redFlags

Nine Letters to Our Comrades: Getting Beyond Avakian's New Synthesis

Mike Ely, a life-long communist and former editor of the RCP's press, has released a major polemic on Avakian's supposed "New Synthesis" and the failures of the RCP to become a leading party of revolution in the USA. I'll hold off on my own commentary by way of introduction... but discussion has already taken off on Ely's new Kasama website. For anyone working to build a revolutionary movement in the United States, this is among the most thoughtful, engaged analyses you will find on such efforts over the last few decades. It is no "so long to all that" – rather, it is a call to begin the "audacious task". 

Download – Nine Letters to Our Comrades: Getting Beyond Avakian's New Synthesis (PDF)

Support needed for SF mural on popular struggles against borders & fences

By Martin Travers
artist living in Holland, and creator of the original image

I am a firm believer in the right to self determination of all peoples all over this wonderful world we all inhabit. To stand by the right to that self determination by Palestinian people or any other people is by no means supporting terrorism or senseless violence or racism, to say that is in itself an injustice. My painting which was recreated on the mural in question is about that right, breaking through the wall that separates the Israelis from Palestinians and the Palestinians from each other is symbolic of the breaking of the walls that fence in the marginalised and the “unwanted” people everywhere because to see them is to be reminded of where and how Europe, north America and Israel got its wealth.

U.S. Imperialism, Islamic Fundamentalism… and the Need for Another Way

by Sunsara Taylor, Revolution

As the U.S.'s crimes against humanity in the Middle East mount, it is of tremendous importance for people in the U.S. to honestly confront and rise to the profound challenges and responsibilities before us in bringing this to a halt. In this spirit, I welcomed the argument made by Hadas Thier and Aaron Hess in the Socialist Worker on April 20, 2007 entitled Standing up to Islamophobia, even while I find their central arguments to not only be wrong, but harmful.

I do not doubt that Thier and Hess want to oppose U.S. wars of aggression and their accompanying assault on Muslims, Arabs and South Asians living in the U. S. But they end up arguing for an approach that will neither meet the actual challenges of opposing the U.S. “crusade,” nor bring forward new, truly liberating possibilities here and around the world. They end up in this unfortunate place through the use of bad logic, flawed methodology, and a duck-from-unpleasant-realities epistemology (method for arriving at what is true).

Developing a Power Analysis

Review by Chris Crass

What is the current state of capitalism in the global political economy? How are our campaigns for racial, economic, and gender justice impacted by neoliberalism and imperialism? What will it take to build a movement in such despondent and challenging times?

Four grassroots organizers from POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) stepped up to the challenge of answering these questions for their own organization. They wrote this book to share their analysis with the movement. Coming from their experience as organizers in a multi-racial membership organization of low-income tenants and workers in San Francisco they engaged in study and wrote this book by and for activists and organizers around the country.

Kenya: World Social Forum Diary

by Jordan Flaherty

Nairobi, Kenya — This week, tens of thousands of people, representing nearly every nation and people, are gathered to strategize, debate and struggle for solutions to worldwide problems of injustice and inequality. For the first time, the World Social Forum has come to Nairobi, Kenya. The global conference is situated in a massive sports complex neighboring the slum of Korogocho, where tens of thousands of Kenyans live in abject poverty, a vivid demonstration of the themes discussed at the Forum, and a contrast to the wealth of many of the conference participants from the so-called “developed world.”

Antiwar and looking ahead: What's it going to take?

Perennial grumbling about another trek to DC, a "cattle drive" as it's said, has become endemic among not only among people who look down on political activism with a too cool for school shtick, but from the very folks who put in the leg work to make these DC mobilizations a success.

Coming down from New York with World Can't Wait, we had a different plan. Instead of just showing up at the national mall to wander through the crowds and catch-up with old friends, we rolled deep to spread the plain-fact message that so long as Bush remains in office, the war will continue and expand. Impeachment is the means to check Bush's so-far unchallenged power and decisively repudiate the torture, secrecy and war-without-end. We only expected to bring a couple of buses, but the demand was so overwhelming that we ended up bringing down five. Once in DC, we met up by 4th and Madison with scores of other activists to get out the Call, put impeachment on the table and "organize the unorganized."

Gaddar: The Fela of South Asia

NPR ran a profile of Gaddar, who I can only call the Fela of South Asia, an "Indian man who can barely finish a sentence without breaking into song."  He was once a soldier in the Naxalite movement, but has brought art to the science of revolution. Listen.

Additional list of songs

Indypendent's new website starts with an antiwar bang

The Indypendent is no doubt New York City's "free paper for free people." After five years, it finally has a website to bring all it's award-winning journalism, commentary, photography and art to a world audience. Make sure to bookmark the page -- and check out selections from the current 20-page issue, including:

Arun Gupta's analysis of UFPJ's "Playing It Safe" | Bill Van Auken on strategies for TWU in the face of goverment repression | Todd Ensign on G.I. organizing | Jed Brandt on the turmoil in Nepal and, really and truly, much more!

The Revolution is here in Nepal

I'm currently working on a short article about the rapid developments in Nepal. It will be up soon in place of this. For now, I've posted an open thread where any reporting/comments on the unfolding revolution can be posted.

The Royal army has encircled the king's palace with barbed wire. Democratic protests in the cities defy shoot-on-sight curfews. The People's War proceeds virtually unchallenged in the countryside. Prachanda warned on the eve of these protests that King Gyanendra faces "exile or death" for his crimes.

The Communist Party of Nepal has risen above Stalinophilic nostalgia and seeks a 21st Century communism, and sees the liberation of Nepal in both a regional and global context of revolution.

Will red flags fly from Katmandu? Have we finally kicked the end-of-history shroud? Is a secular, popular and revolutionary communist force pointed a way beyond the "clash of barbarisms?"

News & Views on Unfolding Revolution in Nepal
On the Scene in Katmandu: Revolution interviews Nepal expert and anthropologist Stephen Mikesell | Li Onesto's digest of breaking events: Mass Upsurge Against the King | Sudhanva  Deshpande: Nepal on the Verge of Bastille | International Nepal Solidarity Network -- tons of articles | Maoist Information Bulletin from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) | The Royal Regression and the Question of a Democratic Republic by Baburam Bhattarai

UK Guardian: Protesters Plan Final Heave to Rid Nepal of Monarchy

And, like anyone asked, according to (boo, hiss) Bloomberg: US Demands Nepal's King Relinquish Power

And... word from the fierce one...
CPN(M) Chairman Prachanda:
Constituent Assembly Now!
Prachanda, the political and military leader of the revolutionary forces demands an "unconditional constituent assembly."

The tried ceasefires, they tried to negotiate -- but the people are done with all of it and will not wait for permission to proceed. The King's statues are being torn down and the monarchy is in fact over on the ground. The King is now the mayor of his own palace, hiding behind barbed wire and (if he's smart) checking if JetBlue has any specials to Dehli.

Raymond Lotta "Sets the Record Straight" on the history of 20th Century socialism

Next stop for Raymond Lotta's Setting the Record Straight campus speaking tour is Columbia University... into the belly of the intellectual beast. Challenging the barrage of reactionary garbage thrown over the history of revolutionary socialism with a powerful grasp of history, Lotta is more than up to the task.

For anyone concerned with changing the world, who wants a deeper history of the triumphs and failures of 20th Century socialism – break plans and make plans to hear Raymond Lotta. Ask your real questions, treat socialism and communism with an open mind -- even if that's already where you're trying to get.

I heard that after an hour-long presentation, Ray Lotta will open the room up for questions and answers. He knows the history as more than just a "narrative." He is a materialist who understands the force of ideas.

I'll be there, with my toughest questions.

Columbia University
Thursday, April 20, 6:00 pm
Faculty House, Harison Rm, 2nd Floor
400 West 117th St. (between Amsterdam & Morningside)

Download the leaflet and postcard for the NYC program.

Full event description follows