hi folks, Mike Ely's blog has emerged as a focal point for RCP refugees as the RCP has, it appears, finally "jumped the shark" (although many of us feel it has been doing so since 1980).
I have posted to it a few times and Mike took my post from yesterday and gave it its own page. So far there is only one comment (with a second comment, from me, awaiting moderation). My initial post is reproduced below. In general, some people like my idea for a revolutionary news service but feel that my criticism of RCP's reformist "World Can't Wait" campaign is too simplistic and harsh. It is kind of like a guy who wakes up with a bad hangover: the morning light is too harsh. My general assessment is that many of the readers on the blog have a lot on their minds right now and may not be in a position to absorb or think about some of the principles that I discuss. But these principles, in my view, remain essential over the long run and will eventually win recognition on a mass scale. -- Ben http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/ben-seattles-views/ A number of interesting threads have developed from Mike's Nine Letters. I am unable to follow and contribute to these on a daily basis (before the threads become "cold") so I have consolidated my replies and posted them here. contents: 1. Our long-term focus: a genuinely revolutionary organization 2. Creating a revolutionary news service 3. Cleaning the Augean stables of "cargo-cult-Leninism" 4. Confronting and correcting the RCP's reformist errors 5. Immediate next steps - maintaining contact: the pof-200 list ---------------------- 1. Our long-term focus: a genuinely revolutionary organization ---------------------- I was able to find the time yesterday to read (or closely skim) the hundreds of comments on the Nine Letters page. It seems to me that two issues are competing with one another for attention on this page: (1) proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the RCP's cultism has passed the point of no return and making clear (to those activists who are around the RCP and are still capable of the least amount of independent thought) that an alternative revolutionary project is necessary (2) creating such an alternative revolutionary project or group (where learning from the RCP's errors is for this purpose) My focus is much more on the 2nd goal than the first. The RCP has had strong cult-like features since at least the big Mayday campaign in 1980 - and its cultism is very old news to me. Mike's exit shows that the cultism has been intensifying-and that there is a limit beyond which even long-time supporters will feel compelled to bail out. So a number of thinking activists have gathered here and we are considering what our next steps forward should be. I think it is clear to most readers here that our long-term goal must be some kind of a genuinely revolutionary party or organization. But there does not appear to be any clear or consistent view in the left (that I have seen) concerning what this organization will be like or how it will function. What will be its agenda? How will it mobilize the masses? How will it successfully resist the terrible diseases of reformism and sectarianism that appear to always infect and undermine the work of even the most dedicated and serious activists? I think that we are all more or less agreed that a revolutionary party of the working class will mobilize the workers to defend their own material interest in many kinds of struggles. It will create a system of agitation for this purpose. And this agitation will link the various struggles for partial demands to our central goal: a society run by the working class. My view is that building a genuinely revolutionary party also requires something more: (1) building an open community of supporters (2) a commitment to political transparency (3) a willingness to confront the "crisis of theory" that makes it extremely difficult for even the most dedicated and militant revolutionary activists to understand how society will function when it is run by the working class. The central task that will unite revolutionary activists is the creation of a revolutionary news service that will offer comprehensive news, analysis and discussion from the perspective of the material interest of the working class. This news service will be open to contributions from all progressive trends (and from ordinary people) and will also provide a platform for the struggle of trends. This news service will make use of both paper and digital forms of communication but it will be the digital backbone of this service that will eventually extend its reach to many millions of people on a daily basis. ---------------------- 2. Creating a revolutionary news service ---------------------- Mike wrote a post touching on this possibility ("Will the revolution be podcast?") in which he begins to recognize the immense potential of such a revolutionary news service or channel. Normal capitalist development is bringing to us an emerging revolution in communications. The working class will learn to use this splendid weapon with skill and determination to organize itself and reach many millions. Some of the comments on the podcast thread suggested that we not think about these things until we first figure out some way to prevent the class enemy from tracking our work on the internet so that it will be able to figure out who is important and then lock us up or kill us when the struggle intensifies and it is ready to throw away constitutional law. But no amount of study is going to change this situation. If we fail to make use of the emerging revolution in communications-we will simply be giving up a weapon of immense potential. The class enemy here in the U.S. will eventually feel very desperate and will likely kill a lot of people. But today we have an historic opportunity to organize the force that will overthrow it. Use it or lose it. Make hay while the sun shines. ---------------------- 3. Cleaning the Augean stables of "cargo-cult Leninism" ---------------------- Mike discussed the need to clean the "Augean Stables" (a reference in Greek myth to a mess so big that it appears to be beyond human ability to clean up). I am working to popularize the term "cargo-cult Leninism" [1] to describe how various groups on the left repeat words and practices from the past without understanding what these words and practices mean. Mike is not completely comfortable with this phrase because the term "cargo cult" is often associated with condescending attitudes toward the forms of revolutionary struggle taken by indigenous peoples. I believe these forms of struggle must be treated with respect. But there is nothing more respectful than to study objectively-and learn from-these indigenous struggles and the cargo-cult form that they often took. We have a lot to learn. The term "cargo-cult Leninism" is a deeply profound and accurate description of the beliefs and practices of groups on the left that want to see the working class run society. We need to popularize this term. Hundreds of thousands of activists need to understand what cargo cults are and their strengths and weaknesses. We will never overcome our profound ignorance and limitations without objective and ruthless criticism of our weaknesses. Only in this way can we see our real strengths and our immense potential. ---------------------- 4. Confronting and correcting the RCP's reformist errors ---------------------- The other big problem with the RCP besides its cultism has been its reformist alliance with a section of the imperialist Democratic Party. This alliance has been used to undermine the mass movements. The best examples of this have been the mass actions organized by "World Can't Wait" where the standard imperialist illusions are promoted by speakers on the platform - without being effectively opposed by any other speakers. Mike and Redflags have defended these kinds of actions as alliances with liberals or confused people (of which, of course, there are many millions). And there is nothing wrong with alliances with all kinds of people in various situations-if the net effect of these alliances is of benefit to the working class and progressive movements. But this means that we must look, concretely, at what is gained and what is lost-in each alliance. The biggest effect of the WCW campaign was to promote illusions in the imperialist Democratic Party: --------------------------------- >From the WASHINGTON POST: Earlier last night, a band of banner-waving antiwar demonstrators clustered outside the Capitol and took the start of Bush's speech as a cue to let loose with an ear-splitting outburst of noise. The group gathered at the statue of Ulysses S. Grant on the west side of the Capitol grounds for the protest, which was organized under the slogan of "The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime." A speaker identified as Ann Wright, who had served in the State Department and as an Army officer, called on the protesters to organize for this year's congressional elections as a means of stopping the war. "We've got to put some spine into people who serve us right here," she said, pointing toward the Capitol. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR200601 3101521_pf.html --------------------------------- Yeah-that's the problem-the imperialists lack spine. The imperialists must mince about like quivering mice when they kill millions of people. They need to have more courage and stand squarely on their feet-so they can kill more. Again-the problem here is not that such things were said from the platform-but that these things were not effectively opposed by any other speakers on the platform. It is a free ride for imperialist illusions. The "price" the RCP paid for having these people speak-was that no one on the same platform would openly oppose the illusions they were promoting. This is not an alliance "with liberals". It is an alliance centered on promoting the liberal imperialist world view. The fact that the RCP distributed leaflets or a paper with a few words to the contrary does not make up for what most people saw and heard most of the time. It is like having a big headline that promotes some imperialist lie and then (timidly, in small print on page 27) casually mentioning that, of course, the facts are different. I think that, so far, these kinds of criticisms (which are well-known in the left) of the RCP's reformist alliances tend to be dismissed here (Mike called them "puny"). Mike and Redflags cannot understand how the RCP's alliance was used to undermine the mass movements because they have spent so much of their political life in orbit around a cult that they have not trained themselves to understand, in a political way, how the imperialist ideology works to undermine the mass movements: to undermine the consciousness of activists and their recognition of the need to build independent politics. But this issue (ie: the difference between political alliances that build and strengthen the movement vs. alliances that undermine and weaken it) will not go away. ---------------------- 5. Immediate next steps - maintaining contact: the pof-200 list ---------------------- Unfortunately, I do not have much time to contribute to this blog. At least not now. But I am here, in the class struggle, for the long haul. I am looking to engage others who are also here for the long haul. And I am interested in engaging on the issues that are decisive. chegitz guevara said (on the "rescuing Lenin from the Leninists" [2] page): How to forge links between revolutionaries is the million dollar question. The links are being made, just not organizationally. By that I don't mean between organizations (though some of that is happening, albeit between groups like Solidarity and Freedom Road Socialist Organization), but between individual revolutionaries, here at Kasama, on MySpace, Facebook, etc. The question is how do we build upon that, among people who are wary of organizational politics due to past experiences? I have been giving a lot of thought to this since the organization that I supported (the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA [3]) dissolved itself in 1993 amidst a lot of sectarian name-calling. If building genuine revolutionary organization and creating a revolutionary news service (as the central organizing goal around which this organization will be formed) is our long-term goal-then what are the next steps? How do we build links to one another? How do we gradually assemble together a critical mass of serious activists with dedication and experience who are determined to make this happen? What kind of project can move in this direction without either wasting everyone's time or losing focus on what must be our central task? One effort in this direction I have worked to create-is an email list [4] that limits subscribers to one or two posts per week (the posting limit is necessary to defend the signal-to-noise ratio of a list which is open to any progressive person-including clueless people who are a waste of time). I invite Chegitz and Mike (and anyone here who has reached the conclusion that we are here for a reason: to create a revolutionary organization that is deserving of the name) to join me on this list. What is the advantage of such an email list over the discussion format here on Mike's blog? The main advantage is that it may be better suited to the kind of discussion that unfolds over a longer period of time (ie: weeks or months or longer). Many of us are very busy (with political projects as well as family responsibilities and personal survival) and may not have time to check in on a daily basis with a discussion that unfolds quickly and also, unfortunately, "gets cold" equally quickly. We must maintain a long-term view and the serious people must find ways of maintaining contact with one another and building focus on the tasks and principles which are decisive and which will lead to the salvation of our movement. - Ben Seattle http://struggle.net/Ben notes: [1] http://struggle.net/Ben/2007/cargo-4-cults.htm [2] http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/rescuing-lenin-from-the-leninist s/ [3] MLP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLP%2C_USA [4] more about the pof-200 and pof-300 email lists can be found at: http://MediaWeapon.com Other recent work on related topics can be found at: http://struggle.net/Ben/2008/126-agitation.htm (This is not a discussion list--the discussion list is pof-200) THEORIST LIST -------------- To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theorist/messages Info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theorist/ POF-200 ------- home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pof-200/ to subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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