As it was written: >> Waistline, Personally, I find it difficult trying to understand on what principle or set of principles you are basing most of your arguments, commentaries and political work on, with regard to opposing U.S. imperialism and reaction. As a result, I find most of your comments about the present situation to be rather confusing, because I have a hard time trying to understand where your starting point is. I haven't been around as long as some of the comrades here on the list, and perhaps that is where I am most naive in experience. However I feel that communists should be principled in thought and action in their political work and to defend the principles that have been won and to defend them whenever they are being attacked. If this be a Marxist-Leninist "axiom" then so be it. Yes the world changes, and we are in a different situation than several periods before, however, principles that were fought over and won during those periods are stronger now than ever, precisely because they are being attacked by the imperialism and forces of reaction. << Josh Comment Comrade, in my estimate there is no such thing as some grand Marxist principle(s) to Presidential elections and primaries in America. This thread is not posed as a general resistance to imperialism and reaction. The issue in real time was who to vote for in the Presidential primary and loud, active opposition to the fascist heading the Republican party. Bush W. is a fascist and so is Senator McCain and a huge section of the American people intuitively understand this. Senator Obama is not a fascist nor does he advocate American fascism ideological underpinning. My starting point - base line, or context in examining the Obama candidacy over the past six months; the so-called war on terrorism, the struggle of the autoworkers and stirring of various layers of the working class and everything else in America has been the domination of the speculator over the world total capital and the new non-banking financial architecture as the concrete material expression of our society undergoing a revolution in the productive forces. This change wave, which is increasing in tempo, is forcing a realignment of social and ideological groupings in our society. On the one hand this thread is about "OBAMA - An Analysis" or what I have framed as “the Obama candidacy,” rather than the general category of imperialism. “The Obama candidacy” has been written about so as not to get caught up on one man and forget our mission of bringing to the fore the class mission of communist revolutionaries. To understand the Obama candidacy one has to take into account the history of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party and how the political and ideological struggles between them have shaped policy in American history. This requires pouring through much of our history rather than discussions of general Marxist propositions, although it is not being suggested one abandons their Marxist orientation and outlook. George W. Bush Jr. and his administration are fascists. The ideological component of their fascism and the social basis of this very real fascism is rooted in historic Southern reaction - the historic control of the South, or since the Goldwater candidacy for president, the defection of the Southern Dixiecrats to the Republican Party. The principle or starting point for communists in any country on earth is to begin with the concrete peculiarity of ones own history, culture and ideological composition. In America this means understanding politics from the standpoint of “the South controls the country and Wall Street controls the South.” The escalated fascist onslaught we have faced the past two terms of Bush W. is nothing more than the historic combination of Southern reactionaries and their Northern reactionary collaborators that were momentarily defeated during the period of the Civil Rights Movement. We are fighting real people in real time with a real history. Today in real time the Republican Party stands as the official party of the wealthiest white people in America and stating this is no attempt to play the so-called “race card.” This is of course the reason a huge section of the whitest and angry proletarians drove the Obama campaign to victory. These real masses are beginning to perceive that their economic and material well being lies outside the Republican Party or for that matter the Democratic Party expressed in the Clinton's. This perception is sharply different than during the election of Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., and George W. What is driving the Obama candidacy and Senator Clinton’s campaign as a unity is a fuzzy understanding that our country is experiencing some kind of economic collapse and it is in fact undergoing economic collapse. Economic collapse does not mean everyone stops working or no production takes place. What collapses is the old way of economic relations as society is dislocated and begins its shift - leap, or transition to new production relations based on the new technological infrastructure. Here is the context for the fight over the property relations and where communists can clearly speak of class and property in plain language. By definition this transition in the productive forces means a radical lowering of the value of labor, because revolution in production increased the productiveness of labor, and this must be expressed in lower wages. We have been experiencing a 35 year free fall in the price of labor ability. Two weeks ago I reported to this list the mind boggling 50% reduction in the wages of the American axle workers in Detroit. This fuzzy understanding of economic collapse combines with a growing backlash against the police authority in our country and three decades of prison building. The modern penal system that exists today is the result of having convinced a huge section of America that the black people were a threat to their economic well being and needed to be put in prison. Now that we imprison more people than anyone else on earth it becomes clear that jails is no solution. Now that the police are running amok amongst the entire population it becomes clearer that "law and order" is not a solution to economic problems. Then there is the growing anti-war sentiment and growing outrage against the fascist clampdown on civil liberty. From different directions and points of view a huge section of America is talking about some kind of Revolution in real time. People - real masses and their various leaders or people them listen to, are beginning to talk about revolution as correction to economic problems. Yes it is time to rally to the flag pole, but the flag pole has not yet been sunk into the ground with clear symbols. . There is an ideological shift underway in our country and for reasons I do not fully understand, the communists do not talk about it. Well . . . I kind of understand why much of the so-called "Marxist Leninists movement" do not openly talk about economic communism. The principle(s) we communists defend is that the proletarian masses have an inherent yearning and right to be free of capitalist exploitation, rather than a general and often vague “ Marxist-Leninist” formulation. We need to really look at matters in concrete terms in the context of the primary phase of this Presidential election year. The ideological basis of the Republican Party is hate, fuck-you poor people and the basis of this hate in our country is outright white chauvinism or racism. The Obama candidacy opposes and is opposing this historic hate. It must oppose this historic hate because it cannot secure political victory over its sectarian opponents in the Democratic Party or Southern reactions militant and "old Christian vision" of the new world order. The Obama campaign is therefore compelled to bring new masses into the political arena in the exact manner Marx describes this process in the Communist Manifesto. Is this a good thing? Of course it is because we communist do not have the ability to bring and group such masses around our polarity. In fact we have to build up our polarity. Some Marxist Leninists believe the best way to build up our polarity is by forming a party that is an army and mysteriously slugging it out with the imperialist. I believe that taking communist propaganda of economic communism to the mass movement today - right now, is the path forward and then on this basis working to construct a party of the class. Is it not obvious that those of us on this list cannot combine together on the basis of ideology? There can only be real unity of action centered in doing real things together with one general voice and focus. Does election year 2008 make a difference? Did election year 2000 make a difference? Did 2004 make a difference? The answer to all three question is “ yes.” The Obama candidacy is being driven on the ground by a mass of white voters and this is extremely important. Senator Obama is not the candidate of the blacks, who in the main were the last grouping in America to support his candidacy. That communists will not even consider this dynamic and talk to this initial mass of voters about economic communism and the right of the proletarian masses to socially necessary means of life - even if they have no money, is mind boggling to me. Communism. There I said it again and virtually no one on this list talks or has talked about economic communism as a solution over the past five years. In fact 90% of all responses to advocating economic communism in America has been opposed by the majority of responders to this call on this list. At first I thought the opposition was to me personally and the manner in which I argue, which at times was offensive in retrospect. Then all the theoretical rationales were presented against advocating for economic communism. Communism - distribution of socially necessary means of life, which the victims of the governments response to Katrina needs right now, even if these people have no money, is the solution to our problems. Economic communism in the field of health care is the only solution to the health care crisis. This does not means lowering the standard of those who already have health care but raising the bottom of the social ladder up to the level of providing socially necessary means of life. My sense of things is that a real spontaneous movement of the masses is underway and this movement is driven not by anti-war sentiment, which is of course important, but economic impulses. Economic impulses means “how am I going to pay for gas, health care, food and the rent and send the kids to school.“ This moment of history is so important. Comrade, as long as poverty, crime and destitution in our country could be presented as a black issue nothing was going to be done about it. Today, the fascists grouped about the Bush administration stand as criminals and the new slave masters in the minds of a huge section of the peoples of America. Simply because most of my life was dominated by a relationship that is giving way to a new relationship does not mean I have to be stuck in the past. I refuse to close my eyes to the 35 million people that took time to be involved in the Democratic Primary and view this mass as fresh forces getting their political feet wet for the first time. We communists will teach them how to swim in the deep end of the water and defeat the sharks. The Obama candidacy blind sided me and Senator Clinton and basically all the rest of us. Sure, I read his books early in the game and aid to myself, "yea, yea, yea, more social democratic crap." Then 35 million people showed up and took part in Senator Obama and Senator Clinton’s campaign. I said to myself what the fuck it going on and being dumb founded did what all good communists do; I placed my good ear on the ground and closed my eyes to help concentrate. The 35 million were saying “we are scared and our economic situation is deteriorating. We need help with a change in government policy.” Then I opened my eyes and stood up and looked at the people and it was a sea of white and I beamed a broad smile and said to myself "I like this." Feeling like the guy that showed up at the airport to catch a plane at the wrong time and on the wrong day, I asked people what was going on and was told, " man, where have you been for the past eight years. Brother your plane left yesterday at noon, not 10:00 at night. The next ten flights are already booked." The worse thing to ever happen to a communist is to be caught flatfooted and take it on the chin. When the freshly minted masses - getting their feet wet for the first time, delivers the blow to the chin, it is quite humiliating. With the confidence of a man ready to die, I beamed that broad battle hardened smile at the masses and asked if I could ride on the next plane out. Everyone laughed and said, "brother I am glad you showed up, but you have to wait your turn. What are all them books you got with that old man on the cover with a beard?" The broad smile broke into laughter and I said something like, "I am preparing for the Third American Revolution and hate like hell I showed up late." This older white gentlemen with his wife and three grand daughters, - (who are now playing with my suit case and asking about my books), said "son the revolution already began. Where you from . . . Detroit or something?" Sitting in the airport alone, in a crowd of flowing millions, I went on line and reread all the masters beginning with the Communist Manifesto, all of Lenin, Mao's volumes and saving Stalin for desert. I glanced at Ho and General Gaip and moved through Che quickly and paused on Amilcar Cabral's "Liberation of Guiana" and the most famous passage about the people not fighting for the ideas in a persons head but to see their material life go forward. I cursed my flesh smarting from that blow to the chin by the masses. Secretly, I knew Senator Clinton took a blow to the head. I knew in my heart her arrogance born of pure working class fabric and "bootstrap raise oneself up America," had taken a serious blow from this skinny brown man that had the nerve to not be a real live American nigga, but something more American. Something in me went sideways as my old circuit breakers snapped and I could not figure out what I was experiencing. "He ain't a nigga" . . . I thought privately to myself, but I was to ashamed to say this to anyone. The masses - 35 million, were boarding the plane of political activism and to me, every single one of them had that fucked up look on their faces that said, "we know he ain;t a nigga." No one in advance wrote of the Obama campaign and how it would crystallized a new social and ideological alignment in America. Stalin haunted me stating in no uncertain terms that the hallmark of a communist is their ability to independently find their own bearing. I fucking hate it when the masses catch me flatfooted and I have to catch up with them to be the leader. There was nothing left for me to do but place myself on the self criticism machine where one kicked themselves in the ass about a thousand times and get with the new program. With a sore china and swollen ass (and bad feet) principles of communism demanded that the truth as I understood it be wrote and talked about. I suggested and advocated - without blinking, that those involved in the Democratic Party primary should vote for Obama because his candidacy was the cutting edge against hate and advocacy for change in government policy. Then some comrades felt I was delivering the proletariat into the hands of the imperialists. No . . . the fight was to take them out of the hands of the imperialists, as they deserted the fascist haters by clearly presenting to them an outline of their class demands and issues and talking about economic communism. I can only hope that it is understood that I advocate economic communism and tell people such. I cannot understand for the life of me why American communists will not advocate that everyone in this country has a right to housing, medical care, drinking water, basic energy needs, public education and higher education and the bourgeoisie can go to hell. This is the only bottom line communist principle I am aware of. I supported Senator Obama in the context of the Democratic Party primary, although I am not registered as a Democratic Party member. Registering as a Democrat never occurred to me. I do not advocate such in real time because my head is still clearing from taking it on the chin and showing up late and trying to prepare for the next phase of this presidential election cycle. Let me be honest or as honest as I can be at this moment on the keyboard. I am not registered as a Democratic Party member in Florida because I had no idea that the Obama candidacy would take off like it did. Florida - the state, has not been a nice place to live in American history for a Yankee, or as it is in my case, a tanned Yankee, but it is changing because the state is driven by tourism or big money Northerners on pensions and trust funds. One must know at this late date that the fascist Bush secured his Presidency on the basis of the political turmoil in Florida and the Supreme Court appointment to office. If I had enough foresight to see the tremendous out pouring for his campaign I would have surely registered as a Democrat to take greater part in this huge flow of masses. Communists do things like that because we go where the people are in motion and then we pushed for the spontaneous movement to achieve its goal. The goal of the people pushing the Obama candidacy is not one man but economic security and defeat of the fascist in government that would strip us all of political liberty. Some may feel that supporting the Green Party was more appropriate but it seems to me such thinking forgets the Green Party’s presidential primary process between Nader and McKliney. I do not know how events are going to unfold over the next five months. I do clearly understand that this phase of the primaries are over and a regrouping is taking place.
Waistline **************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4?&NCID=aolfod00030000000002) _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list Marxist-Leninist-List@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
