Re: M-TH: Lenin and the working class
Lo Again, >>They are condemned, then, to being revolutionary. We are condemned, King Lear like, to the duty and possiblity of revolution, it is something that is irrevomovable from our condition, but we have to choose to exorcise it. >>Now in the north of Ireland there exists thousands upon thousand of workers who would describe themselves as Protestant Unionists and who actively support British imperialism together with the rampant and intense discrimination against Catholic workers from the same geographical location. Many of these Protestant workers are proud members of the reactionary Orange Order. These workers have adhered to this reactionary counter-revolutionary culture for over a hundred years. Such workers can hardly be described as inherently revolutionary. Indeed, police officers are workers, but I wouldn't consider a police officer inherently revolution - its absurd as sayign all wopmen are inherently feminist. But, and I do have a big but, we are all potentially revolutionary, and this is why a vanguard is not only udnesirable, but also unnessary, when consciousness and necessity co-incide the revolution will happen - our job here and now is to promote consciousness as widely as possible. Deathy
M-TH: Lenin and the working class again
Deathy: Indeed, police officers are workers, but I wouldn't consider a police officer inherently revolution - its absurd as sayign all wopmen are inherently feminist. But, and I do have a big but, we are all potentially revolutionary, and this is why a vanguard is not only udnesirable, but also unnessary, when consciousness and necessity co-incide the revolution will happen - our job here and now is to promote consciousness as widely as possible George: If the working class is, as you claim, "potentially revolutionary" then there is no guarantee that it can spontaneously turn revolutionary which is why a vanguard party is necessary. You hoist yourself with your own petard. Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/ Be free to subscribe to our Communist Think-Tank mailing community bysimply placing subscribe in the body of the message at the following address:mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
M-U: Appeal to Workers and Workers' Organizations/Apele a trabajadores y las Organizaciones de los Trabajadores
Appeal to Workers and Workers' Organizations >> PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY << >> PASS IT ON TO ANYONE INTERESTED << >> SPANISH VERSION BELOW << Brothers and sisters, comrades, friends! On June 4, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) will open its session in Windsor, Canada. One of the primary goals of this meeting is to continue finalizing the text of the so-called "Free Trade Agreement of the Americas" (FTAA), a hemispheric trade agreement modeled on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In response to this, activists of all different beliefs from across the continent are mobilizing to demonstrate against the OAS and its FTAA. Trade unions, workers' organizations, environmentalists, liberals and various radical groups are organizing to build a strong demonstration against the actions of the bosses and their allies. We also wish to organize against the OAS and the FTAA. This is the purpose of our letter to you. We ask you to join with us in building a strong, militant contingent of trade unionists, workers and working-class youth to fight the anti-worker actions of the OAS and the FTAA. Working class people must organize a large International Workers' Contingent to fight and shut down the OAS. Unlike many of those who will be in Windsor and Detroit for the actions, we do not look to the government to "reform" the FTAA. We realize that the Agreement is designed to make the exploitation of Latin America work more efficiently. The intent of the FTAA is to turn the countries of Central and South America into one large maquiladora zone. We realize that the fight against the OAS and the FTAA is directly linked to our struggle against the bosses. There can be no artificial separation between the forms capitalism uses and its fundamental content. Thus, the International Workers' Contingent should be a working class, anti-capitalist formation. We rely on the power of the working class and its own organizations (trade unions, workers' parties, etc.). Beginning in the unions, the first line of defense for workers against the bosses, workers gain a social power that is unmatched. Unlike students and middle-class intellectuals, only the organized working class, fighting for its own interests, can bring about fundamental change in this world. Workers have the power to bring an end to exploitation, oppression, war, racism and poverty. And our class has an obligation to carry this struggle out to its conclusion. But it takes organization and political understanding to do this. We see the International Workers' Contingent as a small step in this direction. Only through bringing together workers from across the hemisphere can our class unite and fight against our common enemy. This contingent should be organized around three basic fundamentals that give us direction in our fight against the OAS and its capitalist masters: 1. Independence of the working class - The International Workers' Contingent participates on a solid working-class basis. All of our work is directed solely at organizing trade unionists, workers and working class youth. 2. Workers' internationalism - The International Workers' Contingent strives to organize and unite workers and working class youth from all countries. We cannot allow narrow nationalist demands to affect our work, and we cannot accede to them for the sake of maintaining a coalition or united front. 3. Unity of all sections of the working class - Most importantly, the International Workers' Contingent must present itself as the organization doing the most to unite Black and white, men and women, gay and straight, immigrant and "citizen" to fight the OAS in Windsor. We propose to organize the Contingent around two central slogans: * Stop the 'Free Trade' Rape of Latin America! * For International Workers' Actions to Fight the FTAA! We call on any organization that agrees with the idea of building an International Workers' Contingent to join with us in doing so. We believe that a democratic united front should be built, where differences of opinion can be discussed, and all those participating are free to bring their own banners, signs and slogans. If you are unable to attend, we encourage you to send a letter of greetings and solidarity so that your voice can be added to those in Detroit and Windsor. We appeal to you to join together to build a working-class internationalist response to the onslaught of the bosses, framed in the form of the FTAA. In solidarity; James Paris, for the International Workers' Committee http://www.marxistworker.org/iwc/ -- Apele a trabajadores y las Organizaciones de los Trabajadores >> POR FAVOR DISTRIBUYA EXTENSAMENTE << >> LO PASAN A CADA UNO INTERESADO << >> LA VERSIÓN DE INGLES ENCIMA << ¡Hermanos y hermanas, compañeros, amigos! El 4 de junio, la Asamblea general de la Organización de Estados Americanos (la OEA) abrirá su sesión en Windsor, Canadá. Uno de los objetivos primarios
M-TH: Bush and nuclear arms
George Bush says if elected he will reduce the nuclear arsenal of the US. None of these promises has anything to do with any real interests in eliminating nuclear weapons. Washington is merely seeking to restructure modify the character of its nuclear capability in line with developments in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War. This entails Russia having to face the harsh reality of its decreasing role as a nuclear power. Russia as it currently stands is no longer capable of developing its nuclear capability and strategic military arsenal in the way that the SU had. The argument between Washington and Moscow over anti-ballistic defence systems reflects this reality. Russia is in no position to mount an anti-ballistic defence system on the scale of Washington. Bush's public discussion of strategic matters perhaps constitutes a change in the quality of the Presidential race in the US. By raising this issue in public Bush is investing the campaign with a matter of substance. To a large extent the campaign has been apparently lacking substance. Insignificant issues have dominated it. Now the matter of the character of strategic offence and defence introduces an issues which opens debate, in some form, on the character of international relations in the aftermath of the cold war. This makes the campaign more interesting. Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/ Be free to subscribe to our Communist Think-Tank mailing community bysimply placing subscribe in the body of the message at the following address:mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
M-TH: Yemen and Little Russia
As Russia agrees to provide weaponry to Yemen it is clear that what essentially underlies Russia's attempts to increase its sales of arms abroad. Russia's main motive for such sales is commercial. It simply wants to boost its exports to win badly needed foreign reserves while stimulating heavy industry. Foreign policy concerns are merely second to the commercial motive although in particular individual cases it may be primary. We must not forgot that relatively weak Russia is not the Soviet Union in its hey day. Much of the time Russia uses bluff in its foreign policy since it lacks the clout of the Soviet. However this cannot fool Washington. Strategically the most that Russia, especially in place further from its frontiers, can achieve is the pursuance of its foreign policy in terms of upgrading its nuisance value to Washington's strategic interests.Russia's foreign policy is basically domestic policy in disguise. Russian foreign policy only begins to come into its own at its frontiers --and even there this is questionable. On the world scale Russia no longer really counts as a significant force. Warm regards George Pennefather Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/ Be free to subscribe to our Communist Think-Tank mailing community by simply placing subscribe in the body of the message at the following address: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
M-TH: Home schooling
The growth of home schooling in the US is a development that the American state will feel threatened by. This is because it constitutes a form by which the very young can escape the greater clutches of the state and ideological process. By being inducted into school from a very early age the very young are being integrated into the state and its ideology from an early age. Home schooling also tends to put teachers and their unions under pressure. Since some of the reasons offered for home schooling will entail criticism of the school and its teachers in their capacity to adequately and provide an education. This leads to the questioning of the performance of schools and teachers. In this way capitalism uses a practice that, in a sense, constitutes a challenge to the state as a means with which to beat and oppressors professional teachers. Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/ Be free to subscribe to our Communist Think-Tank mailing community bysimply placing subscribe in the body of the message at the following address:mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: M-TH: Lenin and the working class
Lo Again, >>They are condemned, then, to being revolutionary. We are condemned, King Lear like, to the duty and possiblity of revolution, it is something that is irrevomovable from our condition, but we have to choose to exorcise it. >>Now in the north of Ireland there exists thousands upon thousand of workers who would describe themselves as Protestant Unionists and who actively support British imperialism together with the rampant and intense discrimination against Catholic workers from the same geographical location. Many of these Protestant workers are proud members of the reactionary Orange Order. These workers have adhered to this reactionary counter-revolutionary culture for over a hundred years. Such workers can hardly be described as inherently revolutionary. Indeed, police officers are workers, but I wouldn't consider a police officer inherently revolution - its absurd as sayign all wopmen are inherently feminist. But, and I do have a big but, we are all potentially revolutionary, and this is why a vanguard is not only udnesirable, but also unnessary, when consciousness and necessity co-incide the revolution will happen - our job here and now is to promote consciousness as widely as possible. Deathy
