tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-138645212024-03-13T02:08:17.674+02:00Communist UniversityThe Communist University (CU) holds live sessions weekly in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is CU - the blog. Subscribe (it’s free) to CU - the Google group - to get the daily message by e-mail. CU - the wiki - is the interactive archive of education, organisation and mobilisation that is our main base on the Internet. CU - the Library - has many classic texts and study courses. For links, look in the side-bar on the right hand side below. The CU is not a constitutional structure of the SACP.DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.comBlogger1574125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-30870574729754652262016-02-27T06:26:00.002+02:002016-02-27T07:46:38.958+02:00Communist University Blog Announcement<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-size: 22.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Announcement:<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 28.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Communist University Blog<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This blog has been used for a number of years as a running
record of the Communist University postings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It contains a record of the full, four-year, 16-course cycle
of the CU. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It also contains an archive of the historically-interesting years
from 2005 to (early) 2010 when the CU blog was more of a general magazine and
running record of current events. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It can be searched, and browsed.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Web site<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is now an improved archive of all the CU courses at:</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://studycircle.wikispaces.com/Communist+University">http://studycircle.wikispaces.com/Communist+University</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The NEHAWU, SACP and YCLSA web sites carry versions of the
following button on their web sites, linked to the course archive:</span></div>
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<a href="http://studycircle.wikispaces.com/Communist+University"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4RriZCin4T9og4GbKoaQrRLGDAhrnUtdGOf-fhkC-ZPwUkrc4J1L-aP9ETc1pd9EtwqOKTsJhTXr0uxpXdxJOsJogEX7rZGi2Ps66L0xB4taLevwxLqYrnNNtcJ4d2kTmaeh-JA/s320/Communist+University+button.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Links at the top of this page remain useful in different
ways, and can be edited. In other respects, this blog will now be left as it
is. Up-to-date versions of the courses will be found on the new archive site.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">E-mail<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Communist University posts will continue to be e-mailed from the Google
Group. Find it at:</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/communist-university">https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/communist-university</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Please join this e-mail group. It is a discussion forum as
well as a means of serialising the CU courses. The archive of all postings is
accessible. Like the blog, it can be searched and browsed</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Blog Policy<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is still possible that new courses could be developed for
the CU, but it is not very likely to happen in the near future. The 16-course
division of the material is comprehensive, convenient and stable, providing a
four-year cycle which is run on four parallel channels, and so is completed
every year, taking the four channels all together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Therefore is no longer necessary to repeat the posting of the
courses to the blog. It is true that the courses are edited and updated as they
are sent out, so changes do occur. These changes can be picked up from the new
archive, linked above.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This blog can now rest, and remain as a
semi-static resource.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Feel free to explore it.</span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-4849822584744741872015-11-08T19:35:00.004+02:002015-11-08T19:35:54.305+02:00The Present and Future of China<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anti-Imperialism, War
and Peace, Part 10b<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mao
Declaring the People’s Republic of China in 1949</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Present and Future of China</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Attached
and linked below is an article by Samir Amin on China, which can serve to
finish off our course on Anti-Imperialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This
article creates a picture of where the National Democratic Revolution takes a
country, if care is taken with the alliance that the NDR depends upon. The
Chinese communists have taken good care.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More than
this, the article is in effect a comparative critique of all of the post-20<sup>th</sup>-century
states, and more especially of the other BRICS countries: Russia, India, Brazil
and South Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The article
deserves to be read, and read again at intervals. It is a comment by an African
revolutionary intellectual on the world as it has been, is and will be for a
long time to come.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One piece
of unfinished business left by this article may be the definition of socialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
difference between the proletariat and the peasantry is not, as Samir Amin
correctly notes, that one has no use for property, while the other craves
property above all. These are caricatures.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The more
functional difference is the one pointed to by Marx in his “18<sup>th</sup>
Brumaire”, with his unforgettable phrase “sack of potatoes”, used to describe
the relation of peasant families to each other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whereas the
proletariat has learned two things in its harsh relationship with capital:
discipline and social organization.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The social
division of labour that is characteristic of the proletariat is what is
otherwise called the socialization of production under capitalism. It is the
material root of the idea of socialism. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Socialism
means the integration of people over larger and larger fields (village, town,
city, nation, world). If it is only <i>de
facto</i>, it may in practice be imperialism or it may be “globalization”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The word
“socialism” is not precise. This is clear from the Communist Manifesto of 1848,
where Marx and Engels talk of feudal socialism and bourgeois socialism, among
others. Socialism is only society organised as a unity, and not as a “sack of
potatoes”. The proletariat is the most socialist class because of its highly
developed and explicit divisions of labour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Communism
is a more precise word. It just means a classless society. Inherent in the idea
of communism is escape from capitalist relations of production. For all that
Samir Amin has to say about state capitalism, and correctly, he does not say
this much. But the initial reason why post-revolutionary production must be
“state capitalist” is only that there is no other relation of production
available. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So the move
of hundreds of millions of Chinese people from the rural areas to the new
cities is bound to be a move from peasant, more-or-less self-sufficient family
production, towards wage labour. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Seeing it
as a move from the smallholding to the factory is maybe an over-simplification.
But the absence of an alternative way of organizing production other than the
notional factory, is a reality. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The present
absence of an alternative set of relations of production appears to be the
reason why the Chinese will say that they don’t expect “socialism” (probably in
this instance meaning communism, the classless society) for another 200 years. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
relationship between the proletariat (the hammer) and the peasantry (the
sickle) is not a relationship of like with like, but it is a relationship of
different classes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In South
Africa, the urban survivalists, and the small businesses, have to some extent
replaced the peasantry, but they are also not strictly proletarian. Slogans
that include the words “workers and the poor” can obscure this distinction, or
illuminate it, depending how they are used, and understood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Intelligent
communist-party leadership is the essential ingredient in the National
Democratic Revolution. Samir Amin gives ample evidence and argument for this
assertion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17103%2C%20Samir%20Amin%2C%20China%202013.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Samir Amin on China and development">China 2013, Samir Amin</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-91006588488294227552015-11-07T09:06:00.003+02:002015-11-07T09:06:46.068+02:00Massacre at Cassinga. War no more.<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 10a<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Massacre at
Cassinga. War no more.</span><span style="font-size: 28pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Piero Gleijeses has written a
lot. The second and last item in this final part of the “Anti-Imperialism, War
and Peace” course is an article of his (download linked below) containing this
memorable passage:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘While
Castro’s troops advanced toward Namibia, Cubans, Angolans, South Africans, and
Americans were sparring at the negotiating table. For the South Africans and
Americans the burning question was: Would the Cuban troops stop at the border?
It was to answer this question that President Ronald Reagan’s Assistant
Secretary for Africa, Chester Crocker, sought Risquet. "My question is the
following," he told him: "Does Cuba intend to halt the advance of its
troops at the border between Namibia and Angola?" Risquet replied, "I
have no answer to give you. I can’t give you a Meprobamato [a well-known Cuban
tranquillizer] – not to you or to the South Africans. ... I have not said
whether or not our troops will stop. ... Listen to me, I am not threatening. If
I told you that they will not stop, it would be a threat. If I told you that
they will stop, I would be giving you a Meprobamato, a Tylenol, and I want
neither to threaten you nor to reassure you ... What I have said is that the
only way to guarantee [that our troops stop at the border] would be to reach an
agreement [on the independence of Namibia]." [15] On August 25, Crocker
cabled Secretary of State George Shultz: "Reading the Cubans is yet
another art form. They are prepared for both war and peace ... We witness
considerable tactical finesse and genuinely creative moves at the table. This
occurs against the backdrop of Castro’s grandiose bluster and his army’s
unprecedented projection of power on the ground." [16]’<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">War is a terrible thing. War
is never a choice for the revolutionaries. We are not pacifists but we do not
choose war and we do not choose to be banned or clandestine. We are for peace
and for full participation in all democratic forums.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Cassinga massacre of 4
May, 1978, is now nearly forty years in the past. For some of us it was once an
event in our present life, very shocking for us because we had though that such
horrors were already in our past by the time. For others now living, the
Cassinga massacre is now so much in the past that it may be a struggle to see
what a huge significance this terrible event had. Please read the attached
document.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">War no more<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Perhaps this reflection, and
by extension this entire course, is a way of saying that it falls upon all of
us, young and old, to strive politically so that such things do not happen
again, and will not require again the militarisation of our struggle, here in
Southern Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17102%2CPieroGleijeses%2CTheMassacreofCassinga%2C2006.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Piero Gleijeses, The Massacre of Cassinga">The Massacre of Cassinga [and
after] Piero Gleijeses</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-16847634948292369282015-11-06T19:29:00.003+02:002015-11-06T19:29:45.382+02:00Liberation Struggle<b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 10</span></span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRZFMGpuOU5dFtzGCkUXpaMN0ycIPswR_twxqHXFYpJ9XP4OeuCigTAK5wnd7Tc_9r0-m3eEBOSByA3rnW5XDBQ2URKUQ9BQka-kDKkJPBXW6xMiRvmXDeJz7l7w4q6JWGhz90w/s1600/10+Risquet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRZFMGpuOU5dFtzGCkUXpaMN0ycIPswR_twxqHXFYpJ9XP4OeuCigTAK5wnd7Tc_9r0-m3eEBOSByA3rnW5XDBQ2URKUQ9BQka-kDKkJPBXW6xMiRvmXDeJz7l7w4q6JWGhz90w/s400/10+Risquet.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jorge Risquet Valdés Saldaña</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Liberation
Struggle</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In political education, our
method is to remove ourselves in place and time. We go to the “classics” and to
authors of the intermediate period, and we study other places, in the past or
in the present.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of these provide us with
examples. The examples provide us with a theoretical and practical “sandpit”
that gives us a “codification” or in other words a basis upon which we may have
a common dialogue.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dialogue is where political
education happens. Anything that can provide an occasion for political dialogue
is good for education.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our own history can be used,
but what do we find? When looking for history of our liberation struggle, and
the history of the armed struggle in particular, we find very little. The
materials about the culminating struggle in Angola assembled below will have to
suffice for now. They can also serve as a small contribution towards
recognising the Cuban and Soviet comrades who fought faithfully and often fell
for us, until victory came.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Vladimir Shubin</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">
has written and published two books in English: “<b>ANC: A View from Moscow</b>” and “<b>The
Hot 'Cold War’: The USSR in Southern Africa</b>”. These books are presently
available from bookshops in South Africa, or they can be ordered via the
Internet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Soviet record of events
does not correspond in every respect with the Cuban record, and this contrast
would force the readers or students to make judgements of their own, as to what
was really the critical path that led to the final political result, <u>which
was victory in Angola, Namibia and South Africa</u>. Let us hope to find a
suitable Soviet or Russian article in electronic form, soon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fidel Castro has written a
lot. Linked below, as our main item, is the speech he made on 2 December 2005,
on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the first Cuban expeditionary force
to Angola, which became what the US Imperialist diplomat Chester Crocker called
an “unprecedented projection of power”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Jorge Risquet Valdés Saldaña</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">, fighter, negotiator, and currently member of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, has written (in Spanish) “<b>El Segundo frente del Che en el Congo</b>”
(ISBN 959-210-412-3, Casa Editorial Abril, 2006) – the history of the Patrice
Lumumba Battalion, in which Risquet served. The picture above is of the same
Jorge Risquet, a great and brave hero, also famous for his friendliness and <i>joie-de-vivre</i>. The person seen to the
left of Risquet is Piero Gleijeses, of whom more in the next item.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17101%2CFCastro%2C30yearsafterAngolaand49afterGranma%2C2003.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Fidel Castro, Thirty years after Angola and 49 after Granma">Thirty
years after Angola and 49 after Granma, Fidel Castro</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-7762943012084836162015-11-04T06:38:00.001+02:002015-11-04T06:38:14.761+02:00Citizen and Subject<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 9a</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs6ebQy5YaclybbL7i7aDsVlqNIkSWnqoVyQPHRYWpRBBkqOzPsMtsrONHILFi6NKSwJjrHx2nXgm-pdYPwg5RAdbgq_BfF33V19H1mkfJAv1Fzy-n6AaurWh9PKFdwJOM9ezdFA/s1600/09a+Mahmood+Mamdani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs6ebQy5YaclybbL7i7aDsVlqNIkSWnqoVyQPHRYWpRBBkqOzPsMtsrONHILFi6NKSwJjrHx2nXgm-pdYPwg5RAdbgq_BfF33V19H1mkfJAv1Fzy-n6AaurWh9PKFdwJOM9ezdFA/s320/09a+Mahmood+Mamdani.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmood_Mamdani" title="Mahmood Mamdani on Wikipedia">Mahmood Mamdani</a></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Citizen and Subject</span></b><span style="font-size: 36.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmood_Mamdani" title="Mahmood Mamdani on Wikipedia">Mahmood Mamdani</a></span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">’s “Citizen and Subject” (downloadable extract linked
below) maps the relations of four class-based powers in the anti-Imperial
struggles in Africa: Bourgeois, Proletarians, Imperialists and “Traditional
Leaders”. The (national) Bourgeois and the Proletarians are the modernisers and
the democrats, who are compelled by necessity to combine together to fight for
the democracy that forms the nation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Capitalism has failed, and
Imperialism has failed. In South Africa, capitalist Imperialism arrived more
than 114 years ago, and it never delivered to the people or even employed more
than a fraction of them at any time. It started bad and it got no better.
Recently it has gone from a boom from which the masses somehow failed to benefit,
to a recession that will last for years. What’s new? The same excuses have been
there all along. Maybe it is truer to say that Imperialism didn’t fail: it only
lied. It was never going to deliver, and it never will.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd1OSZDs9r9QQYZNq3ZgrKgFDiqJZIW0VP7nJEKKwB3A81wbLZXF9XEeqSACL3YWTVETxTL_gwMQ-h1LQldNx-AD18-VqzlKcQQ2kyCkh__UKGG_136wSAUhijKpt_m3ssg5Zsaw/s1600/09a+Walter+Rodney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd1OSZDs9r9QQYZNq3ZgrKgFDiqJZIW0VP7nJEKKwB3A81wbLZXF9XEeqSACL3YWTVETxTL_gwMQ-h1LQldNx-AD18-VqzlKcQQ2kyCkh__UKGG_136wSAUhijKpt_m3ssg5Zsaw/s320/09a+Walter+Rodney.jpg" width="229" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rodney" title="Walter Rodney on Wikipedia">Walter Rodney, 1942-1980</a></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like <b>Issa Shivji</b> and <b>Walter
Rodney</b> (author of “<b><a href="http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/1973,+Rodney,+How+Europe+Underdeveloped+Africa" title="Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, C6, on amadlandawonye">How
Europe Underdeveloped Africa</a></b>”, also downloadable in [1069 KB] PDF
format <b><a href="http://www.blackherbals.com/walter_rodney.pdf" title="Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, PDF">by clicking here</a></b>),
Professor Mamdani is a cadre of the famous Dar-es-Salaam campus. Mamdani is now
Director of the <b><a href="http://misr.mak.ac.ug/" title="Makerere Institute of Social Research web site">Makerere Institute of
Social Research</a></b> (MISR) in his native Uganda, and has previously served
in many capacities including at Columbia University, New York, USA, and the
University of Cape Town, South Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note that Mamdani's sense of
the word “subject” in this work is different and opposite from the usual communist,
or philosophical one. Here it means a subordinate person, like for example the
subject of a king, and not a free person.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the book, Mamdani’s
principal insight is to recognise the class alliance typically sought by the
Imperialists in neo-colonial Africa countries. According to Mamdani, the
Imperialists prefer to ally with the most backward rural feudal elements (often
called “traditional leaders” or “chiefs” in Africa) in opposition to the
modernising bourgeoisie and proletariat of the cities and towns.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mamdani regards South Africa
as the classic case in this regard, although he quotes many other examples.
Mamdani’s analysis stands in contrast with a common presumption, namely that
the Imperialist monopoly-capitalists tend to work through “compradors”, who are
local aspirant bourgeoisie, or bourgeoisie-for-rent, who do the Imperialists
work for them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Such compradors do exist, and
clearly they exist in South Africa. Yet Mamdani’s scheme reflects the facts and
history of Imperialism in Africa better, at least up to now. Imperialism is in
general hostile to the national bourgeoisie. The typical neo-colonial war of
recent decades, including the Iraq war, the long war against Afghanistan, the
war against Libya, and the war against Syria, is a war of Imperialism against a
national bourgeoisie that wants national sovereignty and control over its
country’s national resources.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the light of this analysis
it becomes easier to see why it is that the South African proletariat has long
been, via the ANC, in alliance with parts of its national bourgeoisie, for
national liberation, against the monopoly-capitalist oppressors with their
Imperial-globalist links.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Imperialists make a
marriage of convenience with the most retrogressive social power that they can
find – tribalism – in a pact to hold Africa where it was under colonialism:
partly rich, but mostly dirt poor. In South Africa the Imperialists relied
heavily on Bantustan leaders and on the Inkatha Freedom Party, but the ANC was
able to form better links with the rural as well as with the urban masses, thus
achieving a class alliance that could, and in fact did, dominate the country in
terms of mass support. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17092%2CMamdani%2CCitizenandSubject%2C1996%2CC8%2CLinkingUrbanandRural.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Mamdani, Citizen and Subject, Chapter 8, 1996">Citizen and Subject,
Chapter 8, 1996, Mamdani</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-7918791277220227632015-11-03T08:59:00.003+02:002015-11-03T08:59:39.919+02:00Democracy is Ours<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 9</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI_lwv6Mb4tihtYc2otOjPnxRDHG1YLuUtx7vniMl_kB98BGx9cmkSknTZJP8QxOuEkho1U3vEyoWNxkvzS3xso-A-sY_jU9OKtgqygLlI929IxtNe7UfWDEH1K-8eN8hI3PaYfA/s1600/09+Mondlane.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI_lwv6Mb4tihtYc2otOjPnxRDHG1YLuUtx7vniMl_kB98BGx9cmkSknTZJP8QxOuEkho1U3vEyoWNxkvzS3xso-A-sY_jU9OKtgqygLlI929IxtNe7UfWDEH1K-8eN8hI3PaYfA/s400/09+Mondlane.gif" width="315" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Mondlane" title="Eduardo Mondlane, on Wikipedia">Eduardo Mondlane, 1920-1969</a></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Democracy is Ours</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This part is the second-last
in the present series on Anti-Imperialism, Peace, and Socialism. This part is
designed to invite comrades to reflect upon the place of the anti-Imperialist
struggle within the entirety of world history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That is why Issa Shivji’s
address on <b>The Struggle for Democracy
and Culture</b> (linked below) is used. It explicitly and correctly claims, on
behalf of the national-liberation and anti-colonial struggle, that for the time
being this national democratic revolutionary struggle carries the banner of
progress for the whole world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For a long time past, and
into the future, until such time as the struggle for socialism itself becomes
once again the principal one, the National Democratic Revolutions taken
together constitute the main vehicle for human progress, bearing, and rescuing,
all that is noble and fine in humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The bourgeoisie is a thieving
class and it will steal the clothes of the revolutionaries without any
hesitation if it sees the smallest, most temporary, advantage in doing so. The
Imperialist bourgeoisie wishes to reverse the appearance of its shameful past
and of its hopeless future. It wishes to claim the moral superiority that the
liberation movement has, and steal it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4lWWe2_-WfaPu5dsBOevt9dGtRKMLAio63DUSsE59dVxKmwNv0u_bt3NR4LXiZyAtIghl3lyV964VjfwgGzDup9jOE93qKlkghPE6InZNYrriY2qrpB76ug4qC1j-4kfQ0_JmiA/s1600/09+Fanon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4lWWe2_-WfaPu5dsBOevt9dGtRKMLAio63DUSsE59dVxKmwNv0u_bt3NR4LXiZyAtIghl3lyV964VjfwgGzDup9jOE93qKlkghPE6InZNYrriY2qrpB76ug4qC1j-4kfQ0_JmiA/s320/09+Fanon.jpg" width="290" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantz_Fanon" title="Frantz Fanon, on Wikipedia">Frantz Fanon, 1925-1961</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Issa Shivji, the
revolutionary Dar-es-Salaam intellectual, shows very clearly how the monstrous
fraud is attempted. The constant droning about “good governance” is the extreme
of hypocrisy, coming as it does from the worst oppressors in history – the
force that has taken oppression to the ends of the earth – Imperialism. Read
Shivji. He tells it well. But also note the hypocritical machinations of our
present South African anti-communists, including but not limited to the DA. If
you did not know better, you could start to believe from what you read that it
was liberal whites who liberated South Africa from the old regime.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PZ8NfRhL3NUdrDLqpLAas3ES_XIv8XvZchaXc-wYORj0Q3f4jQKYfDf_lvVRkMxuHnxFcPtHLf9wstdFKofiaXJl5smL0_qTK_wlnyj6-ESWNpUlpsGDI4b3CEhCaNDhEAn3Iw/s1600/09+Issa+Shivji.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PZ8NfRhL3NUdrDLqpLAas3ES_XIv8XvZchaXc-wYORj0Q3f4jQKYfDf_lvVRkMxuHnxFcPtHLf9wstdFKofiaXJl5smL0_qTK_wlnyj6-ESWNpUlpsGDI4b3CEhCaNDhEAn3Iw/s320/09+Issa+Shivji.jpg" width="291" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issa_G._Shivji" title="Issa Shivji on MIA">Issa
Shivji</a></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The struggle for democracy is
ours, not theirs. The struggle for freedom is ours. We are the humanists now.
We, the liberationists, are the principal creators of human history, and we
have been for many decades past. The 20th Century was the liberation century
and the first anti-Imperial century. That was when we overtook the others in
politics, in morality, and in philosophy. But we were only starting. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the 21st Century we will
finish the job, and finish with Imperialism altogether.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17091%2CShivji%2CTheStruggleforDemocracy%2C2003.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Shivji, The Struggle for Democracy and Culture, 2003">The Struggle for
Democracy and Culture, 2003, Shivji</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-89248267877629097652015-11-02T08:23:00.002+02:002015-11-02T08:23:44.871+02:00Hiroshima and Nagasaki<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 8c<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSh1LHoSBtVmi09iMEDtk7UnKjuGxfbImQocc8ST1jMyB_vxsVb484mvq1MYEj_Rksmm9jI5RU6AMzwavwCXAXhSxlctT3A1k4qCTPPC-Z81bggbQwh5qYt65EpjWzFh6TxxDFSg/s1600/08cHiroshima.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSh1LHoSBtVmi09iMEDtk7UnKjuGxfbImQocc8ST1jMyB_vxsVb484mvq1MYEj_Rksmm9jI5RU6AMzwavwCXAXhSxlctT3A1k4qCTPPC-Z81bggbQwh5qYt65EpjWzFh6TxxDFSg/s400/08cHiroshima.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hiroshima</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hiroshima and
Nagasaki</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To underline the ruthlessness
of the Imperialist enemy, we can quote as follows: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“the US
decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ... was meant to
kick-start the Cold War [against the Soviet Union, Washington's war-time ally]
rather than end the Second World War”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This statement is taken from
Norm Dixon’s article “<b>Hiroshima and
Nagasaki: Worst terror attacks in history</b>” published in Green Left Weekly,
August 3, 2005 (attached; download linked below).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The two worst-ever terrorist
attacks in history, by far, were perpetrated by the USA, and for the most
cynical and mendacious reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Images of what resulted in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are abundantly available on the Internet, but the ones
that show people, whether alive or dead, are too terrible to use here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To this day the USA does not
face up to what it has done by these two vile acts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This course is on
Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace. We cannot leave this thing out. We have to
note that the US power that did these unspeakable things is still active in the
world, and is still, as it was then, active in the cause of its own dominance
over the rest of us. The list of its crimes continues to grow longer every day.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17084%2CDixon%2CHiroshimaandNagasaki%2Ctheworsteverterrorattacks%2C2005.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Dixon, Hiroshima and Nagasaki">Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Worst Ever Terror
Attacks, Dixon</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-73351077275614874542015-11-01T11:08:00.003+02:002015-11-01T11:08:22.434+02:00First They Came for the Communists<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 8b</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJOEy77qRFwYqy7dt_Lm6ydd290NZQEVNNxgvuRLh5OEOcBulLSLVORLztflgwN4_yDq6ZOPcJv9BxPZ_2W8YlICTe8jwXYT62uGRtQ4TXc_ZN7GrlmF65xMcoCgyfmRpJjZZWQ/s1600/08b+Niemoeller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJOEy77qRFwYqy7dt_Lm6ydd290NZQEVNNxgvuRLh5OEOcBulLSLVORLztflgwN4_yDq6ZOPcJv9BxPZ_2W8YlICTe8jwXYT62uGRtQ4TXc_ZN7GrlmF65xMcoCgyfmRpJjZZWQ/s400/08b+Niemoeller.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niem%C3%B6ller" title="Pastor Martin Niemöller, on Wikipedia">Pastor Martin Niemöller,
1892-1984</a></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">First They Came for the Communists</span></b><span style="font-size: 32.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First they came for the Communists, but
I was not a Communist, so I said nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then they came for the Social Democrats,
but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then came the trade unionists, but I was
not a trade unionist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And then they came for the Jews, but I
was not a Jew, so I did little.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then when they came for me, there was no
one left to stand up for me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pastor Niemöller<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The third attached and linked
document in this part opens up the double question of who backs the communists,
and if the communists are not backed, then what happens to the others? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the question of
self-defence for the political movement, the importance of the communists, and
of the non-communists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pastor Niemöller’s story is
extraordinary, and unexpected. This German anti-Nazi Pastor survived Dachau. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For revolutionaries it is
very moving to record the solidarity of people such as Pastor Niemöller. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The revolutionaries must
trust the people. They have no choice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17083%2CNiemoeller%2CFirsttheycamefortheCommunists%2C1945.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Niemoeller, First They Came For The Communists">First They Came For The
Communists, Niemoeller</a>.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-91106704606339389342015-10-31T07:01:00.003+02:002015-10-31T07:01:47.733+02:00Neo-Colonialism, Last Stage of Imperialism<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 8a<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUC2TVL9AtFMgfY4z6pahSevk-DityGkRK0amB3gf5wuHKjq1Ai1UiPvtdJHt616bs2YHcVmdXKWnhdD6ludX1B4O2iJgSTdWu9jFffu3yztgFZthY7yfJi1FoUPuktimM5SIvEA/s1600/08a+Nkrumah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUC2TVL9AtFMgfY4z6pahSevk-DityGkRK0amB3gf5wuHKjq1Ai1UiPvtdJHt616bs2YHcVmdXKWnhdD6ludX1B4O2iJgSTdWu9jFffu3yztgFZthY7yfJi1FoUPuktimM5SIvEA/s400/08a+Nkrumah.jpg" width="326" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nkrumah" title="Kwame Nkrumah, on Wikipedia">Kwame
Nkrumah, 1909-1972</a></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Neo-Colonialism,
Last Stage of Imperialism</span><span style="font-size: 28pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second linked document is
included in this part because of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s correct and
insistent concern with the continuing threat to Africa (now materialising again
militarily as “US Africom”) posed by Imperialism in its last stage of
neo-colonialism. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nkrumah believed that Africa
must unite, for the sole reason that if it did not unite, then it would not
have sufficient strength to resist the Imperialists. And so it has turned out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nkrumah defined
neo-colonialism as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The essence
of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory,
independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In
reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from
outside.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He goes on to add:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Neo-colonialism
is also the worst form of imperialism. For those who practise it, it means
power without responsibility and for those who suffer from it, it means
exploitation without redress. In the days of old-fashioned colonialism, the
imperial power had at least to explain and justify at home the actions it was
taking abroad.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And in his Conclusion,
Nkrumah says:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“In the
earlier chapters of this book I have set out the argument for African unity and
have explained how this unity would destroy neo-colonialism in Africa. In later
chapters I have explained how strong is the world position of those who profit
from neo-colonialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Nevertheless,
African unity is something which is within the grasp of the African people. The
foreign firms who exploit our resources long ago saw the strength to be gained
from acting on a Pan-African scale. By means of interlocking directorships,
cross-shareholdings and other devices, groups of apparently different companies
have formed, in fact, one enormous capitalist monopoly. The only effective way
to challenge this economic empire and to recover possession of our heritage, is
for us also to act on a Pan-African basis, through a Union Government.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17082%2CKwameNkrumah%2CNeo-Colonialism%2CtheLastStageofImperialism%2Cexcerpts%2C1965.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism, Last Stage of Imperialism, 1965">Neo-Colonialism,
Last Stage of Imperialism, 1965, Nkrumah</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-3638363816214524782015-10-30T21:34:00.002+02:002015-10-30T21:34:47.005+02:00Anti-Imperialism<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 8</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzxYxD-SJdyjizeNqTQZpe9h9K8SRN5OeEfLK_YaxsDUxkHYXsYAnGx6GGPqFBRdgqpTa8xYks_0tnI5SL-fbOv2h5SPVMXADv1rhZvczkUN5K4G9YoAdqa6Xp3C-KrQoNUkWpOg/s1600/08+King.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzxYxD-SJdyjizeNqTQZpe9h9K8SRN5OeEfLK_YaxsDUxkHYXsYAnGx6GGPqFBRdgqpTa8xYks_0tnI5SL-fbOv2h5SPVMXADv1rhZvczkUN5K4G9YoAdqa6Xp3C-KrQoNUkWpOg/s1600/08+King.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLK" title="Martin Luther King on Wikipedia">Martin
Luther King, 1929 – 1968</a></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Anti-Imperialism</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Exactly how the
anti-Imperialist struggle will resolve itself in South Africa, Southern Africa,
and Africa in general, is something unpredictable at the tactical level. The
question of the armed defence of revolutionary change cannot be ruled out, and
we have examined this question.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This part of the present
series, referenced to the “Beyond Vietnam” speech (attached, and linked below)
of the late Rev Martin Luther King Junior, is designed to point to the
subjective political factor in the anti-Imperialist struggle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nowadays it has become
commonplace to refer to “international solidarity” as not only a specific, but
more so a universal idea. But this concept that we have largely stripped of its
particularity, generalising it as a formula, does actually have a tremendous
history whose meaning is not fully conveyed by a stock phrase called
“international solidarity”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The anti-Imperialist struggle
and the democratic struggle can and should be one. It is not a matter of
charity of the rich to the poor. It is also not solely a matter of good-hearted
and exceptional individuals. But there have indeed been such individuals –
“MLK” was one of them – and there will be again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What Martin Luther King
describes, and justifies, is: <i>“why I
believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church – the church in
Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate – leads clearly to this
sanctuary tonight.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In other words, MLK at the
meeting of the “Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam”, in 1967, was
preaching the intrinsic, organic unity of the struggle of the common people
everywhere. It is not an artificial altruism, but it is a unity of purpose, in
concerted action against the single enemy that manifests itself everywhere and
oppresses us all: monopoly-capitalist Imperialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And further than his literal
message, there is also the extraordinary power and style of MLK’s oration. We
forget this factor of art too easily. Lenin spoke of “insurrection as an art”.
It is an art that goes beyond the military, and encompasses all of our
activities. Therefore when reading such a piece as MLK’s “Beyond Vietnam”
speech, one should regard it as a source of learning of the art of advocacy,
which is part of the art of leadership, essential to the art of insurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">“Now let us
begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle
for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God...” </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">– Martin Luther King.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Picture</span></u></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">
Rev. Martin Luther King, Junior, at the White House, Washington DC, USA<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17081%2CMartinLutherKing%2CBeyondVietnam%2C1967.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="MLK, Beyond Vietnam, Time to Break Silence, 1967">Beyond Vietnam, Time
to Break Silence, 1967, King</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-65447358829907160772015-10-25T18:17:00.000+02:002015-10-25T18:17:00.202+02:00Strategy and Tactics<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 7a</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPfFW1q_m_rwTvfHrYXP36Xvi79oAXs0zhzQC_DxIMm5IgWH8OuVlsOu9C0NiWusn7fLJFqK_ZzJsoviLmTvCLMEgMMt0I5nL9HHJWJ-1kdgJB4X0P84hgnAGBn6GLCMPtMxd7w/s1600/07a+Morogoro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPfFW1q_m_rwTvfHrYXP36Xvi79oAXs0zhzQC_DxIMm5IgWH8OuVlsOu9C0NiWusn7fLJFqK_ZzJsoviLmTvCLMEgMMt0I5nL9HHJWJ-1kdgJB4X0P84hgnAGBn6GLCMPtMxd7w/s1600/07a+Morogoro.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Strategy and
Tactics</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The ANC’s famous 1969
Strategy and Tactics document adopted in the Morogoro, Tanzania Conference
involving O R Tambo, Joe Slovo, Chris Hani and others, is attached, and
downloadable from the link given below.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a classic, the Strategy
and Tactics document can speak for itself. It is straightforward enough.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This document, like, for
example, the Freedom Charter, remains one of a handful that are held in the
highest regard by the South African liberation movement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is a typical document of
National Democratic Revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is short. It is really a
“must-read” for any student of SA revolutionary politics. It has implications
for today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Picture</span></u></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">
Morogoro, Tanzania<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17072%2CANC%2CStrategyandTactics%2CMorogoro%2C1969.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Strategy and Tactics, Morogoro, 1969, ANC">Strategy and Tactics,
Morogoro, 1969, ANC</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-80914930584040575392015-10-24T18:18:00.002+02:002015-10-24T18:20:06.347+02:00The Armed People<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 7</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdfDjjeuBc3Ia4CFpKv89vaQoNi6uM8B6zkY6sU7MTzRyFvouFtbXVQko0txeZxmsYaZYV4kVE3aX2AxTIZ1AvI2nV___Ywjb1oWid0iE8Cr91x-rhqctEvM8n-BXRMa4KGLK0LA/s1600/07+Kimathi.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdfDjjeuBc3Ia4CFpKv89vaQoNi6uM8B6zkY6sU7MTzRyFvouFtbXVQko0txeZxmsYaZYV4kVE3aX2AxTIZ1AvI2nV___Ywjb1oWid0iE8Cr91x-rhqctEvM8n-BXRMa4KGLK0LA/s1600/07+Kimathi.JPG" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dedan Kimathi, 1920-1957</b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 36.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Armed
People</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The practical alternative to
the State that appeared in Paris in the beginning of 1871 was not only the
right of recall, and the whole people collectively in power and in perpetual
session. It was also the reappearance of the Armed People in a new kind of
societal framework. So-called Primitive Communism is an Armed People. Here, in
the Paris Commune, was an Armed People in advanced productive circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The security forces - army
and police - that had existed before the Paris Commune had been paid to support
the bourgeois State and to guarantee the State’s survival by suppressing,
whenever necessary, the working class. Under the Commune, these forces were
disbanded and not replaced. With hardly any exceptions, all “separations of
powers” were abolished in the Paris Commune, leaving only one power: The Armed
People.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In Chile, in the time of the
Popular Unity government that fell on 11 September 1973, instead of an Armed
People, a virtue was made of disarmament, and a “Peaceful Path” was worshipped
as the new political Golden Calf.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Volodia Teitelboim</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">, in the document attached, and linked below, gives a brief
description, as one of those who was involved, of Chile’s Popular Unity
government and its disastrous end at the hands of traitor fascists who used the
national army to overthrow it. It was a shocking reminder of the purpose of the
“special bodies of armed men” of the bourgeois state.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Teitelboim calls for “A Reappraisal
of the Issue of the Army,” meaning a return to the view of the Paris Commune,
which Teitelboim mentions in the first line. This document is a sufficient
basis for a very good and necessary discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like the Chilean Popular
Unity government, ours is a multiclass government underpinned by a class
alliance for common goals. It is a unity-in-action, otherwise called a popular
front.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why have we in South Africa
survived after 21 years, while the Chileans did not survive after only 1,000
days?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The answer could be that we
are not pacifists. Or, the answer could be that our crisis has not arrived yet.
Or, that we have passed at least one crisis (e.g. in mid-2008, resolved by the
recall of President Mbeki and the resignation of various ministers including
Terror Lekota and Mluleki George), which may not yet be the last.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next featured text will
be the ANC’s original Strategy and Tactics document of 1969. It unashamedly
embraces armed struggle, and not any starry “Peaceful Path”. South Africans
were in this case in advance of the historic crisis that manifested in Chile.
Four years prior to the Pinochet coup in Chile overthrew the Popular Unity
government led by Salvador Allende, the Morogoro Conference of the ANC had laid
down the necessity for the armed defence of the revolution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Picture:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">
There are very few photographs of freedom fighters in formation or in action to
be found on the Internet, whether of MK or any of any other liberation army;
but there are many photographs of freedom fighters in captivity. Full justice
has not yet been done. The picture is of a statue of Dedan Kimathi under the
blue sky of Kenya. AMANDLA! UHURU!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17071%2CTeitelboim%2CPopularUnityRule%2C1977.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="1,000 Days of Popular Unity Rule in Chile, 1977, Teitelboim">1,000 Days
of Popular Unity Rule in Chile, 1977, Teitelboim</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-42046383880210303232015-10-18T11:35:00.005+02:002015-10-18T11:35:56.036+02:00How to Master Secret Work<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Anti-Imperialism, War and
Peace, Part 6b</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5JWX2NUClWufWq3KaJUfeAX4QW2wsIycKISxmkPjEucujx1b416QKw4WvpOdUBulSx2ESjOZgPHX1suOwr4Eqpc8x8-hwA7DV6SHnn7Umj8AjpJ7_DTIKs23b4m9sig7yRmcPOg/s1600/06b+Secret+Work.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5JWX2NUClWufWq3KaJUfeAX4QW2wsIycKISxmkPjEucujx1b416QKw4WvpOdUBulSx2ESjOZgPHX1suOwr4Eqpc8x8-hwA7DV6SHnn7Umj8AjpJ7_DTIKs23b4m9sig7yRmcPOg/s400/06b+Secret+Work.jpg" width="385" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">How to Master Secret Work</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The third attached and
linked item in this part is the 1980 clandestine SACP publication “<b><a href="http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/sacp/1980/secret-work.htm" title="SACP, How to Master Secret Work, on MIA">How to Master Secret Work</a></b>”.
It makes a point that we need here, which is that there is no virtue in being
illegal. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The communists do not
volunteer to be illegal. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The nature of secret work
is really that it is a systematic struggle against banning and persecution.
As much as it is secret, yet its purpose is the re-expansion of communication
and the re-legalisation of the Party. Its purpose is the public political
rebirth of the organisation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Within less than ten years
of the publication of the attached document, the SACP was unbanned and
declared fully legal again, as it has remained ever since, up to today. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The SACP had been banned
and was underground (“clandestine”) from 1950 to 1990, a total of forty
years. All that time the Party struggled to reverse the situation of banning
and illegality. It announced its existence with the publication of the
African Communist from 1959. “How to Master Secret Work” was published in the
underground newspaper, Umsebenzi.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The great majority of
secret work is about communicating, and through communication, deliberately
reversing the Party’s excommunication from society.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is no imaginable
situation where the political vanguard will deliberately choose to be
clandestine and make a virtue of its excommunication from the masses. There
is no virtue in secrecy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unfortunately we have none
of the lively illustrations from this historic document, only the text.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">How to Master Secret Work, 1980, SACP, <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17063a%2CSACP%2CHowtoMasterSecretWork%2C1980%2Cpart1.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="How to Master Secret Work, Part1">Part 1</a> and <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17063b%2CSACP%2CHowtoMasterSecretWork%2C1980%2Cpart2.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="How to Master Secret Work, Part 2">Part 2</a></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17061%2CPomeroy%2COntheTimeforArmedStruggle%2C1974.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Pomeroy, On the Time for Armed Struggle, 1974"></a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.5pt; text-align: center;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-68957889191671848272015-10-11T14:11:00.003+02:002015-10-11T14:11:35.173+02:00Political and Military in Revolutionary War<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Anti-Imperialism, War and
Peace, Part 6a</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHa3MijdMO13hiwBMEd5h8V8Sq-HLhelVsw173i_hRrFGa5OFzmaALI_4CXxULVqzC2WvyKKt-KHwL9KiON-t2HXQx3qV8yJ9_7btr9V-JctG2RN0jFAU26I5HqhYeBSrl5wCyA/s1600/06a+Le+Duan+with+Ho+Chi+Minh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHa3MijdMO13hiwBMEd5h8V8Sq-HLhelVsw173i_hRrFGa5OFzmaALI_4CXxULVqzC2WvyKKt-KHwL9KiON-t2HXQx3qV8yJ9_7btr9V-JctG2RN0jFAU26I5HqhYeBSrl5wCyA/s400/06a+Le+Duan+with+Ho+Chi+Minh.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ho Chi Minh and Le Duan<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Political and
Military in Revolutionary War</span><span style="font-size: 28pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Duan" title="Le Duan on Wikipedia">Le Duan</a></span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">’s
“Political and Military in Revolutionary War” is a short, powerful piece of
writing that manages to include a great deal of wisdom in a few words.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Le Duan says, confirming Pomeroy:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“… the close
combination of political and military struggle constitutes the basic form of
revolutionary violence in South Vietnam”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This article is an example of
communist simplicity, brevity and clarity that can hardly be beaten. It is
ideal for study circles. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If necessary, such an article
as this can be read out loud, and serve as its own introduction. It is a good
example to anyone, of how to reproduce your theory in plain terms that workers
and peasants can understand, without losing any of its quality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Le Duan mentions the National
Democratic Revolution thus:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Like the <b>national-democratic revolution</b> all over
the country in the past, the present South Vietnamese revolution has the
workers and peasants as its main force and the worker-peasant alliance led by
the working class as the cornerstone of the national united front.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A small <b><a href="http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/le-duan/index.htm" title="Le Duan Archive on MIA">archive of Le Duan’s writing</a></b> can be
found on MIA.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17062%2CLeDuan%2CPoliticalandMilitaryForcesinRevolutionaryWar%2C1967.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Le Duan, Political and Military in Revolutionary War, 1967">Political
and Military in Revolutionary War, 1967, Le Duan</a><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17061%2CPomeroy%2COntheTimeforArmedStruggle%2C1974.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Pomeroy, On the Time for Armed Struggle, 1974"></a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-943319387685738012015-10-07T05:13:00.003+02:002015-10-07T05:13:54.196+02:00Military and Political<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Anti-Imperialism, War and
Peace, Part 6</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOV2xRKEE714ZYZZXoq9Z7_d6KAhEAQOdgraT0Lomv-X1SMeOyrPvEtuTjF35ACPWcGYZGXYLFvkLwsU54fJ-w1qFPWIpl_WEjWHteIIc15h2Zvd9rh58VnBlbXIpG8VzWjiAp9g/s1600/06+Pomeroys2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOV2xRKEE714ZYZZXoq9Z7_d6KAhEAQOdgraT0Lomv-X1SMeOyrPvEtuTjF35ACPWcGYZGXYLFvkLwsU54fJ-w1qFPWIpl_WEjWHteIIc15h2Zvd9rh58VnBlbXIpG8VzWjiAp9g/s400/06+Pomeroys2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Military and
Political</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Presuming that we have by now
established that we are not pacifists, but are revolutionaries who intend, by
any means necessary, to assist the working class to expropriate the expropriator
bourgeois class, which by itself, whether with bloodshed or not, is a violent
act: Then why can we not move with speed, and without any restraint, towards an
armed overthrow of the oppressors?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The late William “Bill”
Pomeroy started his essay “On the Time for Armed Struggle” (linked below) from
the same point of departure, in the following words:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Because of
the decisive results that can follow from an armed smashing of the main
instruments of power held by a ruling class or a foreign oppressor, some of
those who acquire a revolutionary outlook are eager to move to the stage of
armed struggle; and their concept of it as the highest form of revolutionary
struggle causes them to cast discredit upon other forms as 'less advanced', as
amounting to collaboration with or capitulation to the class enemy.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, he wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Too often
the aura of glory associated with taking up arms has obscured hard prosaic
truths and realities in the interplay of forces in a period of sharp struggle.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And later on, Pomeroy adds:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The
experiences of the revolutionary movement in the Philippines offer an
interesting example of the complex, varied and fluctuating processes that may
occur in a liberation struggle.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pomeroy writes that <i>“analysis and understanding of the
revolutionary experiences of others is indispensable”</i>. He proceeds to offer
his own rich and extraordinary experience as a military combatant and
revolutionary. His main lesson is that the military must never think that it
can cease to be subordinate to the political. Such thinking is bound to bring
disaster, as it did in the Philippines.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not only is the military
subordinate to the political - in the hierarchical sense that the military
takes its orders from the political leadership and reports back to it. It is
more than that. The revolutionary movement must proceed away from military, and
towards political, essentially peaceful means. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Far from armed struggle being
the “highest form”, it is a form of struggle that we do not adopt unless it is
forced upon us, and we pursue it, if we have to, with the main aim of returning
as quickly as possible to political means. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is not only a
revolutionary <i>political</i> principle. It
is also, in terms of the best military theory (that of Clausewitz) a <i>military</i> principle, namely that force of
arms can only serve to return the parties to the negotiating table. That is all
it can do; and if it fails to do this much, then military force is simply a
disaster.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The picture shows William and
Celia Pomeroy, next to a newspaper report about their incarceration in the
course of the Philippines struggle. William Pomeroy passed away on 12 January
2009 and Celia Pomeroy passed away on 22 August 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17061%2CPomeroy%2COntheTimeforArmedStruggle%2C1974.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Pomeroy, On the Time for Armed Struggle, 1974">On the Time for Armed
Struggle, 1974, Pomeroy</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-58787331929379610622015-10-04T08:27:00.003+02:002015-10-04T08:27:42.757+02:00Violence<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 5</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiPAu9MNhyWiC-oNZZkWtDvr5s4xzT0W-XT8K_S-CUYGTLCosNgXkH2TSsDS1NzQvFpE9tsVHwdd5ofrObx2L1iiZRzESuI08RTg2wIJ65CdEzlLa-ctouS6vHvb3Ah2mU_vBcrA/s1600/05+Caudwell.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiPAu9MNhyWiC-oNZZkWtDvr5s4xzT0W-XT8K_S-CUYGTLCosNgXkH2TSsDS1NzQvFpE9tsVHwdd5ofrObx2L1iiZRzESuI08RTg2wIJ65CdEzlLa-ctouS6vHvb3Ah2mU_vBcrA/s400/05+Caudwell.JPG" width="396" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Christopher Caudwell, 1907 –
1937</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Violence</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The <b><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm" title="Marx/Engels, Communist Manifesto, 1848, on MIA">Communist Manifesto</a></b>
of 1848 ends:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">“The
Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that
their ends can be attained only by the<b>
forcible</b> overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling
classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to
lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES,
UNITE!”</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Earlier, it says:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">“the <b>violent</b> overthrow of the bourgeoisie
lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When it comes to the expropriation
of the expropriators, the working class will not ask permission.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The proletarian revolution
will be an act of force, with no appeal, and <i>in that sense </i>it is bound to be a violent revolution, which <i>does not mean</i> that bloodshed is
necessary. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blood need not be shed. But
the revolution will make its own laws. Otherwise, it would not be a revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bourgeois violence<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The bourgeoisie is a violent
class. It acquired its position by bloody violence and it maintains its
position by constant applications of physical violence and bloodshed. It is the
bourgeoisie that invented permanent standing armies, the permanent police
force, and the prisons, all of which are in constant use.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In spite of all of its
protestations to the contrary, the bourgeoisie is not afraid of physical
confrontation. It is well prepared for bloody violence. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What the bourgeoisie fears is
not bloodshed, but the other kind of violence: that of unilateral expropriation
of the means of production, distribution and exchange. The bourgeoisie fears
the violence that takes, not blood, but property.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Caudwell<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the previous parts of this
series, we have read Clausewitz, Marx and Lenin on the political/military
nature of violence. In this part we will take an essay of Christopher Caudwell
(attached; download linked below) so as to establish the moral and/or
philosophical basis of <b><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/caudwell/1935/pacifism-violence.htm" title="Caudwell, Pacifism and Violence, on MIA">Pacifism and Violence</a></b>,
if any such can be found.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Caudwell" title="Christopher Caudwell on Wikipedia">Christopher Caudwell</a></span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> (1907 – 1937) wrote some extraordinary communist
literature that was only published after he was killed while fighting the
fascists in the Spanish Civil War, as an internationalist from England, and as
a member of the International Brigades.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Much of Caudwell’s best work
was published posthumously under the famous title: “<b><a href="http://www.monthlyreview.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MRS&Product_Code=PB2188&Category_Code=PHIL" title="Book advertisement on Monthly Review">Studies in a Dying Culture</a></b>”.
Three of the essays can be found in the <b><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/caudwell/index.htm" title="Caudwell Archive on MIA">Caudwell section of the Marxists Internet
Archive</a></b>, including his essay “<b><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/caudwell/1938/liberty.htm" title="Caudwell, On Liberty, on MIA">On Liberty</a></b>”, which contains the statement:
<i>“I am a communist because I believe in
freedom!”</i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another Caudwell collection
was published more recently in hard copy under the title “The Concept of
Freedom”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sheehan<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another source of Caudwell
material (including the image above) is Helena Sheehan’s web site, where Helena
has made a <b><a href="http://webpages.dcu.ie/~sheehanh/caudwell07sheehan.htm" title="Caudwell Centenary page on Helena Sheehans web site">Caudwell centenary
page</a></b> that is very moving, and will tell you many reasons why Christopher
Caudwell is remembered with such passion and love even now, so long after his
death.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In “Pacifism and Violence”
Caudwell asks almost at once:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0mm; margin-left: 17.0pt; margin-right: 17.0pt; margin-top: 0mm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">“Are we
Marxists then simply using labels indiscriminately when we class as
characteristically bourgeois, both militancy and pacifism, meekness and
violence? No, we are not doing so, if we can show that we call bourgeois not
all war and not all pacifism but only certain types of violence, and only
certain types of non-violence; and if, further, we can show how the one
fundamental bourgeois position generates both these apparently opposed
viewpoints.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do you say when you are
confronted by a pacifist follower of M K Gandhi, or by a Quaker? This text can
assist you. Today’s downloadable text will help bring the essence of the
question into our dialogue. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This text will show you why
it is that communists are not pacifists, although we struggle for peace, and
why the bourgeoisie can never be peaceful, even when they call themselves
pacifists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">The image of Christopher
Caudwell reproduced above was painted by <b><a href="http://gaelart.net/" title="Painter of Christopher Caudwell">Caoimhghin O Croidheain</a></b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17051%2CCaudwell%2CPacifismandViolence%2C1938.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Pacifism and Violence, 1938, Christopher Caudwell">Pacifism and
Violence, 1938, Christopher Caudwell</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-34599717949052059202015-09-28T07:44:00.002+02:002015-09-28T07:44:23.564+02:00Hegemony and the NDR<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 4b</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNhy5njcU6jdJtdN7OohyiWDPBLtK980J1rD_FWidF18w2ejcapps4kSMh3gVtZRkZLBffYZ4lTaN1pGXKqJ3GlA1wh6A8DkE4ksLpEe_MnSp5L8Iu_4u4yOnhGMb0ghC8KFaDig/s1600/04b+Slovo+biggest%252C+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNhy5njcU6jdJtdN7OohyiWDPBLtK980J1rD_FWidF18w2ejcapps4kSMh3gVtZRkZLBffYZ4lTaN1pGXKqJ3GlA1wh6A8DkE4ksLpEe_MnSp5L8Iu_4u4yOnhGMb0ghC8KFaDig/s320/04b+Slovo+biggest%252C+cropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Slovo" title="Joe Slovo on Wikipedia">Joe
Slovo, 1926-1995</a></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hegemony and the NDR</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his 1905 article “<b><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1905/oct/25.htm" title="Lenin, Petty-Bourgeois and Proletarian Socialism, on MIA">Petty-Bourgeois
and Proletarian Socialism</a></b>” (attached, and linked below), Lenin wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Can a
class-conscious worker forget the democratic struggle for the sake of the
socialist struggle, or forget the latter for the sake of the former? No, a
class-conscious worker calls himself a Social-Democrat for the reason that he
understands the relation between the two struggles. He knows that there is no
other road to socialism save the road through democracy, through political
liberty. He therefore strives to achieve democratism completely and
consistently in order to attain the ultimate goal - socialism. Why are the
conditions for the democratic struggle not the same as those for the socialist
struggle? Because the workers will certainly have different allies in each of
those two struggles. The democratic struggle is waged by the workers together
with a section of the bourgeoisie, especially the petty bourgeoisie. On the
other hand, the socialist struggle is waged by the workers against the whole of
the bourgeoisie. The struggle against the bureaucrat and the landlord can and
must be waged together with all the peasants, even the well-to-do and the
middle peasants. On the other hand, it is only together with the rural
proletariat that the struggle against the bourgeoisie, and therefore against
the well-to-do peasants too, can be properly waged.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Joe Slovo wrote (in the <b><a href="http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?include=docs/history/1988/ndr.html" title="Slovo, SA Working Class and the NDR, on the SACP web site">SA Working
Class and the NDR</a></b>, 1988):<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“There is,
however, both a distinction and a continuity between the national democratic
and socialist revolutions; they can neither be completely telescoped nor
completely compartmentalised. The vulgar Marxists are unable to understand
this. They claim that our immediate emphasis on the objectives of the national
democratic revolution implies that we are unnecessarily postponing or even
abandoning the socialist revolution, as if the two revolutions have no
connection with one another.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hegemony is mentioned in the
first discussion document prepared by the SACP for the Special National
Congress held in December, 2009, and particularly the following section, taken
from the last page of the document.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“… it is
important that as communists we are clear that working class HEGEMONY doesn’t
mean working class exclusivity (still less party chauvinism). Working class
hegemony means the ability of the working class to provide a consistent
strategic leadership (politically, economically, socially, organisationally,
morally – even culturally) to the widest range of social forces – in
particular, to the wider working class itself, to the broader mass of urban and
rural poor, to a wide range of middle strata, and in South African conditions,
to many sectors of non-monopoly capital. Where it is not possible to win over
individuals on the narrow basis of class interest, it can still be possible to
win influence on the basis of intellectual and moral integrity (compare, for
instance, our consistent ability, particularly as the Party, to mobilise over
many decades a small minority of whites during the struggle against white
minority rule).”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-texts:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17043%2CLenin%2CPetty-bourgeoisandProletarianSocialism%2C1905.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Petty-Bourgeois and Proletarian Socialism, 1905, Lenin">Petty-Bourgeois
and Proletarian Socialism, 1905, Lenin</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-61545044569872313242015-09-27T11:51:00.003+02:002015-09-27T11:51:24.748+02:00Hegemony Up To Date<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 4a</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8J38SjyG6DeG09BK1ETPKWRxvD3F-tJqd6PYTWGXSyh4DP4lNuppNiwUViXa8-979cUkOjEoiuqfNvsRad-9KCOrdhVua0AeShadox8upW6j99lqRXY-eCLR02wvVDgf6kyIvPQ/s1600/04a+Gramsci.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8J38SjyG6DeG09BK1ETPKWRxvD3F-tJqd6PYTWGXSyh4DP4lNuppNiwUViXa8-979cUkOjEoiuqfNvsRad-9KCOrdhVua0AeShadox8upW6j99lqRXY-eCLR02wvVDgf6kyIvPQ/s1600/04a+Gramsci.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci" title="Gramsci on Wikipedia">Antonio
Gramsci, 1891-1937</a></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hegemony Up To Date</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have given first place
this week to Perry Anderson. Today, another readable and user-friendly text is
offered in the form of Trent Brown’s more recent essay on "Gramsci and
Hegemony" (attached, and downloadable via the link given below).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Put simply, the idea of
“hegemony” is not different from the idea of “dictatorship”, as used in the
phrases: “dictatorship of the proletariat” and “dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie”, for two examples.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hegemony means class
domination over another class, or over all other classes. We may say that
Working Class Hegemony is not necessarily always coercive, and that for the
most part it would rely upon consent or acquiescence. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, as Trent Brown points
out, the same is true of the bourgeois dictatorship that we have at present. It
depends, if not upon actual force, then upon “manufactured consent” backed up
by the threat of force. Force and the threat of force are always present.
Violent force will normally be applied without hesitation by any ruling class
whenever its hegemony is threatened.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whether we are using the term
“Working Class Hegemony”, or the term “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”, it
remains the case that the bourgeoisie continues to exist under such
dictatorship or hegemony. Capitalist relations will still exist under working
class hegemony, but they will be supervised by the working class. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Dictatorship of the
Proletariat” does <u>not</u> mean “Extermination of the Bourgeoisie”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trent Brown points out that
Gramsci in particular had a well-worked-out theory of how the working class can
progress from self-interested economism, otherwise called syndicalism (or in
South Africa, “workerism”), through self-conscious class solidarity, to the
formation of revolutionary alliances with other classes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Comrades who may be
interested in Gramsci’s legacy beyond the concept of “hegemony”, may like to read
the article “<b><a href="http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/2005,+McLaren+and+Fischman,+Gramsci,+Freire,+Organic+Intellectuals" title="Organic Intellectuals">From Organic to Committed Intellectuals or
Critical Pedagogy, Commitment, and Praxis</a></b>” (click to access the web
page). For a representative example of Gramsci’s writing, please click here: “<b><a href="http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/1926,+Gramsci,+Some+aspects+of+the+southern+question" title="Gramsci, Some Aspects of the Southern Question">Some Aspects of the
Southern Question</a></b>”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trent Brown puts the matter
of hegemony like this:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Gramsci
reckoned that in the historical context that he was working in, the passage of
a social group from self-interested reformism to national hegemony could occur
most effectively via the political party.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is not different from
Lenin’s view.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17042%2CTrentBrown%2CGramsciandHegemony%2C2009.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Gramsci and Hegemony, 2009, Trent Brown">Gramsci and Hegemony, 2009,
Trent Brown</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-1622997117097492282015-09-26T09:05:00.002+02:002015-09-26T09:05:21.522+02:00Hegemony<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 4<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hegemony</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have looked at the basic
theory of armed struggle, courtesy of Clausewitz. We have looked at
Imperialism, which among other things is a regime of permanent war. And we have looked at the political theory of
revolutionary insurrection, also courtesy of Lenin. This course will continue
to examine such theoretical problems of war and peace, in the context of the
age of Imperialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This week we look at the
contested concept of “Hegemony”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The concept of “Hegemony” is
contested between those who would wish for a third way, or to quote
Robespierre, “a revolution without a revolution”; and on the other hand, those
who recognise that there is no such third way, and that the real history and
meaning of “hegemony” is no different from “class dictatorship”. In other
words, Marx and Engels were right to say at the beginning of the “<b><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007" title="Communist Manifesto on MIA">Communist Manifesto</a></b>” that <i>“The history of all hitherto existing
society is the history of class struggles,” </i>and that the class struggle
would have to be fought to a finish.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For many years past this
polemic has been conducted around the historical personality and the literary
legacy of Antonio Gramsci. People, including academics who should know better,
falsely cite Gramsci as if he was a supporter of some third way, which he was
not.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gramsci was an orthodox
communist, and was not in the least bit opposed to his contemporary, Lenin. All
the material published in recent decades to the effect that Gramsci was a soft
kind of communist, or that Gramsci had a theory of revolution (perhaps called
“hegemony”) that could succeed without any rudeness or unpleasantness of the
Lenin kind, is all spurious and fraudulent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The term “hegemony” needs to
be rescued. A shortened version of Perry Anderson’s long article (New Left
Review, I/100, November-December 1976) about all this is attached, and
downloadable via the link below. Here is a quotation from it:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">“The term
‘hegemony’ is frequently believed to be an entirely novel coinage—in effect,
[Gramsci’s] own invention. Nothing reveals the lack of ordinary scholarship
from which Gramsci’s legacy has suffered more than this widespread illusion.
For in fact the notion of hegemony had a long prior history. The term </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">gegemoniya <i>(hegemony)
was one of the most central political slogans in the Russian Social-Democratic
movement, from the late 1890s to 1917.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“In a letter
to Struve in 1901, demarcating social-democratic from liberal perspectives in
Russia, Axelrod now stated as an axiom: ‘By virtue of the historical position
of our proletariat, Russian Social-Democracy can acquire hegemony (gegemoniya)
in the struggle against absolutism.’ [19] The younger generation of Marxist
theorists adopted the concept immediately.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Lenin could
without further ado refer in a letter written to Plekhanov to ‘the famous
“hegemony” of Social-Democracy’ and call for a political newspaper as the sole
effective means of preparing a ‘real hegemony’ of the working class in Russia.
[21] In the event, the emphasis pioneered by Plekhanov and Axelrod on the
vocation of the working class to adopt an ‘all-national’ approach to politics
and to fight for the liberation of every oppressed class and group in society
was to be developed, with a wholly new scope and eloquence, by Lenin in What is
to be Done? in 1902—a text read and approved in advance by Plekhanov, Axelrod
and Potresov, which ended precisely with an urgent plea for the formation of
the revolutionary newspaper that was to be Iskra.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What Perry Anderson
demonstrates is that “hegemony”, far from being an alternative to the working
class ascendancy otherwise referred to as the “dictatorship of the proletariat”,
is in fact exactly the same idea, and was understood as such without any
reservations at all by Antonio Gramsci in all his works. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This article is worth keeping
in mind as an insurance against the inevitable return of the fake
“hegemony-Gramsci” third-way myth. Tomorrow we will look at a similar but much
shorter article.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17041%2CPerryAnderson%2CTheAntinomiesofAntonioGramsci%2C1976%28Part%29.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci, 1976, Perry Anderson">The Antinomies
of Antonio Gramsci, 1976, Perry Anderson</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> (short version).</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-25396437242333063082015-09-25T20:32:00.003+02:002015-09-25T20:32:26.273+02:00Socialist-Revolutionaries, Narodniks, and other Adventurists<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 3b</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Socialist-Revolutionaries,
Narodniks, and other Adventurists</span><span style="font-size: 20pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our pattern is as follows:
There are ten parts, one part per week. In each part there may be up to four
items. The main post is given first. The others can be used as alternatives, if
preferred, or as additional reading. The whole arrangement is designed to suit
study circles who would meet once a week to discuss these texts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In this part we have gone in
reverse chronological order. The third and last item (attached) in this part is
from the earlier, pre-revolutionary period, where Lenin is denouncing the
“Revolutionary Adventurism” of the “Socialist Revolutionaries”, and in
particular is <b>denouncing terrorism</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like Marx and Engels before
him, and like the SACP of today, Lenin was faced with false revolutionaries,
who pretended to be more revolutionary than the communists, but who were really
something else. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The communists are referred
to in this pamphlet as “revolutionary Social-Democrats”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In this Russian case, the
false revolutionaries were the petty-bourgeois “Socialist-Revolutionaries”
(SRs) and their antecedents, the sentimental “Narodniks”. Both of these types
of pseudo-revolutionary are likely to spring up in any revolutionary situation.
In general, they represent the strong desire of the ruling class to reappear in
a new guise, to steal the very revolution that they have provoked, and
therefore to continue their rule in a new form. This is especially the case in
a transition, like Russia’s at the time, <b>from
a monarchy to a republic</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The terrorist SRs called
themselves “critics” and they called their revolutionary opponents (i.e. Lenin
and the RSDLP) “orthodox”. This is like the liberals and anarchists of today in
South Africa who denounce the SACP as “Stalinists” or “vanguardists”, or even
as “yellow communists”, while imagining themselves to be free-thinkers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This document was written in
a typical situation, similar to Swaziland today, where there is a dying
monarchical autocracy and a large but very poor peasantry, all festering in the
dregs of feudalism. There is a dangerous <i>“absence
of ideology and principles”</i>. Among other important things, Lenin writes:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Let the
agrarian programme of the Socialist-Revolutionaries serve as a lesson and a warning
to all socialists, a glaring example of what results from an absence of
ideology and principles, which some unthinking people call freedom from dogma. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“When it came
to action, the Socialist-Revolutionaries did not reveal even a single of the
three conditions essential for the elaboration of a consistent socialist
programme: a clear idea of the ultimate aim; a correct understanding of the
path leading to that aim; an accurate conception of the true state of affairs
at the given moment or of the immediate tasks of that moment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“They simply
obscured the ultimate aim of socialism by confusing socialisation of the land
with bourgeois nationalisation and by confusing the primitive peasant idea
about small-scale equalitarian land tenure with the doctrine of modern
socialism on the conversion of all means of production into public property and
the organisation of socialist production. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Their
conception of the path leading to socialism is peerlessly characterised by
their substitution of the development of co-operatives for the class struggle.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17033%2CLenin%2CRevolutionaryAdventurism%2C1902.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Revolutionary Adventurism, 1902, Lenin">Revolutionary Adventurism, 1902,
Lenin</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-83576104321649046222015-09-24T13:50:00.003+02:002015-09-24T13:50:19.025+02:00Guerrilla Warfare<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 3a</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Guerrilla Warfare</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just after the first Russian
Revolution of January, 1905, Lenin wrote “Guerrilla Warfare” (attached). Almost
immediately in this work, Lenin plants his experienced revolutionary feet on
solid revolutionary ground, thus:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Marxism differs from all primitive forms of socialism
by not binding the movement to any one particular form of struggle. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“It recognizes the most varied forms of struggle; and
it does not "concoct" them, but only generalizes, organizes, gives
conscious expression to those forms of struggle of the revolutionary classes
which arise of themselves in the course of the movement. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Absolutely hostile to all abstract formulas and to
all doctrinaire recipes, Marxism demands an attentive attitude to the mass
struggle in progress, which, as the movement develops, as the class
consciousness of the masses grows, as economic and political crisis become
acute, continually gives rise to new and more varied methods of defence and
attack. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Marxism, therefore, positively does not reject any
form of struggle. Under no circumstances does Marxism confine itself to the
forms of struggle possible and in existence at the given moment only,
recognizing as it does that new forms of struggle, unknown to the participants
of the given period, inevitably arise as the given social situation changes. In
this respect Marxism learns, if we may so express it, from mass practice, and
makes no claim whatever to teach the masses forms of struggle invented by ‘systematisers’
in the seclusion of their studies.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Later in the same work, in
which he defends the Latvian comrades who have taken up some forms of armed
struggle, Lenin says:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“… such an objection would be a purely
bourgeois-liberal and not a Marxist objection, because a Marxist cannot regard
Civil War, or guerrilla warfare, which is one of its forms, as abnormal and
demoralizing in general. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">“A Marxist bases himself on the class struggle, and
not social peace. In certain periods of acute economic and political crisis the
class struggle ripens into a direct Civil War, i.e., into an armed struggle
between two sections of the people. In such periods a Marxist is obliged to
take the stand of Civil War. Any moral condemnation of Civil War would be
absolutely impermissible from the standpoint of Marxism.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are you worrying about what
form your struggle should take? Read this document, comrades.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17032%2CLenin%2CGuerrillaWarfare%2C1906.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Guerrilla Warfare, 1906, Lenin">Guerrilla Warfare, 1906, Lenin</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-65630035283908503322015-09-23T16:12:00.003+02:002015-09-23T16:12:21.943+02:00Uprising<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 3</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-oKwSw1qKSNfzC4Y7mPCaNYJCOkbiDk2g3SQDTvL5YiMpluzkhwrs3Hxx8CRlSQe_JTGuenYLbZX8xyweQ8doRCQbUecANbBL-LS3loXgUxy2nFEoJCP55zna7139cOvk1ZgAg/s1600/03+LeninLookingUp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-oKwSw1qKSNfzC4Y7mPCaNYJCOkbiDk2g3SQDTvL5YiMpluzkhwrs3Hxx8CRlSQe_JTGuenYLbZX8xyweQ8doRCQbUecANbBL-LS3loXgUxy2nFEoJCP55zna7139cOvk1ZgAg/s400/03+LeninLookingUp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Uprising</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">“To be
successful, insurrection must rely not upon conspiracy and not upon a party,
but upon the advanced class. That is the first point. Insurrection must rely
upon a revolutionary upsurge of the people. That is the second point.
Insurrection must rely upon that turning-point in the history of the growing
revolution when the activity of the advanced ranks of the people is at its
height, and when the vacillations in the ranks of the enemy and in the ranks of
the weak, half-hearted and irresolute friends of the revolution are strongest.
That is the third point. And these three conditions for raising the question of
insurrection distinguish </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">Marxism<i> from </i>Blanquism<i>.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thus wrote Lenin [Image], in
“Marxism & Insurrection” (attached; download linked below), in September
1917, just before the Great October Russian Revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Insurrection must rely upon
the advanced class, and not upon the party. It must rely on an uprising of the
people, and be timed to coincide with their maximum degree of resolution and
the maximum degree of vacillation in the ranks of their enemies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lenin concludes:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In order to
treat insurrection in a Marxist way, i.e., as an art, we must at the same time,
without losing a single moment, organise a <b>headquarters</b>
of the insurgent detachments, distribute our forces, move the reliable
regiments to the most important points, surround the Alexandriusky Theatre,
occupy the Peter and Paul Fortress, arrest the General Staff and the
government, and move against the officer cadets and the Savage Division those
detachments which would rather die than allow the enemy to approach the
strategic points of the city. We must mobilise the armed workers and call them
to fight the last desperate fight, occupy the telegraph and the telephone
exchange at once, move our insurrection headquarters to the central telephone
exchange and connect it by telephone with all the factories, all the regiments,
all the points of armed fighting, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Of course,
this is all by way of example, only to illustrate the fact that at the present
moment it is impossible to remain loyal to Marxism, to remain loyal to the
revolution <b>unless insurrection is
treated as an art</b>.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Insurrection is an art! This
is a short document, comrades, and readable. Read it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17031%2CLenin%2CMarxismandInsurrection%2C1917.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Marxism and Insurrection, 1917, Lenin">Marxism and Insurrection, 1917,
Lenin</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-74103291417131112222015-09-22T20:03:00.000+02:002015-09-22T20:03:01.868+02:00Genesis of the NDR<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Anti-Imperialism, War and
Peace, Part 2b</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzs4EskiRPd6dJmQJO0Pjx-U1BTgprIKa4DXK_IIEYYGUmZbefq7TO9sNKsavTCArEcjLosc_MyHyszqEGjkLXUYqWdAsjHel4_Rcaj9EDy-e7Nidrihk-kaw9Va9a-sA_kfnoA/s1600/02b+Hammer+and+Sickle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzs4EskiRPd6dJmQJO0Pjx-U1BTgprIKa4DXK_IIEYYGUmZbefq7TO9sNKsavTCArEcjLosc_MyHyszqEGjkLXUYqWdAsjHel4_Rcaj9EDy-e7Nidrihk-kaw9Va9a-sA_kfnoA/s320/02b+Hammer+and+Sickle.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Symbol of Class Alliance</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Genesis
of the NDR</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Hammer and Sickle emblem of the communists was invented in Russia in
1917. <b>It is a symbol of class alliance
between two distinct classes: proletarian workers, and peasants.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Peasants often work hard and they are often poor, but they are not the
same as the working proletariat of the towns. Nor are they the same as the
rural proletariat. So the hammer and the sickle are not two identical things.
They represent two different things, allied.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Practical politics is always a matter of alliance, and in different
circumstances, different alliances are called for. Communists commonly regard
an alliance between workers and peasants as normal. Proletarian parties have
likewise, in the past, often attempted class alliances with (other) parts of
the bourgeoisie against feudalism, or against colonialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alliances are normal and necessary, in order to isolate and thereby to
be able to defeat an adversary; and equally, to avoid being isolated and
defeated by that adversary. Karl Marx had practiced class alliance from at
least 1845 onwards, and had written extensively about it, notably in “<b><a href="http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/class-struggles-france/index.htm" title="Marx, The Class Struggles in France">The Class Struggles in France</a></b>”,
the <b><a href="http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/communist-league/1850-ad1.htm" title="Marx, 1850 Address to the Communist League">1850 Address to the
Communist League</a></b>, and the “<b><a href="http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/index.htm" title="Marx, 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte">18<sup>th</sup> Brumaire</a></b>”.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The question of the appropriate alliances in the anti-colonial and
anti-Imperialist struggle was bound to arise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The origin of the specific type of class alliance that is nowadays
referred to by the term <b>National
Democratic Revolution</b> can be precisely located in the Second Congress of
the Communist International (2CCI), in the discussion in the Commission on the
National and Colonial Question, reported to the plenary by V. I. Lenin on 26 July 1920 (attached).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first, founding Congress of the Communist International
(“Comintern”) had taken place in March, 1919, a little over a year after the
October 1917 Russian Revolution. It fulfilled the tenth of Lenin’s “<b>April Theses</b>”: <i>“We must take the initiative in creating a revolutionary International”</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The very first “International Working Men’s Association”, of which Karl
Marx had been a founder member in 1864, had been disbanded in 1871 after the
fall of the Paris Commune. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Second International fell apart in 1914, when most of the
Social-Democratic workers’ parties backed the bourgeois masters of war in the
conflict between the Imperialist powers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The communists, led by Lenin, had held out against that betrayal. After
the revolutionary victory in Russia they lost very little time before
constructing a Third, Communist International. It was naturally and explicitly
anti-Imperial and anti-colonial, and at its Second Congress (the “2CCI”) in
1920, decisively so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his report to the 2CCI on the National and Colonial Question, Lenin
says: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We have discussed
whether it would be right or wrong, in principle and in theory, to state that
the Communist International and the Communist parties must support the
bourgeois-democratic movement in backward countries. As a result of our
discussion, we have arrived at the unanimous decision to speak of the <b>national-revolutionary movement</b> rather
than of the ‘bourgeois-democratic’ movement. It is beyond doubt that any
national movement can only be a bourgeois-democratic movement, since the
overwhelming mass of the population in the backward countries consist of <b>peasants <u>who represent
bourgeois-capitalist relationships</u></b>… However, the objections have been
raised that, if we speak of the bourgeois-democratic movement, we shall be
obliterating all distinctions between the reformist and the revolutionary
movements. Yet that distinction has been very clearly revealed of late in the
backward and colonial countries…”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here we find, for the first time, all the makings of the NDR, including
the name, even if the words are not quite in their present-day order. Lenin
calls it “national-revolutionary”, but he makes it very clear that he is
talking of a democratic class alliance with anti-colonial, anti-Imperialist
elements of the national bourgeoisie in colonial countries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The 2CCI was followed within two months by the famous “<b><a href="http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/1920,+Baku+Congress+of+the+Peoples+of+the+East,+Manifesto" title="Congress of the Peoples of the East, Manifesto">Congress of the Peoples
of the East</a></b>”, in Baku, in the southern part of what was soon to
become the Soviet Union. This was the first international anti-colonial
conference. It had huge consequences. The remainder of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century was marked by world-wide National Democratic Revolutions according to
the pattern set by Lenin and his international comrades</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">These National Democratic Revolutions
included, and still include, the South African NDR.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17023%2CLenin%2CReportonNationalandColonialQuestion%2C2CCI%2C1920.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Report on National and Colonial Question, 2CCI, 1920, Lenin">Report on
National and Colonial Question, 2CCI, 1920, Lenin</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-80453908303041051962015-09-20T21:50:00.000+02:002015-09-20T21:50:06.407+02:00Consequences of Imperialist War<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Anti-Imperialism, War and
Peace, Part 2a</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lenin in disguise, 1917</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Consequences of Imperialist War</span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The origin of the Age of
Imperialism, when it became dominant in the world, were in the Imperial wars at
the turn of the 19<sup>th</sup> to the 20<sup>th</sup> centuries, and most
notably, the Anglo-Boer War. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Anglo-Boer War is the
most typical of these original wars, because it showed most clearly what the
nature of the new capitalist Imperialism was. Britain made war on the Boer
Republics, not so as to rule them directly, and certainly not to liberate the
black people living under those racist regimes; but only to possess the gold
mines and other such assets as they might wish to have. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The recent Imperialist war on
Libya is not different in overall nature.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The typical tactic of
Imperialism is not direct colonialism, but indirect, neo-colonialism. As the 20<sup>th</sup>
century went on, the obligations that went with direct rule were increasingly
abandoned. As a counter to the National Democratic Revolutions, neo-colonialism
was more and more substituted for the older system of direct colonial rule.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This much was described by
Lenin in the text that went with the previous post in this series. Lenin paid
close attention to the question of Imperialism and wrote a lot about it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It may be helpful for us to
look briefly at the general situation before 1916, and thereafter. The Great
Powers had gone to war in 1914, as a consequence of the tensions that
Imperialism had brought with it, in a finite, limited world that had been
divided between the major powers, but unevenly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Workers’ (Second)
International had, instead of opposing the war, collapsed. The socialist
parties of the contending powers had nearly all opted to support their
different bourgeois governments in the terrible mutual slaughter and
destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lenin and the Bolsheviks
refused to support the war. They formed the major force in the small
“Zimmerwald” International, together with other formations that wanted to
maintain the international working-class position of opposition to capitalist
war. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By that time Lenin had been
in exile for many years. He returned from Switzerland to Russia in April, 1917,
a few weeks after the February revolution of that year. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In “The Nascent Trend of
Imperialist Economism” (attached), Lenin attacks the “Imperialist Economism”
that is against the right to self-determination and against democracy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Imperialist Economism has <i>“the knack of persistently ‘sliding’ from
recognition of imperialism to apology for imperialism (just as the Economists
of blessed memory slid from recognition of capitalism to apology for
capitalism),”</i> says Lenin.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Economism” is Syndicalism,
or in South African parlance, “Workerism”. It is the belief that trade union
struggles alone can solve the problems of the working class. It is reformist,
and it relies upon the promises of development of the capitalist economy, with
no plans to overthrow it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Imperialist Economism” took
the reformist logic one step further, to say that Imperialism should be allowed
to develop to its fullest, in the belief that when the whole world had become
one big monopoly, it could simply be taken over and re-named socialism. The
Imperialist Economists promoted the idea that socialism was the end-destination
of the Imperialist bus-ride, and that all that was necessary was to get on the
bus and encourage Imperialism’s progress, in the name of socialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The German Social-Democrat
Karl Kautsky, whom Lenin called a “renegade”, and “no better than a common
liberal”, became the prophet of Imperialist Economism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the face of this
particular brand of treacherous liquidationism, Lenin was obliged to re-state
the necessity for the right of nations to self-determination (see the second
attached item). This is a longer document. In it, early on, under the heading
“Socialism and the Self-Determination of Nations”, Lenin wrote: <i>“We have affirmed that it would be a
betrayal of socialism to refuse to implement the self-determination of nations
under socialism.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So as not to make this introduction too long, let us sum up: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">There is no final separation between socialism and
internationalism (“Workers of the World, Unite!”) but<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Nations have the right of self-determination<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Using the next item we will see the consequence of this struggle of
ideas, as it affected the world after the Russian Revolution, and after the
Imperialist world war of 1914 -1918 was over.
We will see that Lenin personally, and the Communist International in
particular, were able to map out the line of march for the National Democratic
Revolutions that subsequently liberated most of the planet, including,
eventually, South Africa, from direct colonialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-texts:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17022a%2CLenin%2CTheNascentTrendOfImperialistEconomism%2C1916.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="The Nascent Trend of Imperialist Economism, 1916, Lenin">The Nascent
Trend of Imperialist Economism, 1916, Lenin</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">, and <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17022b%2CLenin%2CRightofNationstoSelf-Determination%2C1914%2Cpart.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="The Right of Nations to Self-Determination, 1916, Lenin">The Right of
Nations to Self-Determination, 1916, Lenin</a>, and <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17022c%2CLenin%2CDiscussiononSelf-DeterminationSummedUp%2C1916%2Cpart.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Discussionon Self-Determination Summed Up,1916">Discussion on
Self-Determination Summed Up, 1916, Lenin</a>.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13864521.post-46059004364403249442015-09-13T16:19:00.003+02:002015-09-13T16:19:35.526+02:00Imperialism<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Anti-Imperialism, War and
Peace, Part 2</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lord Kitchener poster, 1914</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Imperialism</span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the second part of a
series on Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace. We are not only concerned to
discover Imperialism, but to see it in its particular aspect of war-mongering.
[Image: Lord Kitchener, master of war and lying face of Imperialism]<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In Chapter 7 of “<b><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/index.htm" title="Lenin, Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism, on MIA">Imperialism,
The Highest Stage of Capitalism</a></b>” (attached) Lenin “sums up” in a highly
compressed way as to what capitalist imperialism is. In the first paragraph,
among other things, he says:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“…the
monopolies, which have grown out of free competition, do not eliminate the
latter, but exist above it and alongside it, and thereby give rise to a number
of very acute, intense antagonisms, frictions and conflicts.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A little later on Lenin
writes: <i>“… politically, imperialism is,
in general, a striving towards violence and reaction.”</i> The truth of this
statement has never been more apparent than it is today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">South Africa has seen
Imperialism in all its aspects, but especially in war. It was the <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Boer_War" title="Anglo-Boer War on Wikipedia">Anglo-Boer War</a></b> of 1899-1902 that
announced Imperialism’s intentions to the world, as much as the <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-American_War" title="Spanish-American War on Wikipedia">Spanish-American War </a></b>of 1898
did, or the defeat of the <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_al-Taashi" title="Khalifa Abdallahi on Wikipedia">Khalifa Abdallahi</a></b>'s forces at <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Omdurman" title="Battle of Omdurman on MIA">Omdurman</a></b> in Sudan by the British
under Kitchener in that same year of 1898. The system of state-monopoly capital
and dominance of the mineral-energy complex over the South African productive
economy dates from that time, and it has never been fundamentally changed. To change
it will mean a new confrontation with Imperialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Imperialism is a system of
war. Lenin pours scorn on <i>“Kautsky's
silly little fable about "peaceful" ultra-imperialism,”</i> calling
it <i>“the reactionary attempt of a
frightened philistine to hide from stern reality.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lenin concludes:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The question
is: what means other than war could there be under capitalism to overcome the
disparity between the development of productive forces and the accumulation of
capital on the one side, and the division of colonies and spheres of influence
for finance capital on the other?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The age of Imperialism, for
nearly 120 years, has been an age of war, just as Lenin predicted it would be.
From Lenin’s work to that of William Blum’s “<b><a href="http://killinghope.org/" title="William Blum's "Killing Hope" web site">Killing Hope</a></b>”
it is clear that Imperialism is an aggressive force which at some stage will
have to be confronted, and annihilated. One cannot hope to be exempt from this
confrontation forever.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above is to
introduce the original reading-text:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17021%2CLenin%2CImperialism%2CHighestStage%2CC7%2C1916.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1" title="Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Chapter 7, 1916, Lenin">Imperialism,
The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Chapter 7, 1916, Lenin</a></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;">.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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DomzaNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986863954730842699noreply@blogger.com0