Two Revolutions

I want to draw readers attention to a new CD recorded live a few months back at Detroit’s best music venue the Bohemian National Home by BoxDeserter titled “TwoRevolutions”. The “Two Revolutions” of the title comes from a narration by Brad Duncan, Detroit’s most determined keeper of the flame, on the revolutions in Portugal and against Portuguese colonialism in Africa in the 70’s. It’s being released by Edgetone Records and can be ordered here. It’s as sticky hot as the Angolan jungle. No lie. Here’s the blurb:

BoxDeserter
TwoRevolutions

Recorded live in Detroit at the Bohemian National Home, the performance captured a semi-structured improvisation of seven musical participants and a short interwoven recitation about Portuguese colonization of Africa and the eventual uprising centuries later. The lineup came together spontaneously and results in many combinations of timbre, seamless transitions, abundant ideas, and virtuosic interaction. This is a sonic story of violence, oppression, and rebellion. There’s a plethora of characters that rattle in and out, drawing inspiration from Igor Stravinsky, Charles Mingus and Pauline Oliveros meet.

Brad Duncan - Lecture
Hasan Abdur-Razzaq - Reeds
Michael Carey - Reeds
Marko Novachcoff - Reeds
Joel Peterson - Double Bass
Kurt Prisbe - Drums
Steven Baker - Laotian Mouth Organ
Thollem McDonas - Piano, Conduction

Aside: I spent a lot of time over the weekend glued to The Winter Soldier hearings. They were indeed harrowing. Check out the IVAW site for the findings.

125 Years On…

I love this painting(?) of Marx and wish I knew who did it. This week has seen a lot of anniversaries. The Iraq war, My Lai, St. Patrick’s disastrous importation of Catholicism to Ireland and 125 years ago the death of Karl Marx.

He would have marveled at the last 125 years even if it has been a pretty tough couple of decades for Marx. I am pretty confident, though, that Marx gets the last laugh.

Recently I have been falling to sleep with a stack of the Letters from the Collected Works by my bed. It’s the perfect pleasure for the wandering mind of an insomniac; going back and forth through the volumes of correspondence of Marx and Engels wherever your curiosities take you. And the places you can go! They read as marvelously modern today as they were then and offer a wealth of insights on everything from carbuncles, claret and surplus values to Ovid and Abraham Lincoln.

Engels (maybe the person in history I’d most like to have an intoxicating conversation with) said by Marx’s newly dug grave on a cold March 17, 1883 of the writer of Capital and leader of the International…

“For Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation. Fighting was his element. And he fought with a passion, a tenacity and a success such as few could rival….Consequently, Marx was the best hated and most calumniated man of his time. Governments, both absolutist and republican, deported him from their territories. Bourgeois, whether conservative or ultra-democratic, vied with one another in heaping slanders upon him. All this he brushed aside as though it were a cobweb…he died beloved, revered and mourned by millions of revolutionary fellow workers….and I make bold to say that, though he may have had many opponents, he had hardly one personal enemy…His name will endure through the ages, as will his work.”

Karl Marx, Presenté.

Winter Soldier

It’s the fifth anniversary of the war on Iraq. I am not sure if there is an accurate count to be had on the number of Iraqi casualties, but by now they surely must be some hundreds of thousand. 4,000 Dead US Soldiers and tens of thousands wounded. Trillions spent, a country destroyed. The “draw down” from the “surge” will keep more slightly more troops there than before last February.

The election of the Democrats to a majority in Congress in 2006, despite their promises, did nothing to end the war, rather they co-signed it as they have repeatedly voted in Bush’s war budgets as they voted for the war itself in 2002. And they are running to end the war in 2008?

All this and there has been no anti-war movement in my town, nor much of anywhere else, for some time. Iraq has slipped from the headlines as the economy tanks and the election horse race pushes the news out of the news. Still, events will happen around the country in the next week to mark the occasion and talk about what to do next.

I went to see Winter Soldier on campus last night as one of those events. I had seen it before, but alone. It was a different experience to see it with other people. Some of the language of the time passed by a few members of the audience, but by and large it left the small, but respectable audience looking pretty shattered. Unfortunately I had to run out before the discussion so missed folks reactions.

I first saw it when it was re-released some years ago. I’m not of the Vietnam generation and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Not because I didn’t believe what the people in the film were saying, but because I couldn’t believe I was seeing them say it. I grew up in the shadow of Vietnam, but the language around the war had changed not long after its close as the waves of revolt receded into what became the end game of the Cold War. To see it is a brutal relief from the revisionism of that war and the anti-war movement and the current wars that reign today. If it has been on your list for a while and you haven’t gotten to it yet now’s the time, it’s as frank a condemnation of the truth of imperialism as I’ve seen.

Into this weekend there will be a gathering at the National Labor College just outside DC of Iraq and Afghanistan war vets to discuss their experiences. Tagged Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations KPFA will carry the hearings live on line and over the air all weekend. Throughout the country other vets and family members will be connected by a live feed. The findings will then be released. The truth of these wars is still far from known, it promises to be harrowing for all involved. Here is the Iraq Veterans Against the War page on the hearings. Below is an introductory video produced by IVAW. The real deal folks.

Campaign Notes: Cynthia McKinney

McKinney announces:

It used to be that the only good thing you could remotely say about the Democratic Party was “Cynthia McKinney”. Thankfully, no more. McKinney, former Congresswoman from Atlanta, Georgia, was pushed out of the Democratic Party after the Party leaders moved against her during the 2006 primaries for that state’s Democratic Congressional slate. She had held the seat with one break since 1991. The reason Cynthia got the boot is that McKinney is a dynamic and independent black woman. The best thing to happen in a bad couple of years for the Green Party here in the States is the arrival of Cynthia McKinney, which she has formally joined and sought to lead in the 2008 Presidential elections.

Best known in what passes for the press for physically defending herself during an attempt at a humiliating search of her person to enter the Capitol where she was a sitting Congressperson, she is not afraid to call a racist a racist. She has been, pretty consistently, opposed not just to the Iraq War but the War on Terror and its associated assaults on civil liberties, human rights, etc. Though she has incorporated some of the more out there theories on 9/11 into her anti-war rhetoric which will hurt her if she continues, she has as much or more than any national politician been true to the spirit of Martin Luther King’s and the then Civil Rights Movement’s political stance in opposition to the Vietnam War.

She also has a nearly unique record for a US Congressperson; she openly and energetically supports Palestinian self-determination. Her vocal championing of these rights may have been, in the end, what the Democrats found so impossible to live with. And they’re right; the Democrats have a long history of being the pro-Israel Party here. The last time the Israelis even got as much as a slap on the wrist from their imperial masters was when Bush Sr. froze loans in response to the building of settlements 17 years ago.

So Cynthia has a lot going for her, not least of which is that she has helped make race, and by extension in the US context, class an issue of discussion among the Greens. Race and class have long been downplayed in the Greens, a consequence of the overwhelmingly white, middle class background of many of its members and supporters. This is essential if the Greens were to ever grow into a real party of opposition to the Democrats. We are a long way in the US from a workers party and the Greens cannot be the substitute for one. Still, the fortunes of a future workers party cannot but be helped by independent political formations to the left of the Democrats.

There are still a lot of unknowns out there. What happens in the Democrats will surely impact on the Greens and whomever they chose to run. Nader has already said that he doesn’t want even the endorsement of the Greens, let alone to be their nominee but he didn’t mind picking Green celeb Matt Gonzalez from San Francisco to run with him. How to deal with Nader as well as how to relate to the Democrats has been a major issue within the Greens and will continue to be so. The Greens as a party have yet to resolve if they aim to pressure the Democratic Party or to compete with it.

Many Greens aren’t sure if McKinney’s conversion to the Greens is real. Will she be there to help build the party or is she just seeking its nomination? McKinney is by far the most recognizable candidate in the race for the Green’s nomination. She has done very well in most of the state caucuses so far, landing pretty firmly on the top of the list in most of them. The Greens convene in Chicago this summer to pick their nominee.

Check out McKinney’s website and a very informative piece by Steffie Brooks Voting Green in the United States.  Watch this space for future developments.

Almost Home!

Less than three weeks until the Major Leagues start again. About this time of the year I become increasingly anxious for it to start. It’s been a long winter; yesterday was the first time above freezing since the beginning of the year and the idea of a ball game in the warm, open air of summer is all that many have to get them through the gray and gloom of a Michigan winter.

The Tigers have got about the best line-up the majors have produced in the last ten years. At least four players are All Stars and half the team will be inducted into the Hall of Fame over the next thirty years. They’ve played solid ball in spring training routing my Reds over the weekend.

The hated Yankees as well as Boston look shaky. Look for Leyland’s old Florida team to do well this year along with Tampa Bay. The Detroit-Cleveland rivalry will be hotter than last year and my surprise pick in the NL is Milwaukee. It will be interesting to see how a lot of these teams play when their star players aren’t all juiced up on rhoids. Less dingers and more base running? One hopes we’ve moved past the home run derbies of the Steroid Era.

This year the first pitch will be thrown in Japan when the Red Sox play the A’s at the Tokyo Dome on the 26th. There are a handful of players from the Japanese leagues in the Majors and some of them are brilliant ballplayers. Japan only gets the opening spot because of the size of their markets and the ability to merchandise. It should be in Dominica, Venezuela or somewhere else in the Caribbean if the ML were to really celebrate the games geographic and spiritual center.

Here’s one I’ve never heard of. On March 29th a Civil Rights Exhibition game will be held in Memphis between the White Sox and Mets in Memphis, home to the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. Is this a way for all of those White Sox fans to atone for their fathers throwing stones at MLK in Skokie? And the Mets? What got them there? And why not a southern team like Atlanta, home to King’s birth and church? I suppose the Braves’ vile mascot and “Tomahawk Chop” would be out of place at an event celebrating civil rights.

And how about lowering ticket prices so the urban population can see the games. Baseball is quickly losing black fans. I wonder why? At any Detroit game the stadium will be overflowing with white folks, in fact the white population of Detroit usually doubles during a major sporting event as the suburbs briefly empty into the zone de sécurité created by phalanxes of Detroit cops around the field, leaving the locals to gather in the alley behind outfield to peer through the slats for get a glimpse of the game.

French Municipal Elections

It’s good to see Sarkozy and his party losing support in France after his victory in last year’s Presidential elections. This “new man of France” has fallen sharply in opinion polls and the first round of municipal elections reflect that. What is not clear is how much of the vote is a rejection of him and how much is a rejection of his policies.

This blog ranks Sarkozy one or two notches below our own President and a little above former Australian PM John Howard in the asshole-as-politician category. This category includes those who became politicians because it was the most fortuitous place to be an asshole. Like another category, the politician-as-asshole which includes Gordon Brown and George HW Bush, these assholes were usually made fun of as children but, unlike the politician-as-asshole, they actually deserved it. Sometimes children are jerks too. And that says nothing about Sarkozy’s actual politics, which are Thatcher’s without the humor or common touch.

Hopefully these elections will limit his room to maneuver and help to weaken his assault on living standards and workers’ rights. His bloc is down about 13 percent from the Presidential elections; down from 53% to 40%. But don’t look to the “opposition” for the opposition. The neo-liberal Socialist Party along the with CP and the Greens received around 47% of the vote in the municipal elections, scoring almost exactly as they did during the 2007 election but coming top in several important mayoral races. One thing is sure; if the opposition to Sarkozy is confined to electoral machinations of or with the Socialists and Communists then that opposition is doomed to failure.

France has along history of militant workers mobilizations. The first mobilizations in opposition to Sarkozy’s reforms came in a series of public sector strikes in November. Still, the social and workers’ movements have largely failed to to find their own voice in opposition to the ruling right-wing and the failed formations of the past. Many are still wedded to the SP, CP and Greens; the very same parties whose policies set the stage for Sarkozy’s 2007 victory.

The Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) stood candidates or supported lists in 200 municipalities. The LCR has recently moved to fill the space abandoned by the Socialist Party and the Communist Party and announced their campaign to build a new, anti-capitalist party after their last convention. Almost all of the historic tendencies in the LCR agreed on the change in course, though still with some differences over the strategy and program of the new project.

What is not clear is whether this new formation can base itself on the organizations of the oppressed rather than their votes. Nor is what the new party’s relationship will be with the trade unions, many of which are the appendages of the failed parties of the “plural left”. There will continue to be debate on how to relate with the rest of the forces on the left, both revolutionary and reformist.

Also unclear is whether this new party’s program will embrace the “revolutionary realism” of Marxism in its attitude towards social transformation or will the issue of revolutionary change and therefore what kind of change be left unresolved, purposely or not. These questions are not quibbles; being an anti-capitalist asks the question, being a revolutionary socialist (or communist in French terms) answers it. It’s still early days yet for this project and while there are many dangers there are many more opportunities.

Building on the popularity of their 34 year old spokesperson, the postal worker Oliver Besancenot and the LCR’s role in the social movements, this vote was to be the first test of the possibility of such a formation. In 109 of those municipalities they received over 5% of the vote and in 29 they received over 10%. As of this morning they had elected 71 councilors. Quite a good start I think.

Addendum: I am unable to read anything but rudimentary Marxist speak (I was shocked to find out that the French sometimes still use bourgeoisie to mean “middle-class”; where have these people been for the last two hundred years!) in French. I am able to to get only an outline of the results and their implications from today’s news. If any reader has more information or thoughts on the French elections please send them in. Liam MacUaid has more.