As Israel marks its sixtieth birthday, the mood among many Israelis is more sour than celebratory.
There is a great malaise, or some people say, a crisis, in Israel , although there’s no question of threatened collapse. The patriotism of a privileged society, the amoral self-seeking of its members and mystical, murderous religious fervour all contend and combine in one seething, cynical – and often unhappy – morass.
Writing in the May issue of the U.S. magazine The Atlantic, in an article reporting a sombre mood in Israel that has been widely discussed there, Jeffrey Goldberg tries to lay out why Israelis should be rejoicing, even if they aren’t.
Obama went to a well-known conservative and pro-zionist commentator to make his views clear.
Obama’s discussion of Israel is an example of the small variation that exists on crucial matters of empire and geo-politics. He asserts there is no divergence of opinion on the key mattter (alliance with Israel) and that disagreements happen in that context.
The Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef did Barack Obama no favor recently when he said: “We like Mr. Obama and we hope that he will win the election.” John McCain jumped on this statement, calling it a “legitimate point of discussion,” and tied it to Obama’s putative softness on Iran, whose ever-charming president last week called Israel a “stinking corpse” and predicted its “annihilation.”
The Hamas episode won’t help Obama’s attempts to win over Jewish voters, particularly those in such places as –- to pull an example from the air –- Palm Beach County, Florida, whose Jewish residents tend to appreciate robust American support for Israel, and worry about whether presidential candidates feel the importance of Israel in their kishkes, or guts.
May 12 -In an outrageous attack on immigrants ICE arrested at least 300 of our brothers and sisters at work and herded like cattle into waiting buses. The following article is reposted from DesMoinesRegister.com
Postville, Ia. – At least 300 people were arrested today at the Agriprocessors, Inc. meat packing plant, federal officials said.
The operation, which targeted people who illegally used other persons Social Security numbers and were in the U.S. illegally, was the largest of its kind in Iowa, said Claude Arnold, a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The workers arrested so far were interviewed by agents with the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Public Health Service. Public health officials were included to ensure that their humanitarian needs were being met, said U.S. District Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth.
Authorities have released 40 of the arrested employees “on humanitarian grounds” with supervision, pending further proceedings, Dummermuth said.
Anon sent the following initial video reports of the May 5 police beating in Philadelphia for kasama to post. Police swarmed on three young black men in what was intitally described as a “traffic stop.” Later police claimed they were emotional over unrelated events, or that the three were “wanted” for a shooting. For more details read our earlier post.
Before the blood had dried, the people of philadelphia were told to not reach conclusions on the brutal beating, and remember that police have many justified reasons for beating young Black men half to death.
By WENDY RUDERMAN – Philadelphia Daily News
AS A NEWS video of police beating and kicking three shooting suspects is seen around the world, attorneys for the battered men are claiming that Philly cops concocted their story to cover up for a case of mistaken identity – an allegation police vehemently deny.The attorneys said their clients – Brian Hall, 23, Dwayne “Lionel” Dyches, 24, and Pete Hopkins, 19 – were not involved in a shooting. But rather, police chased down their car and beat them because they mistook Dyches, a passenger in the car, for accused cop-killer Eric DeShawn Floyd, the attorneys said.
DWTMI described (within a larger thread) a theory of how revolutionary parties should expect to become leaders of the masses of people — by a process of long patient seemingly fruitless preparation, followed by a short extraordinary mushrooming.. He/she articulates a view close to the RCP’s discussion of how they expect to grow “in a telescoped way,” rapidly in a concentrated period of crisis, from a very small organization to a party leading tens of millions.
With DWTMI’s view it is possible to ignore and dismiss a pattern of political failures: shrinking over decades? not building a stable network of “organized ties”? starting and ending major projects with the same low level of mass influence? None of that matters, it is how political success happens. In the following post two excerpts are counterposed. The first is DWTMI’s argument for a view tht expects rapid telescoping. The second is the argument from the 9 Letters opposing that view of revolutionary development.
May 5, 2008. A World to Win News Service. Many sharply contested battles occurred around the world on May Day this year. In Hamburg and Nuremberg, Germany, there were counter-demonstrati ons against neo-Nazi National Democratic Party rallies, which ended in cars being set ablaze and stones and bottles hurled as the police attacked with water canons and pepper spray. Some 7,000 and 1,000 people took part, respectively. Several anti-Nazi demonstrators were arrested. We received the following report from Berlin .
Several hundred people (starting with around 800 people and ending with about 400) marched through a working class and immigrant neighbourhood of Berlin to celebrate a “revolutionary 1 May”.
This revolutionary march through Kreuzberg has been held since 1997. Other actions occurred the night before and later that day.
Word spread quickly inside the windowless walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey: A detainee had fallen, injured his head and become incoherent. Guards had put him in solitary confinement, and late that night, an ambulance had taken him away more dead than alive.
But outside, for five days, no official notified the family of the detainee, Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. When frantic relatives located him at University Hospital in Newark on Feb. 5, 2007, he was in a coma after emergency surgery for a skull fracture and multiple brain hemorrhages. He died there four months later without ever waking up, leaving family members on two continents trying to find out why.
How Mike Ely Helps Us to See Bob Avakian’s Breakthroughs: Or Mike Ely’s ‘Flat Earth’ Approach to Revolution
by “Down with the Menshevik Inquisition “
1) ‘Partisan Bases’ (and the ennui caused by their absence): Mike Ely makes much of how the RCP has not developed ‘partisan bases’ over the course of many years. But, while Mike Ely has read a lot of books about history, he has absorbed few lessons from those histories about the general nature of people’s movements and how they emerge, develop and decline. Mass movements of all kinds (including those led by revolutionary communists to make revolution) arise: a) on the basis of a previous groundwork, both organizational and ideological, laid by small groups of dedicated people acting over extended periods of time; b) on scales that grow and decline in massive numbers, over very condensed time frames.
This is actually counter-intuitive to what most people first think about how movements should develop. Most people initially think that as revolutionary communists, if we do all our work right, we will gradually recruit people, and get larger. And as we get larger, we will become more influential, we will become stronger, we will get closer to and eventually reach our goals. And when that doesn’t happen, if people don’t take a scientific approach, then they become discouraged. However, by taking a scientific approach, we can see that this ‘gradualism’ is not how social and political movements develop in the real world. At one point long ago, much of humanity thought the earth was flat. Then, at different times in the ancient world many different civilizations discovered that the earth is round, and now the whole planet knows the Earth is round (although maybe the theocratic fundamentalists will try to reverse that too). Getting discouraged by the failure of an organization or social movement to gradually grow and become large and powerful is like being a ‘flat-earther’ in the world of social and political activism.
the following pictures were taken for Kasama by J.B. Connors in Chicago during the May First march of immigrants. Click for larger versions. Reproduce with credit to J.B. Connors and link to Kasama.
May First 2008, Chicago, Photo: J.B. Connors (click for full picture)
Kasama will be covering May Day events around the country and world, with reports, photos, and videos. May First is the revolutionary holiday that celebrates the struggle for the emancipation of humanity. Watch this site across the day for coverage of International Workers Day 2008!
Stay tuned!
NOTICE: please post reports or photos as a reply to this post. It would be greatly appreciated!!!
____________________________
08:29AM: ILUW plan to shut down ports in NYC and Los Angeles to protest occupation of Iraq. Check back in throughout the day for reports on May Day actions.
During 1885 a circular passed hand to hand through the ranks of the proletariat in the United States. With the following words it called for class-wide action on May 1, 1886:
“One day of revolt – not rest! A day not ordained by the bragging spokesmen of institutions holding the world of labor in bondage. A day on which labor makes its own laws and has the power to execute them! All without the consent or approval of those who oppress and rule. A day on which in tremendous force the unity of the army of toilers is arrayed against the powers that today hold sway over the destinies of the people of all nations. A day of protest against oppression and tyranny, against ignorance and war of any kind. A day on which to begin to enjoy ‘eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.’”
* * * * *
A century ago, on May 1, 1886, a general strike broke across the United States. Within days it would culminate in the events forever associated with the name Haymarket. In 1889 the founding congress of a new, second, Marxist International named that day, May Day, for worldwide actions of the proletariat.
Through all the twists and explosions of these past hundred years, the tradition of May Day has developed and spread: as a day when class-conscious proletarians of all countries take stock of their situation, make their plans for the year ahead, celebrate proletarian internationalism, and declare their determination to carry their struggle through to the final goal of communism throughout the world.
In many countries, battles rage to proclaim May Day as a day of revolutionary struggle — after years where it has been suppressed or gutted of any revolutionary character. Today, just as throughout the past century, May Day concentrates in embryo the leaps and prospects of the world revolution. In light of this May Day tradition, we offer a look at the Haymarket events.
[this post was a little redundant, so I shortened it]
Kalash writes:
“comments may have been asking a serious question there, perhaps not just sarcastic. he may have been asking (as i am asking now) whether the ‘gain legitimacy through the system’ idea is actually the cpn(m)’s line or merely your interpretation. i admit that i’m far from being well-read on nepal today, but this approach to the ‘cease fire and elect’ decision is new to me.”
Kalash: forgive me while I just dig into one part of that.
“I’m far from being well-read on Nepal today, but….” This describes the situation (and outlook) of many comrades.
The struggles in Nepal is a real revolution: It may win. But it also fail. It may be crushed by overwhelming force. It may be “betrayed from within.” It may go off the rails. It may be surrounded and bled dry by embargos and threat. The masses may ultimately go one way, while the communist try to pull another. This is always true about revolution — most revolutions fail in history.
But, this much is clear: this is the first communist revolution close to power in two generations, after endless claims of “communism is dead.” We are 12 years into that revolution, These comrades have fought their way to the doorway of power — with some stunningly creative and original tactics (from the very beginning)! They are facing accelerating U.S. meddling and Indian intervention of several kinds.
How is it possible that many dedicated revolutionaries in the U.S. know very little about it. Have not studied it. Aren’t familiar with the history or the controversies or strategic plans.
How did that happen? what happened to the internationalism that once characterized the Maoist movement in the U.S.? What LINE led to this? And how do we change that, QUICKLY! Read the rest of this entry »
12 May 2008. A World to Win News Service.
By Mike Ely
