Kasama Project: Internationalist Leaflet for May First
Posted by Mike E on April 25, 2010
May First leaflet on Nepal
May First — International Workers Day — is a moment for us all to strengthen the revolutionary solidarity and common struggle of the oppressed people of the world. It is particularly telling this year that great outrages have been carried out against immigrant people in these days just before May First. And that in South Asia, May First has become the focus of a major test of strength, as a great crisis grips the old order in Nepal.
Here are copies of the Kasama Project’s leaflet for this May First 2010 — helping more people know about the revolutionary crisis and communist efforts in Nepal — and deepen the connections and internationalist understanding between the working people worldwide.
The leaflet is designed to be two-sided (one side Spanish, the other side English). And it is available in both color and black-and-white.
(Props to the design and translation team.)
May First leaflet Color (English) (Spanish)
May First Leaflet Black-and-White (English) (Spanish)
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CWM said
This poster reminds me a lot of the histrionic, hysterical propaganda put by the RCP: the screaming, blood-red headlines, the exclamation point (!!!), the cheerful communists in uniform, the prominence of the word REVOLUTION! . . . The tone and style seem straight out of Revolution newspaper.
And the content is also a little weird: for one thing, you’re not asking anyone to do anything. There is your breathless rhetoric, but no campaign, no course of action, no program.
So, then, why are you breathlessly promoting events on the other side of the planet? Do you just want people to be reverent. Is that all? What do you get out of that?
And you are investing Nepalese maoists with a degree of radicalism that they clearly do not have. You say that they are “leaping” and “daring” “in their millions” to “to remake all of society!!” as they prepare for a “showdown,” a “seizure of power,” and “revolution”!!!!
But the Maoists are not even suggesting that they might seize power, they’re calling for a coalition government (that is, they’ll share power). And they’re not going to institute a communist society or stop the “vicious power of the capitalist world market”—they’ve pledged to make Nepal a “friendly environment” for capitalists and are not going to abolish wage labor or the market. And, even if they can rewrite the constitution, that is not in and of itself a revolution. There is the issue of how they (might) change the constitution, and also whether or not it will be enforced.
There are a lot of important changes going in Nepal, but I think that this poster (and the Mike Ely/Jed Brandt approach generally) obscures matters.
And why are you so dedicated to circulating it? Could this have something to do with redeeming Maoism in American eyes? Do you hope to prove that Maoism is not all about loopy Bob Avakian cults or the Maoist International Movement? Is that it?
Things like revolution, social change, and fighting capitalism are very important and it bothers me to read posters like these (or RCP publications) that talk about these issues with attending to the real complexities involved. It is frustrating to read a poster like this or, let’s say, hear Sunsara Taylor call for “TOTAL revolution,” because such things undermine real discussions of these issues.
Gary said
“To win over the urban people of Nepal, they took part in elections for a “Constituent Assembly”—a historic gathering where people have heatedly debated how to re-organize a New Nepal.”
I would say, rather, that to (1)acquire from the Nepal Congress party and UML an agreement to implement what NC-led governments had refused in intermittent peace talks since 2001 (elections for an assembly to produce a new constitution, and then the proclamation of a republic) and (2)gain access to the masses of the Katmandu valley from a position of legality and participation in open political processes, the Maoists suspended the People’s War that had started in 1996.
You can only say so much in a flyer, of course. But a little more context would’ve been good here. (I know that I’m commenting belatedly.)
Otto said
It’s just a May Day poster, not an essay. May Day is a day of celebration for those of us who believe in socialism and/or revolution. It would be nice if something was planned, but my guess is that people across the country will have parades and other events celebrating May Day. It’s been celebrated for the last century, why stop now.
Also, after years of frustration over in-action by political leaders on the left, we finally have something to celebrate, especially us Maoists. Where else is a Maoist revolution coming even close to materializing, except in India, which we can also include in celebrating this May Day.
Out of all the doom and gloom, in a world were shitheaded reactionaries have danced on what they thought was the grave of socialist revolution, I’m glad we have some victories to celebrate.
Make the headlines bold and red…We need some color and festivity.
Hannie Schaft said
I sort of figured the poster was to be used at whatever May Day event a person happened to be attending. If it had an ad for a specific meeting in a specific city, the rest of us couldn’t use it. We should all be supporting the events of May 1 in Nepal, even if you disapprove of some of their tactics. As for the style….my problem with RCP has never been with their font. If somebody wants to write one up that looks like the WSJ or NYT feel free, I guess. Seems odd to blame the posters……And as for the “promoting events on the other side of the planet,” I think we all have an internationalist duty to support comrades all over the globe. “International Workers Day,” right? Demanding that we agitate on US issues only is crass chauvanism.
nando said
Its a leaflet — a flyer for distribution (mainly at the massive immigrant May First actions planned in many cities).
nando said
On one level, what a remarkable question to ask! Why would anyone in the 21st century care about anyone (or events) “on the other side of the planet”?!
Whew.
But really “What do you get out of that?”:
1) we have responsibility to help oppose U.S. intervention — and help “create favorable conditions for struggle” (to the extent we can) for this revolution to advance.
2) Help the people around us grasp that “communism is not dead” — that in a living way, a massive communist revolutionary movement has arisen (deep within some of the world’s most oppressed people) to transform their lives and society. People need to know this — and the implications (for people on “this side of the planet” and “any side of the planet” are potentially profound).
3) As revolutionaries, we need to learn from this experience (for our theoretical work of reconception of communist theory, and for our practical work of revolutionary preparations). Many (even most) communists have never seen a living revolution unfold — this is a precious and mind-expanding experience, to watch real time, and can help dispell magical and romanticized thinking of many kinds.
CWM said
Nando,
Thanks for the reply. The three reasons that you provide for putting out a flier like the one above make sense to me, but also reinforce my suspicion that such efforts have more to do with your attempt to address your own ideological quandaries than helping anyone in Nepal. Indeed, only the first of your reasons–”help oppose U.S. intervention”–pertain to Nepal and yet there no solidarity campaign (and, at the moment, no threat that United States will intervene).
Of course there is nothing wrong with using an event to challenge or enrich your theoretical framework. Indeed, there is a lot of good in that, but there is a danger of minimizing and twisting the battles of a people world away as you wrestle with your political identity. Naturally, you don’t want to make Nepalese maoists into a screen upon which you can project your own fantasies. And I do think the hyperbole in the poster above shows a distinct tendency in that direction.
Maoists are not suggesting that they are going to seize power, but rather want to establish a coalition government under their lead. If they can do so, they will be in desperate need of foreign investment (and have indicated that they’ll desperately want it). Instead of putting out fliers like this one, it seems to me that you would do more for them if you started a campaign to reassure internationals capitalists their investment will be safe in Nepal . THis is exactly what Prachanda did when he was in New York. . . . That would be a pretty morbid thing to do—”Dr Toyota, the workers won’t strike, the state will protect your factory”— and your revolutionism would suffer in a big way, but it would be a way to help them (and not primarily about your needs/concerns).