NEW YORK IN BAGHDAD

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

We will remember!

vol. 5, no. 2, January 13th, 2012

Si vous désirez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

Please let us listen to this poignant song of the Australian-born pop singer Tina ARENA, Je m'appelle Baghdad:

http://youtu.be/51XyiFTocKk

This article is dedicated to those marvelous US comrades from Los Angeles, Détroit, St.Paul’s, Washington D.C., New York… who fought during all their lives for peace, progress and socialism in United States of America and elsewhere around the world. We always refer to them as the “old comrades”. It is not to stigmatize them due to their venerable age, rather than a commitment to follow their footsteps. We love them and they inspire us. Their spirit is already part of our traditions and, actually, the leitmotiv of our daily struggles; in a way or in another, they set up the landmarks of the Occupy Wall Street movement all over North America. Thank you so much comrades! (Photo Internet: OWS in Montréal-Canada, "Is it a revolt?! No, Majesty, it is a revolution, - 1789)

So, there will be presidential elections in USA, in 2012. We could vote for the Republicans: a comeback to the Reagan’s years, Bush’s years; tantamount to new wars, to more unemployment and a deeper crisis, while the wealth of the nation (“the money”) will go further in the pockets of the well-to-do. It is not acceptable. Would we support the fringe group called the “Tea Party”? This is the “people’s” variant longing for drastic setbacks in all the progressive values adopted by the US people since WWII. We cannot live with that. By the way, to dwell about the Rightists (Republicans and Tea Party), there is a joke that goes like that: “Do you know that since his retreat from Presidency, George W. Bush became half-crazy?” Answer: “Oh yes, he feels better…”

What’s left then? Well, let the Democratic Party knows that we are mad at them and that they MUST fulfill their 2008 promises. We don’t expect more, but we don’t expect less; and we will take the street… Basically, the next “step” could be in the streets. We guess that President Obama is smart enough to understand our voices. So, here is another joke; President Barack Obama was asked: “About your intelligence, is it the fruit of a seasoned experience or… in-born?” Answer: “Yes!”

Meanwhile, it is alleged that the Far Right is looking for foreign spies. Already, they keep an eye on the Cuban Five who have been in jail for 13 years on unqualified accusations as spying USA military facilities. It has not even been asserted, including by prominent US military members of the General Staff. But the FBI is supposedly on the lead, since they discovered that some Communist Party members are aware of a very dangerous trend within the US society: CUBISM. It seems that it is “a style of art characterized by the abstraction of natural forms into fragmented geometric shapes!!!” Is it contagious?
(Reproduction Internet: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon; Pablo Picasso dans sa période cubiste)

So many people around the world would be relieved if President Obama releases them. He has actually all the power to do that, including convincing backward elements of US population that we are now living in the XXIst century.

Nathalie CARDONE sings us a very inspiring song (Hasta Siempre) about the relations between Cuba and USA, two nations who committed themselves in people’s revolutions against imperialism:

http://youtu.be/PEj7jnR--Dg

L'Humanité in English: http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/

-30-

STALIN AND HIS ERA

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca


vol. 5, no. 1, January 3rd, 2012


Si vous désirez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

“The Khrushchev School of Falsification:”

“The fiftieth anniversary of Nikita s. Khrushchev’s ‘Secret Speech, delivered on February 25, 1956, elicited predictable comment. An article in the London (UK) Telegraph called it ‘the 20th century’s most influential speech'. (Furr, Grover, Khrushchev Lied, Erythros Press and Media, Kettering - Ohio, 2011, p. 2)

So, I suspected that today, in the light of the many documents from formerly secret Soviet archives now available, serious research might discoverer that even more of Khrushchev’s ‘revelations’ about Stalin were false. In fact, I made a far different discovery. Not one specific statement of ‘revelation’ that Khrushchev made about either Stalin or Beria turned out to be true. The entire ‘Secret Speech’ is made up of fabrications. (Ibidem, p. 3)

The most influential speech of the 20th century – if not of all time – a complete fraud? The notion was too monstrous. Who would want to come to grips with the revision of Soviet, Comintern, and even world history that the logic of such a conclusion would demand? It would be infinitely easier for everyone to believe that I had ‘cooked the books,’ shaded the truth – that I was falsifying things, just as I was accusing Khrushchev of doing. Then my work could be safely ignored, and the problem would ‘go away.’ Especially since I am known to have sympathy towards the world wide communist movement of which Stalin was the recognized leader. When a researcher comes to conclusions that suspiciously appear to support his own preconceived ideas, it is only prudent to suspect him of some lack of objectivity, if not worse.” (Ibidem, p. 4)

“In December 1922, in a letter to the Party Congress, Vladimir Il’ich wrote: ‘After taking over the position of Secretary General, Comrade Stalin accumulated in his hands immeasurable power and I am not certain whether he will be always able to use this power with the required care.’

He also said:

“Stalin is excessively rude, and this defect, which can be freely tolerated in our midst and in contacts among us Communists, becomes a defect which cannot be tolerated in one holding the position of the Secretary General. Because of this, I propose that the comrades consider the method by which Stalin would be removed from this position and by which another man would be selected for it, a man who, above all, would differ from Stalin in only one quality, namely greater tolerance, greater loyalty, greater kindness and more considerate attitude toward the comrades, a less capricious temper, etc.” (Ibidem, pp. 237-238)

On December 19, 1927, Stalin declared to the CC Plenum:

“Comrades! For three years I have been asking the CC to free me from the obligations of General Secretary of the CC. Each time the Plenum has refused me. I admit that until recently conditions did exist such that the Party had need of me in this post as a person more or less severe, one who acted as a certain kind of antidote to the dangers posed by the Opposition. I admit that this necessity existed, despite comrade Lenin’s well-known letter, to keep me at the post of General Secretary. But those conditions exist no longer. They have vanished, since the Opposition is now smashed. It seems that the Opposition has never before suffered such a defeat since they have not only been smashed, but have been expelled from the Party. It follows that now no bases exist any longer that could be considered correct when the Plenum refused to honor my request and free me of the duties of General Secretary. Meanwhile you have comrade Lenin’s directive which we are obliged to consider and which, in my opinion, it is necessary to put into effect. I admit that the Party was compelled to disregard this directive until recently, compelled by well-known conditions of inter-Party development. But I repeat that these conditions have now vanished and it is time, in my view to take comrade Lenin’s directive to the leadership. Therefore I request the Plenum to free me of the post of General Secretary of the CC. I assure you, comrades that the Party can only gain from doing this.” (Ibidem, p. 251)

A few years before, the young workers and peasants Republic had witnessed the Socialist Revolution.

“If I were asked what was the greatest, the most memorable moment of my life, I would answer without any hesitation: it was when Soviet power was proclaimed.
Nothing could compare to the pride and joy that filled us as we heard pronounced from the tribune of the Second Congress of Soviets at Smolny the simple and impressive words of the historic resolution: “All power has passed to the Soviets of Workers’ Soldiers and Peasants Deputies!’
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was unforgettable at that moment! It was amazing and unforgettable, this inspired concentration of Vladimir Ilyich as he stood on the platform of the presidium of the first Soviet legislative assembly as the Bolsheviks, in the first few hours after taking power, began socialist construction, the construction of a new world.” (Kollontaï, Alexandra, Lenin at Smolny, Selected Articles and Speeches, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1984)

During World War 2, soldiers of the Red Army when they had the opportunity, used to meet, especially to celebrate New Year, and would toast to Stalin:

“La première santé, selon la coutume des hommes soviétiques, fut portée au camarade Staline; on lui souhaita une santé florissante dans l’année nouvelle et une longue vie. Puis on but à la victoire…” (Polévoï, Boris, Nous autres Soviétiques, Un rêve réalisé, Édition électronique réalisée par Vincent Gouysse à partir de l'ouvrage publié en 1949 aux Éditions en langues étrangères de Moscou, p. 152)



Soviet people were then defending their motherland and the achievements of the socialist revolution against Nazi Germany.
(Photo Internet: April 1945, the Red Army in Berlin; complete victory over Nazi Germany which costed 20 millions Soviet lives)

“In 1917 the chain of the imperialist world front proved to be weaker in Russia than in the other countries. It was there that the chain broke and provided an outlet for the proletarian revolution. Why? Because in Russia a great popular revolution was unfolding and at is head marched the revolutionary proletariat, which had such an important ally as the vast mass of the peasantry, which was oppressed and exploited by the landlords. Because of the revolution there was opposed by such a hideous representative of imperialism as tsarism, which lacked all moral prestige and was deservedly hated by the whole population. The chain proved to be weaker in Russia, although Russia was less developed in a capitalist sense that, say, France or Germany, Britain or America.” (Stalin, J.V., The Foundations of Leninism, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1975, p. 27)

History teaches us that we must base ourselves on concrete facts. We cannot write it according to the tastes and fashions of the day. Yes, Joseph Stalin is not popular among the populations of the Western World. For most of these people he is a barbarian butcher. Such is not the appreciation for the older generations of the Russian people who benefited from the realizations of the Soviet power. This explains why –and television coverage shows it – the peoples of former Soviet Union are not ashamed to demonstrate with banners proclaiming their faith in Stalin.

Meanwhile, workers around the world are invited to join Communist parties, even if they don’t acknowledge the contribution of Stalin for world peace and advancements in the area of culture, economy and social progress in general.
Soviet people realized even the differences in the economic regime after the death of Joseph Stalin; such is also the case for the friends of Soviet Union in Europe, for instance by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE):

“… we regard, as mistaken the political choice, that held sway after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU,-Ed) and especially after 1965, regarding utilization of mechanisms and laws of the market for correction of mistakes and overcoming of shortcomings in the central planning (e.g. enterprise profits, establishment of enterprises’ self-management, etc.)”
(Papariga, Aleka, The importance of the critical assessment of the socialist construction in the 20th century for the strengthening of the labor movement and for an effective counter-attack, International Communist Review, # 2, Athens, 2010-2011, p. 30)

Please enjoy Charles Aznavour, Vechnaya Lioubov: http://youtu.be/Sy4t3DIRT2U

La Vie Réelle in English: http://wwwlavienglish.blogspot.com/

-30-

."EUROCOMMUNISM", A BRAND OF OPPORTUNISM

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

vol. 4, no. 6, November 12th, 2011

Si vous désirez lire en français: http://wwwlavienglish.blogspot.com/

“… Between Marx and Engels on the one hand, and Lenin, on the other, there lies a whole period of domination of opportunism… This was the period of the relatively peaceful development of capitalism, the pre-war period, so to speak, when the catastrophic contradictions of imperialism had not yet became so glaringly evident, when workers’ economic

(Photo KKE: Greek people recalling their "no" to fascist Italy and current "no" to EU diktates)

strikes and trade unions were developing more or less ‘normally,’ when election campaigns and parliamentary groups yielded ‘dizzying’ successes, when legal forms of struggle were lauded to the skies, and when it was thought that capitalism would be ‘killed’ by legal means – in short, when the parties of the Second International were living in clover and had no inclination to think seriously about revolution, about the dictatorship of the proletariat, about the revolutionary education of the masses.

Instead of an integral revolutionary theory, there were contradictory theoretical postulates and fragments of theory, which were divorced from the actual revolutionary struggle of the masses and had been turned into threadbare dogmas. For the sake of appearances, Marx’s theory was mentioned, of course, but only to rob it of its living, revolutionary spirit. (J.V. Stalin, Foundations of Leninism, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1975, p. 1975, pp. 11-12).

However, the Leninist theory or revolution proved that:

“the front of capital will be pierced where the chain of imperialism is weakest, for the proletarian revolution is the result of the breaking of the chain of the world imperialist front at its weakest link; and it may turn out that the country which has started the revolution, which has made a breach in the front of capital, is less developed in a capitalist sense than other, more developed, countries, which have, however, remained within the framework of capitalism.” (Ibidem, pp. 26-27)

After WW 2,

“ The confrontation between imperialism and the socialist camp was the genuine expression of class struggle at international scale. (Raul Martinez Turrero, From “Eurocommunism” to present opportunism), International Communist Review, Issue # 2, September 2011, p. 83)

The imperialist ideological think-tanks assisted and widely circulated Eurocommunist conceptions that they contemptuously called “orthodox” or “pro-Soviet”. Eurocommunism, represented mainly by the parties of Italy, France and Spain, is named after the capitalist news agencies, who with this name, referred to organizations that shared the defense of a number of points of view:

-Opposition to the existence of an organized international communist movement, defending the thesis of so-called “polycentrism” in face of the experience of the Communist International (Komintern) and the Information Office of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Kominform).

-The replacement of the category of “proletarian internationalism”, which they identified with the unconditional defense of the Soviet Union and the political line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and with that of “internationalist solidarity” or “new internationalism”.

-The constant and open criticism to the USSR and the socialist countries from the standpoint of human rights and individual freedoms in their bourgeois concept.

- The revision and destruction of the “party of a new type” coined by Lenin, denying in one degree or another the revolutionary tasks of the communist party at the same time, denying also the revolutionary principles in what refers to organization and functioning.

Eurocommunism affected communist and workers' parties from different positions, some of them in power and, like other opportunistic currents throughout history, Eurocommunism had a clear international orientation, despite having as a thesis being a phenomenon attending to the national particularities and conditions. In this regard, Enrico Berlinguer, former General Secretary of PCI (Italian Communist Party, - Ed), said:

‘We obviously are not those who forged this term, but the very fact that it circulates so widely shows how the countries of Western Europe deeply aspire to see the affirmation and progress of new type solutions in the transformation of society in a socialist sense.’

The then General Secretary of the PCE (Communist Party of Spain, -Ed), Santiago Carrillo, added:

“... There is no such a thing as Eurocommunism, since some non-European communist parties, as the Japanese Communist Party, cannot be included under that label”.

Despite the inconsistencies and falsifications that have characterized the life of Carrillo, who months after denying the existence of “Eurocommunism”, published a book entitled "Eurocommunism and State"; he was right on one thing: the phenomenon was not limited to Western Europe. (Ibidem, p. 84)

But today in 2011, many years later, more and more European communist parties hold different views (based on the legacy of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin), such as the KKE (Communist Party of Greece, -Ed), whose General Secretary of its Central Committee, Aleka Papariga, made the following bold statement to the media, in connection with the deep confrontation between Labour and Capital in Greece:

“We must not waste even a day. Before the government even regroups, before it takes its first steps, it must find the people opposed to it. There are specific immediate problems e.g. for the heavy taxes to be abolished, immediate problems which are related to taxation, the ‘solidarity’ tax, school committees which have no money, student accommodation which will close tomorrow, there is no money for the universities, nowhere, to fund them.
(Photo WFTU: PAME Demonstration in Athens/Greece, October 2011)

Consequently, the problems are immediate and there must be struggles everywhere. Immediate and at the same time, of course, intensified demands to lead to the great people’s counterattack, because everything is fiscal. Do you know what fiscal means? It means cessation of funding for education, health, everything.”

The Greek working class and its allies don’t give an inch.

At its VI National Congress, 28-30 October 2011 (in Rimini), the Party of the Italian Communists (PdCI) adopted a document “for the reconstruction of the Communist Party”, where it stresses that:

“In the European context the experience of recent years has demolished the argument that in this part of the world a Communist revolutionary force, rejecting any reference to social-democracy and being compliant one, is inevitably destined to decline and marginalization. It shows, instead, that the opposite thesis is true, that the political-ideological party profile should always be accompanied with its ability in social setting, primarily in the workplaces and among young people. It is what AKEL of Cyprus, Greek KKE and Portuguese CP results show us, despite their differences; in recent years, they were able to reach some of the best election results throughout their history, that are also the product of their presence in society...” (p. 31)

L'Humanité in English: http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/

-30-

IMPERIALISM, RUTHLESS AND VIOLENT

Not to mention the sitution in Libya

vol. 4, no. 5, September 26th, 2011

Si vous désirez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/ /

The Communist Party of Ireland, through its newspaper Socialist Voice, says it best:
“With the collapse of profits, US capitalism turned to the tried and true method of intensified exploitation. Millions were cast off from their jobs, leaving the same work to be done by far fewer employees. Consequently, over the last two years labour productivity soared at unprecedented rates. With little game-changing investment in labour-saving technologies, this amounted to equally unprecedented exploitation: sweated labour. A weakened and compliant labour movement gave little resistance.”
"[On the other hand] …many realtors expressed concerns that after being laid off, the Shipyard workers would face foreclosure. Without access to the good jobs at Avondale, people who would have bought homes would instead be forced to take lower-paying jobs, cutting off access to homeownership. There is also the possibility of foreclosure for many of the workers at Avondale who would lose their middle-class income, and possibly the ability to pay off their mortgage…” This is expressed by the national union, (American Federation of Labour/Congress of Industrial Organizations, AFL-CIO), though a rather petty-bourgeois concern than a decisive issue for the working class who now demand jobs’ creation and expect President Obama to put this on his real agenda.
(Photo Internet: US Auto Workers on the assembly line).

Accordingly to Gyula Thürner, General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party:

“We are facing a deep crisis that capitalism will not be able to solve; revolution as an option cannot be excluded. For the communist leader, two mistakes of some communist parties remain, e.g. to negate the experience of socialist countries, and to speak in a superficial manner about Stalin and the [worker’s] dictatorship; they consequently adopt revisionist policies, abandon or negate internationalism, limiting their objectives to their own nation. […] The Hungarian communist leader explains also that fascism is a tool in the hands of capitalist forces. […] If the crisis is aggravating and the communist movement is progressing, then Capital will resort to fascism.”

Soviet Union cannot play temporarily a decisive role in supporting the working class around the world and promoting rights and social progress for the labour movement as reported in the latest issue of International Communist Review (Herwig Lerouge, Parti du Travail de Belgique):
“… Le mouvement syndical belge/The Belgian Trade-Union Movement, no. 5, May 25, 1936, saluted the accession of the USSR to the International Labour Conference of 1931. It considered that “to succeed in voting a convention aimed at introducing the 40-hour working week in all countries, Russia could constitute a very favourable factor. Social legislation in its entirety, its very concept, was influenced at international level by the presence of the USSR and its social legislation.

Right up to the eighties, West-German trade-union leaders, among them the almost legendary president of IG-Metall, Otto Brenner, knew from experience that ‘during negotiations with the bosses, an invisible but perceptible partner was always present at the table, the socialist GDR (German Democratic Republic-East Germany). (http://www.prignitzer.de/nachrichten/mecklenburg-vorpommern/artikeldetail/article/111/der-anfang-vom-ende-der-ddr.html)

The Western European bourgeoisie is today more prolix:

“In the Netherlands, the NRC-Handelblad published the following revealing headline on the occasion of the adoption, in the nineties, of a much more restrictive law on sickness and disability: “With Stalin alive, or possibly, Brezhnev, our new legislation would not have been adopted”.

Herwig Lerouge ends his article by stating that: “The twentieth century will have been the century of the dress-rehearsal for the world socialist revolution.”

Very often Communist Parties, such as the Communist Party of Canada refer as to mistakes the course of events that took place in Soviet Union, which undermined socialism from within. Mikhail V. Popov, Professor of Economics and Law in capitalist Russia wrote in the International Communist Review an insight about “reforms” that took place in USSR:

“After the XX and XXII Congresses of the Communist Party of Soviet Union –the turning points which ensured the domination of opportunism and the revisionism in the politics and economics of the USSR – the economic reforms of 1965 replaced the principle of working for society to satisfy the needs of all its members by the principle of reaching maximum profit by certain enterprises. Thereby the economic basis of socialism started to be corroded and undermined. In many respects all this is the reason why the scale of active resistance to the liquidation of the workers’ power was so inadequate.” We deal with sheer betrayal! (Photo Internet: Call of the Communist Party of Greece to European Workers, in 2010).

Finally, here is how Joseph Stalin considered the situation before the Great October 1917 Revolution:

“The new period is one of open class collisions, of revolutionary action by the proletariat, of proletarian revolution, a period when forces are being directly mustered for the overthrow of imperialism and the seizure of power by the proletariat. […] Hence the necessity for a new party, a militant party, a revolutionary party, one bold enough to lead the proletarians in the struggle for power, sufficiently experienced to find its bearings amidst the complex conditions of a revolutionary situation, and sufficiently flexible to steer clear of all submerged rocks in the path to its goal. Without such a party it is useless even to think of overthrowing imperialism, of achieving the dictatorship of the proletariat.” (Foundations of Leninism, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1975, p. 95).

L'Humanité in English: http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/

-30-

HOLLYWOOD IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

vol. 4, no. 4, September 1st, 2011

Si vous désirez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

Don’t miss the latest show! Let’s have first a look at the scenario: the story of a US President in quest for an agreement that will allow his administration to spend more money; well, to increase the debt ceiling. According to the mass media, he needs the support of members of both factions of the Congress, Republicans and Democrats. At first glance, it could give the impression that they are enemies, are they?

“One of America’s strengths immediately following the war (WW2, Ed.) was a degree of domestic consensus surrounding foreign policy. There might have been fierce differences between Republicans and Democrats, but politics usually ended at the water’s edge; professionals, whether in the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, or the CIA, were expected to make decisions based on facts and sound judgment, not ideology or electioneering.” (Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, 2008, p. 338).
(Photo Internet: President Barack Obama at the US Congress, 2010)

Would the plot of this play have been different nowadays? Mr. Obama delivered a statement on July 29, 2011 and said: “What’s clear now is that any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan. […] And today I urge Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to find common ground on a plan that can get support –that can get support from both parties in the House – a plan that I can sign by Tuesday (August 2nd, 2011, Ed.). Now, keep in mind, this is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart.” (BREAKING: President Obama’s Statement on Debt Negotiations, The White House, Washington, 2011).

He added for US citizens’ purpose: “… let your members of Congress know. Make a phone call. Send an email. Tweet.” (Idem). (The White House can be reached at: info@messages.whitehouse.gov)

What was the answer of the organized labor movement? At the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a 9 million strong trade-union, the leadership, without questioning the US government spending – for instance the military budget- walked in the President’s footsteps and invited its members and asked them: “Can you write polite but firm messages on some or all of these Facebook pages (for example Sen. Scott Brown, Ed.), asking for key Republican senators to pass a clean increase in the debt ceiling so America doesn’t default on its debts?” (ref.; http://www.aflcio.org/)

The U.S. CEOs and representatives of Big Capital can just applaud to this initiative. Let’s recall that war on Afghanistan costs $ 450 billion so far and the recent war on Libya swallows $ 1 billion, even though that the so-called “rebels” were practically in total rout, if it wouldnot have been the support of NATO.

One can understand that US workers need a new type of trade-union movement: a movement for peace, a movement for real jobs'creation. That’s what the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is all about. Born after WW2 in Paris (France), this 80 million members union is now based in Athens (Greece). They just hold their last Congress in April 2011. They want to deepen their relations with workers of USA and Canada; it won’t replace the AFL-CIO, but give a new impetus to US working people in their struggles on one hand and also reinforce the movement abroad in the fight against US monopolies and multinationals; in a nutshell, the battle against US imperialism. (Photo Internet: Spanish-speaking trade-unionists with George Mavrikos, second from the right, General Secretary of the World Federation of Trade-Unions, WFTU)

A lack of leadership in the labor movement

The Communist Party USA made a fair appreciation of some aspects of the arrangement, “the budget cuts reportedly included in the deal appear to be, thankfully, heavily weighted towards cuts in the military as wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ‘draw down’. This is a sign that the economic crisis has finally helped force a long overdue retrenchment in the U.S. global military profile”. However, their People’s World electronic newsletter wrongly concludes: “It is no doubt true that a Democratic president and Senate prevented a much worse outcome than the current deal. Many have criticized the president for being too soft and weak in negotiations with the Republicans. I (John Case, Ed.), had nearly 20 years’ experience in the labor movement which proved me it’s hard to judge from the outside what is really possible, and what is not, in such bargaining. The balance of forces is hard to evaluate if you are not at the table. Maybe the president gave too much; maybe this is the best outcome possible to avert disaster for now.” (http://peoplesworld.org/debt-ceiling-disaster-postponed-but-not-for-long/ )

The cherry over this opportunist “coating” is the political stand of the General Secretary of the CP USA, Sam Webb: “The president boxed himself into a corner, not because he is a bad negotiator, but because he and his aides made the calculus on the heels of the 2010 elections that his appeal to independent voters, and thus his reelection, depend on his credentials as a ‘responsible fiscal manager’. […] Paul Krugman reminds us that President Roosevelt pursued this course of action in 1937 to disastrous results. Let’s hope that president Obama fares better.” (http://www.peoplesworld.org/debt-deal-is-bad-for-america/) .

Now, what does that mean?! It is in fact the rubber stamp of the US “communists” on capitalist policies. And there is no question of struggling for socialism in USA, of ending ruinous and unfair wars abroad. The Webb and Co.’s so-called communists are not ready to give people- in USA and abroad-, a “break”. Of course, opposition is growing among the rank-and-file members and they are better and better organized; in New York City, they publish a paper bulletin, Ideological Fightback, which talks to the workers and calls for a new leadership in the US communist movement.

On the other hand, AFL-CIO’s general board and executive council members met with President Obama urging him to focus on jobs for the remainder of this first term. “The president, on national television, shifted discussions away from the debt ceiling deal and declared that the priorities for Congress are passage of measures that will stimulate the sputtering economy, including extending the payroll tax suspensions for workers, beefing up benefits for the unemployed and investing in infrastructure projects. […] The recession, which began during presidency of George Bush, saw the economy shrink at an annual rate of 8 percent in the last three months of 2008, just before Obama was sworn in. It shrunk by another 7 percent during his first three months in office.” (http://www.peoplesworld.org/labor-leaders-at-white-house-press-obama-on-jobs/).

At Jobs with Justice’s national conference that took place Aug. 5-7 in Washington, D.C. “workers, students, religious leaders, community activists and many others planned strategies to build a powerful movement of working people to defeat the corporate agenda.” (http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/08/01/join-jobs-with-justices-national-conference-and-fight-back-against-corporate-agenda/).

"When Republican House leaders forced a shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration -FAA, last week (2011-08-05, Ed.), they not only forced the layoff of 4,000 FAA workers, they also put at risk nearly 90,000 construction jobs at airports around the country. […] Republicans blocked temporary funding in an effort to overturn a new rule making union elections among rail and airline workers more democratic.” (http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/07/25/republican-faa-shutdown-costs-4000-jobs-threatens-90000).

Meanwhile, “the unemployment rate for young workers between ages 16 to 24 has skyrocketed as millions of young people have lost jobs and school enrollment has steadily increased over the past decade. The jobless rate nearly doubled among young workers to a peak of 19 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 and has remained high, averaging 17.4 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared with 6.7 percent for older workers and 9.1 percent for all workers.” (http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/08/01/jobs-crisis-hits-young-workers-hard/print/).

The New York City daily Metro newspaper reported on August 3rd, 2011, a story about veterans going from deployed to unemployed. “Abbas Malik guarded the Green Zone in Iraq, but he can’t get hired as a mall security guard in Staten Island (New York City, Ed.). […] Like Malik, 13 percent of the 17,000 New York City war veterans are now unemployed. That’s higher than the national unemployment rate of 9 percent. […] Malik is considering returning to war just to pay the bills.”

Communists must address the issue and raise the level of political consciousness. Founders of modern communism once said: “We must not make too many concessions to gain popularity; we shall not underestimate the intellect and level of culture of our workers. […] If the working class is not organized well enough to wage a campaign against the collective power, e.g. the ruling classes’ political power, we must, anyway, lead it through continuous agitation against the political attitude of the ruling classes, an attitude hostile to us.” (Marx-Engels, Critique des programmes de Gotha et d’Erfurt, Éditions sociales, Paris, 1966, pp. 92-93, 119).

“American efficiency, on the other hand, is an antidote to ‘revolutionary’ Manilovism and fantastic scheme concocting (we searched the meaning in several textbooks, but we could not find the exact definition; obviously, ”manilovism” is not a compliment, Ed.). American efficiency is that indomitable force which neither knows nor recognizes obstacles, which with its business-like perseverance brushes aside all obstacles; which continues at a task once started until it is finished, even if it is a minor task; and without which serious constructive work is inconceivable. But American efficiency has every chance of degenerating into narrow and unprincipled practicalism if it is not combined with Russian revolutionary sweep.” (Joseph Stalin, The Foundations of Leninism, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1975, pp. 111-112). (Photo Internet: The Yalta Conference during WW2, when Soviet Union, USA, Great Britain and France were Allied against Nazi Germany)

Anyhow, the American workers will never remain isolated from the rest of the world. Already, we spoke about the orientation of the WFTU. But we cannot cast away the efforts of many communists around the world (France, Greece, Canada, and USA…) who are on the road to rebuild the Communist International (Comintern), which is the association of communist parties worldwide, to support the struggle of the working class movement to replace capitalism with socialism. Probably several US workers will nod and say: “I’ll drink to that!” Yes, it deserves an honest beer…

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

L'Humanité in English: http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/

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WORKERS AND YOUTH EVENTS

vol. 4, no. 3, February 15-28, 2011

Si vous désirez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

Many thousand young people took part in the political events in Tunisia and Egypt. They said loudly, some died even chanting it: no more! They cannot live like that anymore. Ever more. all around the world youth is restless. They protest in their own way against social injustice, poverty and lack of opportunities; while workers create wealth every minute. Wherever they live, the young people –it seems- want to rediscover the foundations of their national culture and identity, true human feelings, trampled down by the US so-called main stream culture. They enjoy real love stories…

On December 20, 1901, Lenin underscored that “a fortnight ago we observed the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first social-revolutionary demonstration in Russia. [The communists proposed that the] slogan must be: political freedom; and the demand to be put forward by the entire people to be the convocation of the people’s representatives. […] Public unrest is growing everywhere, and more and more imperative becomes the necessity to unify it into one single current directed against the autocracy, which everywhere sows tyranny, oppression, and violence.” (Lenin, Collected Works, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1961, volume 5, pages 322-325).

“Why does our society (especially the middle classes, Ed.) not support the students at least in the way the workers have already supported them? After all, the higher educational institutions are attended not by the proletarians’ sons and brothers, and yet the workers in Kiev, Kharkov, and Ekaterinoslav have already openly declared their sympathy with the protesters, despite [the] threats to use armed force against demonstrators.” (Lenin, Collected Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, volume 6, pages 79-85).

The famous German playwrigth, Bertolt Brecht, enunciated many years later some evidences in one of his plays about modernity and progress: “… the old days are over and this is a new time. For the last hundred years mankind has seemed to be expecting something. Our cities are cramped, and so are men’s minds. Superstition and the plague. But now the word is ‘that’s how things are, but they won’t stay like that’. Because everything is in motion, my friend. […] Each day something fresh is discovered. Men of a hundred, even, are getting the young people to bawl the latest example into their ear. There have been a lot of discoveries, but there is still plenty to be found out. So future generations should have enough to do.” (Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo, Methuen Drama, London, 1994, pp. 6-7).
(Photo Internet: German writer and dramatist, Bertolt Brecht)

Québec young generations make great strides in the realm of politics, including teen-agers, who pondered on the above-mentioned events, especially about the uprising in Egypt. Why did it happen? Is it true that they were governed by a dictator? Some television reports from this country let understood that “protesters” were using horses and camels to make their way through along side with the people; who were supposedly acting against Western countries journalists. It was not true, accordingly to Associated Press: those “horsemen» were Mubarak’s regime paid agents to intimidate the masses and the news reporters. (Mubarak has been in power in Egypt since over 30 years, “appointed” by the US authorities, Ed.).

About television

The well-known Italian movie-maker, Roberto Rossellini, talking about television, said that “...we must recall that for great modern currents of thought, expressed, each in its own language, from Christianity to Islam, from Socrates to Karl Marx, the objective, -and the only one- is to help mature human thought. All those trends of thought have a common source. They trust mankind (p. 199). […] Television can bring the ‘direct vision’ of things, men and history to millions and millions of human beings. History teaches us that social changes –that we are condemned to, doomed to live better while evolving towards a richer world-, superseding new ways of thinking. However, these ways of thinking evolve only when one may recapitulate what he knows. To reach this goal, knowledge must be accessible to everybody; everything must be ready to all, and up-graded on a regular basis.
(Photo: the vocational and general college Vieux-Montréal).

In a nutshell, we must make knowledge an even more democratic reality.” (Roberto Rossellini, Un esprit libre ne doit rien apprendre en esclave, Fayard, Paris, 1977, pp. 199-200).

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

L'Humanité in English: http://www.humaniteinenglish.com

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WORKERS NEED REVOLUTIONARY METHODS

vol. 4, no. 2, February 1-14, 2011

Si vous désirez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

On January 25th 2011, US President Barack Obama “… called for unity with Republicans, while delivering his speech on the State of the Union […] setting the foundations for the second part of his mandate and the race for his re-election in 2012”. He stressed the need for enterprises tax cutbacks, a lesser role for the government and the need for collaboration of both Republican and Democratic parties in Congress, accordingly to Montréal Métro newspaper, on January 26th.

In Montréal, the message is clear and generally well accepted especially by colored people who still savour the presidential election of an Afro-American citizen to this responsibility; paving the way for Hispanic people, women and non-White people in general.
(Illustration Internet: workers' revolt at Haymarket, USA).

The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), through the voice of its President, Richard Trumka, said in relation with Obama’s proposal for collaboration between Republicans and Democrats, “… we will join the President as partners to help build bipartisan support for a sustained and strategic investment in America’s future”.

He added: “We believe the President is heading in the right direction – but as he outlined tonight, the yardstick must be the health of the middle class and the American economy”. (NOW BLOG, 2011-01-27). Let’s recall that unemployment is currently in the two digits in USA. However, US workers are not urged to action by their union leaders.

“… Where and by whom has it ever been proved that the parliamentary form of struggle is the principle form of struggle of the proletariat (working class, Ed.)? Does not the history of the revolutionary movement show that the parliamentary struggle is only a school for, and an auxiliary in, organizing the extra-parliamentary struggle of the proletariat, that under capitalism the fundamental problems of the working-class movement are solved by force, by the direct struggle of the proletarian masses, their general strike, their uprising? […] Who suggested that the method of the political general strike be substituted for the parliamentary struggle? Where and when have the supporters of the political general strike sought to substitute extra-parliamentary forms of struggle for parliamentary forms?” (Joseph Stalin, The Foundations of Leninism, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1975, p. 15).

These matters are going to be discussed at the 16th Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), 80 million members. In fact, US workers should remember their own traditions and history; those years, the years of the Congress of Industrial Organizations were moments of great struggles for a better living, peace and progress in general. Let’s recall the struggles for civil liberties. The US working class can find, within its own history "handbook", what revolutionary methods mean.

As for the International Trade Union Congress, it will take place in Athens (Greece), April 6th-10th, 2011. There will be a delegation from USA and Canada. They will dwell upon common fields of interests with hundreds of more than 120 countries; for instance exchange of information and the need for international solidarity, especially between US and Canadian workers.

Should we not recall that at the beginning of the communist movement, North-American revolutionaries were members of the same American communist parties; then the Communist party of Canada was created in 1921?

As the leader of the first socialist Revolution -that took place in Russia-, Vladimir Lenin, pointed out: “The American people have a revolutionary tradition which has been adopted by the best representatives of the American proletariat, who have repeatedly expressed their complete solidarity with us Bolsheviks. That tradition is the war of liberation against the British (the real Tea Party, Ed.) in the eighteenth century and the Civil War in the nineteenth century."
(Photo: Winnipeg General Strike in Canada, in 1919).

"In some respects, if we only take into consideration the ‘destruction’ of some branches of industry and of the national economy, America in 1870 was behind 1860. But what a pedant, what an idiot would anyone be to deny on these grounds the immense, world-historic, progressive and revolutionary significance of the American Civil War of 1863-65!” (V.I. Lenin, Letter to American Workers, Progress Publisher, Moscow, vol. 28, 1965, pp. 62-75).

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

L'Humanité in English: http://www.humaniteinenglish.com

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