvOJsef2ozOu75zXxKvGSlzQ9wKHVSxLxsArAIl4jCL0CsiHYtKuaFSBPMNyv9-GTYMfREu9mvIqp5bi/s1600/APFestStereogumPics2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRqq8NVT3KVp-hAqm45_yZm5MHQ7Trep2OWvVDSqMgF3-OnBsB8yr0QvOJsef2ozOu75zXxKvGSlzQ9wKHVSxLxsArAIl4jCL0CsiHYtKuaFSBPMNyv9-GTYMfREu9mvIqp5bi/s320/APFestStereogumPics2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>This article originally appeared on The Kasama Project 21 March 2014. Reposting here to preserve a broken link. This article may also be accessed <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/urban-rebel-music-subverting-your-earwaves" target="_blank">here</a>.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<b>By ISH</b><br />
<br />
When people start talking about radical or political music, I'm
always surprised how the topic of conversation rarely moves outside the
genres of hardcore head-banging punk or earnest sing-along folk.
Sometimes talk moves on to the well-worn populism of mass-appeal
pop-rock, the Springsteen/Mellencamp/Fleetwood Mac tunes so beloved by
bourgeois politicians trying to put something over on voters, and
there's the counterpoint of classic hip-hop with its righteous anger
against cops and sometimes problematic derision of women and gays.<br />
<br />
Without disparaging any of these rich genres of music, I want to
recommend some really great and really radical tunes from genre-busting
urban musicians who sometimes defy easy categorization but whose
visionary art is something that revolutionaries can really embrace.<br />
<br />
These aren't all brand-new cutting edge musicians by any stretch of
the imagination. But these are hard-working artists with a message in
their music that deserves exposure. Some of these musicians have been
gaining mass exposure in venues like Brooklyn's annual <a href="http://afropunkfest.com/">Afropunk festival </a>(photo above), but others rely on in-the-know loyal fanbases.<br />
<h3>
Jill Scott</h3>
<blockquote>
<b>You say you mean good for me</b><br />
<b>But you don't do it</b><br />
<b>You say you have a plan but you just don't go thru with it</b><br />
<b>You say you know the way to go</b><br />
<b>And I should follow</b><br />
<b>But all of your empty promises</b><br />
<b>Leave me hollow</b><br />
<b>And oh</b><br />
<b>How do I trust you</b><br />
<b>How do I love you</b><br />
<b>When you</b><br />
<b>Lie to me repeatedly</b><br />
<b>And oh</b><br />
<b>How do I have faith, in you</b><br />
<b>When you just don't come thru</b><br />
<b>Like you say you could</b></blockquote>
One can be forgiven for hearing these lyrics and thinking that actress/poet/singer <a href="http://www.missjillscott.com/">JIll Scott</a>
is singing about a failing relationship. Well, she is in a way, but
she's not singing about her partner. "My Petition," from her <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautifully_Human:_Words_and_Sounds_Vol._2">Beautifully Human</a>
album of 2004 is one of the most awesomely subversive songs ever. You
realize as the song unfolds, musically quoting that wretched anthem "The
Star-Spangled Banner," that she's addressing the America of the failed
dream. When she sweetly but accusingly sings, <b>"I believe you owe it to me/Give it to me like you said you would,"</b> she's not talking about a lover's advances. When she says, <b>"I want to have faith in you/I really do/but you keep lying to me/It hurts,"</b>
the natural reaction is to tell her to leave that lying m-fer cold.
When you realize that the lying m-fer is the USA, the song becomes
transformed. It's sheer brilliance, in the form of a vaguely adult
r&b ballad.<br />
<br />
Here's the audiotrack on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8uA3DMFPfk&feature=kp">Youtube</a>:<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Ursula Rucker</h3>
<blockquote>
<b><b>In my youth revolution was what we rose with the sun to seek<br />we were fierce</b></b><br />
<b>Now, our glory days are nothing but a page,<br />in an edge worn book<br />an afro a raised fist,<br />a black beret, black pride<br />set aside to mere history,<br />it saddens me,<br />hmm it saddens me,<br />but will these words fall on deaf ears cos my tears won't<br />fill up the riverbed of resistance and change,<br />it's gone dry<br />and gone and unkown are the names which gave that river its<br />tranquility, its beautiful force and godspeed<br />rise up out of the complacency induced sleep<br />we need, an Awakening.</b><br />
<b>Bring the noise daughter<br />now is the time for you and your generation to put this universal<br />chaos in order...</b></blockquote>
Philadelphia-based <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ursularucker">Ursula Rucker</a>
is a performance artist and poet; her work is sometimes sung but more
often takes the form of poetry chanted in cadence to music. She made her
professional reputation cutting tracks for American and European DJs
like King Britt, 4Hero, Jazzanova and Little Louie Vega, but she has a
string of brilliant solo albums as well. In "The Awakening," recorded
for 4Hero on their 2007 album <a href="http://www.discogs.com/4hero-Play-With-The-Changes/release/850333">Play with the Changes</a>,
she constructs a dialogue between generations as a mother attempts to
pass a radical legacy on to her daughter and a new generation. <b>"This
planet and life are gifts to all/not just a chosen few, but now our
future are up to you/so what are you and your brothers and sisters gonna
do?" </b>The daughter despairs,<b> "But Mama, the resistance
seems so futile/when all the while, government and media massacre my
dreams/We, my brothers and sisters and me/are at the mercy of
Dotcoms/Bombs that kill at least 30 daily..."</b><br />
<br />
In response the mother affirms,<b> "Baby girl, you sound ready
to me/the spirit, fire, of Assata, Angela, Gandhi, King and Garvey in
your veins/bleed for your legacy, keep the eyes on the prize of
peace/and don't pardon me while i preach..." </b>It's movingly
soulful jazz poetry against a drum-and-bass dance music soundscape. Much
of her other work is also political, bringing a womanist,
spiritually-visionary sensibility to song topics like 9/11,
Afro-Caribbean cultural heritage, domestic violence, ecological
catastrophe, and the quest for liberation in the face of deadening,
challenging urban dangers.<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-tpkwQ5YFk&feature=kp">"Release"</a> off her second solo album <a href="http://www.discogs.com/Ursula-Rucker-Silver-Or-Lead/release/214704">Silver or Lead</a>, she recites:<br />
<blockquote>
<b>So here I stand... at the crossroads of my life</b><br />
<b> Do I choose plata or plomo?</b><br />
<b> Silver or lead</b><br />
<br />
<b> When boys be dying on blocks everyday</b><br />
<b> An the TV and the paper don't never say</b><br />
<b> Nothing about them</b><br />
<b> When tattered yellow paper flags be taped to forgotten project windows</b><br />
<b> When billowing waving flags be perched on car tops of bigots and</b><br />
<b> Crooked politicians</b><br />
<b> Has anything changed?</b><br />
<b> What changed?</b><br />
<b> Who really changed?</b></blockquote>
Rucker is basically pleading for people to give a shit; arguing
against apathy, against the status quo of false choices. Her words are
righteously hypnotic.<br />
The 4Hero production video for "The Awakening" is on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78aWMdEcv7M">Youtube</a>:<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Erykah Badu</h3>
<blockquote>
<b>To my folks on the picket line<br />Don't stop til you change dey mind<br />I got love fo' my folks <br />Baptized when the levy broke<br />We gone keep marchin' on<br />Until you hear dat freedom song</b><br />
<b>And if you think about turning back<br />I got the shotgun on ya back <br />And if you think about turning back <br />I got the shot gun on ya back</b></blockquote>
<a href="http://erykah-badu.com/newssystem/news.php">Erykah Badu</a>
is an extraordinarily creative musician with a provocative edge and a
complex sense of humor. Melding a jazz sensitivity to a hip-hop
sensibility her work is rich in ideas. Her last two albums were entitled
New Amerykah (part 1: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Amerykah_Part_One_%284th_World_War%29">4th World War</a> and part 2: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Amerykah_Part_Two_%28Return_of_the_Ankh%29">Return of the Ankh</a>). I think of her as kind of earthy, hippified antithesis to the slick sell-out commerciality (and <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/09/06/808061/jay-z-and-the-politics-of-celebrity/">terrible politics</a>)
of Jay-Z and Beyonce, with whom she shares Brooklyn as a home base.
"Soldier" is a standout track from the first part of New Amerykah. Not
unlike much of Rucker's work, "Soldier" is about a generation struggling
with a sense of obligation to engage with what's wrong with the world.
She sings, <b>"You need to watch da dirty cop/Dey the one you need to watch."</b> It's the same haunted world that Rucker sings of. <b>"You get the wake up call/When you saw the buildings fall/Bowties with the final call/Get ya money dollar bill, ya'll"</b> she sings, obliquely evoking the Nation of Islam in a search for answers.<br />
<br />
"<b>Do you want to see?/Everybody rise to the next degree?/Raise ya hands high if you agree."</b> The lilting groove-heavy music belies the song's deadly serious call to rise up and fight.<br />
A pre-release performance video of Soldier is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsEVAYVX6Wc&feature=kp">online</a>:<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Boots Riley/The Coup</h3>
<blockquote>
<b>Don't talk about it</b><br />
<b>It won't show</b><br />
<b>Be about it</b><br />
<b> It's 'bout to blow</b></blockquote>
Oakland activist and Occupy veteran <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/revolutionary-strategy/4266-boots-riley-on-blac-bloc-tactics-in-bay-area">Boots Riley</a>'s incredible song "The Guillotine" has been noted <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/culture/4273-the-coup-we-got-the-guillotine">on Kasama</a> before. From his group The Coup's recent album <a href="http://www.anti.com/releases/sorry-bother-you/">Sorry To Bother You</a>,
"The Guillotine" is not only an exciting marriage of rock and rap, but a
compelling political manifesto. Riley doesn't hold back from a call for
revolutionary retribution against the capitalist system. And not only
is it a call to action like the other songs I've written about here,
it's got a clarity of vision with a resolute determination and brutally
straightforward diagnosis and prescription.<br />
<blockquote>
<b>Hey you!</b><br />
<b>We got your war </b><br />
<b>We’re at the gates </b><br />
<b>We’re at your door </b><br />
<b>We got the guillotine </b><br />
<b>We got the guillotine, you better run</b></blockquote>
If the other songs I've quoted have faults, it's a sense of
ambivalent weariness weighed down by the tragedies and hardships of
urban life under capitalism; or in the case of Badu and Rucker, their
need to place their hopes on the next generation. Scott, Rucker and Badu
sometimes seem to be waiting to be proved wrong about how dire the
situation is. "The Guillotine," however, dispenses with the
sentimentality and uncertainty. <b>"Sleep in the doorway, piss on the floor/Look in the sky, wait for missiles to show/</b><b>It’s finna blow cause/They got the TV, we got the truth/They own the judges and we got the proof/</b><b>We got hella people, they got helicopters/They got the bombs and we got the, we got the...Guillotine." </b>This song makes it clear: we have a reason to fight, the obligation to do so, and the tools we need to win. <b>"You can hear the sound of limitations exploding." </b>Who can resist this call to arms?<br />
<br />
The extraordinary video for "The Guillotine," which hilariously riffs
off of the Quincy Jones/Michael Jackson film version of The Wiz, is a
must see on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acT_PSAZ7BQ">You-tube</a>.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Welfare Poets</h3>
<blockquote>
<b>so don't tell me he's down with the people</b><br />
<b>because of that ganja shit</b><br />
<b>cuz the billionaires will put a black face at the head of american imperialism</b><br />
<b>ponder it</b></blockquote>
The "he" in this lyric is none other than President Obama, and so for
obvious reasons the final act I'd like to recommend is much more on the
underground tip. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thewelfarepoets">Welfare Poets</a> are an incredible Afro-Caribbean performance/hip-hop troupe out of the Bronx, New York. These lyrics are from their song <a href="http://frang-twz.blogspot.com/2008/11/welfare-poets-let-it-be-known.html">"Let It Be Known,"</a> recorded right after Obama's first election in 2008. I first saw the Welfare Poets perform at an event sponsored by <a href="http://k2.kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/occupy-ocupemos-sunset-park-hosts-unity-day-2-in-brooklyn">Occupy Sunset Park</a>
in Brooklyn last year. Their mix of live music, singing, rap, dance and
beats was explosive and exciting. And their message is completely
unsubtle. They're explicitly anti-imperialist and fierce advocates of
independence for Puerto Rico.<br />
<blockquote>
<b>its egregious, he so facetious</b><br />
<b>deceiving the people regarding change we can believe in</b><br />
<b>as he turns a deaf ear</b><br />
<b>on real people grieving</b></blockquote>
The song closes with an extended clip from Rev. Jeremiah Wright (who
Obama had recently thrown under the bus) recounting the hypocritical
adventures of American imperialism. It's really stirring stuff.<br />
<br />
The video opens with quotes from Harriet Tubman and Audre Lorde. It's on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx3IwAA3d0E">You-tube</a> and vimeo.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Who Are You Listening To?</h3>
I would be really interested in hearing from Kasama readers if you
have other subversive rebel music to recommend. What artists are
inspiring and moving you? Drop a recommendation in the comments!<br />
<br />ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.com0