www.newsandletters.org
|
www.newsandletters.org
|
|
|
Readers' ViewsContents: REAFFIRMING OUR THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVES--WHERE TO BEGIN
From my perspective it's critically important that News & Letters continue to not only survive but flourish. We're at a most foreboding period ever. Humanity itself is standing at the edge of the black hole of capitalism, about to be completely sucked into the abyss of an existence where poverty is the norm for a vast multitude of people. In light of the present visibility given to China, its mischaracterization as a Communist country is designed to close the door on any left-wing thinking and simultaneously portray capitalism as the ideal social system for humankind. No one has more accurately articulated the dialectical movement of capital than Marx. Without this fundamental comprehension of the dialectical process we are going into battle against a superior force unarmed and blind. Some on the left speak of reforming capital, as if it is only about people having a job. In fact it is about people being engaged in work that is truly life-affirming. Now, more than ever, Marx's Marxism is in need of full and wide airing. I am with you in solidarity. In her column in the April-May issue of N&L on "Where to begin?" Dunayevskaya says that "our point of departure must be in the concrete stage of capitalist production itself. The crisis is in production." The importance of comprehending the crisis in production is directly related to everything else in the world of human activity. This is because the critical issue at stake is the role of labor as to who will control it. In other words, will labor continue to be subjected to the despotic plan of capital or will it be in control of a freely associated labor force. It concretely brings into being what Dunayevskaya contends--"the age of automation strives to be recorded in its proletarian impulse." The essay on "Healthcare and Marx's View of the Future" and Dunayevskaya's Archives column on "Theory and Practice in a new Relationship" in the April-May N&L speak to each other. Dunayevskaya pointed out that workers who have never heard of Marx embody Marxism in their everyday lives. That is not to say she held a Marxist vision of how the world works and then went around "verifying" that workers behaved accordingly. She meant workers have the impulse of the new because they know when a way of thinking has become too old to be useful. It's not easy to get that across in a newspaper without making the readers suspicious that an intellectual has doctored up the article. After all, intellectuals seem to have nothing to do but be smart and say clever things. Yet we need philosophy permeating each article if we are to live up to the mission of publishing an organ that does not separate theory from practice. I Googled "Marx on Praxis" and found the third entry is the Archives column reprinted in N&L in Nov. 2001 entitled "Marx's concept of Praxis for today." It was inspirational to read it in light of what has been going on in N&LC. It was as if Dunayevskaya was speaking to us today, cautioning us on what Praxis really means, and urging us not to separate theory from practice and practice from theory. Her lifelong devotion to the dialectic meant a philosophic engagement with theory, never assuming it to be separate from an engagement with workers from below. (The original 1971 thesis was written as she had been completing Philosophy and Revolution.) The last two issues are the best I've seen since my involvement with N&LC a decade ago. Clear, concise, readable and informative. I hope the problems faced in the last few months are rectified. The purpose of the organization overshadows any personalities. In a revolution of a permanent nature, the struggle never ends. Revolution in permanence is a process of staying miles ahead of temporarily popular currents. I hope you will long continue until the beginning of a new kind of society. The enclosed small donation is to help you continue and to thank you for all you do. Thanks to N&L for exposing the Chinese regime for what it really is: totalitarian and state-capitalist. Not only are some "Marxists" missing the obvious fact that China is a repressive and anti-worker state, but non-Marxist leftists are critiquing Westerners who participate in pro-Tibetan (or anti-Chinese) demonstrations because they claim that those who live in Western, capitalist-imperialist countries have no "right" to criticize the failures of China. The philosophy of Marxist-Humanism transcends national borders and demands freedom and justice for workers worldwide. Marxist-Humanism is the antidote to capitalism, not the false "Marxism" that aligns itself with the Chinese state or the narrow leftism that forbids critique of non-Western regimes. The growth of China's economy is fantastic. After the earthquake much credit was given to the government for being quick to act. It showed they do pay attention to the outside world. But after three minutes of silence it was "get back to work." Americans put the blame on Bush after Katrina. I was in the 1985 earthquake in Mexico where 10,000 died. The families never gave up on critiquing the shoddy buildings. They are now asking in China why all the schools fell. It's a new economy with shoddy building. We need to pay attention to the second earthquake that may come after the natural disaster. I did a foolish thing about 30 years ago. A man died. There was no true justification for what I did. I was given 13 years at hard labor in a terrible institution. George W. Bush did a foolish thing four years ago. People died. There was no true justification for what he did. Multiply 600,000 by 13 to equal a multiple life sentence at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or pardon in a terrible institution. Where there is no equal justice before the law, there is no justice. The struggles of various strata of the ruling class to control and/or own "a piece of the pie" may soon cause a welling up by the masses to expose these illicit grabs. These are examples of what is happening in Detroit: A tunnel authority is being contrived whereby Detroit and Windsor would turn over their existing control to separate authorities consisting of appointees of the two city governments. The Ontario government would provide millions to the Windsor authority which would then see that $65 million would go to the City of Detroit to be used in the current budget while $10 million more would go to insurance and transaction costs. This would lead to the City of Detroit losing the right to the Detroit side of the tunnel and all proceeds for the next 70 years. As another example, the FBI is probing the OK of a sludge treatment contract awarded to Synagro in November 2007. That company will invest $125 million in building a new plant close to the City of Detroit's existing treatment plant. These things happen in a "now you see it, now you don't" fashion. One City Council member can flip-flop and a passing 5-4 vote occurs. Now that the FBI is investigating, it should be getting hot around some council members. And Detroit residents will get active and show we ain't taking it anymore. The flap over Rev. Jeremiah Wright brought out the stereotype of Marx saying "religion is the opiate of the masses." James Cone, a scholar Rev. Wright admired, once said that Black Liberation Theology links Black religion and Marxist philosophy in a way that could lead to the new society. He recently denied being a Marxist, but he never took back what he said. I think he was trying to say Marxism is what Black masses practice when they see a way to liberation. It is not something they studied and "applied" to their struggles. American Civilization on Trial is the best effort yet to show that Marxism has indigenous roots here. The nomination of the first African American as a major party presidential candidate is without question an historic event in our racist country. Obama went from 20% of the Black vote to an enormous number by the end of the primaries. That's significant. I think it shows how much hunger there is for some kind of racial rapprochement, however symbolic or ineffectual. Obama's campaign kept using the word "change." The question is what kind of change? If we count ourselves out of that national discussion, it's at our peril. It makes me feel very proud as a Black man that Obama was able to get the nomination of the Democratic Party for President. I think it shows some real change in attude towards Black people in this country. I'm under no illusions as to how much change he will be able to make, but I believe he will try. I am also worried that someone will try to harm him before they would allow him to be elected President of the United States. This election brings out the inability to solve Black poverty. White poverty is also huge. Identity politics is not working and there's hope that white and Black workers can be brought together. Much of the Left has avoided dealing with poverty by focusing only on the Black numbers. Whenever I'm asked what I think about Obama, my answer is that I am firmly with the abolitionist Wendell Phillips. He said that anyone running to be the President of the U.S. has low ambition. It is not possible to change the world if your "job" is to represent U.S. capitalism. Local Memphis media have aired a videotape of a white Memphis Police Department officer beating a Black transgender woman in police custody. He deliberately put on a pair of gloves before using handcuffs to beat the woman in her head and sprayed mace into the open wounds. The Women's Action Coalition was outraged. The fact that the attack happened in the public lobby of the county jail in front of witnesses and cameras suggests it was not an isolated incident but standard operating procedure. We called a community meeting and 60 people came to develop a list of demands, including a criminal investigation. We presented them at a City Council meeting and plan to bring a bigger group to their next meeting to see how they have addressed our demands. An exhibition called "Prison Nation" at the William Grant Study Center in Los Angeles displayed posters made by artists, activists and students from U.S. universities. They revealed that jail is just a warehouse for poor people. The U.S., with over two million in prison, has the largest prison population in the world. In 1980 there were 13,400 women in prison; by 2005 the numbers increased to over 140,000. In 20 years the U.S. prison population increased 700% while the population increased 20% and violent crimes declined. Most were there for drug addiction or parole violation. African Americans, who are 10% of the population, make up 40% of the prison population. Policies target youth through gang injunctions. Proposition 21 allowed youths as young as 14 to be tried as adults and imprisoned with adults. Prisons today no longer have a policy to rehabilitate. As one poster stated, "The California Youth Authority is the world's largest and most notorious youth prison system." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., fought for civil and political rights for Blacks. However, as N&L columnist John Alan wrote, there is a "difference between political and human emancipation." Another N&L writer and activist, Georgiana Williams, wrote of how for years police beat up young Black men. It was not only the Rodney King beating and the subsequent not guilty verdict for the cops who beat him, that ignited the Los Angeles Rebellion. In prison, property relations run your life. Prison rules say that you cannot alter any of your property. If your state-issued pants are too long, you can't hem them up. If your shirt rips in the normal wear and tear, you can't sew it up again. You can't even alter your own things: if you own a pair of sweat pants you can't make them into cut-offs for the summer. You can't dye your hair because that will alter how you look. It's a wonder they don't write you up for getting gray hair or having it fall out. It used to be that women would try to celebrate Halloween by making paper outfits to wear that one day in a year. We can't do that any more either, because it changes your appearance. The truth is that when you come to prison you are altered. We are not property, we are not defined by what we have or don't have in our locker. We may have made a mistake, but we are not a mistake. We're human beings. Irena Sendler died May 12, 2008. Sendler organized a network of 25 people who smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi Occupation of Poland. The children were adopted into the homes of Polish families or hidden in convents and orphanages. The intent was to return all the children to their parents. For years Sendler guarded the real names of the children and their parents, making lists she put in jars and buried in a garden to dig up after the war. By then almost all the parents were dead. Sendler and her helpers made over 3,000 false documents to help the Jewish families. She was eventually arrested and tortured by the Gestapo. The post-war Communist government suppressed her story, which was largely unknown until a group of Kansas high school students brought it out with a widely performed play titled "Life in a Jar." Please check out this ongoing project at IrenaSendler.org. George Carlin took on the ideological nature of oppression in his comedy. Organized religion and the state were common targets for him. In an October 2007 interview with Keith Olbermann, Carlin said this about his political comedy: "I don't like this 'let's be cute, and let's be clever.' I like smashing them (political leaders). That's the only way to take care of them." Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Nework (RAINN) is the largest anti-sexual abuse organization in the U.S. It launched an online counseling service in April. Their phone hotline has already helped more than a million victims. They hope the new service will reach a new generation who are often more comfortable online. RAINN reports that every two minutes someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted. Almost half are under the age of 18. You can reach them at http://www.rainn.org. The Psoriasis Walk for Awareness in San Francisco in June was one of several held around the country at different times this year. What's special about it is that it's more than a fundraiser, it's a movement. Members of the National Psoriasis Foundation see themselves as part of the larger health care movement which is going on in the U.S. today to take charge of their own medical care and treatment. Pharmaceutical companies were present, hawking their wares, but as one marcher said, "They have to listen to us, we aren't waiting for them to come up with cure-alls and miracles." Another marcher spoke of the disease as a great equalizer that respects no boundaries of nationality, ethnicity, "race," or gender, and said that suffering through it has brought together people from all over the world. The movement is about ending the sense of isolation so many suffer, that "It's not just about a cure, but a new attitude to life." |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search l RSS
Published by News and Letters Committees
|
