Not all the music videos we post are progressive in an explicitly political sense. Many (even most) are, obviously. But we also post things that are innovative in form — simply because this too is of interest (and of value). This is an example.
Archive for October, 2009
Kseniya Simonova “Sand Animation”
Posted by Mike E on October 18, 2009
Posted in >> analysis of news | 8 Comments »
New Pamphlet: A Revolution at the Brink – Stand With Nepal
Posted by Mike E on October 18, 2009
The FIRE Collective has produced a pamphlet the revolution in Nepal — describing its emergence and importance.
Printable Pamphlet and Online PDF
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A Revolution at the Brink: Stand With Nepal
by the FIRE Collective
Today, seemingly a world away, the population of a small, oppressed nation is engaged in an ongoing revolution that is straining and maneuvering for a decisive victory. Rather than pursuing a rigid path in a sterile and dogmatic way, these revolutionaries have employed a diversity of tactics — from a people’s war to political negotiation to mass protests — aimed at freeing the country’s people. Their thinking is fresh, and they’ve wedded creative innovation with a movement committed to socialism and worldwide liberation from capitalism and imperialism.
They deserve our active political work. We need to help break through the mainstream media whiteout — so more people here in the U.S. can see the ways this revolution is radically changing society, and so we can stop the U.S. government from intervening in Nepal while falsely branding revolutionaries there as terrorists.
Posted in >> communist politics, communism, Communist Party, FIRE Collective, Maoism, peoples war, Prachanda, revolution, Socialism, UCP Nepal (Maoist), UCP Nepal (Maoist) | Leave a Comment »
Asian Dub Foundation “Burning Fence”
Posted by Mike E on October 18, 2009
(Thanks for FIRE Collective)
Posted in music, video | Leave a Comment »
5 Nepal Posters: Share, Print, Post
Posted by Mike E on October 17, 2009
The FIRE Collective in Houston has produced a series of five posters supporting the revolution in Nepal. Here they are in pdf format. The posters are easy to print — 8×11 paper in black-and-white.
One version with blank space for local contact information (for events, local phone etc.)
One version without blank space (but with Kasama URLs)
The FIRE collective has recently written:
“Today, seemingly a world away, the population of a small, oppressed nation is engaged in an ongoing revolution that is straining and maneuvering for a decisive victory. Rather than pursuing a rigid path in a sterile and dogmatic way, these revolutionaries have employed a diversity of tactics… Their thinking is fresh, and they’ve wedded creative innovation with a movement committed to socialism and worldwide liberation from capitalism and imperialism. They deserve our active political work. We need to help break through the mainstream media whiteout…”
Posted in >> analysis of news, >> communist politics, communism, Kasama, Nepal, revolution, UCP Nepal (Maoist), UCP Nepal (Maoist) | 14 Comments »
Interview with Ganapathi, Leader of India’s Growing Maoist Revolution
Posted by Mike E on October 17, 2009
In this interview, taken from the October 17, 2009 issue of Open, Ganapathi, General Secretary of the CPI (Maoist), talks about the party’s work in Lalgarh, its response to the government’s upcoming military offensive, the political situation in Nepal, the defeat of the LTTE, the contradictory nature of Islamist movements in the world today, and the role of the new chieftain of US imperialism.
“We Shall Certainly Defeat the Government”
The supreme commander of CPI (Maoist) talks to Open in his first-ever interview.
At first sight, Mupalla Laxman Rao, who is about to turn 60, looks like a school teacher. In fact, he was one in the early 1970s in Andhra Pradesh’s Karimnagar district. In 2009, however, the bespectacled, soft-spoken figure is India’s Most Wanted Man. He runs one of the world’s largest Left insurgencies—a man known in Home Ministry dossiers as Ganapathi; a man whose writ runs large through 15 states.
The supreme commander of CPI (Maoist) is a science graduate and holds a B Ed degree as well. He still conducts classes, but now they are on guerilla warfare for other senior Maoists. He replaced the founder of the People’s War Group, Kondapalli Seetharaamiah, as the party’s general-secretary in 1991. Ganapathi is known to change his location frequently, and intelligence reports say he has been spotted in cities like Hyderabad, Kolkata and Kochi. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in communism, Communist Party, CPI(Maoist), Ganapathi, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, Naxalite, peoples war, revolution | 5 Comments »
Cop Who Killed Oscar Grant Gets His Trial Moved
Posted by Mike E on October 17, 2009
We are all Oscar Grant
The trial of the BART cop who killed Oscar Grant, a young Black brother, on New Year’s Eve this year, has been moved outside of the heavily Black city of Oakland.
Jose urged posting this piece and said: “Simi Valley justice all over again.” (A reference to the way the police trial in the Rodney King case was moved from LA to the police suburb of Simi Valley to guarantee an acquittal, and then the 1992 LA Rebellion in fury over that acquittal.)
Mehserle trial to be moved in BART shooting
Henry K. Lee, Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, October 17, 2009
A judge has agreed to move the trial for Johannes Mehserl… John Burris, an attorney who is representing Oscar Grant’…
(10-16) 18:27 PDT OAKLAND — Extensive media coverage, inflammatory comments by public officials and the specter of possible unrest combine to make Alameda County an unsuitable place to try the former BART police officer accused of murdering an unarmed rider, a judge declared Friday.
Posted in African American, civil liberties, Oscar Grant, police | 3 Comments »
Frederick Douglass on John Brown’s Revolutionary Vision
Posted by Mike E on October 16, 2009
150 years ago, John Brown and his followers tried to launch a revolutionary war of slaves — against their slavemasters and against the armed forces of the United States. They raided the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, on the fringe of the Virginia farmlands — hoping to seize arms to distribute among the slaves. Browns vision was to use the Appalachian mountain trails as a roadway — moving armed slaves to strike against plantatins, rushing freed slaves northward, and bringing volunteers and arms into the mountain base areas of the revolution. He planned to proclaim an independent republic of freed slaves.
Brown’s forces were defeated. He was captured, tried and hanged. But his action sharply polarized the United States, and spurred the events which then led to the war and complex alliance of forces that overthrew slavery. In honor of John Brown, we are reprinting a talk by Frederick Douglass, the peerless revolutionary leader of African American people’s anti-slavery struggle. He spoke at the battle site of Harper’s Ferry in 1881. (Also posted on Rustbelt Radical.)
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The last words of John Brown, written as he prepared for the hanging, which was conducted on a scaffold within a solid phalanx of U.S. army troops and artillery:
“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.”
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“He Saw the Evil Through No Mist Or Haze”
Frederick Douglass on John Brown
Not to fan the flame of sectional animosity now happily in the process of rapid and I hope permanent extinction, not to revive and keep alive a sense of shame and remorse for a great national crime, which has brought its own punishment, in loss of treasure, tears and blood, not to recount the long list of wrongs, inflicted on my race during more than two hundred years of merciless bondage; nor yet to draw, from the labyrinths of far-off centuries, incidents and achievements wherewith to rouse your passions, and enkindle your enthusiasm, but to pay a just debt long due, to vindicate in some degree a great historical character, of our own time and country, one with whom I was myself well acquainted, and whose friendship and confidence it was my good fortune to share, and to give you such recollections, impressions and facts, as I can, of a grand, brave and good old man, and especially to promote a better understanding of the raid upon Harper’s Ferry of which he was the chief, is the object of this address.
Posted in >> analysis of news | Leave a Comment »
Baader Brains’ “Body of the King”
Posted by Mike E on October 16, 2009
Check out their MySpace for more listening.
Awesome. Playing live at 924 gilman st on Dec. 7, 2007.
Posted in music, punk, video | 1 Comment »
Puerto Rico: Open Letter from International Front in Support of General Strike
Posted by Mike E on October 15, 2009
Kasama has received the following from activists involved in a unified effort within Puerto Rico. Kasama published a recent background piece on this crisis. (Thanks to SKS, also for this playlist for the Puerto Rican general strike).
Open Letter to the World
From the International Front in Support of the General Strike in Puerto Rico
Facebook: Frente Internacional en Apoyo al Paro (Huelga) en Puerto Rico
To: All social, labor/trade union, feminist, environmentalist, and community groups
On October 15, 2009, labor unions, students, community associations, progressive religious groups, and environmental organizations have called for a 24-hour strike demanding that the Commonwealth’s Government stop the systematic abuse that for the last 10 months it has subjected all citizens, in particular public-sector workers, poor communities and college students.
With the passing, in March of 2009, of the Fiscal Emergency Law (Law 7 of the Commonwealth), Gov. Luis A. Fortuño and an advisory board of the leading businessmen in Puerto Rico, have launched a “severance plan” that has meant firing more than 20 thousand public-sector workers. The current governor, from the Pro-annexation Party, is imposing the most blatant extreme right neo-liberal model in the history of the country, with the establishment of so-called “Public-Private Partnerships” (Alianzas Publico-Privadas – APP), the privatization of our natural resources and institutions and an unemployment rate of over 17 percent.
Posted in >> analysis of news, Puerto Rico, trade unions, working class | 4 Comments »
Puerto Rico: Calls for General Strike
Posted by Mike E on October 15, 2009
Here are one of the calls for this general strike by Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores (MST, a socialist grouping in Puerto Rico). Thanks to Saulo for passing this on to Kasama.
Comunicado de prensa:
LLAMADO A UNA HUELGA GENERAL INDEFINIDA
Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores (MST)
2 de octubre de 2009
El Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores (MST), en Conferencia de Prensa hoy, hizo un llamado a los trabajadores y trabajadoras del país a llevar a cabo una huelga general indefinida mediante la multiplicación de acciones de protesta en todo el país. “Lo único que puede revertir estos despidos es crear una situación social insostenible para el gobierno y los ricos de este país.” sentenció Scott Barbés Caminero, portavoz del MST.
Posted in >> analysis of news, Puerto Rico, Socialism, trade unions, working class | Leave a Comment »
Los Muertos de Cristo “Miliciano Anonimo”
Posted by Mike E on October 15, 2009
From Madrid, Spain
Posted in >> analysis of news, music, Spain, video | Leave a Comment »
Magpie Remembers John Brown: “Goodbye to Old Ohio”
Posted by Mike E on October 14, 2009
Posted in >> analysis of news | 1 Comment »
Focoism vs. Peoples War: Problems of Exaggerated Universality
Posted by Mike E on October 14, 2009
Peru's Shining Path -- armed Maoist villagers, not special elites of "heroic guerrillas"
By Mike Ely
Tell No Lies posted a criticism of the article I wrote evaluating Che Guevara. And I think he gets at some important things.
In this exchange, I hope to argue for a few core ideas:
1) We should deepen our understanding of the importance of contrasting ideological and political line.
This means examining policies and ideas in terms of where they lead — toward what? Toward revolution and communism, or somewhere else?
Che was an important revolutionary figure who became a truly unique global symbol of armed struggle and internationalism. But we should pursue a critical evaluation of the LINE he represented as well.
2) We should embrace a deeper understanding of the mass line – the principle that revolution must be the act of the people themselves (and that a socialist revolution requires an embrace of communist organization and consciousness within a larger, active, emerging “revolutionary people” — an actual section of the people.)
3) We need a renewed materialist appreciation of particularity — the relative uniqueness of each moment and place. I.e. we need to be wary of that casual universalization of strategic ideas that often burdened previous generations of revolutionaries.
It is important to study revolutionary victories (and defeats) for lessons and applicable insights. But there is a history of much too lightly declaring that the specific forms of one revolution are “models” or “universal principles” for other places. This has played a rather destructive role — both in the sense that it had real (often fatal) results, but also in the sense of deadening the creative theoretical impulses of living movements. And this kind of universalization was done by codifying both focoist theory and the Chinese experience of protracted peoples war into universal models.
As the Nepali Maoists insist, you can’t copy previous revolutions. Each struggle and victory will have a great deal of innovation and shocking particularity. Future revolutions will prove to be as startlingly different as snowflakes.
Now to return to evaluating Che Guevara and TNL’s comments.
Posted in >> communist politics, Che Guevara, China, comintern, communism, Communist Party, Cuba, imperialism, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, methodology, Mike Ely, peoples war, Peru, revolution, Zinoviev | 11 Comments »
Norway’s Serve the People: Honoring Obama for Peace is Nuts
Posted by Mike E on October 14, 2009
Kasama received the following from the Norwegian Maoist group “Serve the People.” (The translation from Norwegian is by Kasama):
Press statement from Serve the People:
It is Insane to Give Obama the Nobel Peace Prize
Serve the People (Norway’s Communist League) believes that giving the Nobel Peace Prize to the President of the U.S. is insane, and they are looking forward to participating in large mass demonstrations against any potential visit by Obama to Oslo.
Henrik Ormåsen, spokesperson for Serve the People, says, “The U.S. president is the last person on earth to deserve such a peace prize.”
Ormåsen and Serve the People further accused the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize committee of being infected by the Obamania that spread in Europe during the American 2008 electoral campaign. “This award is just part of the ripple effect of that Obamania,” Ormåsen said.
Posted in >> analysis of news | 3 Comments »
Understanding Che Guevara — 42 Years After His Murder
Posted by Mike E on October 13, 2009
Che was executed in cold blood 42 years ago by a U.S. lead death squad that captured him in Bolivia. Then, as now, he had emerged as a prominent symbol of self-sacrifice, armed struggle, internationalism and uncompromising opposition to U.S. domination. His death stands as a glaring example of the role the U.S. and its agents play in the brutal repression of humanity’s highest aspirations. The torturers of the CIA were not invented on 9/11 — but have a very long and bloody history.
Che is a highly romantic martyr of the people’s cause. But he was also a revolutionary leader and thinker in a particular complex time; he was associated closely with a specific series of approaches and strategies.
Che (and the Cuban movement he was part of) had a particular line on the role of the people in their own emancipation. It was a view that exalted the actions of small military groupings of “heroic guerrillas” (called focos) in galvanizing revolution. Unlike the Maoists at that same time, Che and Fidel Castro were not advocates of a “land to the tiller” agrarian revolution, but sought to nationalize the existing plantation structure of Cuba and similar countries.
The fact that so many people revere him is a testimony to the deep desires for liberation throughout the world. And at the same time, revolution is not made by symbolism alone. The controversies surrounding Che’s strategies have contemporary significance.
The following piece was written over ten years ago in appreciation of Che’s impact — while also making a critical assessment of his strategic concepts. There has been considerable excavation of these events since this piece was written. Kasama intends to publish other essays on Che reflecting a number of different assessments.
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October 9, 1967: The CIA Murder of Ernesto Che Guevara
By Mike Ely
Thirty years ago, on October 8, 1967, gunfire echoed through a steep ravine of the Andes Mountains in southern Bolivia. The guerrilla band led by Ernesto “Che” Guevara was pinned down and surrounded by Bolivian Army Rangers.
Less than a year earlier, Guevara and a team of cadres had secretly traveled from Cuba to Bolivia to launch a guerrilla war, hoping to topple Bolivia’s pro-U.S. military government. Guevara had gone up into the mountains with about 50 supporters. Within months they were discovered by Bolivian troops. And an intense pursuit started.
Posted in >> communist politics, Bolivia, capitalism, Che Guevara, CIA, communism, Communist Party, Cuba, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely, military, revolution, vanguard party | 93 Comments »
9 de octubre de 1967: El asesinato de Ernesto Che Guevara por la CIA
Posted by Mike E on October 13, 2009
Mike Ely
El 8 de octubre de 1967, en una quebrada de los Andes en el sur de Bolivia, se oyó un nutrido fuego: Ernesto “Che” Guevara y sus guerrilleros se encontraban rodeados por el ejército boliviano.
Poco menos de un año antes, Guevara y un grupo de cuadros viajaron clandestinamente de Cuba a Bolivia para iniciar una guerra de guerrillas y tumbar al gobierno militar. Guevara y unos 50 guerrilleros se internaron en las montañas. Pocos meses después el ejército boliviano los detectó y empezó una intensa persecución. Para eludirlo, Guevara dividió al grupo en dos, pero jamás pudo reagruparlo. Su diario indica que para fines de agosto los guerrilleros de su grupo estaban fatigados, desmoralizados y que solo quedaban 22; el 31 de agosto el segundo grupo fue aniquilado al cruzar un río.
El 26 de septiembre, el ejército emboscó al resto de los guerrilleros cerca del poblado de La Higuera. Varios guerrilleros cayeron en combate y el Che quedó herido en una pierna. Luego, el 8 de octubre lo capturaron con dos combatientes y los llevaron a la escuela del pueblo.
Al día siguiente, llegó en helicóptero un tal “Félix Ramos” en uniforme de oficial del ejército boliviano y se encargó de los prisioneros. Dos horas después, el Che y los dos combatientes fueron ejecutados.
La mano de Estados Unidos
Las armas y el equipo de los asesinos fueron Made in U.S.A. El oficial boliviano que lo tomó preso estudió en Fort Bragg, Estados Unidos, donde se preparan golpes de estado, asesinatos y campañas de contrainsurgencia. El tal “capitán Ramos” era Félix Rodríguez, un viejo agente de la CIA.
Posted in >> communist politics, Bolivia, Che Guevara, CIA, communism, Communist Party, Cuba, imperialism, Kasama translations, Krushchev, Maoism, Mike Ely, military, revolution, vanguard party | Leave a Comment »
Selector’s “Celebrate the Bullet”
Posted by Mike E on October 13, 2009
Speaks for itself.
Posted in >> analysis of news | Leave a Comment »
WPRM: Nepal’s Gaurav speaks on Democracy & Cultural Revolution
Posted by n3wday on October 12, 2009
This article was published on the WPRM Britain website.
Question: Do you envision a role for Nepali Congress and CPN (United Marxist-Leninists) after the New Democratic Revolution?
Answer: “If they don’t change their ideological-political line, we don’t envision that they will be able to take part in those elections. The New Democratic system will not allow this if they don’t change their ideological-political line and behaviour.”
“…we expect from our comrades internationally that they should give suggestions, they should express their political concerns about whether the party or line has been deviated. But it is their responsibility to always support us. Condemning the revolution as a whole, or not making any positive contribution to the revolution, that is not a good thing. That is not proletarian internationalism.”
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Nepal: Comrade Gaurav speaks on Democracy and Cultural Revolution
Gaurav has recently been made one of the secretaries in the new Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN[M]) leadership structure. Activists with the World Peoples Resistance Movement met him at the party office in Paris Dand, Kathmandu, where we tried to get deeper into the issue of democracy, specifically the UCPN(M) concept of 21st century democracy, of holding elections under New Democracy, and how this relates to the theory and practice of Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China.
WPRM: In the current situation when the UCPN(M) has its sights set on New Democratic Revolution, it seems more important than ever to understand the party’s idea of 21st century democracy, competitive elections under New Democracy and socialism, can you explain this concept to us?
Comrade Gaurav: Yes we are now in the stage of completing the New Democratic Revolution.The New Democratic system is not a socialist system. It is a bourgeois democratic system. The difference is that the revolution is made under the leadership of the proletariat.
Posted in >> communist politics, communism, Cultural Revolution, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, methodology, Nepal, revolution, UCP Nepal (Maoist), UCP Nepal (Maoist) | 1 Comment »
fabulosos cadillacs’ “Quinto Centenario”
Posted by Mike E on October 12, 2009
Thanks to SKS — 500 years later. Grrrrr.
Posted in >> analysis of news | 2 Comments »
Linton Kwesi Johnson’s “Reality Poem”
Posted by Mike E on October 12, 2009
Posted in >> analysis of news | Leave a Comment »
