Last weekend, there was a remarkable conference at the Birkbeck, University of London to discuss communism as a philosophical concept. The conference, titled “On the Idea of Communism,” featured presentations by Alain Badiou, Slavoj Zizek, and Michael Hardt among others. Kasama will be posting reports and videos from this conference. As usual, this should not be regarded as an endorsement of all the positions expressed, but as a means to stimulate discussion.
In dialectical fashion, we’ll begin at the end. The video below is an excerpt from Slavoj Zizek’s closing remarks in which he reflects on the conference and draws some conclusions of his own.
Kasama is publishing the key documents of the line struggle that has intensified between the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
To read the main documents of this line struggle, print our new Kasama pamphlet (“Two Lines, Five Letters“).
We have posted below two RCP letters from (Nov. 2008 and Oct. 2005) and the single response from the CPN(M) (June 2006).
[Put comments about the RCP/CPN(M) exchange in this thread.]
“Our comrades in Nepal are caught in a swamp and in dire danger of drowning. And what has been the reaction of RIM comrades in other countries to this emergency? While a few have tried to assist as best they can, unfortunately some others have thrown flowers to the floundering comrades when what they critically need is a strong rope to pull themselves out of the swamp. The necessary rope exists: it is nothing other than the revolutionary communist ideological and political line, its stand, viewpoint and method….The current two-line struggle within the CPN(M) is taking place within the context of the greater question of whether, and on what basis, a whole new wave of world proletarian revolution can be brought forward….[T]he belief that the advanced practice of the Nepal revolution has made it unnecessary to learn from advanced understanding from other comrades is part of the pragmatism and empiricism that has, unfortunately, been a growing part of the CPN(M) leadership’s ideological orientation for some time now. Any effort to resolve the crisis in the CPN(M) only “on its own terms”, and on nationalist or empiricist grounds to ignore or resist the advanced revolutionary communist understanding developing elsewhere is to severely handicap the struggle for a correct line. In particular, we sincerely hope that the comrades of the CPN(M) will give serious attention to engaging with the body of work, method and approach, the New Synthesis, that Bob Avakian has been bringing forward.”
* * * * *
Letter from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (Nov. 2008)
To the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and all Parties and Organizations of RIM
Dear Comrades,
On March 19, 2008, our Party sent a circular letter to the comrades of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) as well as to the other parties and organizations of RIM expressing our deepest concern over the political and ideological orientation of the CPN(M) and the basic path it has been following for the last three years. The central point in that letter was our belief that despite the great struggle and sacrifices of the ten years of People’s War and its tremendous achievements, the state system being established and consolidated in Nepal is not New Democracy, the particular form of the dictatorship of the proletariat appropriate in countries like Nepal, but rather a bourgeois state, a “federal democratic republic” which will preserve and enforce the existing capitalist and semi‑feudal relations of production prevalent in Nepal.
“Revolutionaries can lead the masses ahead from the height of consciousness [that they, the masses themselves] acquire from the class struggle in society, not from the height of consciousness the Party of the proletariat has. It is a question of not dictating to the masses to do what we want, but of being together with the masses to deal with the situation and applying the mass line to develop their consciousness…. The masses never compromise with their necessities but prefer peaceful execution. It is the task of the revolutionary parties to prove through practice that their necessities are not met by peaceful means. And only by doing this can the Party of the proletariat lead them to violent struggles. We understand that the enemy will not allow us to attain our strategic goal in a peaceful way, but we can lead the masses in violent struggle to overthrow them with such political tactics.”
* * * * *
Letter of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (June 2006)
To the Central Committee, Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
From CC CPN (M) June 2006
Dear Comrades,
The letter your Party had written on 1 October 2005 to ours had reached to our hand quite late, and it was necessary on our part to reply to it quickly. But, we failed to do so given that we were very busy with the speedily changing political situation in our country and the need to lead it closely. However, firstly, we appreciate the initiative your Party has taken up to put forward criticisms and raise questions on our ideological and political position and the tactics we have adopted in recent years and, secondly, we make an apology for being late in replying to your letter. We firmly believe that the exchange of opinion will undoubtedly help identify the points of unity and disunity among us that, through comradely struggle, will help develop a higher level of unity between us by narrowing down the gap. We are in no doubt that this process of line struggle based on the ideological unity we already have will help both of our parties learn more from each other and elevate our ideological grasp to a higher level, which in fact can be one of the important cornerstones for developing MLM in the twenty-first century. Definitely it will have far-reaching significance.
A participant in these events wrote: “This video begins in the middle of a chaotic period between two majorly violent altercations between police and demonstrators. The video also captures the commencement of the last major violent event, the arrest of the young man who is pictured in my previous posts face down underneath three cops. It also gives a good view of how the police completely closed off this small area by flanking us from all sides, thus trapping us.”
[16 March 2009. A World to Win News Service] Following is an excerpted and edited version of an article by Mouin Rabbani, an Amman (Jordon)-based contributing editor to Middle East Reports. It was originally posted on www.normanfinkelstein.com.
The Middle East has always been a difficult challenge for Western human rights organizations, particularly those seeking influence or funding in the United States. Given that Israel is reliant on U.S. subventions and public goodwill to a degree without precedent in the history of American foreign policy, there is considerably more than vanity at stake. If Israel’s stature in the United States were to be reduced to that of South Africa during the apartheid era, or Serbia during the Balkan wars, this would almost certainly have material consequences for the “special relationship” .
Until the mid-1980s, before which Israel’s human rights violations – from deportation to area bombing and all in-between – were generally several orders of magnitude worse than during the subsequent quarter century, the human rights community simply ignored the question of Israel. That the first widespread exposure of the systematic application of torture in Israel’s prison system was reported by the Sunday Times rather than Amnesty International was no mere coincidence.
This article was originally posted in the Los Angeles Times Opinion column. Thanks to Koba for pointing it out to us.Posting this here does not mean we endorse its analysis.
Opinion: Zionism is the problem
“The Zionist ideal of a Jewish state is keeping Israelis and Palestinians from living in peace.”
By Ben Ehrenreich
[March 15, 2009] It’s hard to imagine now, but in 1944, six years after Kristallnacht, Lessing J. Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, felt comfortable equating the Zionist ideal of Jewish statehood with “the concept of a racial state — the Hitlerian concept.” For most of the last century, a principled opposition to Zionism was a mainstream stance within American Judaism.
Even after the foundation of Israel, anti-Zionism was not a particularly heretical position. Assimilated Reform Jews like Rosenwald believed that Judaism should remain a matter of religious rather than political allegiance; the ultra-Orthodox saw Jewish statehood as an impious attempt to “push the hand of God”; and Marxist Jews — my grandparents among them — tended to see Zionism, and all nationalisms, as a distraction from the more essential struggle between classes.
Sunil B. Pant of the Blue Diamond Society and the first openly gay elected official in Nepal
Ben Peterson, of Australia, is currently traveling in Nepal, writing reports of what he learns about the revolutionary movement and the people of Nepal on his blog, Lal Salam – Revolution in the Himalayas. We will be sharing some of his reports. Posting them on Kasama does not mean we endorse his analysis. We do applaud the revolutionary enthusiasm that shines through his decision to dive right into Nepal’s revolutionary turmoil![Kasama has made minor editorial changes for clarity -- mainly fixing typos and few missing words.]
Interview with Subash Pokharel, coordinator of the Blue Diamond Society
[March 17, 2009] Interview with Subash Pokharel, co-ordinator of the Blue Diamond Society conducted by Ben Peterson Lal Salam blog interviewed Subash Pokharel of the Blue Diamond Society last week. The Blue Diamond Society is the largest LGBTI (lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender and intergender people- I think that’s the correct terminology- apologies if it isn’t) rights organisation in Nepal and were good enough to speak with us about the situation in their community.
Right now, the US dollar is in effect the global currency, very widely used for the pricing of goods, in transactions of various types, and as the principal reserve currency. One result of the current crisis is that this may change. As reported below, a UN Commission charged with making recommendations for international financial reform is set to recommend that – in the words of the headline writer – the world should ditch the dollar.
This is obviously ‘just’ a proposal which the Reuters report below only summarizes in brief. But clearly this report is a sign of the times, and signals the progressive weakening of US economic strength: the fact that the US is no longer the preeminent capitalist economy.
The US government has taken on tremendous debt over the past three decades, and is currently in the process of trying to expand that debt greatly – that is the major aspect of the ‘bailout’. This effectively means that the ‘basis’ for the US dollar is the credit extended to the US by other economies through the sale of various Treasury bonds. The current TARP and other credit — bailout — programs are dependent upon money-capital raised through the sale of Treasuries.
All sectors of US capital are heavily dependent on credit, and increasingly on international credit. Some economists estimate that every dollar of the US gross domestic product (GDP) requires four dollars of debt. (This aligns with the current ratio of total combined domestic debt to GDP.)
It’s not altogether clear what the effects of this move would be, if it happens. The value of the dollar has undergone a dramatic decline over the past several years in relation to the Great Britain Pound and the Euro-dollar, as well as in regard to the Chinese Yuan. If moving off the USD as an international denomination has a stabilizing effect on the US dollar, that could benefit the other large capitalist economies which hold assets denominated in dollars, as well as benefit global trade.
Note on some terms used below: ‘FX‘ refers to foreign current exchange markets; the Ecu was measure used in the European Economic Community prior to the Eurodollar to provide a common equivalent for trade and exchange within Europe.
Thanks to Eddy Laing for sending this along, and for help with this introduction
U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar
A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar. Read the rest of this entry »
[16 March 2009. A World to Win News Service] Muntadar al-Zaidi, the young Iraqi journalist who threw his shoe at President George Bush late last year, has been sentenced to three years in prison. “I am innocent. It was a natural reaction to the crimes of the occupation,” he told the court 12 March. “Long live Iraq, ” he is said to have shouted when his sentence was read.
When the Iraqi government asked the U..S. for Zaidi’s shoes to use as evidence against him, it turned out that American technicians had blown them up during testing for explosives. But what made Washington consider his shoes a possible weapon of mass destruction was the way they expressed the sentiments of so many Iraqis. In January, a bronze-coloured fibreglass giant shoe statue in his honour was put up on the grounds of an orphanage near the town of Tikrit. When he threw his footwear at Bush, he had shouted, “This is a farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” The artist explained that Zaidi’s act was “a source of honour for all Iraqis.” The authorities had the statue taken down and destroyed immediately.
Zaidi is incontestably the most popular figure in Iraq and perhaps the entire Middle East. While not exaggerating his deed or confusing a great piece of performance art with the tasks of a political party, it’s worth examining why his act has had such resonance. He is an ordinary Iraqi – as symbolized by his solid, locally-made brown leather shoes bought in the market – but exactly the kind of person missing from Iraq’s political scene today. He stood up for the country’s national honour at a time when the U.S.-backed Nuri al-Maliki government is continuing to kiss the occupier’s boots. His act was not just about the past, about how history should remember Bush (although he may have set his own seal on that), but about the U.S. domination of Iraq that Bush’s successor as president wants to continue. Further, although he comes from a Shia family persecuted under the Saddam regime, Zaidi is neither a religious fundamentalist of the kind that had made up the current regime’s central social base, nor a Baathist, the reactionary former lieutenants of Saddam Hussein now being welcomed into the Maliki government. Nor is he a representative of the narrow nationalist Kurdish parties fighting for the U.S.’s favour. All this is also a big factor in why he won the support of people all over the world.
In short, his act and the response brought a glimpse of the potential for a different kind of political movement than any now existing in Iraq, one that could unite the people against their enemies and with their friends everywhere. While nationalism isn’t enough, this is worth thinking about in terms of what it shows about revolutionary potential. Certainly this case seems to disprove the idea that the only kinds of politics possible in the Middle East are the kinds so many people are sick of.
A Palestinian U.N. worker inspects debris Jan. 17 after an Israeli air strike on a U.N. school in Gaza where civilians were seeking refuge. Photo: Wissam Nassar, MaanImages
This article was originally published in the New York Times.
Soldiers’ Accounts of Gaza Killings Raise Furor in Israel
By ETHAN BRONNER
[March 19, 2009] JERUSALEM — In the two months since Israel ended its military assault on Gaza, Palestinians and international rights groups have accused it of excessive force and wanton killing in that operation, but the Israeli military has said it followed high ethical standards and took great care to avoid civilian casualties.
Now testimony is emerging from within the ranks of soldiers and officers alleging a permissive attitude toward the killing of civilians and reckless destruction of property that is sure to inflame the domestic and international debate about the army’s conduct in Gaza. On Thursday, the military’s chief advocate general ordered an investigation into a soldier’s account of a sniper killing a woman and her two children who walked too close to a designated no-go area by mistake, and another account of a sharpshooter who killed an elderly woman who came within 100 yards of a commandeered house.
When asked why that elderly woman was killed, a squad commander was quoted as saying: “What’s great about Gaza — you see a person on a path, he doesn’t have to be armed, you can simply shoot him. In our case it was an old woman on whom I did not see any weapon when I looked. The order was to take down the person, this woman, the minute you see her. There are always warnings, there is always the saying, ‘Maybe he’s a terrorist.’ What I felt was, there was a lot of thirst for blood.”
We have printed, and will continue to print, responses to the current deep world capitalist crisis from many quarters. The following is from Immanuel Wallerstein, the originator of what’s known as “world systems theory.” This article appeared in the March 23, 2009 edition of The Nation.
Follow Brazil’s Example
By Immanuel Wallerstein
There seem to me to be two occasions, which require two plans for the world left, and in particular for the US left. The first occasion is in the short run. The world is in a deep depression, which will only get worse for at least the next one or two years. The immediate short run is what concerns most people who are facing joblessness, seriously lowered income and in many cases homelessness. If left movements have no plan for this short run, they cannot connect in any meaningful way with most people.
The second occasion is the structural crisis of capitalism as a world system, which is facing, in my opinion, its certain demise in the next twenty to forty years. This is the middle run. And if the left has no plan for this middle run, what replaces capitalism as a world system will be something worse, probably far worse, than the terrible system in which we have been living for the past five centuries.
This was originally posted on picturethehomeless.org‘s blog. This is an example of much-needed militancy in the midst of the financial crisis. Kasama may frame the issues in different terms, but we feel this action is noteworthy.
This morning, homeless people and community allies took over a vacant building in El Barrio/East Harlem. The target was a beautiful two-story building at the corner of Madison Avenue and 116th that has been vacant for decades.
Upon seizing control of the property, the occupiers determined that the building was structurally unsound, with a roof cave-in and significant floor damage, and that it was not safe to remain inside the building (earlier attempts to gain entrance to the building to assess the conditions had resulted in immediate unwanted police attention). The takeover crew left the building to join a crowd of hundreds of supporters who had braved the rain to hold a solidarity rally outside. See below for a few initial pictures [click on the link above for this - moderator] – we have tons more on the way!
While we’re sad that the occupation of the building could not be sustained, the sorry state of this beautiful building is just more proof that the City needs to prioritize development of vacant property into housing for low-income folks. A building like this would make an amazing community center, something El Barrio sorely needs.
“Our current biggest problem as communists is that we have no outlined strategy in general or a coherent explanation of why things today happen as they do. And without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.”
I agree with Kirvo — this is a point that we can’t repeat often enough — especially right now. And repeat in order to focus our work on overcoming the problem.
And I don’t think Iris’ point is made or meant outside that framework. Our strategic discussions have to (among other things) uncover how to actually connect with people — how to expose the system, how to break through layers of pro-system verdicts, and suffocating silence. Our presentation needs to be startling, fresh, unexpected, non-stereotypical, utterly non-routine — exactly because such a presentation actually corresponds with the nature of our politics (if we get those politics right too).
This article was originally found at Nepal News. The draft constitution can be found here (in Nepali).
Maoists unveil their proposed constitution for federal Nepal
Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who heads a committee formed by his party, Unified CPN (Maoist), for determining the party’s vision on democracy has unveiled the party’s draft proposal through his personal website.
The Maoists’ draft maintains liberal stance on fundamental rights of the people such as freedom of expression, right to form political parties, right to assembly, among others. The draft divided into 21 parts and 145 articles authorises the state governments to form paramilitary force or militia but the national army would be formed after integration between the People’s Liberation Army and Nepal Army.
The party has proposed an Audit Commission as the highest auditing body of the country in place of the Office of the Auditor General. The Women’s Commission and Dalit Commission as the constitutional bodies of the country have been removed and three new commissions have been proposed – inclusion commission, development commission and inter-state relation commission.
The party has proposed a three-tier judiciary- Supreme Court, State Court and local courts. Besides, a separate constitutional court has been proposed to look into disputes on constitutional issues.
Richard Aoki, an early Black Panther and revolutionary, has died. The following is the trailer from a documentary on Aoki. It is followed by an article on his life. Thanks to Entdinglichung.
Look, I do think it is an issue of ‘not understanding the people’–but in a deeper way than not physically living in this or that neighborhood. I have really strong feelings about what I percieve to be a crusty, ossified socialist culture in this country.
Yes, we should promote militancy, but it should be heartening. Dancing and occupying space is exhilarating–it has the potential to create militancy.
Yes, we should promote seriousness, but it should feel worthwhile. Commitment to the menial tasks of organizing comes from passionately believing in a vision of a better world being possible. Not just self flagellating sacrifice. We need to present that vision.
Yes, we should have slogans and icons and spectacles–it is part of human language. But they should be relevant. If you can’t use humor–if you can’t pull pranks, if you can’t appreciate public spectacle and put down the recruitment tools for five seconds, then good luck. To use humor, you have to be smart and relevant. Not politically isolated.
Has anyone seen how fast hipster stores appropriate viral funny shit off youtube and merchandise it, and then its gone? Made and unmade in three weeks. This is the world we live in. If you don’t have Zacks photo-shopping stuff in class and putting it up and making everyone laugh instantly, you’re not plugged in. We can lament disposable culture, commercialism–and we kind of should. But not like Luddites.
How can we have some instant gratification thrown into this trail mix? Have some fucking fun! Seriously do something crazy funny, public, bombastic, ridiculous, overtly revolutionary, cutting: and not be too obsessed with recruitment for a sec. If you have fun and propagandize and (dare i say it–recruit friends?) you feel like you accomplished something. I’m not saying this has to be the main focus, but a tool.
Revolutionary activist Richard Aoki, 71, passed away on Sunday, March 15th. Although it was not known for many years, he was the first Asian-American to join the Black Panther Party, as well as being one of the first members. He played a key role in the Party’s political development, provided them with their initial weapons and became a Field Marshal in 1968. This profile originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune.
The struggle wasn’t just black and white
Asian-Americans dubbed ‘Yellow Panthers’ helped form militant group
MOMO CHANG / Oakland Tribune 8oct2006
Richard Aoki remained incognito to the world outside the Black Panther Party until the early 1990s, when he came out as a charter member of the revolutionary group that was birthed in West Oakland. “It was a closely guarded secret,” said Aoki, one of six Asian Americans among the 5,000 official members of the Black Panther Party.
But at memorial services for party co-founder Huey Newton, who was killed on Aug. 22, 1989, Aoki attended in full Panther uniform: a black beret, black leather jacket and shades.
“What makes him a person of historical significance is his leadership in the struggle for social justice,” said Diane Fujino, professor of Asian American studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and co-writer of Aoki’s forthcoming biography.
In the years following Newton’s funeral, more stories appeared about the “Yellow Panther” and the pivotal role he played in the development of the Black Panthers, though little has been published about who he is.
Right now, the US dollar is in effect the global currency, very widely used for the pricing of goods, in transactions of various types, and as the principal reserve currency. One result of the current crisis is that this may change. As reported below, a UN Commission charged with making recommendations for international financial reform is set to recommend that – in the words of the headline writer – the world should ditch the dollar.
We have printed, and will continue to print, responses to the current deep world capitalist crisis from many quarters. The following is from 
This was originally posted on 
