Monday, December 31, 2012

Communist Party of the Philippines calls for big advance in armed struggle and mass resistance in 2013

 
 
 
"Mass demonstrations are bound to intensify and jolt the ruling political system currently under the antipeople, anti-democratic and puppet Aquino regime... The demand to put an end to imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism, and for an overhaul of the ruling semicolonial and semifeudal system will be advanced vigorously by the toiling masses."

PRESS RELEASE
CPP Information Bureau
31 December 2012


CPP calls for big advance in armed struggle and mass resistance in 2013


The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today called on the Filipino people and their revolutionary forces to strive for a big advance in armed struggle and mass resistance in 2013 in response to the Aquino regime's policies that exacerbate the socio-economic conditions of the Filipino people and further open up the country to US government intervention and foreign economic domination.

"The Aquino regime's continuing resort to deception, statistical distortion and half-truths, media spins, manipulated surveys and publicity gimmicks cannot conceal the worsening conditions of the Filipino people or placate their seething discontent over Aquino's failure to deliver on promises of change in the people's lives," said the CPP.

"After close to three years, the Aquino regime has miserably failed to address the problems of unemployment, landlessness, homelessness, low wages, spiralling prices, hunger and poverty, disease and epidemics," added the CPP.

"It has waged a campaign of suppression resulting in a wave of human rights violations, especially in the countryside where the AFP imposes martial law in peasant communities that are active in land reform struggles and in opposing mining and plantation operations."

"It has become crystal clear that the Filipino people have no other recourse but to intensify their revolutionary mass struggles and armed resistance," said the CPP.

"In the coming year, the Filipino people must raise their level of struggle against oil price increases, wage freezes and the two-tier wage system, the demolition of urban poor communities, land grabbing, incursions of mining operations, the corporatization of public health service, the K to 12 program, the privatization of public schools and hospitals through so-called Public-Private Partnership programs, charter change efforts to embed IMF-imposed policies into the Philippine constitution and other attacks against their national and democratic interests," said the CPP.

"Mass demonstrations are bound to intensify and jolt the ruling political system currently under the antipeople, anti-democratic and puppet Aquino regime," said the CPP. "The demand to put an end to imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism and for an overhaul of the ruling semicolonial and semifeudal system will be advanced vigorously by the toiling masses."

"Over the past years, the New People's Army has accumulated enough firepower, organizational strength and mass support to heighten its initiative and further intensify the armed struggle," said the CPP.

"This coming year or two, the NPA can achieve a big advance," pointed out the CPP. "More tactical offensives and military campaigns can be launched and coordinated at the inter-front, inter-regional and national levels in order to frustrate Aquino's Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression and deliver more lethal blows against the enemy and seize firearms at a faster rate than in the past decade."

I WISH :::::::: LOGIC FT. LOWKEY & RENEE SOUL - I WISH (OFFICIAL HIP HOP VIDEO)



I Wish : Expressing Democracy and Class Struggles wishes for the New Year and note comment on our brother Lowkey.

Some people seem to think that cos Lowkey quit music he also quit his world-view.

However, there are many other ways to 'fight the power' than through music.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

PUCL condemns restrictions on free movement of the people in Delhi in wake of sad demise of brave girl



PUCL condemns restrictions on free movement of the people in Delhi. It is really shocking that in the wake of sad demise of the brave girl the government has today imposed several restrictions on the people’s movement at various places in Delhi.

In a moment when the entire country is in shock and grief, the government has decided to put measures to hamper those who wish to assemble to express their sorrow and condolence. The closing of several metro stations and roads in New Delhi tantamount to a deliberate attempt on the part of the authorities to make it inconvenient and difficult for the people to join together in solidarity.

These restrictions have also placed large number of commuters to lot of disadvantage and unnecessary inconvenience. It shows lack of sensitivity on the part of authorities and their lack of faith in the wisdom of the people. PUCL condemns such steps of the government imposing restrictions on the free movement of the people in Delhi and demands immediate withdrawal of the same.

  N.D.Pancholi President, PUCL (Delhi unit) 29th December, 2012

See Also:
http://www.pucl.org/index.htm

Political Activist Jeremy Hammond Faces Life Term For WikiLeaks and Hacked Stratfor Emails




A federal judge has refused to recuse herself from the closely watched trial of jailed computer hacker Jeremy Hammond, an alleged member of the group "Anonymous" charged with hacking into the computers of the private intelligence firm Stratfor and turning over some five million emails to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

Hammond's lawyers had asked federal judge Loretta Preska to recuse herself because her husband worked for a client of Stratfor, and himself had his email hacked. Hammond's supporters say the Stratfor documents shed light on how the private intelligence firm monitors activists and spies for corporate clients. He has been held without bail or trial for more than nine months.

We speak with Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, about Hammond's case.

India: Condemn the arrests of civil libertarians, students and others : Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners


 
185/3, FOURTH FLOOR, ZAKIR NAGAR, NEW DELHI-110025

 
Condemn the arrests of civil libertarians, students and others
in the garb of Maoists!
Demand their immediate and Unconditional Release!
Stop criminalising all forms of dissent and the right to assemble!

30 December 2012
 
From what appears in the news in Malayalam print media, about seven people were arrested by the Mavelikkara police from a lodge in the said town alleging them as Maoists. It seems they were all arrested in the afternoon of 29 December 2012 and till late night were not produced in the court. From the civil liberties fraternity it has been made clear that all the seven were remanded in police custody and they have been framed under the draconian UAPA. Even before the seven arrested could approach their lawyer the police have already started planting stories in the local print and electronic media saying that all the arrested have accepted that they belong to the Maoist organisations. Yet another usual story of fomenting rumours about the accused in the media so as to prejudice the courts towards buying the story of the police.
 
That Mr. Gopal a well known civil liberties activist and former scientist in the atomic research centre Mumbai and Kalpakkam is one among the arrested makes the whole story of the police all the more hollow. Gopal has been quite vocal in the Committee for the Protection of Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu) as well as with the PUCL Tamil Nadu. Most of these activists while at the same time being students or active with various people’s movements—such as the anti-Kudumkulam agitation which saw widespread solidarity from various sections of the people—know each other and had congregated for a get together to discuss their various experiences is a normal and natural thing to happen with every socially sensitive individual. It is through such solidarities and exchange of experiences that people enhance their world view and move forward in their conviction to stand for and join hands with issues that are of immediate significance for the greater common good and well being of the society.
 
It has become a set pattern for the police to find ‘terror’ and ‘national security threats’ with every possible such gatherings of conscientious people. It is through such arrests that the ‘anti-terrorism’ industry and and their ilk find common cause for ‘national security threats’ so as to reinforce a mindset and the attendant burgeoning capital intensive industry that it sustains. To add to this two sisters—a plus one student Ami and her sister Savera a 5th standard student—are the others who have been alleged of having Maoist links. That both of them happen to be the children of alleged Maoist activists is the deductive logic that we can get from these police officers. The police also claims to the obliging media that one of the arrested Mr. Rajesh Madhavan, himself a student, had been having links with banned organisations. Neither the media nor the police take the trouble to clarify which are these banned organisations!
 
It goes without saying that such arrests and the media drill that the police and the investigating agencies indulge in are definitely acts of impunity right from the word go. To cover up an illegal act of detaining/arresting/framing people’s activists and civil libertarians what is called into action are further such acts of impunity—such as the vilification in the media.
 
The CRPP strongly condemn such acts of impunity to terrorise people as well as to criminalise all forms of dissent as well as the right to assemble, under the garb of ‘national security threat’ not to mention the so-called ‘war against terror’.
 
We demand the immediate release of all the seven people—Gopal, Ami, Savera, Rajesh Madhavan, Bahuleyan, Shiyaz and Devarajan—immediately and unconditionally!
 
We also demand the repeal of draconian laws such as UAPA and AFSPA with the cover of which the police and the investigating agencies indulge in the worst acts of impunity.

 
In Solidarity,
Amit Bhattacharyya
Secretary General
SAR Geelani
Working President
Rona Wilson
Secretary, Public Relations

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Ivan Grozny translated as Ivan the Terrible - Discussion between Eisenstein and Stalin on the Film in February 1947



The English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny in Ivan's nickname, but the modern English usage of terrible, with a pejorative connotation of bad or evil, does not precisely represent the intended meaning. The meaning of grozny is closer to the original usage of terrible—inspiring fear or terror, dangerous (as in Old English in one's danger), formidable or threatening. Other translations were suggested, such as Ivan the Fearsome or Ivan the Formidable.[4

Democracy and Class Struggle says:  Was this discussion and type of intervention on cultural matters below by Stalin a contributing factor to the later demise of the Soviet Union or was it part of an attempt that failed in the 1940's and 1950's to revive Marxism Leninism and Socialist Culture that had been bled dry by the monumental sacrifices of the Second World War ?

For those that find any intervention by the State, Proletarian or Bourgeois in Culture be reminded of the intervensionist Militainment culture of  Hollywood here :

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/militainment-pentagons-grip-on.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/more-militainment-from-hollywood.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/its-raining-pigs-rats-and-moles-vermin.html

What appears to be missing in 1947 is the criticism of films from below which Eisenstein discussed in his Paris speech in 1930.
“We are working to draw broad masses into the production of our films. Criticism of our work by the workers and peasants is most valuable to us. Indeed, only their needs and opinions are important, as we are working with and for them. They discuss the value of scenarios in their factory committees and are quite frequently very critical of our work. In the Soviet Union the director and his cameramen play a comparatively secondary role. They are only called in when the ideological importance of a certain theme for a film has been decided upon by those for whom the film is produced.”


Eisenstein and Hollywood - Talent Denied

In late April 1930, Jesse L. Lasky, on behalf of Paramount Pictures, offered the opportunity to Eisenstein to make a film in the United States.[23] He accepted a short-term contract for $100,000 and arrived in Hollywood in May 1930. However, this arrangement failed. Eisenstein's idiosyncratic and artistic approach to cinema was incompatible with the more formulaic and commercial approach of American studios.

Eisenstein proposed a biography of munitions tycoon Sir Basil Zaharoff and a film version of Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw, and more fully developed plans for a film of Sutter's Gold by Jack London,[24] but on all accounts failed to impress the studio's producers.[25] Paramount then proposed a movie version of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.[26]

This excited Eisenstein, who had read and liked the work, and had met Dreiser at one time in Moscow. Eisenstein completed a script by the start of October 1930,[27] but Paramount disliked it completely and, additionally, found themselves intimidated by Major Frank Pease,[28] president of the Hollywood Technical Director's Institute. Pease, an anti-communist, mounted a public campaign against Eisenstein. On October 23, 1930, by "mutual consent,"

Paramount and Eisenstein declared their contract null and void, and the Eisenstein party were treated to return tickets to Moscow at Paramount's expense

Thanks to Wikipedia


J.V. Stalin: The Discussion with Sergei Eisenstein on the Film Ivan the Terrible


This discussion took place between Stalin, Zhdanov and Molotov from the political leadership of the CPSU(b), and S.M, Eisenstein and N. Cherkasov at the end of February, 1947. It was an integral part of the attempt by the Bolshevik party in the post-war period to raise the artistic level of Soviet culture and to eliminate weaknesses in ideological and political content.1 Prior to the discussion the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) had on September 4th, 1946 taken a decision on the film Glowing life. Parts of the decision which bear on Ivan the Terrible are cited here:

'The fact of the matter is that many of our leading cinema workers - producers, directors and scenario writers - are taking a lighthearted and irresponsible attitude to their duties and are not working conscientiously on the films they produce. The chief defect in their work is failure to study subject matter... Producer Eisenstein betrayed ignorance of historical facts in the second series of Ivan Grozny, depicting Ivan Grozny's progressive army, the oprichniki, as a gang of degenerates reminiscent of the American Ku Klux Klan. Ivan Grozny, a man of strong will and character, is shown as a spineless weakling, as a Hamlet type...

Friday, December 28, 2012

Anarchist Comrade Anthony Rayson interviews Comrade Kevin Rashid Johnson of NABPP on The Question of the Vanguard Party




The following is from an interview by correspondence with Comrade Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, the Minister of Defense of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party–Prison Chapter (NABPP-PC), conducted by Anarchist Comrade Anthony Rayson of the South Chicago ABC Zine Distro.

Anthony Rayson: You’ve expressed admiration for Hamas, the revolutionary Palestinian group. (1) They’ve managed to build popular support and established social/survival programs, even under horrific occupational conditions–extreme violence, poverty, etc.–yet they are not an explicitly Marxist–Leninist group, but rather a national liberation organization, with a strong religious (Muslim) component. These popular organizations have come in many flavors, including Communist and Anarchist. Why do you believe so strongly in the traditional Leninist model (Vanguard Party/Democratic Centralism, etc.) in this uniquely racialist, consumerist, extreme capitalist country, with such a moribund, marginalized and subservient (to Moscow) Marxist tradition?
Rashid: Why in today’s struggle do I promote the need for a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist (MLM) style party leadership? This is a question asked often of and by many avowed Communists, which many can’t answer. Many also reject the ‘Vanguard’ party concept as you do because it’s been frequently misapplied and misunderstood. But to me, the answer seems pretty simple–common sense really–once you get past rhetoric and stereotypes, and face the concrete realities and needs of revolutionary struggle. I’ll begin with this question, then move on to your other points.
Why the Vanguard Party?
Once you understand that class lies at the center of any genuine struggle against capitalism, namely the struggle between the working class (proletariat) and the capitalist class (bourgeoisie), then it becomes clear that there’s need to awaken the consciousness of workers (as a common class) to the fact and cause of their exploitation and oppression, and the criminal rule of the bourgeoisie. Also the working class needs to be united and organized to challenge their oppression. Furthermore they need to understand that overcoming their exploitation compels coordinated struggle on many fronts, beyond merely seeking better wages/work conditions, job security/benefits, etc., which is the typical extent of what workers struggle for when left to their own spontaneous activism. They must realize that it is a broad political struggle, and the bourgeoisie oppresses many sectors other than just the working class. To accomplish this, and uniting them with other oppressed sectors against the bourgeoisie, requires a proletarian–based leadership structure.
But the critical problem which opponents of the Vanguard Party have never answered in over 100 years of debate is the theoretical and practical question of how to unify the broad and fragmented working class into a united movement wherein it is conscious of itself (and its interests) as a class. Only genuine ML(M) parties have solved this problem, and been able to awaken and maintain working class consciousness and unity, and on a level of struggle higher than mere trade union politics (what Lenin called Economism).
Many on the ‘Left,’ (including Anarchists and avowed Communists) because they can’t resolve this problem, avoid, downplay, distort or have altogether abandoned the question of class struggle and its central role in any genuine anti-capitalist revolutionary movement, or they otherwise endlessly speculate how working class success might be achieved.
Karl Marx expressed early on that capitalism could be destroyed and a free and equal society ultimately achieved, only by the proletariat first overthrowing the bourgeois class, and then exercising its own (economic, political, military and cultural) dictatorship over the bourgeoisie. Failure to suppress the bourgeoisie after its power was overthrown would only result in its regaining state power. This he witnessed first hand.
Because proletarian struggle was only in its infant stages during his day, Marx was unable to answer how it could effectively defeat and exercise its dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. But his studies of those early workers’ struggles, specifically the Paris Commune of 1871, gave him some ideas on the methods that the workers were in process of discovering. He did recognize, although he supported the commune as an heroic effort, that it could not successfully hold onto its power because the French proletariat was not yet sufficiently class conscious, united and organized.
Subsequently, Lenin, who analyzed and actively participated in the day to day fight against the even more advanced, consolidated and powerful capitalist system (monopoly capitalism or imperialism) of his era, furthered Marx’s analyses and was able to devise and apply a definite organizational form and tactics with which to unite and organize the proletarian struggle. He realized that a disciplined Party, committed explicitly to the interests and philosophy of the working class, was needed to awaken the proletariat on a nationwide scale to their common class identity and interests, to unite and organize them upon this common class stand against and to overthrow the bourgeoisie, and to hold onto that power and repress the bourgeoisie.
And his method – the ML Party–above all others, worked. In fact, it achieved the first working class Socialist state (in Russia in 1917), which doesn’t discount that in the process many mistakes were made alongside the achievements. And errors were to be expected, since it was the first successful struggle of its type, and met with determined resistance from the capitalist class in Russia and the major imperialist powers, all of whom promptly invaded Russia attempting to overthrow the new Socialist state.
Unlike much of today’s academic and petty bourgeoisie ‘Left,’ Lenin and company did not refuse to take the lead for fear of failure or a fight, nor get bogged down in moral dithering. Instead they stoutly took the lead, defied and endured the severest state repression, applied theory to practice, refined their tactics, and gave the world and those to follow an invaluable standard of leadership and struggle to learn from and build upon.
In China, Mao Tse-Tung, studying and observing Marx’s, Lenin’s and Russia’s examples, further advanced the ML Party concept, and adapted it to his own people’s struggles against multiple advanced imperialist powers and internal class enemies of the Chinese masses. From this experience Mao discovered that even after a proletarian revolution succeeds in defeating the bourgeoisie and achieving a Socialist society, the class struggle continues–often in forms more complicated than the initial struggle to overthrow capitalist state power. This because, although overthrown, the bourgeoisie and its influences still exist within the new society, and they will struggle unceasingly to regain power. To combat this tendency he found that a series of revolutions in culture had to be waged to wipe out bourgeois influences and values, and that class struggle had to continue especially within the Vanguard Party itself and upper levels of the Socialist state, to keep the party loyal to the proletariat and ensure it wasn’t subverted by aspiring and regenerated bourgeois elements into their own vanguard. This required giving the masses greater oversight and control over the party and state, and active power to combat bureaucratic degeneration. He thus enhanced Party democracy.
But in any event, the Party structure is indispensable. The key issue is what class’s interests it serves and is loyal to. It’s ironic that many people ask why the working class–which is infinitely larger and thus more difficult to organize than the bourgeoisie–(or oppressed nationalities of people) need a leading Party to unite and organize them in struggle against the imperialist class and system. Yet no one ever questions–nor even recognizes–that the capitalist class also has and needs its own political organizations to successfully exercise and organize its own unity and dictatorship over the working class and everyone else. Lest we forget, bourgeois political structures and leaders preceded, and led, every movement where capitalism and imperialism overthrew feudal, slave-owning, etc. political economies (especially here in Amerika…. what indeed were the Whigs, Democrats, Republicans, Tories, etc. but parties of the existing or aspiring ruling classes?) And it is these parties that rule in capitalist societies in the interests of the bourgeoisie.
In case you didn’t notice, it’s the wealthy minority who the entire political system and its Parties serve in capitalist society, and it’s against the working class, poor and other marginalized groups that their laws, courts, police, military, prisons, etc. exert control. This is why you have no genuine ML Parties (I should say MLM Parties) operating legally in any capitalist country.
The bourgeoisie everywhere is very class conscious; and remains vigilant in keeping the workers atomized; divided against each other along racial, gender, national, religious and other lines; and focused on immediate individual survival needs.
To counter this, to awaken, unite, organize and coordinate the proletariat as a common class against bourgeois rule, requires a leading organization that is totally committed in theory and practice to, and is rooted in, the working class. This is what the MLM revolutionary vanguard Party is all about and why it’s needed.

The General Line by Sergei Eisenstein - Paris hears Eisenstein



Paris hears Eisenstein
by Samuel Brody
The following is Brody’s enthusiastic account of Sergei Eisenstein’s lecture, “Principles of the New Russian Cinema,” given at the Paris Sorbonne on February 17, 1930. It is reprinted here from the British film journal Close Up, 6:4, April 1930.—Tony Safford
It was nine o'clock in the evening. In a small lecture hall at the Sorbonne University in Paris, nearly two thousand people are crowded together to witness a private showing of THE GENERAL LINE, and hear S. M. Eisenstein lecture on the “Principles of the New Russian Film.” The occasion is given under the auspices of a group of austere academicians ponderously named, Groupe d'Etudes Philosophiques et Scientifiques pour l'Examen des Tendances Nouvelles.

The atmosphere is severe. Many learned men of France have been heard in this same room before. The problems of Intuition and Kantian Transcendentalism as well as other burning questions of the day have time and again been discussed here by copiously bewhiskered professors before bored young students of the University. In a few minutes our beloved Eisenstein will be sitting on this same platform. We have never seen him before, but POTEMKIN still lives in our minds and the tempered steel quality of TEN DAYS has not been forgotten.

Eisenstein appears on the platform. The atmosphere of respectable behaviour is immediately broken as his wide smile announces a friend, a comrade. Loud applause. But he does not seem to like that and he motions to the audience to stop.

In the meantime, something has happened. Whispers in the audience.

The chairman announces that the Parisian police has forbidden the showing of THE GENERAL LINE. 

Faintly he mutters a few words about “...hindering the spread of knowledge ... shameful ... liberty.” 

No one is satisfied, and the audience starts a demonstration that lasts for fifteen minutes. Eisenstein seems to be pleased with all this. The prohibition of the film has been a powerful boomerang. No Russian film that I have seen has ever succeeded in arousing so much bitterness against the powers that be as was evident in the crowd that night.

The commotion subsides and the speaker is introduced. He does not “lecture” nor read from a prepared paper. His French is slightly tight, but his accent flawless and delivery fluent. The words he cannot remember he describes with characteristic gestures that everybody understands.
“I am sorry that you cannot see my film ... This makes my task much harder, as I will have to make up for what you cannot see with my limited French. When I am through speaking you may throw questions at me and I will try to answer. A sort of friendly ping-pong game. But I beg you not to ask me the whereabouts of General Koutepov or what salary I earn in the USSR, for if you do I am certain that my replies will not satisfy you.”
And thus, after he has won the confidence of everyone in the audience. Eisenstein proceeds to a broad outline of his subject. He begins by drawing a clear differentiation between the conception of the film in the Soviet Union and in the capitalist countries. The destruction of the rotten dramatic trilogy and the raising of the film to an educational and cultural level, he says, was the first task of the Russian directors after the Revolution. 

He tells of the concrete problems which confront the Soviet movie in regard to the education and political enlightenment of the formerly oppressed national minorities; the establishment in Moscow and Leningrad of the first cinema universities in the world for the purpose of training permanent scientific and artistic cadres.
“We are working to draw broad masses into the production of our films. Criticism of our work by the workers and peasants is most valuable to us. Indeed, only their needs and opinions are important, as we are working with and for them. They discuss the value of scenarios in their factory committees and are quite frequently very critical of our work. In the Soviet Union the director and his cameramen play a comparatively secondary role. They are only called in when the ideological importance of a certain theme for a film has been decided upon by those for whom the film is produced.”
Eisenstein then gives a brief resume of the Russian directors’ achievements in the technical sphere of the movies.
“The importance of our method lies in the fact that we have discovered how to force the spectator to think in a certain direction. By mounting our films in a way scientifically calculated to create a given impression on an audience, we have developed a powerful weapon for the propagation of the ideas upon which our new social systems is based.”
 “We have discarded the professional actor for ‘the man in the street.’ We are convinced that this has brought us a step nearer to life. When we require an old man in a film, the actor who rehearses three days before he can play the part can never do it so well as a real old man who has been rehearsing for say—sixty years. This method has its difficulties, of course, but so far it has proven its advantages over the old way.”

This does not all sound like music to many highly-paid movie actors in the audience, but in Eisenstein’s case, “first came the deed,” and those who have seen his films acted by real sailors, real workers and on authentic locales, are well convinced that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Cinedialectic. The making of Marx’s Capital into a film. The cinema of the future!
A lot has been said and written recently about Eisenstein’s so-called “new principle of the film.” Distorted translations of his articles and vague interpretations of his new theory have appeared in the press. The author now speaks for himself.
“My new conception of the film is based on the idea that the intellectual and emotional processes which so far have been conceived of as existing independently of each other—art versus science—and forming an antithesis heretofore never united, can be brought together to form a synthesis on the basis of cinedialectic, a process that only the cinema can achieve. A spectator can be made to feel-and-think what he sees on the screen. The scientific formula can be given the emotional quality of a poem. And whether my ideas on this matter are right or wrong, I am at present working in this direction. I will attempt to film Capital so that the humble worker or peasant can understand it.”
Our skepticism means but little, for we are before a man who has succeeded in making people weep at the sight of a milk-separator in THE GENERAL LINE. Moreover, the organization of human feeling on the basis of a correct understanding of reality is nothing new to the Marxian. Incidentally, the famous French physiologist, Claude Bernard, had the same problem in mind when he said more than sixty years ago,
“Can we speak of a peremptory contradiction between science and art, between sentiment and reason? I do not believe in the possibility of this contradiction.”
Eisenstein is making a concrete approach to this problem which is obviously not an academic one. As he tells us, it was born out of the necessity to teach economics to workers and peasants.
“If we succeed, it will have been Russia’s great contribution to the general history of the arts.”
And in conclusion:
“Our cinema has developed in the midst of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Its birth and development cannot be dissociated from the great aim of our country, the building of Socialism.”
The lecture is over and Eisenstein calls for questions. Sound? Stereoscopy? Colour? The speaker is bombarded with questions from all sides. Some are bitter and unfriendly, but Eisenstein never weakens.
An actor shouts:
“Will the speaker please tell me whether it is possible for an actor who is an individualist in his art and in his philosophy, to exist in the Soviet Union?”
Eisenstein:
“Stay here young man, you will find Parisian soil much more fertile than ours”
In answering questions on sound, the speaker again expounds what he and his co-workers had to say a few months ago in the official statement issued by them.
“Every fact optically perceived has its corresponding value in sound. As far as I know, only the Japanese Kabouki Theatre has employed sound-sight in this way. For example, while an actor is seen committing hari-kari on the stage, the tearing of silk is heard offstage. The Mickey Mouse sound cartoons have also come very close to this method. It is the only justification for sound in the movies. The present usage which establishes a naturalistic coincidence of image and sound is nonsense.”
Eisenstein believes that in the near future the black-and-white film will disappear to be replaced by the colour film, of which, he says, he has seen some fine examples.
“There will remain only a few isolated enthusiasts who will crusade against the colour film in the name of the black-and-white principle.”
He further emphasizes that none of the recent discoveries in the cinema, (colour, stereoscopy, wide film, etc.) will create revolutionary changes. He understands, above all, the commercial significance of all these innovations.

And so Eisenstein leaves us amidst a tremendous acclaim.

We have not seen THE GENERAL LINE, but two hours in presence of its genial creator have been ample compensation to us.

The greatest movie director in the Soviet Union is at present working in the Tobis Sound Studios at Epinay, near Paris, where he is experimenting with a German sound system. This in the midst of a conspiracy of silence on the part of the French movie press and an active boycott by the official cinema circles of Paris.

Out of over two hundred people present at a dinner tendered in honour of Eisenstein and his assistants by the Friends of the Soviet Union, not a single soul from the French movie world was present.

I cannot help agreeing with Leon Moussinac on this matter:

“Jealousy and envy are one of the forms of the petty-bourgeois mind. Cowardice is a form of decadence.”



Thursday, December 27, 2012

Toward a Seminar and an International Conference for Building a new MLM organisation after RIM's collapse





















PCm Italy's celebration of 119 th anniversary of the birth of Mao Tse Tung is a date of red fresh air for the success of International Conference to support people's war in india in Hambourg 24 november - against imperialism, revisionism and opportunism- also against 'left opportunists petty bourgeois' - but this date is good for the launch and call for a strong step towards a most advanced task and objective indicated from the two

Resolutions passed in the Special Meeting of some Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Parties and Organizations of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement .

All comrades in the world can be sure: also these tasks will be realized !

PCm Italy
26 december 2012

"The new international organization must unite in its ranks the genuine MLM parties and organizations that exist and operate in the class struggle, that transform the revolutionary theory into revolutionary practice, that are able to be an advanced and integral part of the proletariat and the oppressed masses, getting rid of all the old and new waste, not only of revisionism but also of the petty bourgeois revolutionaries and the self-referring "virtualism".

THE INTERNATIONAL UNITY OF THE COMMUNISTS REQUIRES THE DEFEAT OF AVAKIANIST REVISIONISM, CENTRISM AND ALL FORMS OF REVISIONISM!


A year ago, nine parties and organizations communist of several countries proclaimed in a joint statement: The International Unity of Communists requires the Defeat of revisionism and centrism!.

Once again they denounced the revisionist betrayal of the revolution in Nepal, they recognized the collapse the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement as leading center, rejecting the revisionist theory of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and of the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA that they led that movement to bankruptcy. They called the Marxist Leninist Maoists to fight for the international unity of the communists demolishing the false revisionist theories and eclectic positions of centrism, tracing a deep demarcation between Marxism and opportunism across the general line of the international communist movement as a firm basis for unity to build the new International.

Following that correct line today in this new birth anniversary of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, teacher in an irreconcilable struggle against opportunism, we denounce the so called Avakian's new synthesis, adopted in 2008 by the Revolutionary Communist Party, United States (RCP,USA) as a form of revisionism, the main danger in our time for the unity of the International Communist Movement.

It is a revisionist line even more dangerous than the revisionism prachandist, so far as it presents itself as “A more radical vision of communism.” According to the RCP,USA: “In philosophy and method, the new synthesis, in an important sense, is founded the Marxism of manner more global on its scientific roots”. In the own words of Avakian, referring to the whole experience of the International Communist Movement: "I also thoroughly analyzed the errors, as well as the weak points as far as conception and method that led to those mistakes. On that basis, I have forged a cohesive theoretical framework, integral and global, that is, a synthesis. Although this development certainly arises from what have come before and after of it, also implies, as crucial element, genuine break with the conception and prior experience, whereby we call it a new synthesis.”

It is a dangerous revisionist theory that abandons the Marxist dialectical materialist method, disowns the historical experience of the proletariat in the struggle for socialism and communism and repudiates the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, touchstone to differentiate between Marxism and opportunism.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Post Maoism a Myth propagated by RCPUSA's New Synthesis




On Mao's Birthday Democracy  and Class Struggle  have published a number of contributions starting with an article on  Mao's' leadership methods written in 1943 which contributed  to the deveopment of the mass line within the Chinese Communist Party.

The roots of the mass line go back to Leninism and we have recently published an article which shows Stalin was a exponent of the Mass Line prior to Mao's more fuller development of the concept in theory and practice.

The fierce intellectual Post Modern ideological assault on Marxism , Marxism Leninism Maoism in the late 20th century has burned itself out by this first decade of the 21st century has it has been hit by the reality of capitalist class power and class struggle.

The Leninist concept of the State and Capitalist power over the State  reasserts itself in the 21st Century with Global Capitalism in profound Crisis.The basis of class power so vigorously denied has been reaffirmed by reality. Social power is Class power.

Parasitic Imperialism is more transparent than ever as a new era of Land grabs shake the globe aided by NGO's.

Marxism-Leninism – Maoism and The New Synthesis of Bob Avakian by Harsh Thakor





This article contains the personal views of Harsh Thakor on the New Synthesis of Bob Avakian and is not the view of Democracy and Class Struggle.

We publish it as a contribution to the discussion of the current role of Bob Avakian and his claimed new synthesis within the International Maoist Movement.


Bob Avakian makes an important contribution in his analysis that dissent is required within a Socialist Society.This was valid as in USSR and even in China in the period of the Cultural Revolution,sufficient scope of debate or dissent was not promoted. This was particularly true when you analyze the attacks on musicians,artists and poets in the G.P.C.R period and the repressions and suppression of dissent in the Stalin era..

I respect Bob Avakian's role in asserting that we have to refute all trends that negate the concept of proletarian dictatorship but simultaneously combat dogmatic trends and be more critical of past mistakes in Socialist Societies in U.S.S.R.and China.

However it is ridiculous to evaluate that Bob Avakian has taken Marxism-Leninism to a higher stage than Mao Tse Tung Thought or Maoism. Mao Tse Tung Thought or Maoism as a higher stage was only established after Mao launched the Cultural Revolution where he implemented his theory of continuous revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Lenin's leading the Bolshevik Revolution and Mao's new democratic, Socialist and Cultural Revolution gave them the right for their thesis to be converted into an ism or higher stage.

In fact the RCP, has declined in the last two decades, not able to establish any headquarters in the working class or building revolutionary mass structures. The concept of solid core with great elasticity hardly defends Lenin and Mao's contributions to the defending of the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat or continuous revolution in a Socialist Society.Without implementing the polemics of Lenin and Mao we will destroy the backbone of the Communist Movement.

The RCP in recent times is hardly supporting the peoples Wars worldwide.It is significant that today the R.C.P., that so staunchly claims to defend Maoism, did not support the International Conference in Hamburg in support of the Peoples War in India.

The R.C.P is critical of forces like the Peruvian Communist party and Comrade Gonzalo for equating Maoism only with Peoples War and other parties worldwide.This is erroneous as the theory of protracted peoples war is a major component of Maoism ,in the third world semi-feudal and semi-colonial societies.

In fact Comrade  Gonzalo recognized all the components of Maoism from Imperialism,to the Peoples War and the theory of Cultural Revolution. Applying 'Maoism" the Sendero Luminoso was able to build up one of the greatest  armed struggles. In the current era the major emphasis is on the component of peoples war's worldwide as Socialist Societies have not been created.

The most important factor is the subjective factor of the re-organization of the proletarian parties worldwide. In fact the Communist Party of Phillipines used Mao’s ideology for their self rectification in armed struggle and so has the C.P.I. (Maoist).

Maoism by Harsh Thakor


Democracy and Class Struggle publish this personal appreciation of Marxism Leninism Maoism in short Maoism by Harsh Thakor as a contribution to discussion of the appreciation of Maoist thought in developing revolutionary struggle in the 21st Century.We are pleased that Harsh Thakor now upholds Maoism and not Mao Zedong Thought.

Today on the 26th December we commemorate the birthday of the Immortal Revolutionary,Com.Mao Tse Tung.His contribution to mankind is indescribable in spheres of both theory and practice when leading the Long March, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution or developing his theories on politics and philosophy.

Mao Tse Tung propounded the theory of the continuous revolution sunder the dictatorship of the proletariat by discovering that even Socialist Societies had antagonistic classes.In the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China some of the most innovative developments were made in the history of mankind .

There was a debate in the Communist Movement about the replacement of Maoism with Mao Tse Tung Thought.

Earlier this same author defended Mao Thought against ism but after re-consideration has come to recognize Maoism as correct.

If we study the experience of the International Communist Movement , major peoples wars after the Chinese Revolution were all inspired by Maoism, particularly that of the Peruvian Communist Party Com.Gonzalo in fact stated in his interview how Maoism was the Marxism of the era when it came to aspects of philosophy, theory on peoples war, theory of continuous revolutions under proletarian dictatorship and on Imperialism.

The understanding and implementation of Maoism enabled the PCP lead the greatest of peoples wars since the Chinese Revolution, in light of the mass line. A major rectification campaign took place in 1979.

In the 1970´ s mass work was set up and painstaking work was done in setting up people´s mass organizations. People´s schools were also set up. After a meticulous education campaign in the villages´ peoples War was launched in 1980.The Peruvian Communist Party established bases of revolutionary people´s power through the People´s Guerilla Army. Revolutionary Peoples Committees were formed in villages consisting of 5 members. They represented the broad masses.



Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Mao Zedong - Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership ; June 1st 1943

 
Democracy and Class Struggle publish this document in our continued investigation into the development by Comrade Mao Zedong of the Leninist concept of the Mass Line. 




1. There are two methods which we Communists must employ in whatever work we do. One is to combine the general with the particular; the other is to combine the leadership with the masses.

2. In any task, if no general and widespread call is issued, the broad masses cannot be mobilized for action. But if persons in leading positions confine themselves to a general call -- if they do not personally, in some of the organizations, go deeply and concretely into the work called for, make a break-through at some single point, gain experience and use this experience for guiding other units -- then they will have no way of testing the correctness or of enriching the content of their general call, and there is the danger that nothing may come of it.
 
In the rectification movement of 1942, for example, there were achievements wherever the method of combining the general call with particular and specific guidance was used, but there were no achievements wherever this method was not used. In the rectification movement of 1943, each bureau and sub-bureau of the Central Committee and each area and prefectural Party committee, in addition to making a general call (a rectification plan for the whole year), must do the following things, gaining experience in the process. Select two or three units (but not too many) from the organization itself and from other organizations, schools or army units in the vicinity. Make a thorough study of those units, acquire a detailed knowledge of the development of the rectification movement in them and a detailed knowledge of the political history, the ideological characteristics, the zeal in study and the strong and weak points in the work of some (again not too many) representative members of
their personnel. Furthermore, give personal guidance to those in charge to find concrete solutions for the practical problems facing those units. The leaders in every organization, school or army unit must do likewise, as each of these has a number of subordinate units. Moreover, this is the method by which the leaders combine leading and learning. No one in a leading position is competent to give general guidance to all the units unless he derives concrete experience from particular individuals and events in particular subordinate units. This method must be promoted everywhere so that leading cadres at all levels learn to apply it.

I am Dreaming of a Red Christmas - Merry Christmas from Democracy and Class Struggle



I'm dreaming of a red christmas
Just like the ones we'll never know
Where the kids won't be dead
And people'll open their eyes
Asking to be saved

I'm dreaming of a red Christmas
With all the justice I could find
Devastated rich ones for good
And a quiet christmas for us.

I'm dreaming of a red Christmas
With all the banks exploding high
All the greed politicians jailed and keys tossed away
How jolly we would be

I'm dreaming of a red Christmas
With crowded streets dancing in joy
Revolution once and for good
How I wish this could all be true
How I wish this could all be true

Monday, December 24, 2012

Lok Morcha Punjab : A Call to Launch Struggle Against More Draconian Amended UAPA - Demand complete Repeal of Law




Lok Morcha Punjab strongly condemns the enactment of Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act-2012, making the UAPA-1967 more repressive, sinister & draconian. Under the provisions of amending Act, which has been passed without any worthwhile debate in the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, the following anti-people features have been added to it :-



               The definition of “terrorist act” has been broadened to bring in its sphere the peoples activities and struggles against anti-people, anti-national & pro-imperialist neo-liberal economic policies, by including “economic security” in S.15 of the principal Act and terming any act threatening it as a “terrorist act”. To our rulers, those who are looting the national exchequer through corrupt & dubious means; who are indulging in black-marketeering, profiteering, hoarding, multi-crore scams, accumulating black-money; selling coal-blocks, oil-fields, telecom spectrum, mines and minerals etc to MNCs and their Indian agents for a pittance, do not pose any threat to the “economic security” of this country.  But people struggling to oppose land acquisition for big projects; demanding better wages and security of service for industrial workers; remunerative prices for farm produce; land, forest & fishing rights for the poor; opposing casualisation, contractualisation & outsourcing in industry & Govt jobs; are now to be charged with threatening “economic security” of India and thus indulging in “terrorist act”, punishable under the UAPA.



               The sweep and potential for mischief and misuse of the UAPA, has been greatly enhance by altering the definition of “person”. Now a family, a company, a firm, an association of persons or body of individuals – whether incorporated or not, every artificial juridical person, any agency, office or branch owned or controlled by any of the above have been included in the definition of ‘person’, thus broadening the deadly sweep of this draconian Act. Now even discussions amongst family members, loose groups of individuals, groups of people on Face-book, Twitter or other social-sites, can be found posing danger to the ‘unity, integrity, security, economic security & sovereignty of India' and these can be branded as “unlawful” or “terrorist organizations” under the amended UAPA and subjected to ban & criminal proceedings.



             The period for which the ban on any organization dubbed as “unlawful” has been extended from 2 to 5 years by amending Section 6 of the principal Act.



              With this amended Act, India has formally joined the imperialist initiated “war on terror”, which in fact is a war by overt or covert means to plunder the natural resources and national wealth of the poor and under-developed countries. Offenses mentioned under various treaties/ conventions, imposed by imperialist countries under the leadership of USA to protect their Civil Aviation, maritime navigation, Fixed Platforms located on the continental Shelf, nuclear installations, diplomatic personnel etc., have also been made offense under the UAPA by inserting Section 15(2) and the Second Schedule in the principal Act. The Central Govt has been authorized to add new treatises to this schedule through notification. With the increased control of corporates over the Govt and the “Economic Security” already having been given pre-eminent position, treaties protecting foreign investment, assets and plunder by MNCs may also find place in the Second Schedule.



       By amending S.17 of the principal Act, participating, organizing or directing in raising or collecting or providing funds in any manner “for the benefit of, or, to an individual terrorist”, terrorist gang or terrorist organization for any purpose, has been made an offense under this Act. Thus even providing humanitarian, medical or legal aid to anyone accused of “unlawful activities” or “terrorist act,” has become an offense. Similarly, in case of false implication under UAPA, anyone espousing the cause of victims, can be accused of providing funds for the benefit of a terrorist and hauled up in jail.



             Provisions regarding forfeiture of properties of the persons accused of ‘unlawful activities’ or ‘terrorist acts’ have been made more stringent. Now the courts have been invested with the powers to forfeit the properties of such persons, even in cases where the trial is not completed due to death of such persons. The proceedings against them shall not abate on their death.



                       The amending Act has been passed at a time when democratic rights organizations and vast sections of the Indian people are demanding repeal of such black-laws, as Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), U.A.P.A, Section 124-A IPC (Sedition), Section 121 IPC (Waging war against the Govt) etc.  It exposes the autocratic, undemocratic, repressive and anti-people character of our rulers. We have seen from our experience that these black-laws have been used to suppress peoples’ movements against repression & exploitation; to crush their struggles for protecting country’s natural resources from imperialist plunder. All the struggling sections of the people should come forward to oppose and defeat these black-laws.



JAGMEL SINGH General Secretary

GURDIAL SINGH BHANGAL President

N.K.JEET Advisor 

LOK MORCHA PUNJAB  

Marikana Miners Solidarity Picket on 27th December 2012 at South Afrikan Neo Colonial Embassy between 5-7 pm




Greetings All,

Just a reminder for you to join us in solidarity with the Marikana Miners as we continue our regular picket on Thursday, 27th December 2012:

Tube station Charing X on the Southbound Northern Line

Picket from 5.00pm – 7.00pm
Embassy of the South Afrikan Neocolony
South Africa House
Trafalgar Square
London WC2N 5DP

Please Spread the Word.

Revolutionary regards
Cecil Gutzmore & Tongogara
Marikana Miners Solidarity Campaign (MMSC)