 | carldavidson on Forget Bob Dylan, remember Bob… |
 | ron jacobs on Forget Bob Dylan, remember Bob… |
| Tunisie travail on fascism: flag and cross | |
 | ish on Urgent… today…. NO… |
 | Kumar Sarkar, Second… on Urgent… today…. NO… |
| carldavidson on Roberto’s question: So w… |
 | Mike E on Urgent… today…. NO… |
 | Geoff Schotter on Urgent… today…. NO… |
 | louisproyect on Urgent… today…. NO… |
 | Chris on Roberto’s question: So w… |
 | Keith on Roberto’s question: So w… |
| Mike E on Roberto’s question: So w… |
 | maju00 on Roberto’s question: So w… |
| Chris on Roberto’s question: So w… |
| maju00 on Roberto’s question: So w… |
Posted by onehundredflowers on March 2, 2010
Glenn Beck featured the following discussion from New York’s Brecht Forum — extracting key remarks by Jed Brandt.
Kasama has explored previous Glenn Beck hit-jobs, including his hysterical red-baiting of Van Jones.
Jed’s remarks are rather clear and self-explanatory. But it might be helpful to also see them without the Glenn Beck editing — i.e. in the context of the Brecht Forum debate that night on the “Van Jones Effect” (Sept 16, 2009).
See the complete remarks: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, Glenn Beck, Jed Brandt, Van Jones, video | 76 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 2, 2010
Kasama received the following press release from Kazembe Balagun, the Outreach Coordinator of the
Brecht Forum (212-242-4201 ext.11).
Who is afraid of the Brecht Forum? Apparently Glenn Beck is. Beck, the infamous right wing talk show host featured a ten-minute diatribe attacking the Brecht Forum on his top rated Fox News program last night. Pulling clips from a September 16th, 2009 event titled “The Van Jones Effect,” Beck equated “social justice” with “danger,” and conflated socialism with Nazism.
It is not surprising to us that Marxist ideas are being raised in the public debate in this country–the problems of this society are obviously not being solved or even addressed by Republican or Democratic ‘bi-partistan’ politics and neoliberal economics. The Brecht Forum is a political space that is proudly Marxist and features a range of thinkers from progressive democrats, communists, anarchists, feminists, to cutting edge cultural workers. In this context, it is clear why Glenn Beck would target the Brecht Forum — right as record numbers of people are coming through our doors, over 10,000 in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, >> communist politics, communism, Jed Brandt, Karl Marx, Kasama, Kazembe Balagun, Maoism, Marxist theory, revolution | 7 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on October 9, 2009
The poem Last Fall and Next Spring was written for the cynical and sincere alike, in response to the article “Lalgarh and Misconceptions of Some Misguided Intellectuals” by Ajay, who wrote:
“Not just excruciating poverty, but the varied forms of humiliation, oppression and intolerable discrimination, is something that our intellectuals should feel even if they do not experience it. There is necessity to first and foremost put one’s heart in the right place (i.e. feel for the suffering of the masses) and then see all intellectual exercises in this framework. Democracy, violence, peace, et al are only words thrown around by one and all (including the rulers) but to what purpose. The single purpose can only be justice, humanity and equality for the vast masses of the population.”
by Jed Brandt
Let’s not pretend
about anything
at all.
Tell me
he is a poet
I hear you
tell me
“now, that man
can talk.”
Trust
the statesman,
his duties;
see bodies
and parts of bodies
left
on the road
to be seen;
police shackles
endless
prison florescence
all human borders
children taught
to yes sir
fear the body
and not even notice
holocaust engines
the lonely and old.
Or to notice
and not care
or to care
but not much
or be scared,
a whisper
in the storm.
There is no reason
no good reason
to call truth
tiresome
deny a flower
its bloom
breathe a lie
convenient
for a time.
To be clear,
lyrical:
this convenience
is the mercury
measure of privilege,
called liberty
called relevance
without irony
at this late
hour.
When they say
what really matters,
they tell you
who really don’t.
All the words
in every language;
once spoken,
yet to come:
yes, we are
and will be;
this becoming,
no less real
for its promise.
Posted in communism, evolution, Jed Brandt, peoples war, revolution | Tagged: class consciousness, poetry | 2 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on September 21, 2008
painting by hei fok
The following cues from topics opened on the thread “RCP’s Anti-Homosexual Line: Why Held So Long and Stubbornly?”
* * * *
“Training members to curtail their dreams, fantasies, and aspirations was part of the means by which the party leadership controlled the membership. It also has to be understood as pre-figurative in terms of how the RCP’s leadership viewed the relations between the masses of people and the party-state leadership of a future (ostensibly) proletarian state….Whatever we do, let’s not do that ever again. We should also not treat this simply as further proof of the RCP’s failure. These are not closed books – and the relationship between politics and the personal are hardly all figured out.”
* * * *
by Jed Brandt
The RCP’s position was better understood as fear of the erotic, not banal homophobia. From the English Puritans of the early bourgeois era, to the 1936 Soviet illegalization of abortion and homosexuality, through to the Communist Party’s hostility to the 1960s revolution in culture, to the RCP’s position –- there is a long-standing problem among revolutionaries towards pleasure, intimacy and “non-productive” relations. It’s still a problem internationally, though the recent recognition of a “third gender” in Nepal strikes me (with little complete knowledge) as an advanced step in the right direction!
The problem with the RCP wasn’t simply missing the boat on the changes in regards to gay people in America over the last forty years – it’s deeper than that.
Posted in >> GLBT, abuse, feminism, gay, homosexuality, Jed Brandt, lesbian, marijuana, police, women | Tagged: >> GLBT, erotic, gay, lesbian | 23 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 13, 2008
A crew of people in NYC went to the RCP’s March 9 event — and brought with them leaflets announcing the 9 Letters to Our Comrades and this Kasama site. That event was billed as a discussion of Avakian’s New Synthesis — and since the 9 Letters are the most substantive engagement with that synthesis so far — it was natural to hand such leaflets out there out before the event.
Jed had done the same a week before at Revolution Books’ hurriedly organized discussion of the RCP’s 13-year-old Leadership Documents that represented an earlier attempt to ramp up the RCP’s cult of personality around Avakian. At this bookstore meeting Jed came in after leafletting, and listened to the presentation.
A week later, on March 9, the RCP leadership had decided to ban Jed, who has helped write the 9 Letters and is a well-known revolutionary activist who has been “around the RCP” off and on for decades. As several different people demanded to know why Jed was stopped at the door, they were given little explanation. In any case, Jed (as he explains here) got a chance to think as he stood outside the church chatting with people as they came and went. Here is his view from outside.
Posted in 9 Letters, Bob Avakian, communism, Jed Brandt, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marxist theory, methodology, RCPUSA, theory | 29 Comments »
