Friday, 29 July 2011
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Norway: Anders Behring Breivik and the New Reactionary Wave
Posted by onehundredflowers on July 26, 2011
This was originally written as a Facebook note, and is being re-posted here with the permission of the author.
What is clear is that the same problems that affect and preocupy the radical left in the Western world are being felt by the ideological right, and that their response will not always come packaged in the usual packages of State collusion, fringe parties and street hooliganism, but might take forms such as Breiviks, and perhaps even other forms of violence. It is too early to tell if this action will have a cooling effect in this particular ideological space … or if it will be a spark that lights a prairie fire.
Anders Behring Breivik is not a fundamentalist Christian, he is something worse
by SKSThe New York Times has repeated the lie that Anders Behring Breivik, the butcher of Oslo and is a fundamentalist Christian. He is not.
The New York Times‘ thesis is that he is somehow a mirror image of Al Qaeda, a disaffected Christian turning the tables on Islamic fundamentalism. He is not.
He is the vivid, brutal, expression of a bubbling right-wing political movement of the post 9/11 era, emerging not from fascism or neo-fascism or from “revolutionary nationalism”, but from the unholy marriage of Austrian School economics and paleo-conservative cultural identity Romanticism – think Goethe, Scifi/Fantasy novels, and von Mises spawn a child.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Nepal Maoists adopt Peace and Constitution Paper and Organisational Changes to distribute power and rectify overconcentration of power in the leader.
Maoist spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma told reporters after the CC meeting that Dahal's paper was passed unanimously. The meeting, which was cancelled several times in the wake of internal rift, concluded today.
According to the proposal, senior vice chairman Mohan Baidya will head the Organisation department along with the disciplinary body while vice chairman Baburam Bhattarai will chair the parliamentary board and will be the prime minister candidate for the future government. Similarly, another vice chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha will lead the party's team in the current government with home portfolio.
Likewise, general secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa has been given the responsibility to oversee the military commission.
The CC also gave a week's time to the office-bearers to distribute the responsibilities to other leaders.
Democracy and Class Struggle welcomes the redistribution of power within the UCPN ( Maoist) and the appointmant of Mohan Baidya aka Comrade Kiran has head of Party Organisation as well as the disciplinary body.
Monday, 25 July 2011
What Kind of System Needs to Torture Prisoners?
The courageous struggle of the prisoners at Pelican Bay should make many more people sit up and take notice and ask—and find the answers to—some important questions about the U.S. prison system.
Why does the U.S., which has 5% of the world’s population, have 25% of its prisoners?
Why has the number of prisoners in the U.S. gone from half a million in 1980 to over 2.3 million in the last three decades?
Why are so many of those incarcerated in the U.S. people of color?
And why does the U.S. routinely carry out torture in its prisons?
Prisoners at Pelican Bay End Hunger Strike... The Struggle Against the Inhumanity of Solitary Confinement Continues
Source: Revolution #241, July 31, 2011
On Thursday, July 21, prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) were about to enter the fourth week of their hunger strike, demanding an end to the inhumane conditions of solitary confinement. Hundreds of prisoners in other prisons had joined them in solidarity, refusing food. That morning, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) issued a press release saying the strike was over. And later that night, Marilyn McMahon from California Prison Focus reported that she and Carol Strickman, an attorney working with the mediation team representing the hunger strikers, had spoken with four of the hunger strike leaders who were eating again. McMahon said the prisoners had “extended their deeply heartfelt thanks to all their supporters outside” and “they emphasized that that support was responsible for their wins and their safety from retaliation. Above all, they hammered home the message: This is just the beginning!”
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Maoism Takes Root Among the World’s Oppressed
Posted by celticfire on July 22, 2011
This opinion piece originally appeared in the Guardian. Though it presents some worn out anticommunist assumptions, it is notable that the revolutions in Nepal and India have gained international attention and caused concern in ruling circles. Today Maoism speaks to the world’s poor more fluently than ever
Aside from the bland icon of the new China, there is a much more dangerous Mao, whose ideas retain their vitality
by Pankaj Mishra
In 2008 in Beijing I met the Chinese novelist Yu Hua shortly after he had returned from Nepal, where revolutionaries inspired by Mao Zedong had overthrown a monarchy. A young Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, Yu Hua, like many Chinese of his generation, has extremely complicated views on Mao. Still, he was astonished, he told me, to see Nepalese Maoists singing songs from his Maoist youth – sentiments he never expected to hear again in his lifetime.
In fact, the success of Nepalese Maoists is only one sign of the “return” of Mao. In central India armed groups proudly calling themselves Maoists control a broad swath of territory, fiercely resisting the Indian government’s attempts to make the region’s resource-rich forests safe for the mining operations that, according to a recent report in Foreign Policy magazine, “major global companies like Toyota and Coca-Cola” now rely on.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Resistance Festival of Greece: The Squares of the World are Speaking
Posted by Mike E on July 18, 2011
Photo credit: Eric Ribellarsi
Kasama has been sharing a number of reports on the crisis and resistance in Greece.
By Jim Weill and Eric Ribellarsi
The following are some quick notes taken during the plenary of the Resistance Festival. They are fragmented and without much summation, but they should give our readers an idea of the general conversation that took place.
One of the most interesting sessions at the 2011 Resistance Festival in Athens was called the “The squares of the world are speaking.” It featured representatives from Tahir Square in Cairo, Puerta del Sol in Madrid, the movement against austerity in Argentina, and Syntagma Square in Athens.
Behind the panelists was a large banner that said “The peoples come to the fore – The fear is changing sides.” It is now oppressive governments who are afraid and the people who are on the offensive.
Nepal Telegraph Reports Maoists Chief Prachanda losing ground, says if he is in minority he will quit.
Senior Vice chairman Mohan Baidya Kiran of the Unified Maoists Party has asked Chairman Prachanda aka Pushpa Kamal Dahal of his own party to tender his resignation from the post of the leader of party’s parliamentary delegation.
A point blank demand.
Chairman Dahal in reply told Baidya in a blunt fashion that that he could be unseated only if majority of the Maoists leaders push him to minority.
First time the teacher and his disciple have come face to face.
The Dahal-Baidya verbal duel took place at the party’s steering committee meeting, July 10, 2011. The meeting had only lasted for around 20 minutes. But yet the impact must have been a heavy one.
“Not only as the leader of parliamentary delegation, I will also resign as the party chairman if you can prove majority in your favor and if my resignation is in favor of peace, constitution, revolution, country and people I will certainly quit the current post”, Dahal is quoted as saying by media.
Dahal’s inner pain could be sensed while saying so.
“Let us discuss the bottom-line to be adopted for peace and constitution”, Dahal said and added, “With this we can discuss on matters related with power sharing.”
Bhattarai, on the other hand, claimed that he will very much accept the post only if there was consensus in his favor but will not take part in the voting process.
Moderate Bhattarai.
According to Baidya’s power sharing model, Bhattarai should be elevated as party’s parliamentary delegation Chief and he himself be awarded as the party’s organizational head. In that eventually, if at all that takes a shape, Dahal will be constricted to a titular role in the party.
Dahal and ceremonial role? Forget it.
With Dahal refusing to tender his resignation and also who did not accept the power sharing model proposed by Baidya, the party has convened the central committee meeting, July 13, 2011.
“Whether or not Chairman Prachanda is in a minority, the issue will be appropriately decided by the central committee”, claims Barsaman Pun of Dahal panel.
As far as the question is who is going to lead the government is concerned, let it be clear that Chairman Prachanda will not lead the government, Pun told Annapurna Post.
Similarly, C.P. Gajurel of Baidya panel threatened that, “this time around too if our demands are not addressed by the central committee, we will once again submit our note of dissent.”
Registering note of dissent has become a regular phenomenon inside the Maoists.
“We will observe how Chairman Prachanda presents himself in the upcoming central committee meeting, his acts will eventually determine our future course of action”, declared Gajurel who is no less a hardliner than the declared hardliner-Mohan Baidya.
On the other hand, claims another Maoists leader Dina Nath Sharma, “Party chairman will hold several rounds of discussions with the party leadership much ahead of the CC meeting.
“He will try to bring party leaders into confidence”, so hopes Sharma.
“High-level consensus has already been reached to elevate Bhattarai ji as the country’s prime minister”, also claimed Dinanath and added, “The central committee meeting will ratify the decision in Bhattarai’s favor.”
Talking to the media in Chitwan district, another vice chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha said that positive discussions have taken place in the party paraphernalia in favor of Babu Ram Bhattarai. “Our formal decision will favor Baburam ji.”
Haribol Gajurel of the Dahal panel tells Nayapatrika Daily that the newly found unity between Bhattarai and Baidya panel is an apolitical alliance.
Many believe it to be so but the alliance between two differing political poles remains intact.
He claims, “On ideological and political grounds they have been always at the opposite ends but they surprisingly have come to terms when it comes to sharing of the power.”
“Isn’t it an apolitical alliance”, he concludes.
In love and war, everything is possible and more so politics itself is defined as “art of the possible”, opine political observers.
But the substance is that Dahal is being cornered by his own long time associates. Must have some reason.
Albeit, every unnatural height has a fall ultimately.
Source:http://www.telegraphnepal.com/headline/2011-07-11/nepal-maoists-chief-dahal-losing-grounds-says-if-in-minority-he-will-quit
Democracy and Class Struggle also notes a report on Prachanda in Next Front called Yes he is being challenged here :.
http://thenextfront.com/politics/yes-he-is-being-challenged.html
Also Note Report on Recent Central Committee Meeting Here:
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2011/07/prachanda-presents-political-dossier.html
Monday, 18 July 2011
Discussing Solidarity with the People of India by Jan Myrdal
Sunday, 17 July 2011
From http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3112/
An old article but worth reading
The Emperor’s New Cloak: Marxism, “A Rights-based Approach”, and Patnaik
December 22, 2010By Ravi Kant
Section 1
Recently, Professor Prabhat Patnaik, well known ‘Marxist academic’ and leading theoretician of parliamentary left in India, has proposed a ‘novel’ political agenda for the socialist project. To quote his lucid words (A Left Approach to Development; EPW, July 2010) “Against the ‘means-based approach’ to development that the bourgeoisie projects, the left must project ‘a right-based approach’…the acquisition of rights on the part of the people…amounts therefore to winning crucial battles in the class war for the transcendence of capitalism”. He argues that a bourgeois society because of the spontaneity of capital can never recognise the welfare rights of workers although there could be ad-hoc provisions which can be revoked at any time. Thus, the primary task of the left involves demanding right to minimum living standard and implementing it wherever they get the state power through parliamentary politics. Patnaik envisages this as an integral part of subversion to capital and a substitute of ‘violent revolution’, which in the words of Marx ‘is the midwife of every old society which is pregnant with a new one’.
From http://arvindtrust.org/
Please see details at http://arvindtrust.org/
Third Arvind Memorial Seminar
On
'Democratic Rights Movement in India: Orientation, Problems and Challenges'
The Third Arvind Memorial Seminar is being organized on 22-23-24 July 2011 in Lucknow, India. The topic for this year’s seminar is ‘Democratic Rights Movement in India: Orientation, Problems and Challenges.’ The focus will be on the condition, orientation, problems, challenges and prospects of the democratic rights and civil liberties movement in India.
We are inviting you to participate in this seminar. Please go through the attached images or pdf of the invitation for a detailed description of the subject and other details. Please click here http://arvindtrust.org/ if you have any difficulty in reading it. Please send us your postal address to enable us to send you the printed folder for the seminar and the brochure about Arvind Memorial Trust and Arvind Institute of Marxist Studies.
Please feel free to contact us for any queries.
We are inviting you to participate in this seminar. Please go through the attached images or pdf of the invitation for a detailed description of the subject and other details. Please click here http://arvindtrust.org/ if you have any difficulty in reading it. Please send us your postal address to enable us to send you the printed folder for the seminar and the brochure about Arvind Memorial Trust and Arvind Institute of Marxist Studies.
Please feel free to contact us for any queries.
Sincere regards,
Meenakshy (Managing Trustee), Anand Singh (Secretary), Katyayani, Satyam (Members)
Arvind Memorial Trust
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